Tag: hebrews

“Have you seen God at work lately?” is a wonderful question to ask your friends and family. One person replied, “I see Him at work as I read the Scriptures each morning; I see Him at work as He helps me face each new day; I see Him at work when I know that He has been with me every step of the way—I realize how He has helped me to face challenges while giving me joy.” I love his answer because it reflects how through God’s Word and the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, God stays near to, and works in, those who love Him.”

The writer of Hebrews ends his book with this wonderful benediction. A benediction is more powerful than a prayer because it confers upon the recipient a blessing. The difference is that a prayer or a doxology is from us to God, while a benediction is from God to us. In this case it is from an inspired author of Scripture to the congregation of the Hebrews and it talks about how God is at work in our lives.

“Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, 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. Amen” (Hebrews 13:20-21).

Verse 20 gives the foundation from which this blessing can be imparted—a God of peace, a powerful God who raised Jesus from the dead, a loving and tender shepherd who guides us and an eternal covenant which provides everything necessary for our spiritual life.

His basic sentence is “Now may the God of peace…equip you with everything good that you may do his will,” then adds by way of explaining the means, “working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.”

What God will do is “equip” us. The Greek word here is καταρτίζω [katartizō], a word that means “to restore, put in order, mend, make complete or usable.” Doctors used it to refer to the setting of broken bones, putting them back into a condition of health. Fishermen spoke of mending a broken net. For sailors it meant to “outfit a ship for a voyage.” To soldiers it means to “equip the troops for battle.” Paul uses it in Galatians 6:1 regarding restoring a brother—that is, putting him back in place of spiritual health and usefulness. Peter experienced this in his own life. Jesus prayed for him, saying, ““Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.” That repentance allowed Peter to return to usefulness and to be the one to strengthen his brothers.

In other words, God takes our brokenness and mistakes, God mends all the cracks and crevasses so that we are once again useful to Him. He equips us for service and battle. He does all this so that He can work in us and through us that which pleases Him and accomplishes His will.

The relevance of this closing benediction for the church on troubled seas is obvious: God can put you back together so you can do his will, no matter what. Can you hear the prayer as its benediction lingered over the beleaguered congregation with its sweet, healing hope?

Warren Wiersbe asks the practical question, “How does He equip us?” and then gives several tools that the New Testament says that God uses to bring us to maturity. “He uses the Word of God (2 Tim. 3:16-17) and prayer (1 Thess. 3:13) in the fellowship of the local church (Eph. 4:11-12). He also uses individual believers to equip us and mend us (Gal. 6:1). Finally, He uses suffering to perfect His children (1 Peter 5:10), and this relates to what we learned from Hebrews 12 about chastening” (The Wiersbe Bible Commentary: NT, p. 845).

Though false teachers had “varied and strange teachings” (Heb 13:9) that differed from each other, they all had the same goal: to alter “the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints” (Jude 1:3). To contend against these false teachers and to promote sound doctrine and right living, Jesus gave to the church gifted leaders–apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. These leaders equip the church for ministry and help them grow into the image of Christ, so that they would no longer be children, “tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming” (Eph 4:11-14). (Charles R. Swindoll, Swindoll’s Living Insights: Hebrews, 223)

Notice here in Hebrews 13:21 that God equips us “with everything good,” everything beneficial for the accomplishment of His purpose in our lives, which is to conform us to the image of His Son (Rom. 8:28-29).

The word “good” occurs two other times in Hebrews, all in the plural, referring to all that God has accomplished for believers in Christ Jesus. In Hebrews 9:11-12, the author, contrasting the work of Old Testament priest with Christ, says,

But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.

It seems clear that the “good things” in verse 11 refer to all the promises of the new covenant fulfilled in Christ.

Hebrews 10:1 defines “good things” in the same way, saying, “For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near.” The good things here also include the once for all sacrifice of Jesus (Hebrews 10:8-14).

Based on this understanding, the author of Hebrews prays that God would equip us with all good things, the precious promises and benefits of Christ in the gospel (Dieudonné Tamfu https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/how-to-please-a-holy-god).

The Apostle Paul, advocating that our justification occurs not through works, but through faith, nevertheless shows that God equips us to do good works in obedience to Him. “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10).

God is the God who both shows us his will and equips us to do it. He never gives us a task without also giving us the power to accomplish it. When God sends us out, he sends us equipped with everything we need. (William Barclay, The Daily Study Bible Series, Hebrews, 201)

The clause “to do His will” (εἰς τὸ ποιῆσαι τὸ θέλημα αὐτοῦ) is explicitly the purpose. The author’s prayer is that God make us complete for the purpose of doing his will. This is why God equips us “with everything good.” That equipping has a purpose and that purpose is that we “do His will.”
Now, the act “To do God’s will” is to be like Jesus, because He came to do God’s will (Heb. 10:7). This is a lifelong process that is never complete in this life. But the point here is that the same mighty power that raised Jesus from the dead equips us to do God’s will and to live for His glory.

Sam Storms draws out these implications:

What this means is that:

You don’t have to live any longer in unforgiveness. God can equip you with every good thought and affection and determination to do his will when it comes to forgiving those who have sinned against you.

You don’t have to live in bondage to lust. God can equip you with the strength to resist the temptation to look lustfully at another person.

