Don’t Miss Out on God’s Grace, part 1 (Hebrews 12:15-17)

One of the greatest dangers, but one we rarely give consideration to, is the danger of missing out on God’s grace.  The Contemporary English version of Hebrews 12:15 begins, “Make sure no one misses out on God’s wonderful kindness.”  Other versions say things like “falls short” or “fails to obtain or receive” God’s grace.  All of these predicaments sound rather sad, as does the life of Esau, which our author brings up as an example of someone who fell short of experiencing God’s grace.

15 See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled; 16 that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. 17 For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears.

Verse 15 begins with the words, “see to it.”  This is the translation of a participle which tells us the means by which we may pursue peace and holiness (v. 14) and that is by “keeping a vigilant watch over one another’s lives.”  The Greek word episkopeo means to “give intense, focused attention to.”  In means not getting distracted from this task.  It reflects the idea of being a watchman, on high alert to potential dangers.

As a present tense participle it means that this action must be continuous, not letting our guard down for a moment, but being constantly on guard.

Of course, this word episkopeo is the word we get “Episcopal” from, a type of church government.  Also, church leaders, which are variably called “pastors” and “elders” are also known as “overseers,” those who watch over the lives of the congregation, guarding them from dangers.  Shepherds of God’s flock constantly examining them for “spiritual parasites” and are ever on the lookout for the ravenous wolves in sheep’s clothing.

This is not only a responsibility of elders, however.  This verse enjoins the whole congregation (plural participle) in this vital task of watching out for one another.  In other words, “Ya’ll keep diligent watch” lest this danger happens in someone’s life.

In other words, we should all be meddling in one another’s lives!  The idea that my life is mine and mine alone and thou shalt not ask me hard questions is not found in the Bible.  That is the American idea of privacy.  We should be accountable to brothers and sisters in Christ and for our brothers and sisters in Christ.  We should let them ask us the hard questions.  We should not try to hide away our private sins.

Thomas Manton wrote: “There must be a constant watch kept not only over our own hearts but also over the congregation to which we belong.  Members must take care of one another; this is the communion between saints” (Thomas Manton, An Exposition of the Epistle of James).

The great danger to be avoided here, for any one of us, is to “fall short of the grace of God” (Heb. 12:15).  This is a danger that all of us face and any one of us might experience.  Notice that our author says, “see to it that no one falls short of the grace of God.”

God’s grace is extended to us freely through Jesus Christ, starting at salvation and continuing on through our sanctification until the end of life.  In the epistles Paul wrote of the “grace in which we stand” (Rom. 5:2).  We can experience that grace as we trust the Gospel promises.  But we can “fall short” of it and not experience the blessings of grace.

Grace is the divine attitude of benevolence God has toward his children.  The image that helps me to picture this is that of a brimming pitcher in God’s hand tilted to pour blessing on us.  Jesus came “full of grace and truth” and “from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace” (John 1:16).  I picture this as standing at the seashore and watching wave after wave after wave coming in–a never-ending succession of waves.  That is God’s grace.

The Apostle James says essentially this when he declares, “But he gives more grace” (James 4:6)—literally, “great grace.”  Thus we confidently know there is always more grace for the humble believer.  Earlier in Hebrews 4:16 the preacher/writer urged us, “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

The unchanging truth is, we can have no need that outstrips his grace, and we never will! Even if we fall into deep sin, greater grace is available, as Paul said: “But where sin increased, grace abounded all the more” (Romans 5:20b).  “For daily need there is daily grace; for sudden need, there is sudden grace; for overwhelming need, there is overwhelming grace,” wrote John Blanchard (John Blanchard, Truth for Life (West Sussex, UK: H. E. Walter, Ltd., 1982), p. 254).

By watching over our own lives and the lives of others, we can help one another fully experience God’s grace so that we can live in peace with all men and pursue personal holiness.

The real problem is not just falling short of God’s grace once or twice, but the present tense of the verb “fall short” shows that what is concerning is someone (like Esau), who continually comes short of the grace of God.  One who continually falls short of God’s grace is not a Christian.  They may have heard and learned about Jesus, but have never received him and believed in Him.  They may seem so near yet be so far from Christ.

The verb “fall short” is hustereo and has the basic meaning of showing up late (in time), and thus miss out.  Hustereo has the basic meaning of being last or inferior.  It fails to reach the goal.  It appears in that familiar verse in Romans 3:23, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).

When you fall short of something, you can miss it by an inch or by a mile, but you still miss it!  So those in Romans 3:23 have missed it by a “mile.”  But there are others who miss it by an “inch.”  For example, consider the man that Jesus talked about in Mark 10, the rich, young influencer.  This man had asked, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” (Mark 20:17).  After indicating that the only truly good person is God, which should have clued this man in to the reality that he was talking to God, the Son, Jesus directed him to the second table of the law, dealing with “loving your neighbor.”

This man, mistakenly, said to Jesus, “Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.”  Jesus was willing to grant this possibility, but then confronted him with the real issue that kept his heart from being fully devoted to Jesus, and that was his money, which was his idol.

And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” (Mark 10:21).

When Jesus said, “you lack one thing,” that word “lack” is hustereo.  This was going to be the area in which this young man would “fall short.”  Jesus was telling this young man “you are coming short of God’s grace, of the eternal life you seek, in just one thing, one seemingly little thing.

Well, this young man couldn’t do it.  Money was his god and had a strong hold on him.  Our text says “he had great possessions” as the reason for his reticence to give it up, but in reality, his great possession had him…by the throat.

It was just one area, yet he missed God’s grace by an inch.

And Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” (Mark 10:23)

Isn’t it amazing how some can come so close!  They are in a good, Bible-believing church, they know stories and verses in the Bible, they know the message of good news, they are “good people,” etc. etc.–but they lack one thing–they’ve never confessed Jesus as Lord and Savior of their lives, the importance of which Paul explains in Romans 10:8-11.

8 But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); 9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. 11 For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.”

To drink from the pitcher of grace we must know the grace-giver, Jesus Christ.

This text describes three ways in which one might fall short of God’s grace.  Remember, God’s grace is there for our sins, but in some way these sins keep us from experiencing that grace.

The first is a “root of bitterness.”  Our text says, “See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled.”

Now, what is “root of bitterness”?  I’ve always thought that this bitter root refers to the attitude of holding onto grudges and remaining unreconciled, and worse, unreconcilable to others.

There are a lot of mean, bitter people in the world.  Aesop tells the fable of a man wronged by his neighbor. He was angry and bitter at his neighbor.  The angry man was visited by Zeus, who said, “I will grant you any wish that you want.  The only stipulation is that I will grant to your neighbor, whom you hate, twice as much of whatever you ask. If you ask for 500 diamonds, your neighbor will receive 1,000.”  The bitter man agonized over the wish he should request of Zeus.  So intense was his hatred for his neighbor that finally he said, “I know what wish I want and you can double it for my neighbor.  I wish you to make me blind in one eye.”

Bitterness creates a cycle of animosity.  The root of bitterness produces the fruit of anger, and the fruit of anger often is expressed as harmful, hurtful words that we speak.  In the book of James, we learn that a mark of spiritual maturity is the ability to control the unruly tongue.  By the same measurement, a mark of immaturity is hateful, harmful speech. Words really can wound more than sticks and stones.

That is certainly a serious problem in some people’s lives that does not allow them to experience God’s grace and it is certainly something that “causes trouble” and “defiles many.”

Jesus told us that, “if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses” (Matthew 6:15).  I really don’t believe that means that if we fail to forgive others that God will cancel the forgiveness that He has promised to us through the Gospel.  Our unfaithfulness does not negate His promise to us.

However, I do believe that what this passage means is that if we cannot forgive others, then we will have a hard time believing that God has forgiven us.  We will quite naturally doubt it and question it.  Satan’s accusations and our own doubts will nag at us until the “joy of our salvation” is gone and we begin to wonder whether we are God’s children.

Anne Peterson warns: “Bitterness starts out small.  An offense burrows its way into our hearts.  We replay it in our minds, creating deep ruts that will be hard to build back up.  We retell our hurts to any available listener, including each sordid detail.  We enlist support, pushing us further into our resentment.  We hear the offending person’s name and cringe.  We decipher the offense as intentional and our offender as full of spite.  We look for other reasons, both real or imagined, to dislike our villain.  With each new piece of information, we form another layer of bitterness.  We fool ourselves into thinking no one will know, but anger and resentment have a way of seeping into everything.  Resentment is like a beach ball we try to submerge in the water.  No matter how valiant our efforts, it pops up with all its vitality, splashing everyone around (Anne Peterson, How to Deal with Bitterness).

A bitter, grudge-holding spirit does cause trouble.  It will end up poisoning other relationships.  It will likely cause physical trouble— including high blood pressure, increased heart rate, and a weakened immune system.  Over time, chronic stress can contribute to serious conditions such as cardiovascular disease and autoimmune disorders.  There’s an old saying that goes like this, “Unforgiveness is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.”

And it does “defile many.”  J. Vernon McGree compares bitterness to quinine in water.  It only takes a small drop to make the water bitter.  Bitterness affects the whole family or the whole congregation.  It spreads because bitter people need to release their own stress by sharing it with others. 

Warren Wiersbe says, “An unforgiving spirit is the devil’s playground (cp. Eph. 4:29, 2 Cor. 2:11) and before long it becomes the Christian’s battleground.”

Anger and bitterness are formidable detriments to biblical love, harmonious relationships, and maturity in Christ. Failing to put off anger and bitterness grieves the Holy Spirit, gives Satan an opportunity in your life, obscures your witness to others, and disrupts the unity in the Body of Christ. Dealing biblically with anger and bitterness requires wholehearted obedience to God’s Word in every circumstance and with every person, even if your feelings dictate otherwise (John Broger, Self-Confrontation Manual, Lesson 11, Page 2).

On the other hand, forgiving another person who has hurt you can be the most life-changing path you can take, releasing you from the stranglehold of bitterness and the poison of an angry heart.  When we do forgive, we have more confidence that our own sins have been forgiven.

Forgiveness breaks the bitter chains of pride, self-pity and vengeance that lead to despair, alienation, broken relationships and loss of joy.

Most of us have heard of Corrie ten Boom.  Corrie’s family started praying for the re-establishment of Israel and for the peace of Jerusalem in 1844 and their family prayed every week for a hundred years, from 1844 until 1944, when the family was arrested by the Nazis for harboring Jews.  Corrie ten Boom never saw her parents alive again, and she and her sister Betsie were taken to the infamous Ravensbrück prison camp.  Betsie died before Christmas that same year.  Corrie was made to endure hard labor and she witnesses terrible atrocities carried out by the Nazi guards.

A few years after the war, Corrie was speaking at a church in Germany when one of the former prison guards came up to her.  He put out his hand and asked her to forgive him.  At that moment, Corrie realized her heart was still full of bitterness and hatred toward him and the other Nazis.  Let me describe what happened in her own words: “I stood there with coldness clutching my heart.  But I know that the will can function without the temperature of the heart.  I prayed, ‘Jesus, help me.’  Woodenly, mechanically, I thrust my hand into the one stretched out to me and I experienced an incredible thing.  The current started at my shoulder, raced down my arms, and sprang into our clutched hands.  Then this warm recognition seemed to flood my whole being bringing tears to my eyes. ‘I forgive you, brother.’  I cried with my whole heart.  For a long moment we grasped each other’s hands—the former guard and the former prisoner.  I have never known the love of God so intensely as I did at that moment.”

Let me read that last statement again, because it speaks to the life-changing power of offering forgiveness: “I have never known the love of God so intensely as I did at that moment.”

The problem with a “root of bitterness” is that it starts underground.  Far too often a bitter person will not admit their bitterness.  It is always someone else’s fault.

Let me end today with this little poem by Anna Russell in which she expresses this idea—that my problems are everyone else’s fault:

“I went to my psychiatrist to be psychoanalyzed.
to find out why I killed my cat and blackened my wife’s eye.
He put me on a downy couch to see what he could find
and this is what he dredged up from my subconscious mind.
When I was one my mommy hid my dolly in the trunk.
And, so it follows naturally that I’m always drunk.
When I was two I saw my father kiss the maid one day
and that’s why I suffer now from kleptomania.
When I was three I suffered ambivalence from my brothers
and so it follows naturally that I poisoned all my lovers.
I’m so glad I have learned the lesson it has taught
that everything I do that’s wrong is someone else’s fault.”

Be on the Alert for These Dangers, part 2 (Hebrews 12:14)

We started a series of messages on Hebrews 12:14-17 last week, noting that this is based upon God’s fatherly hand of discipline to produce peace and holiness in us.  That is His purpose.  In this section he gets back to our part in producing peace and holiness, and that is we must pursue it by embracing God’s grace.

14Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. 15See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled; 16that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. 17For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears.

We talked last week about pursuing peace with “everyone,” both unbelievers who are sometimes hostile, and even those within the church, who can also become our enemies, unfortunately and this is certainly not God’s desire.  Pursuing peace can be difficult, but even more difficult is pursuing holiness.

Peace is our horizontal pursuit; holiness is our vertical pursuit.  He is telling us to be at peace with everyone else, but to wage war against our own sins.  We need to live peaceably with all people as much as we can (cf. Matt. 5:9; Mark 9:50; Rom. 12:18; 14:19; 2 Tim. 2:22) because peaceful interpersonal relationships foster godliness (James 3:18).

Significantly, Jesus made the same association between peace and purity by joining them in successive beatitudes. “Blessed are the pure in heart” is followed by “Blessed are the peacemakers” (Matthew 5:8, 9).  Character and peace are woven together as a single garment of the soul.  Ultimately it is holy people who finish the race, for it is they who “shall see God” (Matthew 5:8) at his glorious return or in the glory that comes with death.

Our author had combined the two back in 12:11 where we see that it is part of God’s disciplinary goal, to produce peace and righteousness in our lives: “it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.”  Adolf Saphir reminds us, “The two exhortations, to follow peace with all men, and that holiness without which none can see the Lord, comprise the whole Christian life. They refer to our relation to God and to our neighbor. They embrace both tables of the law” (The Epistle to the Hebrews, 2:674).

What is holiness?  The word “holy” means to be “set apart,” “to be dedicated.”  It speaks of a person, a thing, even an event, which is dedicated wholly to God.  It belongs to Him.  We are “not our own” but are “bought with a price.”  It is set apart for a unique purpose—to bring glory to God.

We are to be holy because God is holy (Lev. 11:14; 1 Peter 1:16).  God’s holiness means that He is “set apart” as a totally unique, majestic being.  But holiness also has a moral/ethical side—meaning that God is completely free of sin.  In Him is light and there is no darkness at all (1 John 1:5).  Holiness is to be separate from sin and impurities.

In Isaiah 6:3 and Revelation 14:8 the angels cry out before God: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts,” night and day.  In every way God is unique.  There is no one like Him.

This doesn’t mean that God is cold and distant.  Rather, He lives in the “beauty of holiness” (Psalm 29:2; 96:9). True holiness isn’t cold and deadening – it’s warm and inviting.  It’s irresistible.  Those who think otherwise have never seen it, but only its caricatures. 

God is holy and He has made holiness the moral condition necessary to the health of His universe.  Sin’s temporary presence in the world only accents this.  Whatever is holy is healthy; evil is a moral sickness that must end ultimately in death.  The formation of the language itself suggests this, the English word holy deriving from the Anglo-Saxon halig, hal, meaning, “well, whole” (A. W. Tozer; The Knowledge of the Holy, 106).

For us to “be holy” or “pursue holiness” means to be totally set apart to God, totally dedicated to him.  In a practical sense it means to be “without sin,” to be totally conformed to the character of God.

“To live a holy life, then, is to live a life in conformity to the moral precepts of the Bible and in contrast to the sinful ways of the world. It is to live a life characterized by the “(putting) off of your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires… and (putting) on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 4:22, 24)” (Jerry Bridges, The Pursuit of Holiness, p. 16).

