Hebrews 12:1 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Hebrews 12:1

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‘Wherefore’, indicating that a duty follows from the example of the heroes of faith in chapter 11. It is not an accidental thing that they give us this example; it is as God has designed it. He blessed their lives and recorded these events for our learning, all the things that were written in the Old Testament were recorded and preserved for our benefit. If you read the old writers and the old preachers up until fairly recent times, you would find this is obvious to them. It is not just that we look at Old Testament events to get roughly the moral of the story. No it is far deeper than that. We see there are direct parallels as God superintended their affairs that speak to us and to our spiritual situations today. Nowadays, there are many people – and they are people who have found Christ and love him and some may be eminent preachers – and sadly, they look at the Scripture in a much more limited way than that. ‘O no,’ they say, ‘the original authors of Scripture recorded things for their immediate generation. So we study the history and geography and the events of the Old Testament. It never occurs to us that these things speak directly to us.’ But there are parallels that God has intended; everything in the Old Testament has a pastoral message applicable today – that is the traditional way of viewing the Scripture.Wherefore, there are duties arising out of our consideration of the people who trusted God in time past. It is tempting to see a picture of those who have gone to heaven before us, the great ones of the past, and to imagine them surrounding us as they view us from heaven, but of course that is not the meaning. It might be a nice thought, but they cannot see us; we are not open to their view. They are witnesses in the sense that their conduct was a witness in their day and proved the Lord to those around them, and God attested them. There is a double witness: their own and the attestation of God upon them. In what way are we surrounded by them? Well they witness to us, not directly, but in Scripture. If you have got your head in the Scripture, they are all round you; that is the perspective of the inspired author of this letter to the Hebrews. We have the whole Scripture, and every time we take up the Bible we are surrounded by witnesses: examples, demonstrations of the power of God in the lives of individuals, and we live in the Scripture. The more you go on in the Christian life, you know and love your Scriptures, and you depend upon them and draw from them. These witnesses are now in the celestial sphere living in glory, so a beautiful cloud is an appropriate analogy for them. They are in serenity and happiness, clothed in dignity and status with Christ in glory. The account of fruitful things that they did is like a refreshing cloud by which the earth is irrigated, for the same faith they demonstrated is present in us and is encouraged by their example. The things that they did redound to the glory of God.The Christian life is a race from conversion to heaven. You have got to prepare for it; you have got to put every effort into it, concentrating the whole time. In what sense, is it a race as far as the other runners are concerned? There many suggestions. The most normal and common is this: yes, there are many runners, but they are not all saved. Some of the runners in this race to heaven, may be those who believe in justification by works. Maybe some of the Jews to which this letter is addressed were still rather enamoured of the idea that you need the Jewish ritual and ceremony, and so they were trusting in the wrong things for salvation. Not all will win the prize, because not all in this race are true Christians. The world is full of people who think they are in the heavenward race, but they are not. You must so run that you obtain the prize and you can only do that through conversion, through the blood of Jesus Christ, and trusting in him and his atoning death, looking to him to sustain you in your Christian life.

Application

‘Let us lay aside’ – it is the analogy of putting off encumbering clothing, heavy outer wear, when you need to do something which requires you to be nimble and agile. Lay aside the old nature in order to trust God and to prove him and have his attestation upon you, so that it is evident to those in your family and around you that you walk with him. In order to do that, you must actively put off the old nature. How soon we forget! How quickly we become spiritually idle and we relax. The old Reformed analogy is the very best in sanctification: we have a new nature and the old nature is now in submission. Residual sin is now the lesser part of us, but it is still there and it is clamouring for attention. If we forget that, the old sins and tendencies rise up again. We have to be watchful. Am I allowing it and I am failing to restrain it; I am not putting off these impulses and that sinful pride and these bad retaliatory reactions to difficulties or insults? Sins are like weeds in the garden. You neglect them and you know how quickly they grow. Lay aside material care when earthly things become too important to you. Some things are a very important. You have got to sort them out for the sake of your family and your children, but other things are not necessary and they are just luxuries and they begin to mean too much and get too much fuss. These things so easily get out of balance, and we have to be prepared to act boldly.

I remember a student and he was a very able fellow, and he began his studies and he joined just about every student association and activity that was going on. All the things he joined were justifiable things and good things. He took one or two extra language tracks; he joined various sporting and other organisations, and it cost him almost all his student period Christian life. Because he was involved in so many things he couldn't watch for his life. He couldn't engage in devotions as he wanted, and he grew unconcerned about witness and church attendance and it swept him away for much of his student life. We have got to be so careful that we do not get ourselves overwhelmed with business with affairs or with recreations, because our spiritual walk must take priority.

The race that is set before us: the route is obvious. It would be madness to go the other way or to choose a route of your own. Are you choosing your own course in the Christian life? ‘This is my chosen career; this is where I am going to live. I will do this I will do that.’ You are trying to choose your own race, but there is of course set out to you. Always ask God to help you be ready to be in his hands. Give your life and your soul to him fully. We don't know how long our race will be, whether it will a short sprint, taken away in relative youth, or whether it will be a long race, requiring a lot of persistence and stamina. Nor do we know the terrain the Lord has assigned for us. It could be a race along the flat, or a cross country race, or even a hill race, something, perhaps, we could never do physically, we may be called to do spiritually. Satan never lets off. Always you have to be ready for his temptations.

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Hebrews 12:1 Commentary and Bible Study