You don’t have to live in bitterness and anger. God can equip you with power to recognize the countless blessings you have in Christ and free you from the habit of constantly berating your spouse or your children.

You don’t have to live in the clutches of pornography. God can equip you and empower you to turn off the computer. He can equip and empower you to set your sights and affections on the beauty of Christ in place of your infatuation with the allure of sexual immorality.

You don’t have to live in constant hatred and resentment of your spouse. No matter how deep the wounds may be, no matter how often he/she has berated you, God can equip and empower you to love as Christ has loved you.

Whatever God’s will is, the promise of his covenant with you in Christ is that he can equip you with everything good so that you might live in obedience to it.

The gift of God working in us can take us by surprise; perhaps we forgive someone who wrongs us or show patience to someone we find difficult.

God equips us to do His will “by working in us that which is pleasing in His sight.” Literally, we are told in v. 21 that God equips us to “do” his will by “doing” in us what pleases him. The words translated “do” and “doing” (or “working”) are the same in Greek. We “work” because God “works”. God is at work in us. Whatever we do in God’s will, it is God doing the doing. When we “do” his will it is because he is “doing” in us what is pleasing to himself. This “working in us” is a present participle, indicating that God is always “working in us.” We may not feel it or notice it right away, but He is constantly “working in us.”

Notice that God works from the inside out. This is not just external behavior modification, but a heart that desires above all else to please God. It is not image management, but new internal motivations. Remember that the promise of the New Covenant is: “I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts” (Jeremiah 31:33). This is much like Philippians 2:12-13, “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” But more importantly we are told why: “For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure,” or “giving you the desire and power to do His good pleasure.

You are secure not because you are strong, but because God is sovereign and because God is faithful to his new covenant promises. “I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes” (Ezekiel 36:27). All the exhortations to persevere in this book God will fulfil in those who are his.
Obedience to God’s will is His desire for our lives. It is not always easy, as Jesus proved when He struggled with God’s will at Gethsemane. Sometimes it is very costly and very difficult to do.

But our hearts now want to please God, to do what would bring Him pleasure. That is now our deepest desire. As John Piper says, “If we are able to please God — if we do his good pleasure — it is because the blood-bought grace of God has moved from mere equipping to omnipotent transforming” (https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/outfitted-and-empowered).

We know from Hebrews 11:6 that faith is what pleases God the most, believing in Him and His good promises and benefits.

We want to do what is pleasing “in his sight,” that is, in His estimation. As infants we begin life seeking above all to please ourselves, then we learn to please others. Unfortunately, we may never grow out of that desire to please others, to live in fear of what others think of us. Our greatest desire, however, should be to “play to an audience of One,” to seek to do what is “pleasing in His sight.”

Is it right and enough for God to be pleased mainly by his work in us and to commend us because of that? Yes, because he is doing so “through Jesus Christ” (Hebrews 13:21). God is just to commend us, not based on our performances, but on his performance for and in us. “For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified” (Hebrews 10:14).

It is only “in Christ” and “through” our union to Him that we are able to do God’s will and do what is pleasing to Him. According to the famed Greek scholar Adolf Deissman, the term “in Christ” or “in Christ Jesus” occurs some 169 times in Paul’s writings. Perhaps the most famous of Paul’s “in Christ” statements is 2 Corinthians 5:17—“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”

None of the other gods work this way. If you want to have a relationship with any other god you have to do the work to please them. But the God of the Bible, through the sacrificial death of His Son, does everything needed for us to please Him and all we have to do is trust Him to do it through us. As we live out our union with Him by abiding in Jesus, then we can produce spiritual fruit (John 15:1-7).

Remember what Augustine prayed: “Command what you will, and give what you command.” We will do God’s will (obey His commands) only because He has equipped us with everything good to do that will.

God does it from beginning (justification) to end (glorification). He does this so that He will receive the “glory forever and ever. Amen.”

Our author closes this exhortation with these words:

22 I appeal to you, brothers, bear with my word of exhortation, for I have written to you briefly. 23 You should know that our brother Timothy has been released, with whom I shall see you if he comes soon. 24 Greet all your leaders and all the saints. Those who come from Italy send you greetings. 25 Grace be with all of you.

Notice that he says two things about his letter to them. First, he calls it “my word of exhortation” and second, he says it is “brief.” The Greek noun paraklasis (“exhortation”) means imploration, entreaty, admonition, encouragement, consolation, comfort, and solace. In other words, he has hoped that his readers will receive and take to heart and apply to their lives what he has taught them.

This expression designates what we call a sermon (cf. Acts 13:15): a spoken exposition and application of Scripture, such as those offered in first-century synagogues or Christian congregations (Acts 13:15; 1 Tim. 4:13). Through his sermon, our author has brought exhortation, as he had urged his hearers to persevere in their trust in Jesus Christ alone for their salvation, not returning to the Jewish religious system.

His mention of Timothy in verse 23 shows that the writer composed this epistle during the lifetime of “Timothy” and after some confinement that Timothy had experienced. By this news the author shows that he too remembers those in prison (10:34; 13:3). Evidently the writer and Timothy were close associates in the Lord’s work. This is the same Timothy who was a co-worker with Paul. Our writer’s hope is to come “see you,” which was a typical hope that Paul expressed to the recipients of his epistles.