I like what Nancy Leigh Demoss Wolgemuth says in her book Holiness: The Heart God Purifies:

“As Christians, we are called to maintain lives that can be “toured” by outsiders at any time, without embarrassment.  A commitment to holiness means having a life that is always “ready for company” and open for inspection – a life that can stand up to scrutiny – not just in the obvious things, but in the hidden places where most might not think to look” (Nancy Leigh Demoss Wolgemuth, Holiness: The Heart God Purifies, p. 152).

How do we pursue holiness?

First, we pursue holiness out of our position in Christ.  Because we are united to Christ by faith, He has become for us “righteousness and sanctification” (1 Cor. 1:30) and thus we are “saints” because of our position in Christ.  Have you ever wondered how Paul could call all the believers at Corinth saints (1 Cor. 1:2), even though they had so many problems?  In their behavior they were not saintly, but positionally they were.  Theologians also call this “definitive sanctification,” because it defines us.  We merely work out what God has already worked into us.

The first is perfect and complete and is ours the moment we trust Christ; the second is progressive and incomplete as long as we are in this life.  The first is the work of Christ for us; the second is the result of the Holy Spirit working in us.

So, second, we pursue holiness in our behavior by killing sin and living unto God.  Paul speaks to this in Romans 6.  He is arguing that we don’t, as believers, continue in sin, why?  Because we have died to it (Romans 6:2-3) and now we live unto God (Romans 6:4).  He says in verse 6, “We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.”  So we must reckon ourselves dead to sin (Romans 6:11).  Dead people don’t sin.

But we must go beyond that to offering the members of our body now to God as “instruments of righteousness” (Romans 6:13).  Although we are dead to sin, we still can offer our members to sin.  So we must do both: reckon ourselves dead to sin AND offer our members now to God as instruments of righteousness.

But we do this on the basis of the fact that that have a new nature and Christ now lives in us.  So by faith we believe that the righteous life of Christ can manifest itself in our behaviors.

It is God’s purpose for us to become holy (Eph. 1:4).  We “work out” the salvation that God is “working in” us (Phil. 2:12-13).  Please don’t mistake this pursuit for legalism and asceticism and all that.  Don’t mistake this pursuit for the idea that we have to work our way to salvation.

This strived-for righteousness does not add to the ground of our acceptance — the righteousness of Christ is the ground.  Rather, it confirms the ground of our acceptance as Jesus Christ and our participation in him by faith.  This is what 2 Peter 1:10 means when it says, “Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall.”

Here he says, “pursue… the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.”  Pursuing holiness means that we aggressively pursue becoming more and more like Jesus Christ.  Since all believers will one day “see the Lord,” and since no sin can abide in His presence (1 John 3:2), we must also pursue “holiness” in our lives now.  Sanctification is “the process by which believers are set apart to God as a special people to grow spiritually in personal holiness and to develop Christ-like character.”

1 John 3:2 says “when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.”  When we die or when Jesus returns, we will immediately be transformed to be in actuality the perfect righteousness and holiness which we have been positionally since our justification but which also we have striven for daily in this life, as the Apostle John goes on to say, “everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.”

Again, this does not mean that we must pursue holiness in order to be saved.  As Ligon Duncan says, “The whole purpose of God’s salvation is to prepare us for the enjoyment of His presence.  And God is holy and He does not fellowship with sin.  So in preparation for the enjoyment of the presence of God, God in His kindness, by the Holy Spirit, works in us holiness and we ourselves are to strive – that the language of the author here – we’re to strive to grow in grace.  We’re to strive for sanctification.  We’re to strive after more godliness.  We want to grow more like Jesus” (https://ligonduncan.com/preparation-for-gods-presence-779/).

This is not salvation by works, however, for Christians are sanctified once for all by the death of Christ (Heb. 10:14); holy living is a part of the perseverance encouraged throughout Hebrews.

It does almost sound like if we don’t pursue holiness we won’t end up in heaven.  And in a way that is right.  Jesus said something very similar in the Beatitudes: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God” (Matthew 5:8).  Jesus states it from the positive.  Either way, it is a very real, very serious issue.  In the Greek there are no less than three negatives in this passage, as though it said, “No, never, no man shall see the Lord.” (Charles Spurgeon, Spurgeon Commentary: Hebrews, 413).  That’s pretty strong!  If we don’t pursue holiness it proves that we are not saints.  Holiness is not the condition or basis of our salvation, but it is the evidence of our salvation.  It shows that we are saved.

John MacArthur explains it this way:

“This verse is not easy to interpret, and has been a problem for many sincere Christians. At first glance, it seems to be teaching salvation by works—if we successfully pursue peace and sanctification, we will be saved and will see the Lord.  The truth is, however, that a person who is not saved cannot pursue either peace or sanctification, at least not successfully.  Only the Christian has the ability, through the Holy Spirit, to live in peace and in holiness. “‘There is no peace,’ says my God, ‘for the wicked’” (Isa. 57:21) and any righteousness men try to produce apart from God is as “a filthy garment” (Isa. 64:6).

I believe the writer is speaking of practical peace and righteousness.  Positionally, in Christ, Christians already are at peace (Rom. 5:1) and already are righteous (2 Cor. 5:21), but practically we have a great deal to do (Phil. 2:12).  Because we are at peace with God, we should be peacemakers.  Because we are counted righteous, we should live righteously. Our practice should match our position.  Otherwise the unbeliever will stand back and ask, “Why don’t you practice what you preach?  If you don’t live like Christ says to live, why should I accept Him as my Lord and Savior?” (cf. 1 John 2:6).  Pursuing peace primarily relates to loving men, and pursuing righteousness primarily to loving God.  If we love men, we will be at peace with them, and if we love God we will live righteously” (John MacArthur, Hebrews).

Jerry Bridges explains that…

“the writer of Hebrews is telling us to take seriously the necessity of personal, practical holiness.  When the Holy Spirit comes into our lives at our salvation, He comes to make us holy in practice.  If there is not, then, at least a yearning in our hearts to live a holy life pleasing to God, we need to seriously question whether our faith in Christ is genuine (cp 2 Cor. 13:5).  It is true that this desire for holiness may be only a spark at the beginning.  But that spark should grow till it becomes a flame—a desire to live a life wholly pleasing to God.  True salvation brings with it a desire to be made holy.  When God saves us through Christ, He not only saves us from the penalty of sin, but also from its dominion.  Bishop Ryle said, ‘I doubt, indeed, whether we have any warrant for saying that a man can possibly be converted without being consecrated to God.  More consecrated he doubtless can be, and will be as his grace increases; but if he was not consecrated to God in the very day that he was converted and born again, I do not know what conversion means’” (The Pursuit of Holiness)

We should be people intent on being holy as God is holy. That should be our aim, our joy, and our privilege – to reflect the character of our thrice holy God.  But let’s be absolutely clear about two things:

First, it does not mean that we earn heaven by our righteous actions.  I just want to re-emphasize that.  The Bible is abundantly clear that heaven is God’s free gift to all that trust in Christ as Savior and Lord (Rom. 6:23).  It is not by our works (Eph. 2:8-9; 2 Tim. 1:9) or efforts (Rom. 9:15).

Second, it does not mean that anyone can be perfectly holy or sanctified in this life.  There are some Christians who teach that believers can achieve a state of sinless perfection or total sanctification in this life.  Of course, they have to redefine sin and call some sin’s “mistakes.”  But the Bible is clear that we will have to strive against indwelling sin as long as we live (Romans 8:12-13)  In reality, Christians are not people who are sinless. They are people who, by God’s grace, sin less. 

What, then, does our text mean?  It means that those whose hearts have been regenerated by God’s grace will pursue a course of purity or holiness (1 Cor. 6:9-10; Ephesians 5:3-11; Colossians 3:5- and 1 John 3:7-10).  They may still sin often, but they do not remain in sin.  They hate it, they confess it and turn away from it, and they fight it over and over again with the spiritual weapons that God provides (Eph. 6:10-20).  They build into their lives barriers to avoid sin, renew their minds with Scripture by hiding it in their hearts (Psalm 119:11), but most of all that feast their hearts and minds on the passionate love of Christ for them so that they will fall deeply in love with Jesus and temptations will therefore lose their seductive draw.

This is a lifelong pursuit, but without it, no one will see the Lord.  Without this fight against sin they won’t go to heaven!  Heaven will be a place of absolute holiness.  God is holy, surrounded by His holy angels, who cover their faces and proclaim, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts” (Isa. 6:3).  The saints in heaven are all perfectly holy, never to sin again (Heb. 12:23).  So, if we’re not pursuing a course of holiness now, we will be awfully uncomfortable in such a holy place, not to mention the fact that we’d ruin it!   Thus, everyone who has been rescued from sin and judgment by the cross wants and desires to please the Lord who died for him by pursuing purity.

There are many who do not pursue holiness, either out of ignorance or apathy or love for this world.  Charles Spurgeon says, “Unholy Christians are the plague of the church. They are spots in our feasts of charity. Like hidden rocks, they are the terror of navigators. It is hard to steer clear of them: and there is no telling what wrecks they may cause.”

It is unholy Christians who generally wreck the peace of the church.  It is because we are not pursuing holiness that we pursue our own ways and desires, thus causing conflict with others (who are also wanting their own ways and desires).

To pursue holiness means we put the utmost, concentrated effort into it.  We don’t just play around with sins in our lives, but we ruthlessly put them to death.  Spurgeon pointedly said, “Some men pray to be made holy, but they wish to keep some little pet sin in the backyard.”  Think on that.

There are those who lean towards being peaceable and are willing to sacrifice God’s holy standards for the sake of keeping the peace.  Then there are those whose standard of holiness is so high that they will mistreat others to protect God’s law.  Unlike Jesus, who could perfectly balance “grace and truth” (John 1:14), we tend to slide from one side or the other by virtue of our personalities.  Sometimes we become too lenient on the peaceable end and then too brutal on the holiness end.

Spurgeon reminds us, “We are only so far to yield for peace’s sake as never to yield a principle.  We are to be peaceful so far as never to be at peace with sin: peaceful with men, but contending earnestly against evil principles” (Charles Spurgeon, Spurgeon Commentary: Hebrews, 411)

Be on the Alert for These Dangers, part 1 (Hebrews 12:14)

We are now in the midst of the 2024 Olympics with performances, matches, games and races.  One of the dominant metaphors for the Christian life is running the race, sometimes presented as more like a sprint, but most often like a long-distance race.  Hebrews 12:1-3 introduced us to that metaphor:

1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.

We are in a race and we can learn a lot not only by running ourselves but by watching the Olympics.

At 7 p.m. on October 20, 1968, a few thousand spectators remained in the Mexico City Olympic Stadium. The last of the exhausted marathon runners were being carried off to the first-aid stations. More than an hour earlier, Mamo Wolde of Ethiopia had crossed the finish line, the winner of the 26.2-mile run.

As the remaining spectators prepared to leave, those sitting near the marathon gates heard the sound of sirens and police whistles. All eyes turned toward the gate. A lone figure wearing the colors of Tanzania entered the stadium. His name was John Stephen Akhwari. He was the last man to finish. His leg bloodied and bandaged, severely injured in a fall, he grimaced with each step as he hobbled around the 400-meter track.

The spectators rose and applauded him as if he were the winner. After crossing the finish line, Akhwari slowly walked off the field. In view of his injury and having no chance of winning a medal, someone asked him why he had not quit. He replied, “My country did not send me 7,000 miles to start the race. They sent me 7,000 miles to finish it” (from Leadership [Spring, 1992], p. 49).

I hope that you want to finish well.  You and I don’t have to finish first; we don’t have to “be the best.”  But we do need to finish.

As Paul faced execution, he wrote to Timothy, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith” (2 Tim. 4:7).  Regarding this verse Don Kistler observed (Soli Deo Gloira newsletter, 6/03),

As Paul writes to Timothy and contemplates his impending death, he evaluates his life and ministry. While we live in a culture that exalts the winner and scorns the loser, Paul assesses his life based on three things: he fought the good fight, he finished the course, and he kept the faith. How interesting that there is no mention of winning—only that of fighting, finishing, and keeping!

We are so prone to think of ourselves as failures if we don’t set records or win so demonstrably as to have monuments built to our endeavors. But for Paul, most likely the greatest Christian who ever lived, it was a matter of endurance. For Paul, he won by lasting.

Verses 4-13 then illustrated God’s part in bringing about the “perfection” of our faith and helping us to finish the race through discipline.  How we respond to God’s discipline is key to the development of the spiritual life.  We can discipline ourselves, as Hebrews 12:1-3 speaks of, but all of us also need the discipline from the Father.

The author of Hebrews was concerned that some of his readers were about to drop out of the race because they were fainting under God’s discipline. It would be a lot easier to go back to what was familiar to them and what was easier.  They could escape persecution by returning to Judaism.  But to do that they would be abandoning Jesus Christ.

The word “therefore” at the beginning of verse 12 controls this whole section, illustrating the practical consequences of the Father’s discipline.  Because the fatherly love of God designs your pain for your good and your holiness . . .”pursue peace…and holiness.”

Verse 14 picks up the race metaphor once again with the word “pursue.”  The NIV translates it “make every effort” to emphasize how much exertion and determination we should put into it.

14Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. 15See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled; 16that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. 17For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears.

As I look at this passage of Scripture I see two very real dangers which we all face and must seek to avoid.  Those dangers may not appear to be so serious at first, but they are.  One danger is “failing to obtain the grace of God,” that we find in verse 15.

The other danger is the inability to change some consequences of our choices, even though we might later earnestly seek to avoid those consequences with tears.  It says of Esau in verse 17, “when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears.”

These are two very serious dangers, ones that are all too easy to fall into.  So how do we avoid them?

There is one command in our passage:  “Pursue” (or “make every effort” or “strive”) in verse 14.  That verb is supplemented by a participle of means in verse 15, which is usually translated like a separate command, “See to it,” but I believe it functions as a way to express how we can pursue peace and holiness, “by seeing to it…”

First, we are to avoid spiritual danger by doggedly pursuing peace and holiness (12:14)

14Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. 

The command is to pursue with determination and persistence, like a hunting dog chasing down its prey.  As a present imperative, it communicates a continuous action, one that we are to engage in constantly, not just daily or weekly, but every moment.

If we are going to compete successfully in the Christian race, we must give attention to two matters: peace with others and holiness before God.

Peace here is peace with man.  Our experience tells us that although we may have peace with God (Romans 5:1), we do not always have peace with one another.  In fact, I’ve found that peace with one another is a fragile, rare gift, always in danger of being broken.  It can take months to build but only moments to destroy.

Of course, commitment to being a disciple of Jesus invites the enmity of the world, Jesus tells us.  “If the world hates you,” said Jesus, “know that it has hated me before it hated you” (John 15:18).  If we follow Christ, we must expect conflict.  This is why Jesus said to His followers: “But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you” (Luke 6:27-28).  Conflict, even opposition will come.  The key factor is what we do about it.  Do we fight or pursue peace? 

So, we can expect adversity from the world.  But how unexpected and disheartening it is when conflict is encountered in the church!  Someone has said, “To live above with saints we love, now that will be glory.  But to live below with saints we know, well, that’s another story!”

In a perfect world, all people could live peacefully together.  Of course, this is impossible in our imperfect world.  However, believers should do their best to at least “pursue” peace and reconciliation.  Believers certainly should not cause dissension.  Christian fellowship should be characterized by peace and building up one another (see 1 Thess 5:11).  (Bruce Barton, Life Application Bible Commentary: Hebrews, 217)

There is a passage in Tolkien’s The Fellowship of the Ring in which God-fearing elves join with God-fearing dwarves to oppose the Dark Lord.  But immediately they begin to quarrel, calling down plagues on each other’s necks.  Then one of the wiser of the company, Haldir, remarks, “Indeed in nothing is the power of the Dark Lord more clearly shown than in the estrangement that divides all those who still oppose him” (J. R. R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring (New York: Ballantine, 1969), pp. 450, 451).

