Hebrews 12.4
October 26th 2014
Meat
Welcome
Prayer
Singing
Silence
Okay, the writer of Hebrews has been trying, since the end of chapter ten, to move his reader (and us) to embrace patience.
And so after presenting a bunch of Old Testaments examples of people who walked by patient faith, he said in verse one:
Hebrews 12:1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
And having said this He gives a way and means to accomplish this, “laying aside every weight and sin which so easily besets us,” and to truly, “run with patience the race that is set before us.”
What is this way and means? Verse 2-3
Hebrews 12:2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
3 For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.
He has petitioned us to running with patience and has now given us a way to effectively implement it into our lives, saying (first)
Look to Jesus, the author and finishers of our faith.
It’s sort of ridiculous, but who else are we going to look to?
I’ve spent a number of years of my early life looking for a hero. I found them but in the end they all had feet of clay. Even as a young Christian – after reading chapters like Hebrews 11 – I would look to Samson, or David, or Moses.
Buy since everything they did was a type of some sort or another with most of the typography perfectly picturing Jesus why have any other hero, any other idol, why look to anyone other than the King, the author and finisher of our faith?
In other words, the writer seems to be saying, “If you are struggling with patience, longsuffering, and carrying on in the Christian call (“the race that is set before you”) look to Him, he says, the “author and finisher of our faith.”
Realizing that what I am about to say is frankly idiotic but when we think about it, Jesus is the ultimate, consummate, perfect example of how to live the patient, faithful, loving Christian walk, right?
None better. Why? One reason is because He is the “author and finisher of faith.”
By the way, not the author and finisher of our faith but of faith – the word “our” is not the original (from what I can tell).
Does this change the meaning? It sort of does, doesn’t it?
“Our faith” sort of makes faith a proprietary product, right? But the author and finisher “OF FAITH” makes Him, His work, and faith more . . . powerful, and profound even.
“Our faith makes it personal and entitled . . . almost elitist. “OF FAITH” makes it universal, out there for all and available to any who seek.
We could even read, “Our faith” through a Calvinist lens, believing that the faith we possess, and live by, and grow is completely imputed to us by the author instead of such faith being authored by Him and available to all who embrace it.
After having displayed all these heroes of faith just a few verses prior the writer now seem to be telling us who all of it originates – the author and finisher of it all – a move that clearly separates Him from all the heroes of chapter 11, right?
Going to the Greek we get additional insight into this title for the Lord, the author and finisher of faith.
The word for author is archegos, and it comes from the root word arche, which means first, primary, beginning, or best yet primary form or first principles.
From arche we get archeology – the study of ancient or primary matter, architecture, the study of primary from , archetype representations of the primary or principle individual and so on.
From this word and its definition we could easily change “author” to originator or “beginner” or even “alpha.”
The Greek for finisher (used in the King James) is “teleiotace” and it straight up means finisher, completer and the end in some cases.
Taking author and finisher out from the King James we could rename Him in English to the “beginning and the end” of our faith which in the Greek is written in places as the Alpha and the Omega – the first and the last letters of the Greek alphabet.
We may be tempted by the phrase that Jesus is the beginning and end of faith, the author and finisher, to believe that the writer is speaking of Him being the one who gives and grants faith.
Whether this is true or not is besides the point – the author is probably continuing His allusion to the Olympic games or athletic competition mentioned in verse one (where he says that with patience we ought to run the race set before us) and continuing this allusion is hold Jesus up as the one who has taken first and finished the race in a way like none before Him.
I would suggest that this is the contextual understanding of the passage and the authors meaning – Jesus is the pre-imminent leader of all those who have served as examples of having confidence in God, for he was himself is the most illustrious example of it.
In all things, as Revelation 1:8 & 11 states, Jesus is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, the first and the last, ” so we ought to look to Him as such.
He continues, saying:
“Who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross.”
The phrase is difficult but most translations retain it – “who for the joy that was set before Him.”
First we have to decide what the line means and most agree that the writer is saying, Over against the joy at his feet He endured the cross,” OR “by comparison to the joy that was within His view He endured the cross.”
The question we have to ask is what was the “joy” that was set before Him that motivated Him to endure something so horrific as the cross.
Some Bible commentators actually say that Jesus was looking with anticipation to receiving the glory and honor He once had with the Father, and to assuming a place at His side and this was the joy set before Him.
Not sure I agree with this – suppose its possible.