The exchange of greetings between a letter’s author and those with him, on the one hand, and its recipients, on the other, is customary in NT correspondence. Here our author gives precedence to “all your leaders,” reinforcing their authority, in case some in the congregation still fail to accord them the respect their office warrants (Heb. 13:17). He then greets “all the saints,” expressing inclusivity and reinforcing their unity (cf. Phil. 1:1; 4:21).

“Those who come from Italy,” who were with the author and asked him to convey their greetings, might be people residing in Italy. But the ESV is probably correct: with the author are believers who now sojourn as expatriates away from Italy and wish to send greetings home. Perhaps they were exiled when Emperor Claudius banned Jews from the imperial capital (AD 49), as Aquila and his wife Priscilla had been (Acts 28:2).

The closing benediction, though similar to many others in the NT, is filled with meaning because of the rich exposition of grace throughout this sermon-letter. This is a fitting end for a book that documents the passing of the Old Covenant and the institution of the New Covenant.

Our preacher has used “grace” (charis) to identify God’s undeserved favor that:

• ordained the redemptive plan in which Christ “[tasted] death” for all his brothers (2:9);
• flows from God’s throne of grace to give us timely help (4:16);
• characterizes the Spirit of God (10:19);
• epitomizes believers’ final inheritance and the means by which they reach it (12:15);
• strengthens hearts through faith in Christ’s priestly mediation (13:9).

Hebrews shows God’s grace with us in other ways. God acknowledges as sons and leads to glory (2:10) those who required purification of their consciences. This could be achieved only by the blood of Christ, shed to redeem us from the transgressions committed under the first covenant (9:13-15). Though once excluded from his presence by our defiance and defilement, we can now draw near in confident assurance of his welcome (10:19-22). We are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and this gift from God makes us grateful and eager to offer worship that pleases him (12:28). Amid the dangers of our earthly pilgrimage, we have the promise of his constant presence and strong protection: “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (13:5). God’s grace is indeed with us.

All throughout the book of Hebrews the author has been warning, encouraging and pleading with these Jewish Christians not to abandon their faith in Jesus and return back to the Jewish religious system with its sacrifices. The passage we have before us today refers back to those sacrifices, particularly the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) and the point is made that since that sacrifice happened “outside the camp” (v. 11), then we are to “go to [Jesus] outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured” (v. 13).

11 For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp. 12 So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. 13 Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured. 14 For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come. 15 Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. 16 Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.

The imagery shifts from the perennial peace offerings to the annual Day of Atonement sacrifices, when the high priest entered the Most Holy Place, carrying blood to atone first for his own sins and then for the sins of the people (9:7, 25). This annual rite has been contrasted with the self-sacrifice of Christ, who brought his own blood into the heavenly sanctuary, atoning for sins once for all (9:24-28; 10:10-14).

Now our attention is directed to what happened to the carcasses of the animals after their blood was brought into God’s presence. Whereas the meat of peace offerings could be consumed by priests and worshipers after the Lord’s best portions were consumed on the altar, on the Day of Atonement the whole bull and goat from which atoning blood had been taken were carried outside Israel’s camp and completely incinerated. They were destroyed “outside the camp,” the realm of what was unclean, unfit to be seen by the Lord, who “walks in the midst of your camp” (Deut. 23:14; cf. also Lev. 13:45-46; Num. 5:1-4).

The bodies of Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, were taken outside the camp after they were judged and killed for offering up strange fire on the altar. If someone blasphemed God they were stoned outside the camp (Lev. 24:14, 23). When Miriam, the sister of Moses, was stricken with leprosy, she had to spend seven days outside the camp (Num. 12:14ff.). After the sins of the people were symbolically laid on the head of the scapegoat it had to be taken outside the camp (Lev. 16).
Eventually Jerusalem itself was considered holy ground. Everything beyond its borders was considered unholy or profane. Golgotha, where Jesus was crucified, was considered outside the city.

Golgotha site photographed in about 1870.

The association of territory “outside the camp” with defilement and banishment from God’s holy presence explains the theological significance of the fact that Jesus was crucified “outside the gate” of Jerusalem (cf. John 19:16-17). He endured God’s wrath as he bore others’ sin in his body on the tree (Matt. 27:46; Rom. 3:24-25; 1 Pet. 2:24). By bearing our guilt and absorbing its penalty, this “holy, innocent, unstained” High Priest (Heb. 7:26) endured sin’s curse (2 Cor. 5:21; Gal. 3:13) and thereby “sanctified” all believers by his blood. Throughout this sermon, “sanctify” (hagiazō; Heb. 2:11; 10:10, 14), “cleanse” (katharizō; 9:14, 23), and “perfect” (teleioō; 7:19; 9:9; 101, 14) have designated the purging from defilement that now qualifies worshipers to approach God’s holy presence.

Jesus’ sacrifice sanctifies his people so that they may respond to divine grace with thankful and reverent worship (12:28), standing in God’s presence as priests and offering sacrifices pleasing to him (13:15-16).