Conflict in the church brings glee to Satan and disgraces our God.  Few things will grieve the Spirit more and keep us from making progress in our Christian life than to harbor bitterness and anger towards our Christian brothers or sisters.

Jesus prayed for the unity of His followers in His high priestly prayer:

22The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, 23I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. 

When we “bite and devour one another” (Galatians 5:15), when there is “quarreling, jealousy, anger, hostility, slander, gossip, conceit, and disorder” (2 Corinthians 12:20), when there is “bitter jealousy and selfish ambition” (James 3:14-15) we are working against Christ’s prayer and Christ’s passion.

Christian Counselor Jay Adams writes:

Few things are sapping the strength of the church of Jesus Christ more than the unreconciled state of so many believers.  So many have matters deeply imbedded in their craws, like iron wedges forced between themselves and other Christians.  They can’t walk together because they do not agree.  When they should be marching side by side through this world taking men captive for Jesus Christ, they are acting instead like an army that has been routed and scattered and whose troops in their confusion have begun fighting among themselves.  Nothing is sapping the church of Christ of her strength so much as these unresolved problems, these loose ends among believing Christians that have never been tied up.  There is no excuse for this sad condition, for the Bible does not allow for loose ends. God wants no loose ends (Christian Living in the Home, P&R Publishing, 1972, p. 35-36).

Satan infiltrates Christian homes and churches, elder meetings and friendships, sowing seeds of discord that blossom into anger and alienation.

So as we run the race we must pursue peace with “everyone”—both Christians and non-believers alike.  This word “strive” or “pursue” is a word used to describe the chasing after prey or one’s enemies.  We must chase after peace.  We must aggressively take the initiative to make things right.  It takes more effort because “a brother offended is more unyielding than a strong city, and quarreling is like the bars of a castle” (Prov. 18:19).

Other Scriptures further enjoin the aggressive pursuit of peace, urging us to “[be] eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Ephesians 4:3), and to “pursue what makes for peace” (Romans 14:19).  Also, 1 Peter 3:11, citing Psalm 34:14, says, “Whoever desires to love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit (v. 10); let him turn away from evil and do good; let him seek peace and pursue it.  And in 2 Timothy 2:22 Paul tells Timothy, “So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.”

Pursuing peace is a high priority to the biblical writers.  Similarly, Romans 12:18 says, “If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.”  Sometimes, says Paul, peace isn’t possible.  But be sure it isn’t your fault!  As far as it depends on you, put aside the cause of division and hatred.  If others refuse to do so, that’s their problem. Just make sure it isn’t yours!  And then, of course, there is the grand dominical beatitude, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God” (Matthew 5:9).  People will know that you belong to God because you are a peacemaker.  If Jesus commands it and prays for it (John 17:22-23), then clearly He places a high priority on it as well.

Those who pursue peace will be quick to confront privately and gently, will offer forgiveness and seek reconciliation as soon as possible, will be kind and be thoughtful, and will pray for their enemies.  Those who pursue peace will do so quickly, thoroughly and considerately.  Don’t be lazy about pursuing peace.  Don’t put it off just because it is uncomfortable.  Remembering that God has forgiven us, we should be quick to forgive others.  Remembering that Jesus taught Peter that forgiveness is unlimited (seventy times seven) we should not be miserly with our forgiveness.

Again, Jay Adams says, “If you have been putting off going to another person to try to achieve reconciliation with him, you have wronged him.”  He goes on to say, “Jesus won’t allow the unreconciled condition to continue among believers.  In Matthew 5, if another considers you to have wronged him, Jesus says that you must go.   In Matthew 18, He says that if the other person has done something wrong to you, you must go.  There is never a time when you can sit and wait for your brother to come to you. Jesus doesn’t allow for that.  He gives no opportunity for that.   It is always your obligation to go.

Do you what is the most natural thing to do when you are at odds with someone?  You know it; it happens all the time.  We go and share it with someone else.  We feel so much tension in ourselves that we blurt it out to someone else, thus relieving some of that tension, but actually transferring it to that other person.  If you, person A, have a problem with person B and now you share it with person C, you have transferred that tension to person C, causing them to feel like they have to side with either you or them.  This is called “triangling” or the Bible calls it “gossip.”

Do you know what is another thing we naturally do?  We break fellowship with that person.  We avoid them.  Oh, we might be nice and civil to them in public, but we insulate ourselves from them because we’ve been hurt.  We distance ourselves.

We need to realize that to put a wall between ourselves and others is to build a wall between us and God.  Our spiritual growth will be stunted precisely because we are refusing to forgive and be reconciled.

So pursue peace.  Peace (Eirene in Greek), means “to join or bind together something which has been separated.”  Relationally, it means a lack of division; it means that nothing divides you or comes between you.

I want to encourage you, if there is someone with whom you are currently at war or at odds or simply don’t like anymore because they hurt you, then make every effort to pursue peace with that person.  Maybe it’s within your immediate family.  Maybe you need to forgive and pursue peace with your father or mother, with a sister or brother, with your spouse or your child or children.  Maybe you need to reconcile with your boss or a coworker.

Extend it to those in this church: Do you go to those who have wronged you and seek to clear up the wrongs? Don’t go with the assumption, “I’m right and you were a complete jerk!” Go with humility, asking, “Did I cause offense? I don’t want there to be anything between us. Can we get this cleared up?” It’s not usually a pleasant part of the race, but it is the course God has set before us: “Pursue peace with all men.”

Now, what if you are in the wrong?  What if you’ve done something to hurt someone else?  Then you need to respond with repentance and ask for forgiveness.  We repent in four ways: 1. “I was wrong.”  Plain, honest, no evasions. 2. “I am sorry.”  Brokenhearted, realizing the damage done. 3. “It won’t happen again.”  Rebuilding trust for the future. 4. “Is there anything I can do to make it up to you?”  Performing deeds in keeping with repentance (Acts 26:20; Matthew 3:8).

God’s Hand of Discipline, part 3 (Hebrews 12:10-13

We are in Hebrews 12:4-11 this morning, wrapping up our author’s instructions on how to benefit from God’s discipline in our lives.

We have seen that our author wants us to (1) recognize God’s purpose in our discipline, which could be to correct us, protect us or perfect us; (2) but also to remember God’s encouraging word that we are His sons (Heb. 12:5); (3) then to realize God’s everlasting love (Heb. 12:6); but also to (4) regard with both seriousness and steadfastness God’s rod of discipline (Heb. 12:5); then to (5) respect God’s holy purpose in our discipline (Heb. 12:7-11); and finally, we will get to (6) reach out and help others (Heb. 12:12-13) in this race.

Verse 10 in Hebrews 12 says…

10 For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness.

And here we see that another benefit of submitting to God’s discipline is that it produces “holiness.”  At the end of verse 10 is says that we “share in his holiness.”  God “wants to make his sons like himself.  He has a specific aim that they may share his holiness.  While the earthly father’s action is essentially short-term, the heavenly father is concerned with our eternal welfare.  Sharing his holiness is the antithesis of a short-term benefit” (Donald Guthrie, Tyndale NT Commentaries: Hebrews, p. 255).

William Bates wrote, “The devil usually tempts men in a paradise of delights, to precipitate them into tell; God tries them in the furnace of afflictions, to purify and prepare them for heaven” (Puritan Sermons, Vol. II, p. 597).

Later our writer of Hebrews tells us that without sanctification, or holiness, we will not see the Lord.  God is holy and to have fellowship with Him we must be holy.  But here we are being assured that it is through discipline God so works “that we may share his holiness.”  So that’s a good thing, right?

The most holy of us are those who have properly endured the most discipline.  What a gift, then, discipline is!  Jonathan Edwards says of such people:

They are holy by being made partakers of God’s holiness, Heb. xii. 10. The saints are beautiful and blessed by a communication of God’s holiness and joy, as the moon and planets are bright by the sun’s light. The saint hath spiritual joy and pleasure by a kind of effusion of God on the soul. (John H. Gerstner, The Rational Biblical Theology of Jonathan Edwards , vol. 1 (Powhatan, VA: Berea Publications, 1991), p. 423, quoting from Works (Worcester reprint), IV, p. 174).

What more could we wish in this life?

It ”is only through suffering that we do come to holiness.  And why does He want us holy?  Because He is holy.  The future fellowship He has planned for us is also holy.  He has to get us ready for it.  That’s why the established path is ‘suffering first and the glory which follows.’  For God to let us go through this life unchanged and unholy is unthinkable.  The more holy we become, the more suited we are for a place near Him in the eternal fellowship” (C.S. Lovett, Lovett’s Lights on Hebrews, p. 302).

If only we could remember, when we are going through the pain and trials of discipline, that it really is for our best good, our eternal best good.

God’s willingness to take the time and trouble to discipline us shows that He is more concerned about our sanctification than we often are.  “We care about success; He cares about holiness.  We care about temporary pleasures; He cares about eternal consequences” (Bryan Chapell, Holiness by Grace, p. 177).  “God puts our regard for him at risk rather than allowing us to continue in courses that would damage us spiritually” (Bryan Chapell, Holiness by Grace, pp. 177-178).

If we want to see God; if we want to live with Him throughout eternity, then we must strive after holiness.  Though we will “hit the wall” many times, we are called to “tough it out,” realizing that the hardships we endure are disciplines that enable us to share in God’s holiness (cf. vv. 4-11).  (R. Kent Hughes, Preaching the Word: Hebrews, vol. 2, 178)

God wants us to live in blessed fellowship throughout eternity and that is why He disciplines us—to produce holiness in us.

Then, in verse 11, he says,

11 For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

He admits that discipline is not pleasant, but painful.  I think we can all agree with that.  Discipline is painful, not pleasant.  Sometimes it really is quite painful, other times we exaggerate the pain beyond what it really is.  But our author admits that discipline is painful.  It is not punishment, but it is painful.  But as the cliché goes, “no pain, no gain.”

It would be weird to be disciplined by your father and to come out laughing.  We can only rejoice from what results from discipline, not the discipline itself.  And it’s okay to acknowledge that pain and even to cry out to God to relieve it, or to ask God to help you persevere in it. 

Even Jesus did that.  In the Garden of Gethsemane he acknowledged the pain of taking our burden of sin.  He was not being punished for His own sins, but for ours.  And was an unendurable burden He was taking on.

He, according to Hebrews 5:7, “offering up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears.”  He submitted to God’s will and did bear the penalty for our sins on the cross.  By the way, notice that our author does not mention Jesus in this passage about discipline.  Although He is our example in how to navigate suffering and trials, He never experienced the discipline of the Father.

Notice, this verse gives us two encouragements to endure God’s discipline and not lose heart.

First, it is “for the moment,” only for a limited time.  Unfortunately, that limited time may be far longer than we would like.  God is always “on time,” just not always on our time!  Compared to the “eternal weight of glory” we will receive it ultimately will seem short and insignificant, but not while we’re going through it.  When Paul is comparing today’s sufferings with eternity’s glory he says, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”  In other words, if you do the math, the pain we are going through now will seem like nothing compared to the glory we will experience throughout eternity.  Not only is the glory greater than the pain, but eternity is much longer than “the moment.”

It may not seem like it, but the discipline will eventually be over.  And when we step into eternity, the reward for going through that will be multiplied many times over.  When I was a hospice chaplain I illustrated that by saying, “Take our sun, an extremely large object, but when you compare it to Canus Majoris (which means “big dog”), if our sun were the size of a golf ball, then Canus Majoris would be the size of Mount Everest.  You wouldn’t be able to see a golf ball from the top of Rich Mountain, much less Mount Everest.  It just wouldn’t be visible.  It wouldn’t register.

Secondly, it “later yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness,” but only to those “who have been trained by it.”  As with trials, we have to persevere to receive the full benefits of either trials or God’s hand of discipline.

As we endure and learn our lessons from God’s discipline—whether it is to correct us from some path of sin, or to protect us from some greater sin or to perfect us—it will produce a “peaceful fruit” in our lives.

“The peaceful fruit of righteousness” comes to believers who endure under discipline—not just the objective, imputed righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21), but a subjective, day-to-day righteous life.  To the eyes of onlookers the believer’s righteous life becomes apparent—as he more and more shows the character of God.  But that is just half of the crop, the other half being a harvest of peace— shalom.  As Isaiah wrote, “The effect of righteousness will be peace, and the result of righteousness, quietness and trust forever” (Isaiah 32:17).  Peace— shalom —means not only quietness of soul but wholeness.  As Richard John Neuhaus says: “It means the bringing together of what was separated, the picking up of the pieces, the healing of wounds, the fulfillment of the incomplete, the overcoming of the forces of fragmentation. . . .” (Richard John Neuhaus, Freedom for Ministry (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1979), p. 72).

“The righteousness produced by discipline is that perfect righteousness, which, imputed in justification and striven for in the Christian race, is fully imparted when at last the victor stands before his exalted Lord face to face (1 John 3:2); of it is indeed nothing other than the unblemished righteousness of Christ himself” (Philip Edgecombe Hughes, A Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews, p. 533).

The result of our submission to the discipline process is that God produces a spirit of conformity in our hearts and a new desire to live up to God’s standards…and that leads to true holiness.  As Christians we need to submit to God’s discipline in our lives, “painful” as it may be, because it will result in fullness of life (v. 9), greater holiness (v. 10), and righteousness along with peace (“the peaceful fruit of righteousness”) when we “have been trained by it.”

The word “fruit” in this image “peaceful fruit of righteousness,” reminds us that neither righteousness nor peace are reached quickly.  Spurgeon reminds us, “Many believers are deeply grieved, because they do not at once feel that they have been profited by their afflictions.  Well, you do not expect to see apples or plums on a tree which you have planted but a week.  Only little children put their seeds into their flower-garden, and then expect to see them grow into plants in an hour.”

This, of course, is God’s overall purpose in our lives, to “conform us to the image of His Son” (Romans 8:28-29), using both the good and the bad circumstances in our lives, the trials and the discipline of God, to produce a good result, to become more like Jesus Christ.

Coach Tom Landry of the Dallas Cowboys is reputed to have said, “The job of a coach is to make men do what they don’t want to do, in order to become what they’ve always wanted to be.”  God also has a good purpose in mind for your life and He is committed to working on us to produce that holy character.

The need is that we allow ourselves to be “trained by it,” to submit to the process and stick to it until God is finished with us.

The word training is gymnazo, from which we get the word “gym,” but literally means “to strip naked.”  This may be because runners ran naked, stripping off every needless weight or encumbrance.

But it also speaks to the image of a trainer looking over an athlete’s naked body, identifying which particular muscles needed a work-out in order to achieve maximum effectiveness in a race or in a match.

God’s trials and discipline are designed to identify and work on those very areas of our lives would trip us up or keep us from achieving God’s purpose in our lives.  “Enduring the trial and standing the test of disciplinary affliction is precisely the ‘training’ of which our author is speaking here.  It is the perspective of  faith which explains the ‘unutterable and exalted joy’ of the Christian athlete as, willingly enduring all things, he fixes his gaze on the glorious Person of him who is the object of his faith and his love (v. 2 above; 1 Pet. 3:8)” (Philip Edgecombe Hughes, A Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews, p. 533).

God’s training is measured, meaning that He submits us to lesser trials before we encounter the really difficult ones.  Athletes work out on lesser weights or run shorter distances in preparation for lifting heavier weights or running greater distances.

God trained David for Goliath by sending a bear and a lion first.  He trained Abraham for offering up Isaac by gradually weaning him away from leaning upon other surrogates like Lot, Eliezer or Ishmael.  Thus, Genesis 22 begins, “After all these things…”  The really painful trial came after a series of less painful trials.

My question to you this morning is:

  • Do you really want to live?
  • Do you really want to grow in holiness and righteousness?
  • Do you want to experience genuine peace in your life?

I imagine all of us would say, “Yes! I definitely want those things in my life.”

But are we willing to submit to the training process?

That isn’t easy for any of us to do.  And that is why our last response leads us to helping one another and depending upon the Christian community for support and aid.

