The Author And Finisher Of Faith Series

HEBREWS 12:1-2 [LEAVING A LEGACY SERIES]

THE AUTHOR AND FINISHER OF FAITH

[1 Corinthians 9:24-27; 2 Timothy 4:7-8]

This passage is a moving exhortation that motivates believers to Christian living. In it our writer links those who have previously lived by faith with the believer’s present responsibility to run by faith toward the high calling of God. The believer’s calling is high indeed. The verses just prior to our text have taught that the goal toward which the people of faith are moving is perfection.

We know that the attainment of perfection will only come about when Jesus appears, and we become like Him. As it says in 1 Jn. 3:2; "Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we shall be. We know that, when He appears, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him just as He is." If the goal is perfection and perfection is to be like Jesus, then it is understandable that God is seeking now to move us toward that ultimate goal while we pilgrimage on this earth. But how is God seeking to get us to mature in Him toward the culmination, "the summing up of all things in Christ?”

Here is given the secret of parting from the old life and entering into and progressing with endurance in the new life. The secret is (CIT) fixing our attention upon Jesus and following the path of faith that His obedience created for us. This obedience and discipline will free us from all that would hinder the development of our faith and deliver us from all the sin that seeks to entangle us. Then we can know the joy that comes from being obedient to God's will for our life.

I. RUNNING OUR RACE, 1.

II. FINISHING OUR FAITH, 2.

Given the past examples of faith and Jesus’ own endurance on the cross believers are called in verse 1 to run with endurance the race of faith. The exhortation finds its encouragement in that we are not alone but surrounded by a cloud of heroic witnesses. “Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us,”

“Therefore” (emphatic position) is an appeal based on the argument previously given in chapter 11, which is known as God's heroes of faith. A Chinese proverb says: "To forget one's ancestors is to be a brook without a source, a tree without a root." As a believer, the men and women mentioned in chapter eleven of Hebrews (a roll call of the faithful) are your spiritual ancestors. Reading these verses should provide you with role models galore.

Some received God's hand of protection in this life. Others realized God had a different plan for them and were faithful unto death. All were like the man described as "a guy who would go after Moby Dick with a row boat, a harpoon, and a jar of tartar sauce."

The author of Hebrews now urges us to resemble our spiritual ancestors: live with a dynamic faith; attempt great things for a great God; and, if necessary, die in faithfulness with the Christ who died for you. Make those who follow you as proud of your actions as you are of the faithful who have going before you.

In the Christian life “we have” an inspiration. We have the encouragement of the unseen “cloud of witnesses.” The word “cloud” (?ef???, Latin for nubes) is a vast cloud. This vast cloud is made up of not mere spectators, but “witnesses” who testify from their own experience (11:2,4,5,33,34) to God fulfilling His promises as illustrated in chapter 11. Their life bears witness that, no matter what, God will see us through.

They are also witnesses in a double sense - they have been witnesses to us by their life of faith and they are now witnesses of the performance of our faith. They have run the race of life with loyalty and endurance by faith in God and they watch to see how we are running ours.

There is a suggestion here that the present heaven has a stadium-like place where those in heaven can watch us as we run the race of life. What an incentive it is to know that others have successfully finished their given tasks and that the loved ones who have gone on before have opportunity to cheer us on from heaven.

With this encouragement verse 1 continues with a command: “Let us also lay aside every encumbrance (burden) and the sin which so easily entangles us.”

If we would travel far with God we must travel light. Sin is pictured as a weight or impediment to be discarded. In the life of faith there is an essential duty of discarding or “laying aside” encumbrances because they hinder or “entangle us.”