Our author is communicating two great things: (1) All those who remained committed to the old Jewish system were excluded from the benefit of partaking of Christ’s atoning death. And, (2) Jesus’ death outside the camp means that he is accessible to anyone in the world who will come to him.
Jesus’ crucifixion outside Jerusalem represented not only his forsakenness by God but also his repudiation by the Jewish community, “his own” people (Mark 15:9-15, 29-32; John 1:11; Acts 3:13-15). Jesus bore “our reproach” (v. 13).

When he says that Jesus died “outside the city,” he means He died outside Judaism. The Lord was utterly rejected by Israel. Judaism didn’t want Him. He was taken OUTSIDE and crucified–as if He were refuse. Therefore, His death was totally outside the Jewish system; utterly removed from it. (C. S. Lovett, Lovett’s Lights on Hebrews, 331)

Jesus did faithfully prepare his disciples to endure the same rejection he had endured (Luke 6:22; John 16:2), and indeed they were rejected (John 9:22, 33; 12:42; Acts 18:5-7). To follow after Jesus is to carry one’s cross toward shameful death (Mark 8:23; Heb. 12:2). Now the recipients of this letter must be prepared to share the reproach that Jesus endured, just as Moses did long ago (Heb. 11:24-26). To join Jesus “outside the camp” may demand that one forgo access to the Jerusalem temple, acceptance in local synagogues, and acknowledgment by one’s own family (Matt. 10:35-38).
For the Christian there must be a real identification with Christ and his shame; he must enter into a genuine “fellowship of Christ’s sufferings (Phil 3:10), and be willing even, like the first martyr Stephen, to lay down his life for his Lord and Savior “outside the city” (Acts 7:58). The recipients of this letter had gone forth “outside the camp” to associate themselves with Christ and his cross; but now their resolve is weakening and they are being tempted to turn back in the hope of finding an easier and more respectable existence “inside the camp.” (Philip Edgcumbe Hughes, A Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews, 580)

There was and even is today a price to be paid in following Jesus which the Jews of that age did not have to bear. But as Jesus was despised, so would be His disciples. The question is: Are we willing to pay the price?

Spurgeon said: “A sorry life your Master had, you see. All the filth in earth’s kennels was thrown at him by sacrilegious hands. No epithet was thought coarse enough; no terms hard enough; he was the song of the drunkard, and they that sat in the gate spoke against him. This was the reproach of Christ; and we are not to marvel if we bear as much. ‘Well,’ says one, ‘I will not be a Christian if I am to bear that.’ Skulk back, then, you coward, to your own damnation; but oh! Men that love God, and who seek after the eternal reward, I pray you do not shrink from this cross. You must bear it.”
Pursuing Jesus “outside the camp” comes at a price.

Yet one OT passage foreshadows the privilege now enjoyed by those who go “outside the camp” for Jesus’ sake. After Israel’s adultery with the golden calf, the Israelites’ defilement was so pervasive that Moses had to pitch the tent of meeting “outside the camp” (Exod. 33:7-11). That became the place where people went to meet with God. Because of institutional Judaism’s repudiation of the Messiah, the spheres of the holy community and the polluted wasteland have been reversed. Those unwelcome in earthly Jerusalem’s temple and expelled from synagogues have become heirs of God’s unshakable kingdom and citizens of “the city that is to come.” Admittedly, “here we [followers of Jesus] have no lasting city.” But within a few years, in AD 70, Roman troops would destroy Jerusalem and its temple on Mount Zion. That city, which the psalmists had extolled for its security (Psalm 48, 87), would lie in ruins. When compared to the promise of being welcomed into the coming city that abides forever, to be expelled from a community that has turned its back on God’s grace in Christ is no great loss.

There thus remains only one thing to do, and so the writer exhorts us: “Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured. For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come” (vv. 13, 14). Guthrie sees verse 13 as the crux of the conclusion, a final direct appeal to the readers to identify themselves wholly with Christ.” In other words, he says, “Christians, join Jesus in his sufferings!”

The cities of the earth—all earthly institutions—will fall apart. Only the heavenly Zion will remain. We must go, flee to him outside the camp, and willfully embrace his “reproach,” for such an act is worth doing a million times over! Thus Jesus Christ, who is “the same yesterday and today and forever,” becomes our constant meal—our food, our drink, our life—and we will receive from him grace upon grace upon grace. And because he is outside the camp, he will always be accessible. In fact, he is with us, in us, and coming to us! This understanding that he nourishes us and is accessible to us will help us stay on course.

The good news is that for those who bear His reproach, this world is the worst they will ever have it. The best is yet to come! But for cowards who turn their back on Jesus, this life is the absolute best they will ever have it.

May we not say, too, that the Son who invites us to join him “outside the camp” himself first left the “camp” of heaven, which is the true and abiding camp and to which he returned in triumph; and that he came to our unholy ground for the purpose of removing the defilement of his people and for the consecration and renewal of the whole creation, so that in the eternity of his glorious kingdom all will be one “camp,” one “city,” without blemish and without bounds, because there will no longer be any such things as unholy territory, and the harmony of heaven and earth, of God and man, will be established forevermore? (Philip Edgcumbe Hughes, A Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews, 582-3)

Christ went outside the city gate and suffered. We must go after him, and to him. This means we have to relinquish all the privileges of the camp and the city for his sake. We have to leave them behind and go to him. We must cling by faith to his sacrifice and through this sanctification, in place of all the sacrifices of the law. We must own him under all that reproach and contempt that were heaped on him during his suffering outside the gate. We must not be ashamed of the cross of Christ. (John Owen, Crossway Classic Commentaries: Hebrews, 264)