Finally, we need to reach out and help others.

The final verse in our passage says…

12 Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, 13 and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed.

Our author well understands the tendency we all have to reject well-intentioned advice to submit to this painful training process and just waddle through the mud hole of our own misery.

We derive a kind of perverse pleasure from doing so.  But verses 12-13 give us two specific actions.  The telltale signs of flagging energy are drooping arms, flopping hands, and wobbling knees that reduce the runner’s stride to a halting gait. 

First, strengthen your own feeble arms and weak knees.  Deal with yourself first.  Get your own heart right toward your troubles.

Now, the plural imperative implies a joint effort by many.  We can help each other draw upon the resources of Christ by offering encouraging words and mutual prayers, sharing our experiences and sometimes simply being with a person who is going through a trial.

Second, make straight paths for your feet.  In other words, watch your influence on others.  Take care that you are not a stumbling block to those who travel with you, whose faith may be much weaker than yours.

These two exhortations look back to Isaiah 35:4 where the prophet exhorts:

Say to those who have an anxious heart, “Be strong; fear not!  Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God.  He will come and save you.”

This is not only an exhortation to wait patiently for the coming of Christ, but also to expect God to “come” in some sovereign action of deliverance in response to His people’s prayers.  Acts 12 records just such a deliverance.  As the people prayed, an angel released Peter from prison.

The point is, every consideration should be made to help everyone finish the race. 

It reminds me of a race in which, when the gun went off, all the runners began their race.  Those watching, however, knew that this was not a normal race, it was a Special Olympics race. 

As the runners sped down the track as fast as their arms and legs could carry them, at about 25 meters into the race, one of the runners fell, sprawling headlong across the track.  The rest of the contestants continued on down the course a few meters further.

But then, a most amazing thing happened.  All of a sudden, without anyone speaking to anyone else, they ALL stopped dead in their tracks, turned around, and came back to their fallen friend.  Together, they picked her up, dusted her off, and then they ran arm-in-arm to the finish line together.

Really and truly we are all disabled, and the only way we will finish the race is, of course with God’s help, but also the help of our brothers and sisters in Christ.

God’s Hand of Discipline, part 2 (Hebrews 12:4-11)

Elisabeth Elliot lost her first husband, Jim Elliot, to Auca Indian spears.  She lost her second husband, Addison Leitch, to cancer.  In an address to the Urbana Missions Conference (December, 1976), she told of being in Wales and watching a shepherd and his dog.  The dog would herd the sheep up a ramp and into a tank of antiseptic where they had to be bathed.  The sheep would struggle to climb out, but the dog would snarl and snap in their faces to force them back in.  Just as they were about to come up out of the tank, the shepherd used a wooden implement to grab the rams by the horns, fling them back into the tank, and hold them under the antiseptic again for a few seconds.

Mrs. Elliot asked the shepherd’s wife if the sheep understood what was happening.  She replied, “They haven’t got a clue.”  Mrs. Elliot then said, “I’ve had some experiences in my life that have made me feel very sympathetic to those poor rams—I couldn’t figure out any reason for the treatment I was getting from the Shepherd I trusted.  And He didn’t give a hint of explanation.”  But, she pointed out, we still must trust our Shepherd and obey Him, knowing that He has our best interests at heart.

It’s like the lyrics of Babbie Mason’s song Trust His Heart

God is too wise to be mistaken
God is too good to be unkind
So when you don’t understand
When don’t see His plan
When you can’t trace His hand
Trust His Heart
Trust His Heart

So we may not always know the exact reason we are going through God’s hand of discipline, but we can still trust that He is wise and good.

As we’ve gone through Hebrews 12 so far, we have seen that we are to (1) regard with seriousness and steadfastness God’s rod of discipline so that we get the most out of it; (2) then we are to remember God’s encouraging word that we are His Sons.

Third, then, we are to realize God’s everlasting love.

This love is expressed more explicitly in verse 6, “For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.”  God’s “discipline is the mark not of a harsh and heartless father but of a father who is deeply and lovingly concerned for the well-being of his son” (Philip Hughes, 528).  Discipline is the divinely ordained path to a deepening relationship between God and His children.  To refuse discipline (v. 7) is to turn our back on His love.

He disciplines us not because He is mad at us, not because He hates us, but because He loves us and accepts us.  In fact, Scripture tells us that it is the one who “spares the rod” that “hates their children” (Proverbs 13:24).

The ancient world found it incomprehensible that a father could possibly love his child and not punish him.  In fact, a real son would draw more discipline than, say, an illegitimate child for the precise reason that greater honor and responsibility were to be his.  The ultimate example of this is, of course, Jesus who as the supreme Son “learned obedience through what he suffered.  And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him” (5:8, 9).  There is no doubt about it—the hardships and disciplines we endure are signs of our legitimacy and ought to be embraced as telltale signs of grace. (R. Kent Hughes, Hebrews: Volume 2, p. 173).

Do you want to experience God’s love and acceptance?  Sometimes it comes by way of painful discipline.

What is the most common question we ask when we go through hard times?  Does God love me?  Does God care?  Here we are assured that He does love us; He does accept us.  Instead of saying “If I am God’s child, why does he allow me to suffer?” I need to appreciate that it is because I am His child that I am near and dear to His heart and that He is using these trials and sufferings to make me better, to help me to flourish, to become all He has made me to be.

Malcolm Muggeridge went so far as to say that virtually everything that truly enhanced and enlightened his existence came during times of affliction.  He believed that “if it were possible to eliminate affliction from our earthly existence by means of some drug or other medical mumbo-jumbo, as Aldous Huxley envisaged in Brave New World, the result would not be to make life delectable, but to make it too banal and trivial to be endured” (A Twentieth Century Testimony [Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1978], p. 35).

The Greek word for discipline is paideuo, from which we get the nouns paideia, “discipline,” and paideutes, “one who disciplines.”  These all come from the combination of the word for child, pais, and the word deuo, which means coming together with.  So discipline is not merely correcting through some physical pain, but also teaching and training a child as we get together with them and spend time with them.

Discipline will be painful, but again it is redemptive.  It is not mere punishment.  It is a teaching and training mechanism.

While discipline does not necessarily remove the consequences of our sin—we still reap what we sow—God often tempers it with grace if we repent.  If we do not repent, His discipline can become very severe (“scourging”—means, not motive), even to the point of physical death (cf. 1 Cor. 11:29-31).

John Piper points out the importance of understanding and believing that discipline does not mean that God has ceased to love us, but rather understanding and believing that He especially loves us.  He says…

In other words, in your pain, you are not being treated as a slave or as an enemy.  You are being treated as a loved child of God.  The issue is: will you believe this?  Will you let the Word of God settle the issue for you, so that when the suffering comes, you don’t turn on God and put him on the dock and prosecute him with accusations?  He probably will not tell you why it is your turn, or why it is happening now, or why there is so much pain, or why it lasts this long.  But he has told you what you need to know: it is the love of an all-wise Father to a child.  Will you trust Him?

Verse 6, then, the fact that discipline proves that He loves us and receives us (doesn’t reject us) is what makes the attitudes of verse 5 avoidable—of either regarding lightly the discipline of the Lord or becoming weary.

The fourth way to benefit from God’s discipline is to respect God’s holy purpose.

We find God’s purpose in discipline in verse 9, surrounded by verses which tell us why we should submit to and respect God’s discipline.  I know, most of us have an allergic reaction to that word “submit” and would just “rather not, thank you.”

A “Frank & Ernest” cartoon expressed it well.  The two bunglers are standing at the Pearly Gates.  St. Peter has a scowl on his face.  Frank whispers to Ernie, “If I were you, I’d change my shirt, Ernie.”  Ernie’s shirt reads, “Question Authority.”

God is the Ultimate Authority!  Whether you like His program for your life or not, it is not wise to rebel against it.  As verse 9 tells us, if we submit to the Father of our spirits, we will live.  Bishop Westcott (The Epistle to the Hebrews [Eerdmans], p. 402) puts it, “True life comes from complete self-surrender.” 

It is important that we have the proper attitude towards God’s discipline.  Just as earthly parents look for a repentant and submissive spirit and grow concerned when they see hardness and resistance in their children, so does God our Father.

Our text gives us several reasons to respect God’s discipling process.

We’ve already seen that it proves that we really are God’s children.  Verses 7-8 reinforce this.

7 It is for discipline that you have to endure.  God is treating you as sons.  For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? 8 If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.

This is a command here.  It is more literally translated, “Endure as discipline.”  Jesus “endured” (v. 2), and it is imperative that we also “endure.”  The reason is that “God is treating you as sons.”

To be disciplined is NOT evidence that we are unbelievers whom God is punishing.  It is the exact opposite.  Discipline proves that we really are God’s children.  He is doing this for our good.  It reveals to us that we really belong in this loving relationship with our heavenly Father.

Far more precarious is the person who sins and gets away with it without any discipline.

What does that show—no discipline in our lives?  According to our author it means we are “illegitimate children and not sons.”  You see, the mark of the unregenerate is that God will let them have their own way, ultimately leading to destruction (Romans 1).

The approved “sons” in view (those “whom He accepts,” v. 6), here in Hebrews, are evidently those who persevere through discipline to the end of their lives, whereas the illegitimate children do not stay the course but apostatize.

Remember that our sins are paid for and there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1).  Discipline is not punishment for our sins; it is proof of God’s love for us.  Judicially, all our sins were paid for at the cross.  God as our judge declared us “not guilty” on the basis of our faith in Jesus Christ.  But then He adopted us into His family as His children and as His children he disciplines us for our good.

Theodore Laetsch, the Old Testament scholar, makes a most perceptive comment regarding this:

His plans concerning his people are always thoughts of good, of blessing.  Even if he is obliged to use the rod, it is the rod not of wrath, but the Father’s rod of chastisement for their temporal and eternal welfare.  There is not a single item of evil in his plans for his people, neither in their motive, nor in their conception, nor in their revelation, nor in their consummation (Theodore Laetsch, Bible Commentary Jeremiah (St. Louis: Concordia, 1965), pp. 234, 235).

David received a stiff corrective from God.  Having committed adultery with Bathsheba and having her husband murdered to cover it up, David’s child by that illicit union died.  But David did learn from it.  Just read Psalm 51, and also the chastened wisdom of Psalm 119:

Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep your word. . . .

It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes. (Psalm 119:67, 71)

In the New Testament Paul told the Corinthian church that some of them were suffering illness and even premature death because they were profaning the Lord’s Supper through their greedy, self-centered indulgence.  Again, a harsh corrective, but it came from the heart of their heavenly Father, as Paul explained, “When we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world” (1 Corinthians 11:32).

Or consider Paul, it wasn’t his sin, but the gracious purpose of God that humbled him through a “thorn in the flesh.”  Paul prayed for it to be removed but later thanked God as he realized how his thorn had protected him.  We might consider this preventative discipline.

This same realization enabled D. D. Matheson to pray: “Thou Divine Love, whose human path has been perfected by sufferings, teach me the value of any thorn . . . and then shall I know that my tears have been made a rainbow, and I shall be able to say, ‘It was good for me that I have been afflicted.’”  Preventative discipline, properly understood, is seen as a substantial grace.

From here the writer goes on to provide more reasons for the intelligent embrace of and endurance in affliction.

Second, in vv. 9-10, our author argues from the lesser to the greater, God showing that discipline does greatly benefit us.  If discipline from our earthly father benefits us, then how much more God’s discipline will benefit us.

9 Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them.  Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? 10 For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness.

Here our author is using the qal wahomer argument, a Hebraism of arguing from the lesser to the greater.  In Latin it is called an a fortiori argument.  In this case our author is saying that human fathers (weak in comparison to God’s divine power and limited in comparison to God’s divine wisdom) still discipline us for our good, but God (greater in every way) provides even better discipline.

Respect and submission characterized ancients in regard to their natural fathers—and it developed a disciplined productive life in the child.  But how much more should we submit to our supernatural Father and live a life that is life indeed!  Submission to the discipline of our temporal fathers brought good things, but how much more will come through submission to the discipline of our eternal Father.

Not all of us have known by experience what a model father is, but I think most of us do know by intuition what a good father is.  God is even greater; He is that perfect Father and has planted that intuition in us of what a perfect Father is like.

Earthly fathers have limited wisdom and patience.  Sometimes they get it right and sometimes they discipline too harshly or too hard or in anger.  Sometimes we fathers showed favoritism. Sometimes we punished the wrong child. When we grow into adulthood we often realize “they did the best they could.”

God, however, is always perfect in His discipline.  He has never made a mistake.  He never misses the mark.  He always has our highest good in mind, knows exactly how much discipline we need and how to use it to correct, protect and perfect us.

Nothing is wasted in God’s disciplining training.  Nothing goes too far.  It also achieves its purpose and is always for our best.

Imagine where you would be in life right now without any parental discipline!  Without that restraining and training hand of discipline, all manner of rebellion would have fomented in your heart and life and you would surely have headed towards disaster.

If you doubt this, just take a look at the prison rolls; most of them are evidence of men and women who for the most part lacked parental discipline.

The Bible actually says that parents who will not discipline “hate” their children.  This is because children without discipline have inadequate guidance to keep them from danger.  Thus, God’s willingness to discipline confirms that we are children for whom he cares.

If our earthly parents discipline us “for our good,” then God the Father is able to do this more better than any earthly parent.

Submitting to God’s discipline is not easy.  But faith eventually arrives at saying, as A. W. Pink put it (An Exposition of Hebrews), “The trial was not as severe as it could have been.  It was not as severe as I deserve.  And, my Savior suffered far worse for me.”  And so faith submits to the Father’s discipline, trusting that He administers it perfectly for His eternal purpose and for my eternal good.”

When we submit ourselves to the Father’s discipline, we “live” (at the end of v. 9).  We will experience the fullness of eternal life and flourish in this life.  “The result of this submission is an abundant life (12:9).  Though our lives will never be perfect and without pain and suffering, staying on the path of faithful obedience will enhance and enrich our lives (Prv 6:23; 10:16-17; 29:15).  It will save us from many avoidable hardships and much pain that comes through sin and disobedience.  And it will give us peace and joy even in the midst of our suffering”  (Charles R. Swindoll, Swindoll’s Living Insights New Testament Commentary–Hebrews, 198).

“Those who live life to the fullest are those who do not buck God’s discipline but rather knowingly embrace it. If your spiritual life is static and unfulfilling, it may be because you are consciously or unconsciously resisting God’s discipline. If so, God’s Word to you is, submit to him and begin to truly live!” (R. Kent Hughes, Hebrews: Volume 2, p. 173).

Human fathers, even with the best of intention, can only chasten imperfectly because they lack perfect knowledge.  The all-knowing God can chasten us perfectly, with better and more lasting results than even the best earthly father.

God’s Hand of Discipline, part 1 (Hebrews 12:4-11)

What’s the difference between discipline and punishment?  Executing punishment and discipline can look incredibly similar.  When I was in football season, “take a lap” was a form of punishment.  But when I was in track season, “take a lap” was a means of developing skills.

In the movie Miracle regarding the 1980 United States Olympic hockey team’s triumphant victory over the Soviet Union, Coach Herb Brooks handpicked a group of undisciplined kids and trained them to play like they had never played before.  He broke them to make them better players and a better team.  Following a tie with the Norwegian National team, Herb Brooks made his players stay on the ice and sprint “suicides.”  He made them do it over and over, repeating the word “Again.”

Why do you think Navy Seal Team 6 is so efficient and skilled to accomplish the difficult tasks assigned to them?  It is because they have been trained beyond what is ordinary.  They are forced to suffer hardship to create team unity.  They endure physical pain and other forms of deprivation in order to equip them to face anything the enemy may throw their way.  They confront unique challenges in order to hone their judgment and refine their thinking and quicken their mental and physical reflexes.

Punishment looks backwards at what you did wrong, and exacts justice.  Discipline looks forward to who you want to become, and helps you get there.  Punishment hurts you.  Discipline strengthens you.  People often punish us out of anger; people discipline us out of love.