To me it seems like the joy that was placed before Him was the opportunity to please the Father.
Psalm 40:8 says: “I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart.”
If we as believers delight in the law of God according to the inward man, I think we can certainly conclude that Jesus did a million times more.
So, in His delight to honor and serve God what does the writer remind us that Jesus did? He “endured the cross.”
And then, in relationship to His enduring the cross, adds, “despising the shame.”
It’s an odd paradox we face in this day and age where the cross has come to represent a sort of honor – even if it is merely a fashion statement.
There can be a kind of coolness or hipness to it in our day and age – even among believers who better understand its historical significance.
By allowing ourselves to go back in our imaginations to the time of Jesus and the apostles the cross was anything but cool or accepted.
It was a time where reputation meant everything to men of reputation, and mockery was heaped upon anyone who failed to meet societal demands.
We are talking about utter barbarism, mockery, and an air of shame that would cause us in this modern age to recoil with fright were it to reappear today.
I’m not really sure what a modern comparison could be to the utter shame and degradation Jesus faced in death by crucifixion by the Romans.
Suffering the death penalty by any method certainly wouldn’t do it – the cross was just utterly humiliating.
Much of this is lost on us today because we think of Jesus dying on it to save the world forgetting that most (if not all) the people who died on it before Him (and after, in large part) were the most vile criminals on earth.
So the association to the cross in those days was really bad (to put it mildly).
To really see the true force of the expression used here by the author, that
He . . .
“For the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame.”
I think we have to try and divest ourselves of all our present ideas about it and see it for what it was –
The single most embarrassing, shameful icon that anyone with any self-respect would be ashamed to be associated . . . it was on this that Jesus allowed Himself to be hung.
And afterward we read:
“And is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
Passages like this lend greatly to my seeing Jesus Christ, the Son of Man, born of a woman, as the emblem of the human race and far removed from deity.
In other words what was in Him, the fullness of God, is not what the writer is making a big deal of being set down at the right hand of God, but the Man Jesus Christ who, by utter and total love and humility overcame His house of flesh and will, obeyed perfectly out of love, and earned His place there at the right hand of God.
We have the tendency to reiterate that Jesus was God. No doubt. It’s an important distinction in our understanding of His ontology or make-up.
Fully God in His being.
But where He relates and represents and obtained the place at the right hand of God, where the writer says He was set after authoring and finishing our faith, was, is as a man.
I talked about this this morning a bit But Christ earned His place at the right hand of God. How? Perfect obedience to the perfect law of God obtained by love.
Something no human being could ever do. As Man, even full of our sin, He obeyed, doing the will of the Father.
And now, as exalted Man Jesus Christ, is set down at the right hand of God.
This setting down is meaningless if we are merely talking about The Word reassuming its place with God.
But it has incomprehensible meaning when we realize that one of us overcame this place, out of love, as a means to love God and love His fellow man – us.
Here Jesus the Son of Man, NOT the Son of God was exalted to the highest place of dignity and honor in the universe.
In Ephesians 1 beginning at verse 15 Paul writes to the believers are Ephesus
15 Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints,
16 Cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers;
17 That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him:
18 The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,
19 And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power,
20 Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places,
21 Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come:
22 And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church,
23 Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.
Here in Hebrews 12 the writers sentiment seems to be, “Hey my brothers that are struggling with carrying on in patient faith, “look to the king and imitate His life who, out of love of God and the pure joy in pleasing and serving Him endured incomprehensible shame and suffering and afterward was set at the right-hand of God as a result.
Again – for emphasis and clarity – it is the fact that Jesus (Joshua) the Man, the Son of Man, was set at the right hand of
God that matters here, not the fact that Jesus (the Word) reassumed His rightful place on the throne at the right hand of God.
If this was what was being celebrated I don’t believe we would have any of this “right hand of God (or throne of God) going on.” The Word would have just returned to God and assimilated back into the light.
But Jesus, the Son of Man took His earned place at the RIGHT hand of God.
We never have this phrase, the right hand of God or right hand of the throne of God in the Old Testament.
We have Jehovah or the Lord sitting on His throne and the hosts of heaven described as on his right and his left, but this description is missing in the OT.
Why?
Because God is one, He was on His throne, and there was no Son of God prior to the incarnation of Christ.
There was His word – which was made flesh and dwelled among us – and that word dwelling in the heart of God from eternity.
