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Scripture Reading: Heb. 12:1-3
Hebrews 11 mentions Abel, Enoch, and many other men of old and tells us how they did many things "by faith." What does this mean? Here we are shown one very important thing that is indispensable to every Christian. This is faith. In 2:3, it mentions "so great a salvation." This salvation is not the initial salvation; it refers to the entrance into Canaan, which is the entrance into the kingdom with the Son of God. In this kingdom we reign with Christ. This is the gospel of the kingdom.
God puts two things before man. First, He puts eternal life before the sinner. Second, He puts the kingdom before the man who has obtained eternal life. He who believes has eternal life. However, "unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall by no means enter into the kingdom of the heavens" (Matt. 5:20). "Not every one who says to Me, Lord, Lord, will enter into the kingdom of the heavens, but he who does the will of My Father who is in the heavens" (Matt. 7:21). From these two verses we can see that obtaining eternal life only requires our believing, but there are other qualifications for entering into the kingdom.
Once a man is saved, God puts him into a race. The entire Christian life is a race. This race is not for obtaining eternal life. On the contrary, only those who already have eternal life are qualified to run the race. At the end of the race, some will receive a crown, while others will not receive a crown (1 Cor. 9:24-25).
What is a crown? A crown represents a kingdom. A crown is the symbol of kingship, reigning, and glory. Receiving the crown means to obtain the kingdom, which is to become kings to reign and receive glory with the Lord Jesus. Not receiving the crown means missing the kingdom, and failing to reign, rule, and receive glory with the Lord Jesus. The crown is the symbol of the kingdom. There is no problem with a Christian obtaining eternal life. However, his obtaining of the kingdom depends on how he runs the race.
After a man is saved, God puts him in a race which is aimed directly at the kingdom. All his words, conduct, thoughts, living, and everything about him have to do with whether or not he will obtain the kingdom in the future. Those who do not join the race have judged themselves unworthy of obtaining the kingdom. Those who do not run the race properly have delayed their obtaining of the kingdom. God has already put every Christian on this way. Whether or not we will obtain the kingdom depends on us. Our abandon, consecration, faithfulness, and victory will make us those that receive the crown. But those who desire the world and walk according to their flesh will see that although they have eternal life through the Lord Jesus, the kingdom of heaven is still not theirs.
What are the "witnesses" mentioned in Hebrews 12:1? Apparently, it refers to those who have great faith as mentioned in chapter eleven. Actually, it does not refer to the people themselves but to the things they did. The word witness is the same in the original language as in Acts 1:8 and 2:32. The Word of God tells us that the witnesses of the things done by those people are like a great cloud surrounding us.
What do these many witnesses witness? They witness to God's "great salvation" (Heb. 2:3-4). This great salvation is not only the forgiveness of sins but obtaining the kingdom. The kingdom is the goal of our race. God gave us so many witnesses for the purpose of encouraging us to live a life of faith so that we can run the race and receive the glory of the kingdom. Although the great men of faith in chapter eleven did not have the kingdom directly as their object of faith, their faith was nevertheless their race. For them to believe so recklessly was a kind of laying aside of everything for the running of the race. Apparently, they obtained what they believed in; some were raptured, some obtained the land, some were resurrected, and some were saved from perishing. But these things are not God's ultimate promise to them. What they had obtained through faith was only their earnest, proving that they would obtain the promised kingdom of God. "And these all, having obtained a good testimony through their faith, did not obtain the promise, because God has provided something better for us, so that apart from us they would not be made perfect" (Heb. 11:39-40). What is this talking about? It is about the kingdom. They had obtained the earnest, and this earnest is God's assurance to them that they would obtain the kingdom in the future.
"So great a cloud of witnesses," is the grace given by God through the faith of many people. God answered their prayers and worked miracles; He proved that their running of the race was well-pleasing to Him and that they would possess the kingdom. Since we have all these witnesses, we should run the race of faith.
