Sunday, December 21, 2008

Hebrews 12

   Paul's still addressing the people to whom he spoke in chapter 10 who seemed to be struggling with the once-and-for-all sacrifice of Christ on the cross.


(1) Therefore, since *we are surrounded by such a huge **crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every ***weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the ****race God has set before us.


*we: Throughout this chapter, Paul is including himself!


**crowd: cloud


The Fight, J. White: Run with Endurance: www.bible.org/illus.php?topic_id=974

   Hebrews 12:1 tells us to “run with endurance” the race set before
us. George Matheson wrote, “We commonly associate patience with lying
down. We think of it as the angel that guards the couch of the invalid. Yet
there is a patience that I believe to be harder—the patience that can
run. To lie down in the time of grief, to be quiet under the stroke of adverse
fortune, implies a great strength; but I know of something that implies a strength
greater still: it is the power to work under stress; to have a great weight
at your heart and still run; to have a deep anguish in your spirit and still
perform the daily tasks. It is a Christlike thing! The hardest thing is that
most of us are called to exercise our patience, not in the sickbed but in the
street.” To wait is hard, to do it with “good courage” is
harder!


   Every athletic team with a winning tradition feels the pressure to live up to the standards of earlier, successful teams. That pressure is especially present when members of the former teams attend the games as spectators to evaluate the new kids. Part of the message of this verse is that every Christian lives within an historical tradition of faithfulness and every Christian is responsible to hand that tradition of faith and obedience on to another generation. We are who we are as Christians because of Paul and Martin Luther and John Wesley and a host of less known pastors, teachers, and Christian models. Part of the responsibility of faithfulness is not only faithfulness to God but to the long living stream of faithful people who delivered the faith to us and expect us to pass it on to others.


   The Old Testament saints witness to us of the reality of a lifetime of faithfulness. God is pleased with them. They are testimonies of endurance and patient faith. Those readers of Hebrews who might be engrossed in their own trouble should be encouraged by the similar experience of Old Testament saints. They ran well and died well; they looked forward to a better resurrection (11:35) and God commended them. The message is clear - let us endure well so we too may have such a commendation.


***weight: Paul was implying that successful perseverance under pressure would require that his readers put aside harmful habits and distracting activities and attitudes. Remember that the Greek race runners ran naked - they wanted nothing to hold them back.


****race: Greek agon. The early Greek games included foot races, jumping, discus throwing, javelin throwing, wrestling, boxing, and chariot races. These contests were called agon in Greek. Similarly, in 1 Timothy 6:12, Paul encourages Timothy to Fight the good fight for the true faith and in 2 Timothy 4:7-8, Paul, in his later years, declares, I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, and I have remained faithful. In the phrase, “fight the good fight,” the Greek verb is agonizo and the noun is agon from which we get our English words agonize and agony. Paul states that he has “agonized” and won the “agon.” Life is a marathon, not a 100-meter dash! A marathon demands sacrifice, self-denial and self-discipline and requires endurance to the end.


(2) We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who *initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne.


*initiates and perfects our faith: Or Jesus, the *originator and **perfecter of our faith.


*originator: Greek archegos. "Author" in the King James Version. Translated "Captain" in Hebrews 2:10 and "Prince (of life)" in Acts 3:15.


**perfecter: Greek teleiotes: completer, consummater, finisher. "Finisher" in the King James Version. Hebrews 10:14: For by that one offering he forever made perfect [teleiotes]those who are being made holy.


(3) Think of all the hostility he endured from sinful people; then you won’t become weary and give up.


   Some manuscripts read Think of how people hurt themselves by opposing him.


(4) After all, you have not yet given your lives in your *struggle against sin.


*struggle against sin: Struggling not against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places. (Ephesians 6:12). These are all a part of the agon we are called to fight, too.


(5) And have you forgotten the encouraging words God spoke to you as his children? He said, “My child, don’t make light of the Lord’s discipline, and don’t give up when he corrects you.


(6) For the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes each one he accepts as his child.”


Proverbs 3:11-12: My child, don’t reject the Lord’s discipline, and don’t be upset when he corrects you. For the Lord corrects those he loves, just as a father corrects a child in whom he delights.