But when the Word became flesh – Man, human – we have God becoming one of us – fully human. Tempted in all things, tested beyond our ability to compute, and having overcome all things, and having fulfilled the perfect Law of God, He, Jesus the human being, was set at the right hand of God and given full power and authority over all things.
He reigns. We look to Him – as our Lord, savior, redeemer, mediator to the Father whom He pleased. And now we seek to please Him.
This Jesus set down at the right hand of God earned His salvation. He was not saved (from the effects of our sin imputed to His account) by grace nor was He the beneficiary of an unmerited gift.
He earned every whit of His glory, and honor, and place with the Father.
I think it is interesting that He and only He was able to please the Father. How? By perfectly living all that the perfect law of God demanded.
This came by Him submitting His fleshly will (without fail) to the will of God. Unlike us, there were no exceptions to this in Jesus life. And He is the only one to whom the Father has said, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.”
No other human being has ever pleased the Father through their own merits. Only Jesus.
But we learn from scripture that those who then look to the beginning and end work of Jesus, who trust in Him and obey His command (which is to love) please the Father.
And in this we see how He, Jesus, becomes “the everything of Man.” He is who God gave us to save us. God is not jealous of our faith on Him, our love for Him, our allegiance to Him – God so loved us He gave us Him – and made Him the saving solution to the rift between holy God and fallen Man.
There at the right hand of God, empowered with all things, Jesus and Jesus alone mediates between us and Holy God, that consuming fire of light and love.
One of the problems religion creates in the face of Jesus life and person is to suggest that He is our example of how we must live.
And while it is true He did show us the way, and how to respond and live in love, we cannot come close to living how He lived. NOT even close.
To suggest it puts us under as much of a law and burden as the law written in stone.
He and He alone pleased God by merit. The rest of us please God by our faith and trust in Him and His finished work. To try and get to or please God in the same way His Son pleased Him puts us in a very bad place with God and I can’t help but wonder if God will openly laugh when such feeble attempts are presented to Him for reward.
The writer then continues and alludes to the Grecian atheletic games in this on-going comparative.
So as a means to encourage the waning Hebrew converts to faith, to holding on, to patiently running the race that is set before them, he has suggested (in verse 12) that they:
Hebrews 12:2 Look to Jesus, (the Son of Man) the author and finisher of faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
And then he appeals to another way they (and we) might look to Jesus as an example of patient faith.
You see, what seems to have been plaguing these believers and causing them to look back at the law and to even abandon their walk with Christ – to grow impatient – were the trials and persecutions heaped upon them by zealous Jews.
They were pushing on them hard for having abandoned the law, and accepting the man Jesus as Messiah.
This pressure and sway was causing them to reconsider their faith – and the patience with which they had once pursued it.
So the writer appeals to Christ and admonishes these weak believers to:
(verse 3)
3 consider him (again, Christ) that endured “such contradiction of sinners against himself,” lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.
That last line, lest you be wearied and faint in your minds has yet another reference to Greek athletics.
The two Greek words for “wearied and faith” are used throughout Greek history (of their games) and refer to the state a competitor reaches when exhausted, he would yield up the palm of his hand which was the signal for, “I quit. You won.” I surrender to your power and abilities.”
So the writer is encouraging them that this is not acceptable for a follower of Christ. No surrender to the enemy or the competition. Later in the chapter he will detail for us (once again) the end result for those who give in and give the palm of surrender.
So he says:
“consider him!” that endured (a word, in the Christian sense that implies patience amidst suffering) “such contradiction of sinners against himself,” . . . lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.
They were enduring immense trials of threats and ill-treatment and even death, so the writer say consider Him who endured . . . what?
“endured such contradiction of sinners.”
When I first read this I thought that possibly it referred to the discomfort and contradiction our sin had in His holy person and how He endured it.
Wrong.
The Greek again helps us with the proper interpretation because the word for “contradiction” in anti-log-ia,” we know anti means against and lego means in many places, “words or presentations,” so we know from this that we are talking about the strife sinners were giving them.
“Persecution.” “Opposition,” and that it refers to the Jews of the time of the Savior, who opposed his plans, perverted his sayings, and ridiculed his claims.
A better word, which a number of translations use is hostility, causing us to read the verse as:
“Compare yourselves with him who endured such hostility against himself at the hands of sinners, lest you grow weary, fainting in your souls.”
You are being tried and persecuted, and questioned, mocked and maligned. And you are considering abandoning the faith over it.