God has put the kingdom before us, and He has given us a race to run. At the end of the race, we will see if we have failed or won. The winner will reign with the Lord, while the loser, though saved, will have nothing to do with the glory of the kingdom.
The race is already set, and those who want to run have to "put away every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us." There are two crucial things in running a race. First, we have to lay aside every weight, and second, we have to put away our sin.
Let us consider first the putting away of sin. Sin is the greatest hindrance to our progress. Sin causes a runner to lose his qualification. Sin is a violation. A violator will not be allowed to run the race but will be taken out of the race.
We should put aside and reject all the known sins. Envy, pride, filthiness in the heart, lies in the mouth, impatience in our disposition, and debauchery of lusts will all disqualify us from being a runner. Disqualified runners will not be able to enter into the kingdom of heaven or to reign with the Lord Jesus. Believers must stand upon Romans 6:6 and 6:11 and must reckon themselves to be dead to sin. At the same time, we must also reject sin and not allow it to have dominion over us; we should present our members as weapons of righteousness unto God. We have to thoroughly confess, repent, and renounce all our offenses before God and seek His forgiveness. We cannot run the race set before us with an accusing conscience. We should not have any sin that has not been denied and that leaves a prolonged guilty conscience within us. If we have offended anyone, we should confess to him properly. If we owe someone any material thing, we should repay him according to our ability. We should not have any offense against anyone that has not been dealt with. Do not be afraid of losses and do not be afraid of losing face. Otherwise, we will not be able to run the race. Moreover, we have to realize that the appearance of some sins is not bad, and they easily beguile us. Moses chose "rather to be ill treated with the people of God than to have the temporary enjoyment of sin" (Heb. 11:25). This shows us that sin has its enjoyment. Many sins make people feel happy. Man's flesh likes to sin because sin is something enjoyable. But we who have a true faith would rather suffer affliction and insult than have the enjoyment of sin. We should reject sin; otherwise, we will judge ourselves unworthy of the kingdom.
Consider again the words, "put away every encumbrance [weight]." What is a weight? A weight is not necessarily a sin nor something very bad. But it is something which easily besets us. If we do not remove the sin, we will lose our qualification in the race. However, if we do not lay aside our weight, even if we are qualified to run, we will not run fast. Have we ever seen a person running with his leather coat and his jacket on? Anything that hinders us from running fast or advancing forward is a weight.
In the nineteenth century there was a man who was greatly used by the Lord, who spent a great deal of time compiling a dictionary of Hebrew words. When it was completed, he sent it to his friends for review. His friends praised him much for his effort and considered that once this dictionary was published, he would become a well-known scholar. But, this brother eventually burned up the manuscript of the dictionary. He said, "The time of compiling [the dictionary] has decreased my love for the Lord and my love for the soul of man. Proofreading and printing will take up more time. I would rather burn it up." The proofreading and printing were not a sin, but to him they were a weight, and he chose to lay aside his weight. Although something is not sin, is it a weight to us? Will these things help us go on? Anything that frustrates our progress is a weight. Even a piece of clothing or a meal may become our weight. If we are going to run a race, and someone invites us for a bowl of noodles, or asks us to put on an overcoat, will we still be able to run the race? Therefore, we should not only remove our sin but should also lay aside every weight. If there is any weight upon us, we will never be able to run properly.
Lot failed because of the weight upon him. Lot himself was not a bad man but a righteous man who was oppressed by the licentious manner of life of the lawless (2 Pet. 2:7). But his living was different from that of Abraham. Abraham was living in the wilderness, and Lot was in the city. Abraham was living in a tent, and Lot was in a house. This was their difference — one was light and the other had a weight. Although he could run with a weight, eventually he failed because he could not run well.