Deuteronomy 8:5: Think about it: Just as a parent disciplines a child, the Lord your God disciplines you for your own good.


(7) As you endure this divine discipline, remember that God is treating you as his own children. Who ever heard of a child who is never disciplined by its father?


   The beginning of verse 7 is difficult to translate. Literally, it says either, "Into training you endure" (an indicative statement), or, "Into training endure" (a command). However it's translated, it indicates a strong connection between training and endurance - specifically, endurance in the faith (10:36, 12:1-3).


(8) If God doesn’t discipline you as he does all of his children, it means that you are illegitimate and are not really his children at all.


(9) Since we respected our earthly fathers who disciplined us, shouldn’t we submit even more to the discipline of the Father of our spirits, *and live forever?


*and live forever: Or and really live?


(10) For our earthly fathers disciplined us for a few years, doing the best they knew how. But God’s discipline is always good for us, so that we might share in his holiness.


Romans 8:28-29: And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them. For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.


(11) No discipline is enjoyable while it is happening—it’s painful! But afterward there will be a peaceful harvest of right living for those who are trained in this way.


   If God does not require repeated sacrifices to renew salvation, how does God deal with disobedient believers? The answer is chastisement. When we disobey God, he doesn't expect another sacrifice to be offered by the offender as the Jews were accustomed to doing; he expects a confession of sin. 1 John 1:9 says simply, "But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness." But what if we don't confess our rebellion against God? Well, right at the heart of this chapter 12 are verses 6-8, "the Lord disciplines those he loves". God uses chastisement, not loss of salvation, to correct believers...just like an earthly father uses chastisement to correct his children.


   What could be more loving than a God who gives us hard experiences and trials in order that we might in the long run become closer to Him, and closer to His very likeness? The goal of His discipline, rebuke, and punishment, is intimacy with Him!


   God loves us too much to leave us in a
place of only superficial righteousness, peace, and holiness. He wants us to have the real thing, so time and time

again He sabotages our plans and perfect little lives that we are trying to make for ourselves that we might share in
the real thing in Him. That we might have a real righteousness, a real peace, and real holiness, and not the
counterfeits we tirelessly try and produce day after day. It is possible that the readers of Hebrews had allowed themselves to accuse God of not treating them well. Perhaps some had said, "If God really loves us, why does he allow these things to happen to us?" Such questions may be part of the honest struggle to understand the confusion of the painful things of life. But the answer is not to allow anger and misunderstanding toward God to fester. The answer is that God has higher goals for us than simply our ease and pleasure.


(12) So take a new grip with your tired hands and strengthen your weak knees.


   Verse 12 draws upon a partial quotation of Isaiah 35:3 to command them to strengthen your drooping hands and weakened knees. The author pictures his readers as boxers who are staggering and dropping their defenses in weakness. The command, though, is not to each of them to tough it out and to try harder. The command is to all of the readers to strengthen each other. This is a command to encourage each other. Brace each other up. Get each other's defense back up. Help each other stay in the battle and continue the race. The use of Isaiah 35:3 is also important because the following verse, Isaiah 35:4, promises that God will come and deliver his people. The promise of Scripture is that God will help us through the persecution, pressures, and problems of life. But until God arrives we are responsible to strengthen each other. We are not in the battle by or for ourselves. We are a part of a community of faith and as community we are responsible to keep all of us moving ahead until God intervenes on our behalf.


(13) Mark out a straight path for your feet so that those who are weak and lame will not fall but become strong.


Proverbs 4:26: Mark out a straight path for your feet; stay on the safe path.


Psalm 119:105: Your word is a lamp to guide my feet and a light for my path.


   God's Word illuminates the path of our lives. If we keep God's Word shining along the way, then we will be far less likely to trip. We will not be easily deceived. Because we are following the light, we will see what the light reveals in the path ahead of us. It is only when we turn the light off (before we have actually arrived at our destination) that something could spring up in the dark and trip us. Therefore, if we keep the light of God's truth shining brightly ahead of us, then we have a greater chance of avoiding deception.


A Call to Listen to God


(14) *Work at living in peace with everyone, and *work at living a holy life, for those who are not holy will not see the Lord.