Biblical punishment is an exercise of God’s justice against our sins.  Discipline is an exercise of God’s love to improve us.

The Puritan Samuel Bolton says…

If Christ has borne whatever our sins deserved, and by doing so has satisfied God’s justice to the full, then God cannot, in justice, punish us for sin, for that would require the full payment from Christ and yet demand part of it from us…

God does not chastise us as a means of satisfaction for sin, but for rebuke and caution, to bring us to mourn for sin committed, and to beware of the like.

It must always be remembered that, although Christ has borne the punishment of sin, and although God has forgiven the saints for their sins, yet God may correct His people in a fatherly way for their sin.

Christ endured the great shower of wrath, the black and dismal hours of displeasure for sin. That which falls upon us is as a sun-shine shower, warmth with wetness, wetness with the warmth of His love, to make us fruitful and humble… That which the believer suffers for sin is not penal, arising from vindictive justice, but medicinal, arising from a fatherly love. It is His medicine, not His punishment; His chastisement, not His sentence; His correction, not His condemnation.

The good news is that if you are a Christian, there is no more punishment because there is “no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1).  The bad news is, there will still be discipline in our lives because God’s grace never leaves us the way we are, but always seeks to improve us.

Tom Landry, former head coach of the Dallas Cowboys, said, “The job of a coach is to make players do what they don’t want to do, in order to achieve what they’ve always wanted to be.”

As other coaches have said, “No pain, no gain.”

Growing as a Christian is not a bed of ease.  Much about Christian growth is painful, involves hard work, and takes time.  Images such as running the race, taking up our cross and striving after holiness all communicate extreme effort or pain.

Christian growth doesn’t happen automatically, despite the fact that God has done so much for us to make it possible.  Not only does God continue to work in our lives through a sometimes painful process, He calls us to engage in growth in ways that cut into our convenience and comfort.

If you want to be a spiritual champion, you not only have to follow the example of the cloud of witnesses who lived and died by faith, you not only have to divest yourself of anything, and I mean anything, sins or even good things that slow us down; you not only have to endure; you not only have to keep your eyes on Jesus; you have to allow your Coach to get the best out of you by discipling you.

God’s grace first pardons me for my disobedience, then prepares me for my obedience.

That’s what Hebrews 12:4-13 is about.

4 In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. 5 And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. 6 For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.” 7 It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? 8 If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. 9 Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? 10 For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. 11 For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. 12 Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, 13 and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed.

Do you like discipline.  I know I don’t.  I’ve never run into a person who just “loves” discipline.

However, discipline is necessary for our growth.  Notice that verses 10 and 11 mention that being discipline is that “we may share his holiness” and it “yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.”

In verse 3 (which we looked at last week) he says, “Consider him who has endured such hostility by sinners against himself, so that you may not grow weary and lose heart.”  The first glimpse of suffering we see in this church here is that something is threatening to make them “grow weary and lose heart.”  Either the stress has been too great or it has lasted so long that it was deflating their faith; their spiritual stamina was almost spent.

Then verse 4 said, ““You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin.”  In other words, things aren’t bad yet, but they are bound to get worse.  The source of all this suffering seems to be “hostile sinners” (cf. Heb. 10:32-34; 11:35-38; 12:3).  Jesus, of course, had suffered death because of his decision to stay on track—all the way to the cross.  And some of the heroes of the faith so memorably praised at the end of chapter 11 had paid the ultimate price as well.  But though the Hebrew church had experienced severe persecution early on, under the Emperor Claudius, no one had yet been martyred.

Would these Christians shrink back?  That was the danger mentioned in Hebrews 10:39.  Though they had not experienced “the worst of it” yet, some were in danger of cashing their chips in too soon.

So how should we respond to God’s discipline?

First, we must regard with seriousness and steadfastness God’s rod of discipline.

So our author first asks: “And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? ‘My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him’” (Heb. 12:5).  Many of our difficulties in the Christian life stem from the fact that we have forgotten the truths of Scripture.  The comfort and strength of God’s Word will avail us not at all if we do not remember it.  This is why we must practice the ancient discipline of meditation upon the Scriptures.  We need to memorize them, yes, but then we need to run them over and over again in our minds until they become second nature and come quickly to our minds whenever we need them.

The author is quoting Proverbs 3:11 here in verse 5, Scripture that they should know well.  The author of Hebrews uses Proverbs to encourage them to avoid two extremes—“regard[ing] lightly the discipline of the Lord” on the one hand, and growing “weary when reproved by Him” on the other.

First, we are not to treat God’s discipline lightly, making too little of it, treating it as trivial and not worth our attention.

Don’t just shrug it off, ignoring it or treating it as “bad luck.”  Rather, pay attention to the fact that it is God’s discipline meant to correct you or protect you or perfect you.

See God’s personal, providential care in all that happens to you.  Nothing happens to us by chance.

  • If a believer encounters a trial and responds with stoic fatalism, he is regarding God’s discipline lightly.
  • If he grits his teeth and endures it without seeing God’s loving hand in it, he is regarding it lightly.
  • If he does not take the discipline to heart by prayerful self-examination, asking God to help him see how he needs to repent, he is regarding it lightly.

Don’t remain indifferent to God’s discipline.  Most of us vaguely intuit that we are experiencing discipline but remain indifferent to its significance.  First, we must recognize that it is “of the Lord.”  It is not just some unfortunate accident that is happening in our lives, but is the purposeful, sovereign hand of God chastening us so that we change direction.

We need to understand not only that this discipline comes from the Lord, but discern why He is using it in our lives.

When we sin we violate that purpose and God disciplines us to correct our paths.

David experienced this corrective discipline in the aftermath of his sin with Bathsheba.  We are aware that although God forgave David, he disciplined him through years of family conflicts.

In 1 Corinthians 5 Paul deals with corrective discipline of a man involved in sexual sin.  Paul said,

“deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.”

The purpose of this man’s discipline was “so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord,” but the discipline was to allow Satan to afflict this man’s body in such a way as to lead him back to holiness.

God uses intermediate agents, such as Satan and other people, to administer His discipline, but He still exercises Fatherly control over it, as we see in the book of Job.

Discipline puts us back into a proper state so that we can function as we were intended.

Sometimes God uses discipline to protect us from moving into deeper, or more serious, sin, or to teach others not to sin.

Church discipline is designed not only to bring a sinner to repentance, but also to protect the rest of the church from getting involved in the same sin.

When a parent grabs their child’s hand or shoulder to keep them from rushing out into traffic, it may hurt but it is done to protect them from danger.

Paul says in 2 Corinthians 12:7-10 that his thorn in the flesh was given him to “keep me from becoming conceited” (v. 7).

God will administer loving discipline for wrongdoing in order to keep His children from experiencing even more extreme consequences of sin.  This discipline can be quite rigorous, because while the damage of sin unchecked can be so devastating, our wayward impulses can be so strong.  There is an appropriate dread of divine discipline that motivates us to avoid sin.  Still, in order for discipline to operate properly in the Christian life, we must remember that God’s discipline for his children is never punitive or damaging.

So discipline may be to correct us or to protect us.  It can also be used to perfect us, to make us more like Jesus Christ.

That is what our passage is saying—that God uses discipline to bring us to holiness and righteousness.

The recipients of this epistle of Hebrews were going through persecution.  They needed endurance because their life was about to get harder.

Our author is encouraging them that also when opposition comes via the hands of sinful men, it is ultimately the wise, loving discipline of our heavenly Father. “What adversaries are doing to you out of sinful hostility, God is doing out of fatherly discipline,” writes John Piper.

Also, we must “not faint” when God reproves us.

To faint or be weary is to become depressed and hopeless, as if God has abandoned us.  As the author goes on to show, our trials are actually evidence that God loves us and that we are indeed His children.  But the person who faints has lost sight of this.  He or she is self-focused, absorbed in the trials to the extent that they cannot see God’s purpose or perspective.

All that he can see is, in Jacob’s words, “all these things are against me” (Gen. 42:36).  Poor me.

But actually, God was working all these things for Jacob.  Joseph’s perspective was much better, one which enabled him to persevere, “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good” (Genesis 50:20a).

Second, we are to remember God’s encouraging Word that we are His Sons.

God’s Word is our source for encouragement and our writer explicitly warns them about “forgetting that word of encouragement.”  Look at verse 5.

And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons?

The first encouragement we can take from this is that God is addressing us, claiming us to be his “sons.”  Thus, discipline is from the hand of our loving Father.  This is no tyrant punishing us, no prison guard beating us; this is our loving Father disciplining us for our good.  Discipline is never a sign of God’s rejection; but an indication of His love as our Father.  Discipline means that God is treating us as His children.

Failure to discipline a child really shows lack of love (cf. Prov. 13:24), or even worse, it may really be that we don’t belong to this father; we aren’t really a part of this family.  In fact, verse 8 goes on to say that if we are not disciplined, then we are actually illegitimate children.  If we go on sinning without any discipline from God, it proves that we don’t actually belong to Him.  A parent only has jurisdiction over his or her own children.

Now the Bible teaches that none are God’s children by natural birth, but only by spiritual birth through faith in Christ (John 3:1-16).  Paul wrote, “For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:26).  Those who are not sons will face God’s wrath, but those who are sons by faith experience loving discipline.  Those sons whom “He accepts” are those among His children whom He is preparing to inherit His blessings. 

Because we are God’s sons, His most vital desire for us is to become like our brother Jesus Christ.  Through regeneration we now have a new nature which enables us to pursue holiness.  God’s purpose is that we may be “conformed to the image of His Son” (Romans 8:29).

A novice once asked the great Michelangelo how he sculptured such beautiful statutes. Pointing to an angel he had just chiseled out of marble, he said, “I saw the angel in the marble, I chiseled until I set it free.”

In a similar vein, yet not as eloquent, a southern artisan had completed sculpting a horse out of rock. Bewildered by the transformation, a spectator said, “How in the world did you do it?” The artist replied, “I knock everything off that don’t look like a horse.”

That “chiseling,” that “knocking off,” is the painful process of making us into something that we are not yet, but shall be.  God has to knock off the rough edges of our sinfulness, chisel away our wrongful attitudes, and sandpaper our character flaws.  That is discipline.   And it’s good for us.

Run the Race Before You, part 3 (Hebrews 12:3-4)

We are back in Hebrews 12:1-3

1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.

When the author of Hebrews tells his readers to “look to Jesus,” to gaze intently at Jesus, he then began to explain some of the attributes of Jesus, “the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”  With a few strokes of his pen, the writer provides an account of Jesus’ life, death, resurrection, and ascension. The crowning point, of course, is Jesus’ enthronement at the right hand of God.  (William Hendriksen & Simon J. Kistemaker, NT Commentary: Hebrews, 369)

First, he is described as the “founder and perfecter of our faith.”  This describes his life.  He is the pacesetter, the pioneer of our faith.  Jesus set the example of living by faith for us every day of His life, until the very end.  While the New Testament authors never used the word “trust” to describe Jesus’ relationship with His Father, it is clear that Jesus did live in total dependence upon His Father, in the power of the Holy Spirit and submitted His will to the Father’s will as an expression of trusting obedience.

Herman Witsius (1636–1708) once noted that if we only stress the fact that Christ died on the cross for us, then we make too little of His sufferings for us (Herman Witsius, The Economy of the Covenants Between God and Man, ed. Joel R Beeke, trans. William Crookshank (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Reformation Heritage, 2010), 1:210).  Christ suffered and obeyed for us throughout His life for us because sin brings miseries to us in this life as well as in the next. Christ obeyed the law for us where we disobeyed it, and He suffered the penalty for our lawbreaking.

He is also the “founder…of our faith,” which means that our faith comes from Him.  He gives faith as a gift (Eph. 2:8-9; Philippians 1:29).  Faith doesn’t come from us; we don’t summon it up out of the depths of our heart, but receive it as a gift of an all-gracious God.

He is also the “perfecter of our faith in the sense that He finished His course of living by faith successfully (cf. 2:13).  He did it perfectly.  It was his absolute faith in God that enabled him to go through the mocking, crucifixion, rejection, and desertion—and left him perfect in faith. As F. F. Bruce has said, “Had he come down by some gesture of supernatural power, He would never have been hailed as the ‘perfecter of faith’ nor would He have left any practical example for others to follow” (Bruce, The Epistle to the Hebrews, p. 352).

We encountered this word in Hebrews 1:10, which states that God perfected the author (or captain) of our salvation through His sufferings.  It is also used in Acts 3:15 when Peter preached “you killed the Author of life” and in Acts 5:31 where he said about Jesus “God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Savior…”  Again, the idea is that He leads the way.

Again, as the “perfector of our faith” this reminds us that He guarantees that we will persevere in the faith.  That “good work” that He began in us He will bring to completion (Philippians 1:6).

This is what we see in Hebrews 13:21, where the author gives this benediction:  May God “equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever.”

One may say that Jesus is with us at the starting line and the finish line and all along the way of the race that He sets before us.  He makes sure that we finish.

One of the things our author wants us to focus on with regard to Jesus is the attitude which dominated His running of His own race.  He did it “for the joy that was set before Him.”  The reason that Jesus could endure the horrible prospect of bearing our sin was that He focused on the joy set before Him.  That end-goal brought him joy that gave him strength to endure.  Remember, “the joy of the Lord is your strength” (Neh. 8:10).

Jesus did not regard the cross itself as a joy, just as we don’t consider the trials and difficulties themselves to be joy-filled; rather, Jesus looked past the horror and humiliation of the cross to enjoy what good things it would accomplish beyond it.

James tells his audience to “count it all joy…when you meet trails of various kinds.”  Why? Because they know something.  “You know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness” and that ultimately results in maturity (James 1:2-4).  We don’t rejoice in the trials themselves, but in the maturity that they produce if we persevere in faith. 

Jesus did suffer excruciating pain and being forsaken by His Father.  THAT was nothing to rejoice in.  John Henry Newman explains:

“And as men are superior to animals, and are affected by pain more than they, by reason of the mind within them, which gives a substance to pain . . . so, in like manner, our Lord felt pain of the body, with a consciousness, and therefore with a keenness and intensity, and with a unity of perception, which none of us can possibly fathom or compass, because His soul was so absolutely in His power, so simply free from the influence of distractions, so fully directed upon the pain, so utterly surrendered, so simply subjected to the suffering.  And thus He may truly be said to have suffered the whole of His passion in every moment of it” (John Henry Cardinal Newman, The Kingdom Within (Discourses Addressed to Mixed Congregations) (Denville, NJ: Dimension Books, 1984), pp. 328, 329).

He did endure the cross, with all its shame and degradation, experiencing mind-numbing physical pain as well as the shock of having His Father turn His back on Him.  That was nothing to rejoice in.

Jesus ran this painful race of love because of joy.

So what did Jesus rejoice in? Jesus rejoiced in the fact that all this pain would result in “bringing many sons to glory” (Hebrews 2:10).  He did it for the joy of gaining a bride.  He did it all so that we could enjoy forever worshipping Him.  But the greatest joy was that of glorifying the Father by completing the work that the Father gave Him to do (John 17).

When Jesus returned to heaven, triumphant over Satan, sin, death, and hell, the angels rejoiced.  Remember that all heaven erupts in joyful celebration when even one sinner repents.  Then, the marriage supper of the Lamb will be a time for us to “rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him” (Rev. 19:7).  Keeping that glorious joy in view enabled Jesus to endure the agony of the cross.

Those who have been faithful to Jesus Christ will be able to “enter into the joy of your master” (Matthew 25:21, 23) and David tells us “in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore” (Psalm 16:11).

That joy enabled him to “endure the cross” and “despise the shame.”  One of the most prominent elements of the cross was the shame and humiliation that every crucified person had to endure.  Crucifixion, performed naked and in public, and inflicting prolonged pain on the victim, was intended to cause shame as well as death (cf. 6:6; see note on Matt. 27:35).

