The book of Hebrews is one of the most fascinating and mysterious books of scripture. Not only is the author unknown, but it contains many intriguing references to other events, and a distinct style that compares and contrasts the major covenants.
The book of Hebrews is a letter that is written to the Hebrews; as such, it has many elements that would be obvious to a Hebrew person of that day, but can be confusing to us.
Hebrews chapter twelve, contains powerful imagery about running a race, that can be perplexing and frightening if we don’t understand the message.
Today we examine Hebrews twelve with the lens of grace, and allow the finished work of Christ to bring us clarity.
Is Salvation a Competition?
The imagery of Hebrews chapter twelve begins by immediately referencing the idea of running a race. And this idea of some kind of spiritual contest can be troubling and even frightening. After all, what if you don’t run fast enough, or try hard enough— these thoughts are quite common and can cause a person to lose faith and doubt their own salvation. And this section about racing has been used by religious teachers to cultivate a works mindset.
Yet, as we read through the chapter, we start to see something different and more wonderful than we could ever imagine. Let’s start by taking a look at the first four verses:
“ 1Why seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which does so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
2Looking to Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
3For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest you be wearied and faint in your minds.
4You have not yet resisted to blood, striving against sin.”
In verse one, we are told that since we are have so many witnesses around us, we should lay aside every weight, and the sin that so easily troubles us, and run with patience the race that is set before us. Again, this is one of those verses that can be abused to promote further sin-consciousness rather than Jesus-consciousness. The typical idea is that we need to avoid sin and external influences in order to run our spiritual race— and if we run well enough, then we will win the race and be saved.
While these ideas may sound good at first they can lead a person down a legalistic path where they are focused entirely on their daily performance rather than the perfect performance and work of Jesus Christ. Let’s examine these three verses more to get more insight.
One crucial detail that we can see upon closer inspection is that verse one is not a complete sentence; the author’s thought continues with verse two. In the second verse we see a clearer picture of the point being made: looking to Jesus the author and finisher of our faith. There’s a lot of info packed into this one section, so let’s dig deeper.
Laying Aside the Weight and Sin
Someone trapped in a legalistic mindset will read these words about laying aside every weight and sin, and then embark on a grand quest to eliminate sin from their life through self-effort and will-power; as someone who lived that way for a number of years, I can tell you that such a lifestyle leads only to guilt and pain. More importantly however, the scriptures do not advocate stamping out sin by our strength or determined force-of-will.
The first thing to understand is that the word sin in verse one, is the noun for sin— the same as we studied a few weeks ago in the book of Romans. Therefore, we can immediately see that the focus is not on trying to stamp out sinful actions through our will and effort, but on putting away the old identity and the place of sin that we were in. Now, how do we do that? How do we put away the old identity, and move from the place of sin? As we have already noted, the key is in verse two… by looking at Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith! This point is so vital, because if we do not understand this, we will still look to ourselves and our own works to try and put away sin.
Rather, it is the redemption fo Christ and His Spirit within that has caused you to be born again, and made you a completely new creation. You are not trying to eliminate the old identity and sin still— that has already been done for you through the finished work of Christ (Colossians 3:9). And as you continue looking at Jesus, as these verses state, He is both the author and finisher of your faith. Seeing Jesus, and what He has accomplished for you on the cross will provide you with all of the spiritual information about your new identity, and your place and position in the kingdom and family of God.
The second-half of verse two along with verse three continue this point, by describing precisely what we should be examining and considering:
“…who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
3For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest you be wearied and faint in your minds.”
Running Well With Endurance
Consider that Jesus wasn’t just crucified by accident, He had a joy set before Him. He knew what His death would accomplish. Jesus knew where He came from and where He was going according to John 13:3. So Jesus endured the cross, thinking nothing of its shame, and sat down at the right-hand of God the Father in glory— the same place and position that we have in Christ today. (Ephesians 2:6, 1st John 4:17)
Verse three tells us to consider these things and meditate on them, and notice the result… lest you be wearied and faint in your mind. That last detail is fascinating and surprising; the verse doesn’t say to meditate on Christ lest you be wearied and weak in your performance, behavior, or good works… but in your mind! Your mind— your soul, which encompasses your thoughts, emotions, and will, is where the real struggle takes place, and we overcome those mental obstacles through looking at the finished work of Christ. We look at Jesus, we see Him, and by extension we see ourselves and who He has made us to be. (2nd Corinthians 3:18)
The final verse in our section today is verse 4, which says that they have not yet resisted to blood, striving against sin. The common view of this verse is that it is encouraging people to martyrdom, but that view has never made much sense to me in this context. After all, the verses are speaking of embracing the finished work of Christ, and resisting doubt and weakness in our mind. To sudden shift gears into martyrdom seems strange.
Everything becomes clear however, when we remember that verse four is also encouraging us to look to Jesus!
You see, the idea is not that you need to suffer and die for Jesus, but that He suffered and died for you! He endured the cross, the shame, the torture and agony… and His sacrifice had fantastic results!
Jesus Already Won the Race
The typical view of these verses in Hebrews chapter 12, is that we need to struggle, strive, sweat, bleed, and ultimately die to win the prize of salvation— and that is nothing but man-centered thinking.
There is only one winner of a race; only one receives the gold… and that person is Jesus Christ. He already struggled, strove, sweat, bled, and died— and He did it for you.
The only true way to win this spiritual race, is to receive what He has done, and realize that in Christ, you are already over the finish line with Him. When He died, so did you, and you are seated at the right hand of God the Father with Him today, just as it says in Romans 6:8, Ephesians 2:6, and elsewhere.
So I encourage you, in a rather amusing way, to run your race… but not with your own strength. Run well, by allowing Jesus to carry you, and realize that you’ve already won.
Be blessed.