*Work at = Pursue. The word pursue is a strong word that is often translated "persecute" or "hunt" in other contexts. It denotes an intensity in spiritual matters that is rare in contemporary Christianity. The author knows that we cannot survive pressure and problems with a casual attitude. Intense commitment to total obedience is the only way a Christian wins victory in the face of pressure.


(15) Look after each other so that none of you fails to receive the grace of God. Watch out that no poisonous root of bitterness grows up to trouble you, corrupting many.


(16) Make sure that no one is immoral or godless like Esau, who traded his birthright as the firstborn son for a single meal.


(17) You know that afterward, when he wanted his father’s blessing, he was rejected. It was too late for repentance, even though he begged with bitter tears.


(18) You have not come to *a physical mountain, to a place of flaming fire, darkness, gloom, and whirlwind, as the Israelites did at Mount Sinai.


*a physical mountain: Greek to something that can be touched.


(19) For they heard an awesome trumpet blast and a voice so terrible that they begged God to stop speaking.


(20) They staggered back under God’s command: “If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned to death.”


Exodus 19:13.


(21) Moses himself was so frightened at the sight that he said, “I am terrified and trembling.”


Deuteronomy 9:19: feared that the furious anger of the Lord, which turned him against you, would drive him to destroy you. But again he listened to me.


(22) No, you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to countless thousands of angels in a joyful gathering.


(23) You have come to the assembly of God’s firstborn children, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God himself, who is the judge over all things. You have come to the spirits of the righteous ones in heaven who have now been made perfect.


   Wow! What a verse! First, it says my name is written in heaven. Second it says I've come to God. Third it says that our saved loved ones who preceded us are in heaven now and have been made perfect!


(24) You have come to Jesus, the one who mediates the *new covenant between God and people, and to the sprinkled blood, which speaks of forgiveness instead of crying out for vengeance like the blood of Abel.


*new covenant: The New Testament uses two different Greek words for "new." "Neos"
means new in contrast to old. "Kainos" means "new" in the
sense of "unique". Hebrews 12:24, which identifies Jesus Christ as
the mediator of the new covenant, is the only scripture where "neos"
is used in reference to the new covenant. Every other passage uses "kainos."


   The terror of Mt. Sinai did not describe their faith. Yet they were being tempted to abandon Mt. Zion to return to Mt. Sinai. Paul has done his best to paint the options clearly. A return to Mt. Sinai, to Judaism, would be a tragic loss because all the advantages of the superiority of Christ that were developed in chapters 1-10 would be lost. Faithful loyalty to Mt. Zion, as verse 24 makes clear, means loyalty to Christ.


   Verse 24 powerfully describes the grace of God that is at work in Christ. Paul says that we have come to Jesus and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. The blood of Abel spoke a word of isolation and hatred between brothers. The blood of Abel spoke a word of guilt and condemnation before God. The blood of Abel speaks in all of our lives at the point of our failure to love God with our whole heart, soul, mind, and strength and our neighbor as ourselves.


   But the blood of Abel is not the only blood that speaks. The blood of Christ speaks a word of pardon and cleansing as we stand before God. The blood of Christ speaks a word of reconciliation and love as we face each other. The blood of Christ speaks a word of re-creation that graciously calls us forward to love of God and love for each other. The blood of Christ speaks the grace of God into our lives. That grace could enable the first readers to remain true to Christ in spite of persecution. It also can enable us to faithfully persevere in the face of any pressures we may experience.


(25) Be careful that you do not refuse to listen to the One who is speaking. For if the people of Israel did not escape when they refused to listen to Moses, the earthly messenger, we will certainly not escape if we reject the One who speaks to us from heaven!


(26) When God spoke from Mount Sinai his voice shook the earth, but now he makes another promise: “Once again I will shake not only the earth but the heavens also.”


Haggai 2:6: “For this is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says: In just a little while I will again shake the heavens and the earth, the oceans and the dry land.


(27) This means that all of creation will be shaken and removed, so that only unshakable things will remain.


(28) Since we are receiving a Kingdom that is unshakable, let us be thankful and please God by worshiping him with holy fear and awe.


(29) For our God is a devouring fire.



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