Also His exaltation, with all that it means for his people’s shalom and for the triumph of God’s purpose in the universe, was “the joy that was set before him.”

Throughout Jesus life he ran for joy.  But he also came to die on the cross, to satisfy God’s wrath against our sins.  All of this is called His humiliation—not only dying on the cross, but giving up the glories of heaven to come and live among us, living a life of perfect obedience as the “founder and perfecter of our faith.”

We cringe and run from shame and humiliation, but Jesus “despised the shame.”  Shame is how we normally respond to the knowledge that we have broken God’s laws and done something morally wrong.  Jesus took our shame, but He didn’t do anything to be ashamed of.  If one “scorns” a thing, one normally has nothing to do with it; but “scorning its shame” means rather that Jesus thought so little of the pain and shame involved that he did not bother to avoid it.  He endured it.  (Frank E. Gaebelein, The Expositor’s Bible Commentary–Volume 12, 134)

This is the only occurrence of the word “cross” outside the Gospels and the Pauline Epistles, and its presence here stresses the shame associated with Jesus’ crucifixion. 

Jesus ran for joy and triumph.  That triumph is seen in him now “seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”  That joy is having accomplished for the Father’s glory all that He was sent to do.  As John MacArthur notes: “Joy and triumph. One is subjective; one is objective. One is that great exhilarating feeling that you have won; and the other is the actual reward of God that is given to you for your triumph. An athlete knows that there is nothing equal to the thrill of winning. And it’s something inside. And it isn’t the medal, or the trophy, or whatever else. It’s just the winning, the exhilaration of victory (https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/1254/running-the-race-that-is-set-before-us, accessed 6/26/24).

The same will be true for us.  The joy will be to do our best to win the race and to enjoy the rewards promised to overcomers.

And that’s what he’s saying. There is the joy of victory, as well as the reward of God. And in this case of Christ, the reward was he was seated at the right hand, something that has been emphasized from chapter 1 (Heb. 1:3; 8:1; 10:12; also Acts 7:55-56; Rom. 8:34; Eph. 1:20; 1 Pet. 3:22 and Rev. 3:21).

God’s right hand is the place of “highest favor with God the Father” (WLC, Q&A 54), and the phrase is used throughout Scripture to indicate His power and sovereignty (Exod. 15:6; Isa. 48:13).

This is the ancient prophecy from Psalm 110, quoted by Jesus in Matthew 22:44 to prove that He was the rightful Messianic heir of David’s line: “The Lord said to my Lord, ‘Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet’”?

Our blessed and glorious Lord lived his earthly life in faith’s dynamic certitude. “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for [future certitude], the conviction of things not seen [visual certitude].”  It looks with spiritual eyes of faith and sees what is invisible and not yet, as if it already is.

Now on this matter of focus, understand this: even though the great gallery of past saints witnesses to us, our central focus must be Jesus— sola Jesu!  Focus on him as the “founder” and originator of faith.  Focus on him as the divine human “perfecter” of faith.  Focus on the joy that enabled him to endure the excruciating agony of the cross and consider as nothing the shame.  Focus on his joyous exaltation—and the fact that you are part of that joy.

In capping his famous challenge to finish well, the writer gives the idea of focusing on Jesus a dynamic twist by concluding: “Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted” (v. 3).  Meditating on Jesus and all He suffered encourages us to continue to run our race and obey God’s will faithfully.

It is natural for us to overestimate the severity of our trials, and the writer did not want us to do this.  We quickly “grow weary and fainthearted” partially because we don’t really believe that “through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22).  Also, we “grow weary and fainthearted” because we rely on our own strength and steadfastness instead of relying upon the Holy Spirit.

The phrase “grow weary or fainthearted” was sports lingo in the ancient world for a runner’s exhausted collapse.  Thus, the way for the Christian runner to avoid such a spiritual collapse was to “consider him,” which is a word which has the idea of a studied focus, like keeping our eyes steadily focused on Jesus in verse 2.  But here we are to do more than merely focus on Him, we must deeply study Him.  We need to be totally absorbed with Jesus mentally, not distracted, but consciously and consistently focused upon him.  We need to read and re-read the Gospels, to become so well familiar with Jesus that we begin to imitate Him.

I’ve talked about Charles Blondin before, the French tightrope walker in the late 1800’s.  In 1859 He was the first man to walk across Niagara Falls on a tightrope.  Thousands of people came out to see him, and dozens fainted at the sight.  He would go across blindfolded, on stilts, on a bicycle, in a sack.  Once he pushed an empty wheelbarrow across once to the applause of the crowd. He asked, “How many of you think I can push a man in this wheelbarrow across.”  Hands shot up in the crowd.  But then he asked, “How many of you are willing to get in the wheelbarrow and let me push you?”  All the hands went down. They didn’t have enough real faith in Blondin to trust him to carry them across.  Later, his assistant rode across on his back.  He was the only one who placed his faith in Blondin.  Over the years, Blondin crossed Niagara Falls over 300 times.  He walked across backwards and forwards.

He was once asked the secret to his amazing stability.  He pointed to a large silver star he had painted on each side of the river.  He said, “Whatever I do, I never take my eyes off the star.  I never look at the water or the rope.  Staring at that star is the secret to my stability.”

Jesus is our bright and morning star, and as long as you keep your eyes fixed on Jesus you can find the stability to finish the race.  Staying focused on Jesus is the key to victory.

We need to consider Jesus because although the “cloud of witnesses” can inspire us, He only can empower us.  We can do all things “through Him who strengthens us” (Phil. 4:13).

In verse 3 our writer is getting into the subject of suffering and divine discipline.  In verse 3 he mentions that Jesus “endured from sinners such hostility against himself.”  If Jesus could not be perfected except through suffering, then how much more we.

It is obvious that some of the believers this author was writing to were experiencing some of the same persecution and our author is concerned that these men and women would turn away from Christ to relieve the pressures and pains of suffering and persecution.  But in doing so they would be surrendering what is most precious to their souls!

In Hebrews 6 and 10 we met a category of people who were once affiliated with the believers in the early churches.  You can call them dropouts, or deserters.  They may seem to be believers, but they are the make-believers.  The mark of a true believer is that you won’t give up on the race.  You may grow tired and want to quit but then you consider Jesus; you keep your eyes on Jesus and then you keep on running.

It doesn’t matter if you’ve “hit the wall,” you keep on running.  You see Jesus at the finish line and endure every hardship to cross that finish line to Him.

The reason that this is told to us is twofold: First it is that we might not grow weary.  Suffering can wear you down.  More than merely a physical weariness, it brings with it a weariness of the soul.  Secondly, this is given to us that we might not lose heart.  The readers of this epistle were being tempted to quit.  They had been following Christ for some time now and it was getting more difficult.  They needed some encouragement.

Perhaps it is shocking to us, when reading Hebrews 12:3-4, how tough biblical Christianity is. Yet even more shocking perhaps is how soft and untested many Christians are who have not faced persecution. The writer points his readers squarely to Jesus: “Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted” (v. 3). We are to draw courage from Jesus’ steadfast example of honoring God no matter the cost. And we too must be willing to pay the ultimate price: “In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood” (v. 4).

Here the “author goes from one sport to the other; from the imagery of the race to that of boxing.  In boxing, blood flows from the faces of the contestants when they withstand vicious blows.  At times serious injuries result in death.  (William Hendriksen & Simon J. Kistemaker, NT Commentary: Hebrews, 372).  Basically the writer is saying, “Has anyone driven nails through your hands and feet and nailed you to a cross yet?”  The author is warning them that this is just around the corner.  He is warning them that worse sufferings are in store.

In the early church believers experienced severe persecutions.  One Bible scholar describes some of the persecutions as follows:

Some, suffering the punishment of parricides, were shut up in a sack with snakes and thrown into the sea; others were tied to huge stones and cast into a river. For Christians the cross itself was not deemed sufficient agony; hanging on the tree, they were beaten with rods until their bowels gushed out, while vinegar and salt were rubbed into their wounds…Christians were tied to catapults, and so wrenched from limb to limb. Some…were thrown to the beasts; others were tied to their horns. Women were stripped, enclosed in nets, and exposed to the attacks of furious bulls. Many were made to lie on sharp shells, and tortured with scrapers, claws, and pincers, before being delivered to the mercy of the flames. Not a few were broken on the wheel, or torn in pieces by wild horses. Of some the feet were slowly burned away, cold water being dowsed over them the while lest the victims should expire too rapidly…Down the backs of others melted lead, hissing and bubbling, was poured; while a few ‘by the clemency of the emperor’ escaped with the searing out of their eyes, or the tearing off of their legs. (Herbert B. Workman, Persecution in the Early Church, 1906, p. 299-300)

“It’s about time they realized the Christian life is not for sissies, but people who show themselves worthy of those who made their faith possible.  To sting them into this realization, the writer employs a phrase used by the Maccabean leaders.  When fighting against the enemies of the Jewish faith, those leaders challenged their followers to go out there and “resist unto death” the foes of Israel.   The readers knew that phrase.  In the light of it, they would feel the shame of their faintheartedness.”  (C.S. Lovett, Lovett’s Lights on Hebrews, 297)

But because Jesus endured the very worst form of pain and shame and humiliation, we can too.  There is a Sandi Patti song entitled “The Day He Wore My Crown.”  It’s a song about how Jesus endured to suffer in our place.  Part of the lyrics say: “He could have called His Holy Father, and said, “Take me away.  Please take me away.”  He could have said, “I’m not guilty. And I’m not gonna’ stay and I’m not gonna pay.”  But he walked right through the gate; and then on up the hill.  And as He fell beneath the weight, He cried, ‘Father, not my will.’  And I’m the one to blame.  I caused all his pain.  He gave Himself, the day He wore my crown.”

So take heart; stay in the race, keep putting one foot in front of another.  Jesus did it and you can too.  In fact, the truth of the Gospel is that He now lives in you, giving you the very power He had to help you run the race to win it.

Run the Race Before You, part 2 (Hebrews 12:1-3)

We noticed last week that the Christian life is presented here in Hebrews 12 as a race.  It is not a stroll in the park.  The objective, no matter how hard or how long, is to reach the finish line.  We see that in Hebrews 12:1-3.

1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.

How do we run this race?

First, we remember that others have successfully run this race before us.  While these people were by no means perfect, they were commended by God for their faith.  While some of them experienced some terrible things in this life, they were still commended by God for their faith.  Thus, our author is encouraging these people to hang on to their faith in Jesus Christ.  If they do so, they will win a better reward.

Second, we should divest ourselves of those sins that so easily ensnare us.  Each of us is susceptible to some sin that easily entangles us and often brings us down.  No athlete runs in a trench coat or leaves weights on their ankles.  They strip down so that they can run freely and quickly.  So we too must let go of those sins that we have become so friendly with, that we coddle.

But that’s not all.  Our divestment must go even further as we “lay aside every weight”—literally, “the weight that hinders.”  So, not only are we to lay aside and leave behind our sins, but also these weights that slow us down.  Obviously, these are two different categories, but both equally debilitating as far as successfully running our race.

A hindrance is something, otherwise good, that weighs you down spiritually.  It could be a friendship, an association, an event, a place, a habit, a pleasure, an entertainment, an honor.  But if this otherwise good thing drags you down, you must strip it away. 

The word “weight” comes from the Greek word ogkos, which describes something heavy and cumbersome that can impede a runner.  In the athletic world, ogkos was used to describe when an athlete intentionally removed excess weight before a competition. 

Picture a runner in our present context who is hindered by anything from sweatpants to hoodies to jewelry to bulky shoes.  Allen notes, “In the first century AD, runners ran in the stadium virtually naked.  They would enter wearing long flowing, colorful robes.  At the start of the race, these would be discarded” (Allen, Hebrews, p. 573).

The athlete of the ancient world didn’t become “unweighted” by accident.  He dropped all excess weight on purpose.  He dieted; he exercised; and he shed every other unnecessary weight he could find to shed.  This stripping process demanded his attention, his decision, and his devotion.  It wasn’t going to happen by accident, so he had to initiate the process of removal.

Again, just like the sins, those weights may differ from one person to another, but each of us is responsible to identify anything that might be slowing us down and to get rid of it.  These can be bad habits or bad attitudes.  If the Holy Spirit is urging you to take a good look at your life and then remove everything that weighs you down and keeps you from a life of obedience. Then be honest with yourself and with God.  If there is something, anything, in your life that your conscience keeps telling you to forsake, then get rid of it.  This reminds me of Paul’s words in Phillipians 1:9-10. “It is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent…”  God doesn’t just want us to settle for doing what is good; He wants what is excellent in our lives.  John Piper describes it as “getting things out of your life that make you more worldly-minded and putting things in your life that make you more heavenly-minded.”

Tim Challies identifies three weights that we need to jettison from our lives.  The first one is the weight of mustering up the strength from ourselves instead of relying upon the power of the Holy Spirit.  We cannot run the race in our own strength.  We must rely upon God’s strength.  The second weight we need to get rid of is running ourselves ragged.  We need to learn to pace ourselves.  Even spiritual disciplines, when we try to do all of them, are too much for us to handle.  The third weight he identifies is running alone.  Most of us know that we are more faithful to exercise when we have a partner.  The same is true in the Christian life.  We are more likely to stay in the race if we have others running with us.  That’s why Charles Spurgeon reminds us: “He stands with us at the starting-point, and earnestly says to us, not ‘Run,’ but, ‘Let us run.’  The apostle himself is at our side as a runner.”

That is why you need a good church, a place for you to learn and grow in the fellowship of other believers who will get to know you, pray for you, support you, even rebuke you when necessary.  Sometimes it is those very friends who will identify those habits or attitudes that, although not exactly sinful, are keeping you from running the race so that you can win.

Having “laid aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely,” now our author tells us “and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.”  This race is “set before us.”  We don’t just run off in any direction we choose.  In Psalm 139:16b David expresses his awe that “in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.”  God, in eternity past, chose us to be conformed to His Son (Romans 8:28-30) and determined the good works that we would do this very day (Eph. 2:10).

It is the Word of God that sets out that path for us.  We don’t have to guess at what God’s will for our lives might be.  He tells us.  He lays out the moral parameters, our “lane” in which we are to run through the 10 Commandments and the commands of Christ in the New Testament.

We are disqualified if we run outside our lane or take shortcuts.

Do you remember the name of Rosie Ruiz?  Rosie was a Cuban-American who was declared the winner in the female category for the 84th Boston Marathon in 1980.  People were stunned by her victory, as her recorded time was the fastest ever run by a woman in Boston Marathon history.  But eight days later she was stripped of her title when it was discovered that early in the race she had dropped out, hopped on a subway, only to re-emerge about a mile from the finish line where she joined the other runners and staged her stagger across the finish line in dramatic fashion.

What Rosie did makes for a good laugh, but there are no short-cuts in the marathon of the Christian life. The progressive transformation of our character into the image of Jesus himself calls for a sustained, life-long commitment. 

Within those parameters each runner’s course will be unique.  I may not be able to run your course, and you may find mine impossible, but I can finish my race and you can complete yours.

We don’t know where it will lead, how long it will go, whether it will be uphill or downhill, smooth or rocky, wet or dry.  But faith is trusting God during the uncharted course, knowing that He has set before us the path that will best contribute to our growth toward spiritual maturity.  

What we know is that we can both finish well if we follow the spiritual athlete’s guide to winning in life as recorded here in Hebrews 12:1-3.

Another factor in winning our race in life is that we must “run with endurance.”  We can’t quit in the middle of the race when we are out of breathe and our side is splitting, or fail to finish the race like I did.

No race is easy.  The sprints take everything you’ve got, your utmost effort.  Long distance races take stamina and strategy.  For the life of me I never could figure out why the quarter mile was a sprint!  Every runner will get tired, will cramp up, will want to quit, but we won’t win if we don’t endure.