It was time for Jewish Christians to declare their loyalty to Christ above any other loyalty, to choose to follow the Messiah whatever suffering that might entail, to “go out to him outside the camp.” They needed to move outside the safe confinement of their past, their traditions, and their ceremonies to live for Christ. Since Jesus was rejected by Judaism, they should reject Judaism. (Bruce Barton, Life Application Bible Commentary: Hebrews, 238)

First, to the Hebrews to whom this letter was addressed, they are being told that as long as they remain within old covenant Judaism they cannot eat at the altar of God’s grace in Jesus Christ. They must leave the old covenant and embrace the new covenant. If they are to share in the salvation that Christ has obtained they must renounce their trust and confidence in the sacrifices and rituals of the old covenant system and put their hope and trust in Jesus Christ who is himself the fulfillment of all that came before. They must sever themselves from the now outmoded Mosaic system and cleave unto Christ in whom that system has been fulfilled. Don’t look to the priesthood of Aaron. Don’t put your hope in the feasts and rituals of the old covenant. Put your trust entirely in him to whom all such religious practices pointed: Jesus!

Second, we are also being called to share in the reproach that Jesus endured (v. 13). Today we don’t have a literal “camp” or “city” outside of which we are to go. So the “camp” must represent or symbolize something else for us. I think it points to everything we regard as safe and secure and respectable. To go “outside the camp” is to move beyond the comfort and acceptance that this world offers us. Inside the camp, inside the city gates, is where we find familiarity and ease and affirmation and respect from this world and its value system. To follow Jesus outside the camp is to embrace and bear the shame and reproach he suffered. To join Jesus outside the camp is to willingly identify with him in his suffering and to move out among the lost and unbelieving people of this world. It’s only outside the camp that we will find the unreached people of the world.

And the only thing that makes this a reasonable thing to do is the simple but glorious truth stated in v. 14. There we read that we do this “because” here “we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come” (v. 14). We can joyfully embrace the reproach that Jesus himself endured because we are looking for the city to come, the heavenly Jerusalem that God has prepared for his people who trust him and put their hope in him.

Perhaps the Jews were trying to entice the Hebrew Christians back into the Jewish fold by saying, “We have Jerusalem, but you have no such glorious city!” The author says, “Oh, but we do have a city! Ours is the same city that Abraham and the patriarchs were seeking, that heavenly city that God prepared for them and us” (11:13-16). After 70 A.D. these Jews would no longer be able to claim Jerusalem for themselves.

The religious leaders clung to the city of Jerusalem and cast Jesus from it. They surely did not realize that within a short span of some forty years the city of Jerusalem and the temple they trusted in would be totally destroyed. On the Temple Mount platform there would not be one stone left standing upon another exactly according to Jesus’ words in Matthew 24:2.

This concept of a heavenly city and heavenly reward is something we’ve seen repeatedly in Hebrews. Do you recall in Hebrews 10:34 that Christians are described as having “joyfully accepted the plundering” of their property because they knew they “had a better possession and an abiding one”? They were seeking a city that is to come; a city that has foundations; the eternal and heavenly Jerusalem on the new earth. Knowing this was theirs, they gladly suffered for the sake of aiding and supporting other Christians. It was a permanent possession that could never be taken away from them.

We saw it in Hebrews 11:25-26 where Moses “refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward.” The reward is the heavenly Jerusalem, the place of God’s eternal dwelling with his people on the new earth.

And what is to be our response to this pursuit of Christ into a life with pain and suffering?

15 Through him [Jesus] then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. 16 Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.

Verse 15 says it is a life of praise to God — real, heartfelt, verbal praise — the kind that comes out of your mouth as the fruit and overflow of your heart.

In ancient days some Jewish rabbis believed that the time would come when all sacrifices would cease and instead there would be praises. Also, the First Century Jewish writer Philo spoke of a time when the best sacrifice would be the ones glorifying God with hymns. Indeed, in Psalm 50:23 it is written: “The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me, to the one who orders his way righty, I will show the salvation of God.”

Scholars feel the “fruit of lips” is taken from Hosea 14:2. In the Hebrew of this verse it reads literally “the young bulls of our lips” (par-im se-fa-te-nu). Praise is indeed like a sacrifice, that costs us something.

When our author refers to this worship as a “sacrifice,” it is an analogy that we’ve seen Paul and Peter use (Romans 12:2; 1 Peter 2:9). Under the New Covenant the sacrifices are no longer physical, but spiritual—the praise of our lips to the God who saved us.

In the words of Warren Wiersbe, “The words of praise from our lips, coming from our heart, are like beautiful frit laid on the altar” (The Wiersbe Bible Commentqry: New Testament, p. 844).
So we are to offer sacrifices…sacrifices of praise. This exhortation can only rightly be exercised “through him,” that is, through Jesus. It is only because of Him and what He has done for us that we have something to praise God for.