“Compare your situation with His who endured such hostility AGAINST HIS VERY PERSON at the hands of SINNERS (lest) a – as a means to avoid growing weary and you faint in your souls.
We learn a couple things from this single verse which I believe are very important to our walk.
First, when we are growing weary and fainting, look at your situation and compare it to His.
Something about this practice enables us to gain some perspective, possibly some humility in the face of our trials.
When things get “tough” for me and I find myself in the sites of some rather relentless attacks – which too can be aimed directly at my person – the first thing I have to realize when comparing my situation to Christ’s is I pretty much deserve whatever I have coming my way – and He deserved none of it.
Sometimes I have what is heaped on me because of what I say, how I say it, or to whom I say it to. Jesus experienced the same thing. But unlike Jesus in every situation I deserve whatever comes back my way because I am guilty, sold under sin, and in no way innocent.
The way I see it, we are all guilty of something we have never been charge with so when we are charged with something we are innocent of bear it.
It’s kinda like a serial killer who is charged with robbing a bank (that he didn’t rob) and fights the wrap under the claim that “he’s innocent.” He may not have robbed the bank but he certainly isn’t innocent.
This attitude goes a long way in helping us manage persecution and injustice – to know that Jesus managed it but He was, in fact, TOTALLY innocent.
So we look to Him. And we are humbled.
And while He bore persecution patiently, and suffered fools, and received their blows and slaps and spit and humiliation, He actually gave His life for his attackers and even asked that they would be forgiven for they acted in ignorance.
But there is another impressive lesson to learn from the example of Christ and the trials and persecution He endured –
He did NOT let it cause Him to abandon His mission, to step off the marked path, or to soft-sell His purpose and message.
Where the fact that He bore punishment even without sin is humbling the fact that He relentlessly pursued His goal and all it entailed is utterly inspiring.
He spoke truth, in love relentlessly. He did it without resorting to sin. He bore retaliation in love, but He never gave an inch on the plan and purposes of God.
No opposition (“of sinners”) ever turned him from the way that was right; no ridicule ever caused him to abandon any of his plans; no argument, or expression of scorn, nor punishment ever caused him to deviate from his course.
For these reasons (and more) the writer challenges the reader to consider Him as the ultimate example.
“Lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.”
That is the King James translation and I find it wanting because the word translated minds is psuche in the Greek which means, soul – weary in soul, in the human mind, the will, and the emotions.
Here the believers were being tested by the attack of unbelieving Jews who went after all they claimed to believe not only with relentless fury but with threat of physical harm and loss.
While this is still present in other parts of the world now, the threats and weariness believers face today (especially in the America’s) looks more like warfare on the soul than on the body.
On the mind, on the will, and on the emotion.
For us I think we could call this spiritual attack or warfare and its effects can be more deleterious than any attack on the body.
Certainly these believers under the threat of physical death may have an affected their faith and walk. But I would think that the erosion of faith comes through attacks on the mind, which weakens the will, and reeks havoc on the emotions.
This is what the writer is warning the believers about.
And at the risk of beating a dead horse let’s end with some questions and some attempts at answers.
Ready?
This whole book has been written to Jewish people who have converted to Christ.
Were any in this audience truly converted? I would say yes, perhaps most and maybe even all.
And most of the message has been aimed at getting them to see that there is no reasonable basis for any of them to abandon the faith and return to the law.
Is it possible for a true believing, Spirit-filled believer to return to the Law and to abandon Christ and/or the Good News.
Obviously yes, it is entirely possible.
Are they’re repercussions for someone who was once a truly converted believer to abandon the faith and return to wherever they came from and from whatever it was they once held true?
If there weren’t (or aren’t) then why worry? Why write epistles? Why encourage and warn and exhort believers to hold fast, to look to Christ, and to run with patience the race that is set before them?
Can you convince yourselves that the writers of these epistles would agree with this line:
“We’ll anyone who walks from faith was never saved to begin with?” Do you think Paul or Peter would agree with this modern statement especially in light of all their warnings to members in the Body?
We certainly don’t earn our salvation and we certainly can’t walk from it by losing it. But it appears, from a contextual reading of all the writers exhortations that believers – true faithful believers – can become so weary and fainting over trials and persecution that they choose, in a state of compromised will, emotions, and mind, to leave the faith.
We will read in the next week or so what the writer says is the result of those who do.
Let’s stop here.
Q and A