“Endurance” translates the ancient Greek word hupomone, “which does not mean the patience which sits down and accepts things but the patience which masters them…It is that determination, unhasting and unresting, unhurrying and yet undelaying, which goes steadily on, and which refuses to be deflected.  Obstacles will not daunt it; delays will not depress it; discouragements will not take its hope away.  It will halt neither for discouragement from within nor for opposition from without (William Barclay, The Letter to the Hebrews (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1957), p. 19).

Fast or slow, strong or weak, we must all keep putting one foot in front of the other for as long as it takes.

In Acts 20:24 Paul pictured himself as a runner who had a race to finish, and nothing would keep Paul from finishing the race with joy. In that passage, Paul spoke of “my race” – he had his race to run, we have our own – but God calls us to finish it with joy, and that only happens when we run with endurance so that we can finish our race.

We can experience the same satisfaction the Apostle Paul did as he neared the finish line:

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing. (2 Timothy 4:7, 8)

Paul finished his race, and so can we!

So far, the writer of Hebrews has told us to remember the encouragement of those who have finished the race ahead of us, that “cloud of witnesses,” so that we can know that we can do it, then to lay aside anything that would slow us down, whether sins or even good things that keep us from running our race.  He also reminds us to keep at it and not give up, to “run with endurance.”

But that’s not all.  His major encouragement is found in verse 2.

looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Even more than looking at the examples of the “cloud of witnesses,” our eyes need to stay fixed on Jesus.  I believe that by referring to Him by His name Jesus, our author is calling us to consider His humanity and how, despite all the opposition of Satan and the disappointments with His people and His disciples, Jesus actually ran a perfect race and won the race for us.

The author is telling us to “keep focused” on Jesus, to take our eyes off the circumstances and off the people around us and to keep our eyes trained on Jesus.  The word carries the idea of riveting one’s attention; fixing one’s focus; staring intently without allowing the slightest distraction.  Charles Spurgeon says, “The Greek word for ‘looking’ is a much fuller word than we can find in the English language.  It has a preposition in it which turns the look away from everything else.  You are to look from all beside to Jesus.  Fix not thy gaze upon the cloud of witnesses; they will hinder thee if they take away thine eye from Jesus.  Look not on the weights and the besetting sin-these thou hast laid aside; look away from them.  Do not even look upon the race-course, or the competitors, but look to Jesus and so start in the race.”

It is so important for runners in a race to keep their eyes straight ahead.

On August 7, 1954 during the British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Vancouver, B.C., England’s Roger Bannister and Australian John Landy met for the first time in the one mile run at the newly constructed Empire Stadium.

Both men had broken the four minute barrier previously that year. Bannister was the first to break the mark with a time of 3:59.4 on May 6th in Oxford, England. Subsequently, on June 21st in Turku, Finland, John Landy became the new record holder with an official time of 3:58.

The world watched eagerly as both men approached the starting blocks. As 35,000 enthusiastic fans looked on, no one knew what would take place on that historic day.

Promoted as “The Mile of the Century,” it would later be known as the “Miracle Mile.”

With only 90 yards to go in one of the world’s most memorable races, John Landy glanced over his left shoulder to check his opponent’s position. At that instant Bannister streaked by him to victory in a Commonwealth record time of 3:58 (https://www.miraclemile1954.com/, accessed 6/26, 24)

Just like a runner must keep looking toward his or her goal, so we should keep “looking only at Jesus.”  When we take our eyes of faith off Jesus, we begin to sink spiritually, like Peter did literally (Matt. 14:22-33).

Sometimes our biggest hindrance comes from looking at ourselves, our own failures and weaknesses, our inability to overcome temptations.  This is why Robert Murray McCheyne so wisely said, “Learn much of the Lord Jesus.  For every look at yourself, take ten looks at Christ.  He is altogether lovely.   Such infinite majesty, and yet such meekness and grace, and all for sinners, even the chief!  Live much in the smiles of God.  Bask in His beams.  Feel His all-seeing.  Eye settled on you in love, and repose in His almighty arms.”

While a hospice chaplain I would read Scripture, sing hymns and pray for our patients.  I began to notice as I sang through our church hymnbook that there are at least six hymns that speak of the smiling face of Jesus.  Let the smiling face of Jesus encourage you daily in your race.

This is not to say that introspection has no place in the Christian pursuit of holiness.  But we must be careful not to wallow in self-pity or self-condemnation.  After looking at self and confessing our sins, we must then take our eyes off ourselves and focus on Jesus.

A. W. Tozer, in his book The Pursuit of God, counsels, “The man who has struggled to purify himself and has had nothing but repeated failures will experience real relief when he stops tinkering with his soul and looks away to the perfect One.”

Paul reminds us of the value of keeping focused on Jesus and the transforming power it has in 2 Corinthians 3:18.

And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

Nor are we to focus upon others.  What a temptation it is for us to compare ourselves to others, either believing we are better than them, or don’t measure up to their level of spirituality.  We are either proud or depressed.  Jesus encourages us with this: Peter says in John 21, “Well, Lord, what about John?”  And what did Jesus say to him?  “None of your business.  You follow Me.”  Remember John Landy?

I love the funny joke about two old boys, Bubba and Willy, who were out in the woods hunting squirrels.  Suddenly they came up on a big old mean bear.  They both shot their squirrel guns at the bear.  All that did was make him mad.  So the bear started chasing Bubba and Willy.  They were running side-by-side as fast as they could to get away from the bear that was right behind them.  While Bubba was running for his life, he started kicking of his hunting boots so he could run a little faster.  Willy looked over and said, “Bubba, why are you doing that?  You know you can’t outrun that bear.  Old Bubba said, “I don’t have to outrun that bear.  I just have to outrun you!”

Well, we’re not running to compete with anybody else. Don’t look at the other runners. Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus.

We are transformed by gazing at Jesus.  As you read the Gospels, slow down and look deeply at Jesus Christ.  Jonathan Edwards remarked beautifully concerning this that we are to “take notice of Christ’s excellence which is a . . . feast” (John H. Gerstner, The Rational Biblical Theology of Jonathan Edwards , vol. 1 (Powhatan, VA: Berea Publications, 1991), p. 418

The human Jesus has known our experiences of trial and fierce adversity.  When we feel that we cannot summon another ounce of energy for “the race that is set before us,” we must think of the race that was set before him.  He endured, though his course was incomparably more difficult than ours.  Jesus triumphed and, in his strength, so can we  (Raymond Brown, The Bible Speaks Today:  Hebrews, 228).

Run the Race Before You, part 1 (Hebrews 12:1-3)

What is your perception of the Christian life?  Many people think that becoming a Christian means that their lives will be better in every way and if not every day, almost every day.  Unfortunately that is sometimes communicated in the gospel presentation.  “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life” if not placed in a larger context can miscommunicate the reality that the Christian life is a battle, a marathon, something that requires dedication and hard work.  Jesus presented it as denying ourselves and taking up our crosses.

This doesn’t mean that it is “all work and no play,” but unfortunately too many Christians have understood the Christian life to consist of a decision to trust Christ followed by a life that then focuses on ourselves and our own desires.

Our author in Hebrews has been showing us that the life that pleases God is a life of faith, a faith that believes God’s promises and therefore obeys His commands.  Sometimes that does lead to miraculous deliverances, at other times suffering and death.  Our author marches out example after example of faithful men and women in order to motivate his readers (and us today) that we, too, can maintain a bold and determined faith.  In particular, our author did not want his readers to abandon faith in Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ has been a primary theme in the first ten chapters, constantly showing how Christ was better than the prophets, the angels and the Aaronic priesthood.  He provides a better sacrifice and enacts a better covenant.  And although Jesus was not mentioned in Hebrews 11, our author gets back to Jesus in Hebrews 12.  He is the greatest example of someone who not only possessed enduring faith, but possessed it to the utmost extreme.

Verses 1-3 in Hebrews 12 say…

1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.

“Look to Jesus,” “consider Him,” this is the primary focus of our Christian race.  One of the key metaphors of the Christian life is that it is a race.  The Bible uses the image of a race to describe the Christian life in several places, including Hebrews 12:1, 1 Timothy 6:12, 2 Timothy 2:5; 4:7–8, 1 Corinthians 9:24–27, and Philippians 3:13–14.

From these verses we know that we must “compete according to the rules,” exercise self-control and discipline, keep our eyes focused on the finish line, and run for heavenly rewards.  Unlike normal races, we are not racing against other Christians and this race lasts for a lifetime.  We cannot just meander or coast or go with the flow, but must run with focused determination toward the goal of Christ-likeness.

Race is the Greek agon, from which we get agony.  A race is not a thing of passive luxury, but is demanding, sometimes grueling and agonizing, and requires our utmost in self-discipline, determination, and perseverance.  (John MacArthur, Jr., The MacArthur New Testament Commentary–Hebrews, 372-3)

Sometimes the metaphor chosen to illustrate the Christian life is “walk,” but here it is the agonizing “run.”  We only “run” when we are very anxious to get to a certain place, when there is some attraction stimulating us.  That word “run” then presupposes the heart eagerly set upon the goal (Arthur W. Pink, An Exposition of Hebrews, 895).  “It is the writer’s hope that the joy set before us is so attractive, we will give no thought to the pain or shame that goes with standing firm for Christ all the way to the end”  (C.S. Lovett, Lovett’s Lights on Hebrews, 295).

Hopefully when we come to the end of our lives we will be able to say with Paul: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith” (2 Timothy 4:7).  As John Piper says, “Paul knows nothing of coasting Christianity. Paul simply does not recognize a Christianity that is not running a race and fighting a fight.”  Or, as A. W. Tozer so presciently warns, “complacency is a deadly foe of all spiritual growth.”

“The Christian is not called to lie down on flowery beds of ease, but to run a race, and athletics are strenuous, demanding self-sacrifice, hard training, the putting forth of every ounce of energy possessed.  I am afraid that in this work-hating and pleasure-loving age, we do not keep this aspect of the truth sufficiently before us: we take things too placidly and lazily.   The charge which God brought against Israel of old applies very largely to Christendom today: ‘Woe to them that are at ease in Zion’ (Amos 6:1): to be ‘at ease’ is the very opposite of ‘running the race’” (Arthur W. Pink, An Exposition of Hebrews, 894-5).

The situation seems to be that the Hebrew Christians had gotten tired.  A lot of time had passed since they were first fired-up for Jesus.  Now they want to relax and coast and they were in danger of losing the race.  Hebrews 10:32–33 says, “Recall the former days when, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle…and you had compassion on the prisoners…”  In 5:12 it says, “Though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need some one to teach you again.”  They have begun to coast and, as 2:3 says, “neglect so great a salvation.”  The situation is very serious and the writer suggests that some are showing that their faith is phony and they have “tasted the powers of the age to come” in vain (6:5).

Sam Storms says:

“Some of you may wish it were otherwise; you may prefer that the Christian life be compared to a vacation at the beach or a gentle walk through grassy meadows or a holiday on a cruise ship or perhaps even a lazy, late-afternoon nap on the back porch. But no one in the NT, not the apostle Paul and certainly not the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, ever speaks in such terms.”

Chuck Swindoll writes:

The book of Hebrews was written to men and women in the thick of the battle against the flesh, the world, and the devil.  Most of them were trembling in their boots.  Others had retreated to the trenches.  Many were tempted to turn tail and run.  Already the author has warned his audience of the cost of defection in the midst of the battle.  Now he continues to urge them toward a life of enduring hope that responds positively to God’s hand of loving discipline with maturity.  He wants them to lean on Christ, who is superior for pressing on in the faith. He doesn’t want them to be “flash in the pan” Christians (Charles R. Swindoll, Hebrews, Swindoll’s Living Insights New Testament Commentary (Tyndale House Publishers, 2017), 192).

Jesus talked about these “flash in the pan” people in the parable of the soils.  Jesus explains that the seed that fell upon the rock was a situation in which “when they hear the word, receive it with joy.  But these have no root; they believe for a while, and in time of testing fall away” (Luke 8:13).

Hebrews 12:1 is like the gun that indicates that runners are at the last lap.  Don’t stop now, he says.  I can remember my first track meet as a sophomore in high school.  At that time Mena High School did not have a track.  We practiced by running around the football field and the practice field.  One of the events I ran in was the 440, now called the 400 meters.

I was doing quite well, in the lead as we came around the last curve.  Now, I’m sure I had seen plenty of Olympic races where the runners run through the tape to win, but having never run on a track I saw a line on the track and thinking that it was the finish line I slowed down, only to have three runners pass me to the finish line less than 10 yards away.  I stopped short of the finish line.

This author does not want his readers to stop short of the finish line, but to remain faithful to Jesus Christ to the very end.

So how do we run to win?

The first thing our writer calls us to do is to remember that “we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses…”  Our author is not saying that these are people who are watching and witnessing what we do, but rather they have lived exemplary lives and we need to receive their witness.  We need to follow their example.

“Perhaps we should think of something like a relay race where those who have finished their course and handed [off] their baton are watching and encouraging their successors”  (Frank E. Gaebelein, The Expositor’s Bible Commentary–Volume 12, 133).

“They testify that it pays to trust the Lord and remain faithful to Him no matter how rough the going gets.  It is their part to assure us that the race can be won” (C.S. Lovett, Lovett’s Lights on Hebrews, 288-9), but not necessarily easily won.

He wants them to remember that others have successfully run this race in the past and that God considers those who finished the race winners.  All those Hall of Famers in Hebrews 11 are saying, “I did it, and so can you. You can do it. Hang in there.  Finish the race.”  We need that kind of encouragement, to know that others have blazed the trail for us, finishing the race and being richly rewarded for it.

This “great cloud” of witnesses would include more than just the 18 mentioned in chapter 11.  We have even more examples today of people who valued Jesus Christ and did not deny Him even when it cost them their lives.

These men and women are in the crowd encouraging us on because they successfully finished the race.  As John Piper reminds us: “We look and we see examples of faith and perseverance under every imaginable circumstance: there’s David who committed adultery and murder, and he finished; there’s John the Baptist who had a weird personality, and he finished; there’s John Mark the quitter, and he finished; and Mary the prostitute, and she finished; and William Carey, plodder, and he finished; and Jonathan Edwards who got kicked out of his church, and he finished; and Job who suffered so much, and he finished; and Stephen who was hated and stoned, and he finished; and Mary Slessor and Amy Carmichael and St. Paul who served as single people all their lives, and they finished; and [there’s others you know as well.] (https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/looking-back-to-witnesses-up-to-jesus-and-forward-to-joy)

But all the encouragement in the world will do us no good if we are weighed down with unnecessary or unhelpful obstacles.  Besides knowing that others have successfully run this race before us, we are then to throw off everything that hinders us from running this race.  Everything!

This has reference to the radical stripping off of one’s clothing before a race, as in the Greek custom of the day.  Many runners and fighters stripped naked to keep from being slowed down or having anything that could be grabbed to take one down in a wrestling match.  While runners today might train with weights on their legs, they certainly take them off when running a race.  Athletes today wear the most aerodynamic outfits they possibly can in both track events and swimming events, just to try to take hundredths of seconds off their time.

Our writer indicates two things that serious runners need to divest themselves from—anything that hinders, and any sin: “let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely…”  This must be done before the race begins.  It is preparation for running the race successfully.  We cannot win in the Christian life if we allow these weights and sins to cling to us.

I think it is obvious to most of us that we must jettison the sins from our lives, so let’s look at that first.  We are to “lay aside…sin which clings so closely.”  The word “sin” here is hamartia, which means “to miss the mark.”  Sin is pictured as an attempt to keep God’s commands, but always messing up in some way.

In moral and ethical contexts, it means to fail of one’s purpose, to go wrong, or to fail to live according to an accepted standard or ideal.  Sin is the failure to be what we ought to be and could be.  Paul tells us that “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23).  No one is righteous (Rom. 3:10).

One of the biggest problems with sin is that it “clings so closely.”  The word is euperistaton and it is found only here in the New Testament.  It has the idea of something that “ensnares,” some versions use the word “besetting,” to illustrate something that persistently comes upon a person unbidden, maybe unnoticed.  The problem with sin is, we like it.  We fall into it so easily.  That’s what makes it so besetting, so ensnaring.