We have to pay attention to what was said in Mark 4:19. The Lord did not say that we are fruitless because of sin, but "the anxieties of the age and the deceitfulness of riches and the lusts for other things" cause us to bear no fruit. We do not need to sin; only a little care of the world will cause us to bear no fruit. Riches are not sin, but riches will surely not help us to fly away with two wings. Whoever intends to be a rich man will never run a good race. We have to fulfill all our God-given duties. But if our heart is entangled by anything, we will not be able to run well.
Weight is not sin; in many cases, it may even be something legal. But it is still a weight and will reduce our speed in going forward. Perhaps our weight is a friendship which we cannot give up, a position which we are pursuing, a little bit of worldly ambition, a pleasant house, a bowl of delicious food, or a beautiful dress. Although these things and thousands of other things are not sin, they will hinder us from running in a fast way.
Therefore, we should check ourselves. Is there any sin that disables us from running? What is the weight that hinders us from running in a fast way? Sin disqualifies us from being a runner and drives us out of the race. Weight causes us to run badly, even to labor in vain. What is our special sin? What is our particular weight? We have to search out these sins and weights and remove them.
Those who run the race should not only lay aside the sin which so easily entangles them and every weight but should also run the race that is set before them with endurance. Why with endurance? Because the prize is not given at the beginning of the race, nor is it given in the middle of the race. Rather, it is given at the end — the very last step — of the race. We may run well at the start, and we may even run well at the mid-point, but we will not necessarily run well at the end. A victory involves winning at the beginning, at the mid-point, and at the end. Before reaching the end, we cannot guarantee that we will win the prize. We may fail in the last five steps. Once in a two hundred meter running race, a man was ahead of the other competitors by twenty meters at first. No one expected that he would fall down just two meters before the finish line. If we want to win the race, we have to be careful. We cannot say that we will surely win the prize before reaching the end. Even Paul said, "Not that I have already obtained or am already perfected, but I pursue" (Phil. 3:12). How about us?
What is to "run"? To "run" means to not stand still, it means to not walk slowly. It means to run forward fast and finish the longest distance within the shortest time. In other words, it means to run fast. Since there are many competitors, one has to be ahead of others if he wants to win the crown. Whether or not we win depends on how fast we run. If we waste our time and linger about, we will surely fail.
We are running the race which is set before us. There is only one race, which is the race set before us. We cannot choose the race we want to run. We have to run what God sets before us. In a race, who would dare run outside of the track? Everyone must run inside the track that is drawn for him. This is what 2 Timothy 2:5 says, "Also if anyone contends in the games, he is not crowned unless he contends lawfully." Unfortunately, many Christians, though running zealously, are not running the race set by God. All our own zeal, labor, and activities can never replace God's will. All the running outside of God's will eventually results in loss. God has set the race before us. We must run this race in order to gain the prize.
Our feet have to run right inside the track drawn by God. Our eyes have to be "looking away unto Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith" (Heb. 12:2). That means we have to look away from all other things and look to Jesus. We should not look at anything else but should look only at Jesus. Only when we look unto Jesus can we run straight. Many things around us may affect our vision and change our goal. Only by looking unto Jesus will we run the race from beginning to end.
He is the Author and Perfecter of our faith. Our faith is initiated by Him and perfected by Him. What we believe in is only Himself. Once we are in the Lord, we have to always abide in Him. We should set our mind only on the Lord Jesus. Even things like holiness, victory, perfect love, baptism in the Spirit, zeal in rescuing the perishing ones, spiritual warfare, and so on should not capture our hearts. All the "beginnings" and "endings" should depend on the Lord Jesus. Our faith should begin in Him and finish in Him. We must not look unto anything other than Christ. If we look unto Jesus only, things such as holiness and victory will spontaneously be manifested in our lives. But if we seek for anything apart from Christ, those things will only make our path crooked. In this spiritual journey, we must pray for revelation from God, so that we see that everything is in Christ. Forgiveness, justification, and regeneration are in Christ. Holiness, victory, the filling of the Spirit, and so on are also in Christ. Everything is Christ. He is the very beginning of the beginning, the very end of the end. He is the Alpha; He is the Omega. Everything of us depends on Him. Apart from Him, we cannot run the race set before us.