It is praise “to God,” certainly not to ourselves. We did absolutely nothing to deserve or gain our salvation. And this praise is to be “continuous,” why? Because of all that God has done for us through Christ. As we noticed in 12:28, worship is always our most natural response to our redemption. Praise, therefore, should be our constant habit. There should hardly be a moment when our lips are not trembling with praise for how kindly and graciously and tenderly and mercifully our God has dealt with us through His Son Jesus Christ.

This praise is further clarified as “the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name,” that is praise that publicly affirms our trust in Jesus Christ, acknowledging Him as our Savior and Lord.
The second response we should have toward our redemption in Christ is to love one another, a theme that began in verse 1, but here it is spelled out in very practical terms.

16 Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.

These works of “doing good” and “sharing what you have” would likely include the hospitality mentioned in Hebrews 13:2, as well as the ministry to prisoners in Hebrews 13:3. “Doing good” today can include a number of ministries: sharing food with the needy, transporting people to and from church or medical appointments, contributing to needy causes; perhaps just being a helpful neighbor.

Our highest aspiration as those being “conformed” to the image of Jesus, is to live a life that is “pleasing to God.” In my mind, pleasing God goes a step beyond obeying God. We obey the explicit commands or prohibitions of God, while we please God by knowing His heart well enough to know not so much what He demands, but what He desires.

When we go with Jesus to the place of his sacrifice outside the camp, we see more clearly than ever that his sacrifice for us — the sacrifice of himself, once for all for sinners (Hebrews 9:26, 28) — brings to an end all sacrifices except for two kinds: the sacrifice of praise to God (verse 15) and the sacrifice of love to people (verse 16).

Jim Elliot, Pete Fleming, Ed McCully, Nate Saint, and Roger Youderian were killed on January, 1956, in Ecuador, moving toward the need of the Auca Indians and not toward comfort.

Shortly before their deaths on Palm Beach they sang this hymn. Elliot writes,
At the close of their prayers the five men sang one of their favorite hymns, “We Rest on Thee,” to the stirring tune of “Finlandia.” Jim and Ed had sung this hymn since college days and knew the verses by heart. On the last verse their voices rang out with deep conviction.

We rest on Thee, our Shield and our Defender,
Thine is the battle, Thine shall be the praise,
When passing through the gates of pearly splendor
Victors, we rest with Thee through endless days.

With that confidence, they went to Jesus outside the camp. They moved toward need, not comfort, and they died. And Jim Elliot’s credo proved true: “He is no fool to give what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” “Here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the city which is to come” (Hebrews 13:14).

If you are to go on a wilderness journey, you will need more than a guide or a map and compass. You will need the realization that you are entering into a hazardous world. There are many dangers to be aware of. In the Christian life, teachers are one such danger.

Our author has just expressed how his readers were to regard their former teachers: “Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith” (Heb. 13:7). Those teachers, however, would not always be around, only Jesus remains the same (Heb. 13:8).

The New Testament era, just like ours, was rife with all kinds of heresies infecting the church. Paul warns the Ephesian elders about this in Acts 20:29, “I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock…” We are “he sheep of his pasture” (Psalm 100:3) and need shepherds to guide us. As sheep, we are vulnerable to many dangers. False teachers are like wolves that come in and drag off the sheep into the forest never to be seen again, so our author says, “Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, which have not benefited those devoted to them” (Heb. 13:9).

The church is always at risk of being “led away” (or “washed away,” as in a river current; cf. Eph. 4:15) by “diverse and strange teachings.” During the apostolic age, some denied Christ’s incarnation (1 John 4:1-3), while others emphasized ascetic self-denial and mystical visions (Col. 2:8, 16-23).
These false teachers not only exist outside the church, but in our very midst as well. Paul warned the elders at Ephesus, “from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them” (Acts 20:30). The elders, therefore, were to “Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood” (Acts 20:38). False teachers are not only out there; they are also in here. And today, with our access to podcasts and YouTube false teaching can easily enter our inboxes and our homes.

While in the Philippines this past week one of the places we visited was Faith Academy. In their fine arts center the letter “F” on the word “Faith” had broken off and they joked, tongue-in-cheek, about deconstructed faith. Unfortunately that is not a laughing matter, as progressive Christianity has infiltrated many Christian churches.

Michael Kruger (https://rts.edu/resources/what-is-progressive-christianity/) identifies these problems with progressive Christianity: (1) a low view of Christ, emphasizing only that He is a moral example for us to follow; (2) a low view of salvation, focusing on moralism (good works) and being a good person rather than confessing that we are sinners in need of a Savior; (3) downplays our fallenness and sin altogether. Also, they argue that Christ’s death on the cross as a satisfaction of God’s wrath against our sin is “cosmic sadism” and they argue against the reality of hell.

The church throughout the centuries has faced many heresies and today battles liberalism, secularism and postmodernism. These seek to “lead us away” from our purity of devotion to Christ. That is why our author firmly commands us “Do not be led away.”

We do not know exactly what this false teaching was for the Hebrew church. We do know that it was (1) diverse, (2) strange, (3) involved more than one kind of teaching (note the plural), and (4) involved foods and eating. Thus, it was some strange teaching that combined esoteric eating practices with their Christian faith, designed either to make them into Christians or become better Christians.