A phenomenon of nature, repeated billions of times, provides an ongoing allegory of sin’s billion-fold pathology.  Perhaps you have seen it yourself while lying on the grass by a sundew plant when a fly lights on one of its leaves to taste one of the glands that grow there.  [This is describing the Sun Dew plant.]  Instantly three crimson-tipped, finger-like hairs bend over and touch the fly’s wings, holding it firm in a sticky grasp.  The fly struggles mightily to get free, but the more it struggles, the more hopelessly it is coated with adhesive.  Soon the fly relaxes, but to its fly-mind “things could be worse,” because it extends its tongue and feasts on the sundew’s sweetness while it is held even more firmly by still more sticky tentacles.  When the captive is entirely at the plant’s mercy, the edges of the leaf fold inward, forming a closed fist.  Two hours later the fly is an empty sucked skin, and the hungry fist unfolds its delectable mouth for another easy entanglement.  Nature has given us a terrifying allegory. (R. Kent Hughes, Hebrews, Volume 2, pp. 158-159).

The specific sin is not mentioned here, and with good reason.  “We each have characteristic sins that more easily entangle us than others. Some sins that tempt and degrade others hold little appeal for us—and vice versa.  Sensuality may be the Achilles’ heel for many men, but not all. Another who has gained victory over such sin may regularly down jealousy’s deadly nectar, not realizing it is rotting his soul.  Dishonesty may never tempt some souls, for guile simply has no appeal to them, but just cross them and you will feel Satan’s temper!” (R. Kent Hughes, Hebrews: Volume 2, p.159)

These sins are ours, our choices that we make to rebel against God’s will.  As David Guzik says, “If such ensnaring sins were really the work of demonic possession or demonic influence in the Christian, this would be an ideal place for the Holy Spirit to address this.  Yet we are never given reason to blame our sin on demons; the appeal is simply for us to, in the power of the Holy Spirit, ‘lay aside…the sin that clings so closely’”

What sin do you have the hardest time saying “no” to?  What do you persistently struggle with?  Covetousness?  Envy?  Criticism?  Laziness?  Hatred?  Lust?  Ingratitude?  Pride?  Envy?  Whatever sin it is, we must ruthlessly strip it off and leave it behind.

Faith Enough to Secure a “Yes”; Faith Enough to Endure a “No,” part 4 (Hebrews 11:32-40)

So we noticed in our study of Hebrews 11:32-38 that our author contrasts two groups of people.  All of these people lived by faith, but for some of them God came through in spectacular ways and delivered them from their troubles, while for other people (whose faith was just as strong) God did not deliver them from pain and hardship and death.

So much for the prosperity gospel!  Here are saints who are so holy and so full of faith that the world is not worthy to contain them, and yet they are called to persevere in persecution, deprivation, and death.  Not only that, but the reason they are able to persevere is their great faith!  Christians under the oppressive old paganism of Roman culture were to take note, and so must we in the darkening neo-paganism of our day.

Here is God’s resounding commendation, not of those whose faith enabled them to overcome, but for those whose faith helped them endure even the most devastating experiences: these were men “of whom the world was not worthy.”

Along with “Well done, thou good and faithful servant,” I don’t think there is any more valuable commendation that we could receive from God than, “This world was not worthy of you.”  Why does God say that?  Because despite the fact that they did not receive glorious deliverances or protection, but instead suffered through pain and persecution and even death, but did it all trusting in God and his promises, God is even more pleased with that kind of faith than in the faith that “gets it all.”  I know most of us would rather have the triumphs, but it is our faith in the tragedies that really finds special commendation from God.  We love it when our faith in God “gives”; but God loves it when He “takes away” and we still persistently trust Him.

One of my favorite chapters in C. S. Lewis’ Screwtape Letters is his fifth chapter called The Law of Undulation.  It expresses the reality that every one of us in life go through hills and valleys.  We love the mountain top experience but lament slogging through the valley.  Yet, there is something within all of us that longs, however inarticulately, for a life free from these undulations.  Why do we experience these unwanted alternations in life?

For those who don’t know, Screwtape is a demon writing to an apprentice demon named Wormwood. Thus, all that is said is said from the perspective of the demon.  When you hear the word “Enemy,” he is referring to God.  So he starts off…

MY DEAR WORMWOOD,

So you “have great hopes that the patient’s religious phase is dying away”, have you?  I always thought the Training College had gone to pieces since they put old Slubgob at the head of it, and now I am sure.  Has no one ever told you about the law of Undulation?

Humans are amphibians—half spirit and half animal [by which he means we consist of body and soul}.  (The Enemy’s determination to produce such a revolting hybrid was one of the things that determined Our Father to withdraw his support from Him.)   As spirits they belong to the eternal world, but as animals they inhabit time.  This means that while their spirit can be directed to an eternal object, their bodies, passions, and imaginations are in continual change, for to be in time means to change.  Their nearest approach to constancy, therefore, is undulation—the repeated return to a level from which they repeatedly fall back, a series of troughs and peaks.  If you had watched your patient carefully you would have seen this undulation in every department of his life—his interest in his work, his affection for his friends, his physical appetites, all go up and down.  As long as he lives on earth periods of emotional and bodily richness and liveliness will alternate with periods of numbness and poverty.  The dryness and dulness through which your patient is now going are not, as you fondly suppose, your workmanship; they are merely a natural phenomenon which will do us no good unless you make a good use of it.

To decide what the best use of it is, you must ask what use the Enemy wants to make of it, and then do the opposite.  Now it may surprise you to learn that in His efforts to get permanent possession of a soul, He relies on the troughs even more than on the peaks; some of His special favourites have gone through longer and deeper troughs than anyone else.  The reason is this.  To us a human is primarily food; our aim is the absorption of its will into ours, the increase of our own area of selfhood at its expense.  But the obedience which the Enemy demands of men is quite a different thing.  One must face the fact that all the talk about His love for men, and His service being perfect freedom, is not (as one would gladly believe) mere propaganda, but an appalling truth.  He really does want to fill the universe with a lot of loathsome little replicas of Himself—creatures, whose life, on its miniature scale, will be qualitatively like His own, not because He has absorbed them but because their wills freely conform to His.  We want cattle who can finally become food; He wants servants who can finally become sons.  We want to suck in, He wants to give out.  We are empty and would be filled; He is full and flows over.  Our war aim is a world in which Our Father Below has drawn all other beings into himself: the Enemy wants a world full of beings united to Him but still distinct.

And that is where the troughs come in.  You must have often wondered why the Enemy does not make more use of His power to be sensibly present to human souls in any degree He chooses and at any moment.  But you now see that the Irresistible and the Indisputable are the two weapons which the very nature of His scheme forbids Him to use.  Merely to over-ride a human will (as His felt presence in any but the faintest and most mitigated degree would certainly do) would be for Him useless.  He cannot ravish.  He can only woo.  For His ignoble idea is to eat the cake and have it; the creatures are to be one with Him, but yet themselves; merely to cancel them, or assimilate them, will not serve.  He is prepared to do a little overriding at the beginning.  He will set them off with communications of His presence which, though faint, seem great to them, with emotional sweetness, and easy conquest over temptation.  But He never allows this state of affairs to last long.  Sooner or later He withdraws, if not in fact, at least from their conscious experience, all those supports and incentives.  He leaves the creature to stand up on its own legs—to carry out from the will alone duties which have lost all relish.  It is during such trough periods, much more than during the peak periods, that it is growing into the sort of creature He wants it to be.  Hence the prayers offered in the state of dryness are those which please Him best.  We can drag our patients along by continual tempting, because we design them only for the table, and the more their will is interfered with the better.  He cannot “tempt” to virtue as we do to vice.  He wants them to learn to walk and must therefore take away His hand; and if only the will to walk is really there He is pleased even with their stumbles.  Do not be deceived, Wormwood.  Our cause is never more in danger, than when a human, no longer desiring, but intending, to do our Enemy’s will, looks round upon a universe from which every trace of Him seems to have vanished, and asks why he has been forsaken, and still obeys.

This is why God is so proud of those whose faith doesn’t win the day, but still trusts Him as it goes through the long night of the soul.  Let me read that last sentence again: “Do not be deceived, Wormwood.  Our cause is never more in danger, than when a human, no longer desiring, but intending, to do our Enemy’s will, looks round upon a universe from which every trace of Him seems to have vanished, and asks why he has been forsaken, and still obeys.”

But why would any follower of Jesus Christ pursue this?  Because a true follower of Jesus Christ cares most about this “better life” (Heb. 11:34) which comes through a resurrection.  That is what they are looking for—they are looking forward to God’s promises being fulfilled not in the here and now, but in eternity.  Paul says it like this: “to live is Christ, to die is gain” (Phil. 1:21).  Faith endures the present pain for the sake of future glory.

Pastor and author John Piper, commenting on these verses, says, “The common feature of the faith that escapes suffering and the faith that endures suffering is this: both of them involve believing that God himself is better than what life can give to you now, and better than what death can take from you later.  When you can have it all, faith says that God is better; and when you lose it all, faith says God is better…. What does faith believe in the moment of torture? That if God loved me, he would get me out of this?  No.  Faith believes that there is a resurrection for believers which is better than the miracle of escape.  It’s better than the kind of resurrection experience by the widow’s son, who returned to life only to die again later.

Some of us feel like we’re living the nightmare rather than living the dream.  We don’t seem to be conquering any kingdoms; rather, evil seems to have its way with us.  The lions are devouring us; the fires are consuming us; the swords are cutting us to pieces.  What does Hebrews 11 have to say to those living the nightmare?  It says that the dream really is still alive!  It says that the nightmare cannot kill the dream.  It says that the heavenly dream is worth the earthly nightmare.  It says the heavenly dream is better than the earthly dream by far.  It says, for all those reasons, “Hang on to Jesus.”

All these people, whether in victory or defeat, had faith, what Piper calls “death-defying passion for God.”  A modern example of one with such faith is Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who in 1933 left his prestigious position as a professor at the University of Berlin to join the struggle against the Nazification of the church in Germany.  The professor of systematic theology at the university deemed it foolish, saying, “It is a great pity that our best hope in the faculty is being wasted on the church struggle.”  God chose for Bonhoeffer the route taken by those in Hebrews 11:35b-38.  He was eventually arrested and hanged naked in the Flossenburg Concentration Camp.  His body was tossed aside into a pile of corpses and burned just days before the end of World War II.  Some quench the power of fire; some do not.  As he faced the fury of the Third Reich, here is what Bonhoeffer said: “The ultimate responsible question is not how I can heroically make the best of a bad situation but rather how the coming generations can be enabled to live.”  That’s faith.  That’s death-defying passion for God!

Why did Bonhoeffer have to die and others to live?  Look at verses 39-40 in Hebrews 11.

And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect.

These verses are showing that by God’s mercy He allows all the believing to experience eternal reward.  Some would not experience temporal victories and deliverances and blessings; but all those who exercise their faith in Jesus Christ will receive eternal reward.

Notice that verse 39 says “these were ALL commended for their faith.”  All the people mentioned in Hebrews 11, both those who experienced God coming through for them in spectacular ways and those for whom God seemed to be silent at times, all of them had real faith and all of them will receive the promises.

A lack of faith is not what brought on suffering.  All those in chapter 11 expressed faith in God.  Some won in this life, some lost in this life; both will win in the life to come.

What, then determines whether one escapes the sword or dies by the sword?  The answer is not really a “what” but a “Who.”  God determines it and we don’t always know why.  He doesn’t tell us why here.

In the midst of the deliverances and the non-deliverances, there is something that God is looking for.  The people of Hebrews 11, literally, were “commended” because of their faith.  They were noticed by God (10:15; 11:4) that they were righteous (11:4, 7) and pleasing to Him (11:5-6).

The facts that God shares his witness of these people with us in the Scriptures (7:8, 17; 10:15), but specifically in Hebrews 11, shows that he wants the world to realize the value of faith.  People of faith, then, become God’s witness to the world regarding the validity of faith.  For some, that witness will come with triumph.  For others, their witness will arrive in defeat.  For most of us, our witness will come in both.  For all of us, eternal reward is coming!

Why God chooses some for one kind of witness and others for another kind of witness is a mystery.  He must know what will make a good witness in a certain person’s life.  The disposition of God, though is not a mystery.  He is good, and faith believers that he is good even in the face of mystery.

Despite the fact that the people of Hebrews 11 were pleasing to God because of their faith, they “did not receive what was promised” in their lifetime.  God had promised a new and better country for people of faith (11:13-16), but none of these people experienced the fulfillment of that promise.  The reason that they didn’t is given in verse 40, and that reason, believe it or not, is “us” (the author and readers of this epistle, including you and I today)!

Although many promises had been given and fulfilled in their lifetimes, they did not receive the great promise—namely, the coming of the Messiah and salvation in him.  Every one of the faithful in Old Testament times died before Jesus appeared.

As Leon Morris says:

Salvation is social. It concerns the whole people of God.  We can experience it only as part of the whole people of God.  As long as the believers in Old Testament times were without those who are in Christ, it was impossible for them to experience the fullness of salvation.  Furthermore, it is what Christ has done that opens the way into the very presence of God for them as for us.  Only the work of Christ brings those of Old Testament times and those of the new and living way alike into the presence of God (Morris, The Expositor’s Bible Commentary , vol. 12, pp. 132, 133).

Their faithfulness makes our faith a little easier. The writer to the Hebrews began this chapter speaking of faith in the present tense: Now faith is… By faith we understand (Hebrews 11:1 and 11:3).  The end of the chapter reminds us that faith is and it is for we who follow in the footsteps of the faithful men and women of previous ages.

God literally “foresaw” something better for “us.”  And the “something better” that God provides for us is connected to the “better resurrection,” which is equivalent to being “made perfect,” God completing the process of making us conformed to the image of His Son.  Our new bodies and hearts will be perfectly suited to this new life in a new world, unlike our present bodies and hearts (which aren’t even that well suited for this world because of the curse!)

Do you see what the writer of Hebrews is saying?  He saying that this story—God’s great story of faith—is not complete without you and me today.  We are the final chapter of God’s story of faith.

Long ago God foresaw our lives as the final chapter, the climax of this book of faith.  We, too, are commended by God for our faith, and it will be shown to all creation that we who have followed Jesus faithfully are pleasing to God.  God is now adding the storyline of our lives, our faith, our triumphs and our sufferings to His record.

The author’s point is that if the Old Testament saints were faithful through all of these trials, even though they didn’t receive the promise of Christ in the flesh, how much more should we be faithful, since we have Christ!  John Calvin (Calvin’s Commentaries [Baker], p. 308) put it, “A small spark of light led them to heaven; when the sun of righteousness shines over us, with what pretence can we excuse ourselves if we still cleave to the earth?”

What are some of the lessons we have learned from Hebrews 11?

First, biblical faith is not limited to any one personality type, gender, age, status, or race.  Even ordinary, different people with faith are being added to God’s Hall of Faith today.

Second, biblical faith is not limited to those who have are consistent moral or spiritual giants in their walk with the Lord.  And I thank God for that!  George Guthrie discusses a common danger we face in thinking that these people are all different from us.  “After all, they are in the Bible.”  However, our author’s point is that even imperfect, inconsistent people are commended for their faith.

Third, biblical faith is willing to believe God against the odds.  From universal floods, to having children at age 90 to walls falling down, people believed God could do the impossible.

Fourth, biblical faith may be present in a variety of outcomes, both positive and negative.  Faith can result in triumphs; faith can be present in tragedy.

Finally, biblical faith will always be rewarded by God.  Perhaps now; perhaps not now, but definitely in eternity.  Friends, the books will be balanced.

So what is faith?  Faith is confidence in God’s promises that results in obedient action carried out in a variety of situations by ordinary, fallible people, with various earthly outcomes either good or bad, but always with the ultimate outcome of God’s commendation and reward.