"Looking away" is the precondition of looking unto the Lord. Unless we look away from all other things, we can never look unto the Lord. Those who look around while running the race will never run well. They will either run into a wrong track or will stop altogether. Therefore, God does not want us to look unto anything else but Him. Furthermore, even looking back inside ourselves is a harmful thing in our spiritual journey. All kinds of introspection, self-analysis of our own feeling, self-consideration of our own progress, or even excessive concern about our own spirituality will hinder our progress. One of the greatest dangers in running the race lies in a subconscious introspection in the runners due to their anxiety over progress. The result is that we cannot look away unto Jesus. What is looking unto Jesus? Looking unto Jesus is not looking at ourselves. Looking unto Jesus is being drawn by Jesus from our inside world and joining ourselves to the One whom we are looking unto. Who is the Jesus we are looking unto? We look unto the Jesus who is the Author and Perfecter of our faith; He is the all-inclusive Jesus. The key to spiritual progress is to know in a proper way how to not look back on our own situation. Blessed are those who do not look at themselves. May the Spirit of God reveal to us what looking away means and what an improper looking back is.
Let us see how the Lord Jesus ran the race. He, "for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down on the right hand of the throne of God." The Lord Jesus ran straight by looking unto the joy set before Him. What kind of joy is this? He Himself had said, "Good and faithful slave...enter into the joy of your master" (Matt. 25:21). This refers to the joy of His millennial reign. According to His holy nature, our Lord is submissive to God. But the Bible also reveals another side of the truth: God's reward and approval, especially the kingdom, exercised some influence on Him. Our Lord went through all the shame and the cross and never drew back because of the joy set before Him.
Why does the Bible say, "Jesus," the Author and Perfecter of our faith rather than saying "Christ" or "Lord Jesus" (the address after His resurrection)? We know Jesus is His name as a man. God wants us to look unto Jesus so that we will look unto His human aspect. He is submissive to God by His nature; this refers to His divine aspect. He despised all the shame, enduring the cross for the joy set before Him; this refers to His human aspect. This is why the Spirit specifically mentions "Jesus," to show us that the prize also had considerable effect on Him as a man. It is right for us to obey God out of love for Him. But on the other hand, since God wants to motivate us to serve Him faithfully by means of the prize, it is not wrong for us to serve Him faithfully for the sake of the prize before us.
Why did Paul "forget...the things which are behind and stretch...forward to the things which are before," and "pursue toward the goal"? His own answer was "for the prize to which God in Christ Jesus has called me upward" (Phil. 3:13-14). The prize was the high calling of God, and Paul left all that he had for it. God is pleased when we serve Him faithfully for the sake of the prize.
Our Lord "endured" and "despised" because of the joy of the kingdom. How about us? Brothers and sisters, have we ever left anything for the glory of the kingdom? Have we ever quit doing what we wanted to do or done what we did not want to do for the sake of the prize from God? If this joy captured our Lord, can it not capture us? Many saints, in ancient times as well as today, left all they had for the sake of the kingdom's glory and followed Jesus. How about us?
Jesus, the One we look unto, is such a Jesus. He "for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down on the right hand of the throne of God" (Heb. 12:2). This is His case. In principle, the process should be the same for us too.
Shame was given to Him by men, and He despised it. The cross was given to Him by God, and He endured it. He was misunderstood, expelled, accused, forsaken, and condemned by people, but He did not care. It was not that the shame was never very severe; the shame He encountered was something ordinary men have never encountered. It was not that His holy emotion did not feel shame when He was insulted; His feeling was probably keener than that of anyone else. However, He despised it; He did not pay attention to the shame. The cross God gave Him was not light. What He went through before men, demons, and angels was not something easy. However, our Lord endured the cross. He took it. He endured it. What was the result? He was victorious to the end and "has sat down on the right hand of the throne," waiting for the appearance of glory.