The ESV Study Bible explains: “The central concern appears to be doctrines about foods (9:10; Rom. 14:17; Col. 2:16-17; 1 Tim. 4:3; cf. 1 Cor. 8:13). The author argues against such doctrines by: (1) juxtaposing them with grace (which truly nourishes the heart); (2) noting that special foods are of no spiritual benefit (cf. 1 Cor. 8:8); and (3) observing that the Christian altar is better than the food of the tabernacle. This may indicate that some Jewish notions (perhaps in a syncretistic mix) are being combated. Unlike most OT offerings, the tabernacle priests could not eat the sin offering from the Day of Atonement, since it was burned outside the camp (Lev. 16:27). However, all Christians partake of the Christian altar (i.e., Jesus’ sacrifice). Some see a reference to the Lord’s Supper here, while others view this as a broader reference to the saving results of the shedding of Jesus’ blood.

One way to recognize false teaching is simply by understanding that it is “strange” (ξέναις). In other words, it lies outside the familiar teachings that had been passed down to them from the apostles (Heb. 2:3-4). Whenever someone comes up with a completely novel interpretation of Scripture that “no one else has ever discovered,” we should treat it like the Bereans did when exposed to Paul’s teaching. Even though Paul was an entrusted apostle, they still kept “examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so” (Acts 17:11b). This reminds us that the way to be able to spot false teachings is to so immerse ourselves in truth so that errors are easily spotted.

Haddon Robinson illustrates this truth in his book Biblical Preaching: “A Chinese boy who wanted to learn about jade went to study with a talented old teacher. This gentle man put a piece of the precious stone into his hand and told him to hold it tight. Then he began to talk of philosophy, men, women, the sun and almost everything under it. After an hour he took back the stone and sent the boy home. The procedure was repeated for several weeks. The boy became frustrated. When would he be told about the jade? He was too polite, however, to question the wisdom of his venerable teacher. Then one day, when the old man put a stone into his hands, the boy cried out instinctively, ‘That’s not jade!'”

A teaching that is “old” might be less appealing than something that is new and shiny. The fundamental reason that we should be wary of “strange” teachings is because Jesus himself never changes. He is “the same yesterday today and forever” (v. 8). If Jesus is the same and doesn’t change, then we should never embrace radical new teachings about Him that lie in opposition to what the Bible, and historical interpretation, teaches.

What the author likely has in view here in this strange teaching about foods is what the whole book has been about from the beginning, which is that certain teachers wanted these Jewish people who had been exposed to Christianity to now go back to the old ways of Judaism, including its laws about food. Is God pleased with you when you eat unclean foods? These teachers were warning them that their diet was damning them and that they needed to go back to Judaism and its food laws.
But it is actually and only through Jesus Christ alone that anyone can become clean and acceptable to God. And while we understand (even more so today) that certain foods are more healthy for us to eat than others, whether we eat red meat or are vegetarians, whether we eat salt or sugar, or use substitutes, those are all for our physical health and have nothing to do with our spiritual condition. Paul says the same in 1 Corinthians 8:8: “Food will not commend us to God. We are no worse off [spiritually] if we do not eat, and no better off [spiritually] if we do.”

So we are being warned here in Hebrews 13 not to elevate issues of diet and nutrition and certain kinds of food and drink to a place where we begin to put our hope in them for our spiritual well-being and acceptance with God rather than in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

The reason that these readers were to avoid being led away by these strange teachings is that
“it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, which have not benefited those devoted to them” (Heb. 13:9). It is possible that the author has in mind “the peace offerings that symbolized communion between the Lord and his people, since the meat of the sacrificed animal was shared by the Lord (blood sprinkled, fat and entrails burned), the priests, and the Israelite worshipers themselves (Lev. 3:1-17; 7:11-16). Such a fellowship meal in the OT sanctuary was rich in symbolism, but, since it conformed to “regulations for the body” (Heb. 9:10) that were temporary and external, it is no longer appropriate for new covenant believers. Now, believers under the New Covenant feed spiritually on Jesus Christ who is our Peace Offering.

It is grace which strengthens the believer’s heart, not subscription to rules and the avoidance of prohibited foods. There is no room now for material sacrifices, animal offerings, sacred meals and hallowed altars. All that is over and gone. Christians have determined to give central importance to one great aspect of their faith: Christ died for them. He was sacrificed for us and shed, not the blood of bulls, but his own blood. Those who stay within the narrow confines of Judaism and serve its tent, or tabernacle, can derive no benefit from the only sacrifice which really matters. (Raymond Brown, The Bible Speaks Today: Hebrews, 257)

Those Old Testament food offerings do not “strengthen” the heart, but rather the grace of God as expressed through the once-for-all, effective offering of Jesus Christ is what strengthens or establishes the heart.

Today, as Paul did long ago, we need to realize that all the food laws and all the sacrificial practices have been fulfilled in Christ (cf. Matt. 15:11; Mk. 7:18-23; Acts 10:15; Col. 2:16-23).

What does now “strengthen” (or “establish”: bebaioō; cf. 2:3; 6:19) the heart is God’s grace, received through faith in Jesus. By God’s grace Jesus tasted death on behalf of every believer (2:9), so that through him we can always draw near to God’s throne of grace to find grace (4:16).

Our author indicates for us how beneficial going to Jesus and His grace will be for us. He says “it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace.” Because it is “good” it should be something that we want, that we desire and pursue after.

A heart “strengthened” is the opposite of one that is “carried about with every wind of doctrine” (Eph. 4:14) or “led away” (Heb. 13:9). There is no legalism in grace; grace is all that God affords us because of what Christ did, not because of anything that we do. Christ’s efficacy is the basis for God’s grace toward us. Thus, salvation is all of God and not of us. Grace assures the believer of eternal salvation. A person who believes this is “strengthened or established by grace.”

Our author emphasizes that there are not two ways to gain spiritual strengthening and life—through Christ and through foods—when he emphasizes, “not by foods, which have not benefited those devoted to them” (Heb. 13:9).

Instead of going to the temple altar “We have an altar from which those who serve the tent have no right to eat” (Heb. 9:10). The priests used to eat from the altar, eating certain parts of the animal sacrifices. But our author points to a better altar, a heavenly altar, one “from which those who serve the tent (the priests) have no right to eat.” Even those highly privileged in the Old Testament to eat from the earthly altar are forbidden to eat from this altar because on this altar is Jesus Christ and the only way to partake of Him is by grace through faith. Unbelieving Jews “have no right to eat” of (feed on) Christ, who was sacrificed on that cross altar.

“The old system of the tabernacle accomplishes nothing eternal, nothing spiritual, and nothing that can contribute to our salvation or sanctification. It never has in any permanent way. Christians have an altar completely distinct from the system of animal sacrifices at the tabernacle. Here “altar” is used as an image for the perfect sacrifice of Christ on the cross. Those who exchange the full atonement of the cross of Christ for the temporal, ritual cleansing of animal sacrifices thumb their noses at the Messiah” (Charles R. Swindoll, Swindoll’s Living Insights: Hebrews, 221).

“Christians had none of the visible apparatus which in those days was habitually associated with religion and worship–no sacred buildings, no altars, no sacrificing priest. Their pagan neighbors thought they had no God, and called them atheists; their Jewish neighbors, too, might criticize them for having no visible means of spiritual support” (F. F. Bruce, The New International Commentary on the NT: Hebrews, 379). So our author here wants to encourage his readers that true faith in Jesus Christ, though it has so little visible, external support (Heb. 11) it is nonetheless real and powerful and is our real strength.

For the writer, [our] altar is the cross on which Jesus offered himself as a sacrifice to God. And to the Christian the cross is a symbol that represents the completed work of redemption. As the author of Hebrews repeatedly confirms, Christ offered his sacrifice once for all (9:25, 26, 28; 10:9, 12, 14). The clause we have an altar, then, stands for the cross, which symbolizes the redemption Christ offers his people. (William Hendriksen & Simon J. Kistemaker, NT Commentary: Hebrews, 418)

Grace only goes to the humble, who know they do not deserve it and can never earn it so they instead rest in faith, they “dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus’ name. This is the spiritual law behind Proverbs 3:34, which James 4:6 quotes: “‘God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.’” In our weakness, grace strengthens us.

In every one of Paul’s letters he opens by saying, “Grace be unto you.” And he concludes each of his letters with the same statement that we find in Hebrews 13:25 – “Grace be to you.” In other words, as you open God’s Word and read its contents, “grace” comes to you. Grace is the power of God released into your life through the Scriptures and the Holy Spirit. God wants your “heart” is to be “strengthened” by the power of His grace.

So we feed on Christ instead of the animal sacrifices. “We are allowed to feed on the sacrifice offered up for our sins, and not for our sins only, but for the sins of the whole people of God. And we thus have a far higher privilege in reference to sacred food, not merely than the Israelites, but even than the priests themselves enjoyed. Such seems to me the general meaning of the passage” (John Brown, Geneva Series Commentaries: Hebrews, 697-8).

Jesus told us in John 6:51, “ I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

“God knows that the greatest battle His church faces is purity of doctrine, because that is the basis of everything else. Every bad practice, every bad act, every bad standard of conduct, can be traced [back] to bad belief. The end result of the work of apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers, and of believers becoming unified in the faith and maturing in Christ, is that “we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves, and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming” (Eph 4:14). A church that is not sound in doctrine is unstable and vulnerable” (John MacArthur Jr., The MacArthur NT Commentary: Hebrews, 436-7)

Posted by Melissa Taylor on FaceBook, 12/4/24

This passage is encouraging believers not to be deceived. The sad reality is that we 21st century Christians are even more easily deceived than the ancients, even though we have the completed Scriptures and two thousand years of solid theological and biblical teaching. But we are gullible and naïve, believing everything that internet tells us. We fail to test this against the Word because we know so little of the Bible or sound doctrine.

If you are faltering and your heart needs to be strengthened, don’t put your trust in any laws or principles or rules or ten steps, but reinforce your faith in Jesus Christ. Go to the Scriptures and allow God’s grace to inflame your heart and inform your mind so that your faith grows.

Jesus has fulfilled the sacrificial system of the old covenant. It does no one any good any longer to trust in those blood offerings or to eat the meat of the sacrificial animals. Most of us are not doing that, but we might be trusting in our religious faithfulness, our baptism, our perfect attendance, our spiritual disciplines. Rather, one must now come to the only altar where full forgiveness and salvation may be found: the cross of Jesus Christ. And when you come to that altar, eat all the grace you can get!

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.