How we like to save our face! We are afraid of being shamed, misunderstood, criticized, and opposed. We try our best to be a nice person. We avoid being shamed. We are not willing to deny ourselves or to be shamed for the Lord's sake. Even when we take the shame, we take it reluctantly. We are not willing to take such shame (which decreases our soul-life) silently, without any self-defense, and without trying to escape.
We are not willing to bear the cross which God gives to us. We are not walking on the way of the cross. We do not even know what the way of the cross is. We do not know that whatever happens to us is permitted by God. Everything that is contrary to our intention, that puts false charges against us, causes us painful feelings, frustrates us in our environment, and evaporates our hope, are crosses from God. How do we treat these things? Does our heart resist them? Do we complain to others? Do we wish that these things would go away? Any rebellious attitude within us will cause us not to run well in the race.
God allows each cross to come upon us with a special purpose. Each cross has its own special mission and its own special accomplishment in us. If we endure it according to God's will, just as the Lord Jesus endured His cross (note that His cross was for redemption, while ours is not), our natural life will be dealt with one more time. We will become more enlarged to be filled with the resurrection life of the Son of God. Our resistance and rebellion, as well as our strength in struggling to escape, will frustrate God's purpose and cause the cross to come upon us in vain. They will cause us to fail in what God wants to accomplish.
God set the Lord Jesus before us so that we may imitate Him. In closing, this passage tells us, "compare Him who has endured such contradiction by sinners against Himself, so that you may not grow weary, fainting in your souls" (Heb. 12:3). "Such" here indicates the way that He was disgraced, insulted, mistreated, forsaken, scourged, hurt, crucified (the cross also having its aspect from men), and so on. We should compare with care and compare these things one by one. In this way, we will not be weary and faint in our souls. When the Lord mentioned His persecution on earth to His disciples, He said, "A disciple is not above the teacher, nor a slave above his master." We cannot expect to be treated any better than the Lord Jesus was treated. "It is sufficient for the disciple that he become like his teacher, and the slave like his master." It is good that we are not treated worse than the Lord Jesus. For "if they have called the Master of the house Beelzebul, how much more those of His household!" (Matt. 10:24-25). Since He suffered all this ill-treatment on earth, how about us? If we consider these things, we will not be weary or faint in our souls even though we suffer and are disgraced and opposed.
One of the most dreadful things in the race toward the kingdom is being weary and faint in the soul. The soul is the organ of the emotion, mind, and will. Growing "weary, fainting in your souls" means being without strength in the soul. The will becomes paralyzed, the feeling cools down, and the mind loses interest. Everything seems to be vain, and we allow everything to take its natural course. "Whether or not I will receive a crown in the future is up to fate." One of the greatest temptations in running the race is that when all the things against us have swamped us, and we are unable to resist them, we simply give in to them and refuse to run seriously any more in order to gain the heavenly crown.
If we are willing to consider the Lord Jesus and examine His experience, we will not give in in this way. Gideon and his three hundred men were "faint, yet pursuing" (Judg. 8:4). We ought to be "faint, yet running."
May we all be persons who run the race. May we all be running until the end. Even if we are hurt, offended, misunderstood, and rejected while running, we still have to cheer up and run the race unwearily for the sake of the Lord Jesus. Who receives the most praises in a race? It is the one who is hurt, who rises up again, and who finally wins the first place. This person will surely receive unceasing praises. Therefore, being hurt and suffering are not a problem; even failing is not a problem. The one who falls down and rises up again is still the best runner. Brothers and sisters, today we are all in the race. Nothing counts today; everything will receive its final judgment at the end of the race. We should not give up, become weary, or faint in our soul for any reason. We ought to look unto Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith and run the race set before us!
