Hebrews 12:2

The Race of Faith

1 Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, ^alet us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and ^blet us run ^cwith endurance the race that is set before us,

2 looking unto Jesus, the¹ author and finisher of our faith, ^awho for the joy that was set before Him ^bendured the cross, despising the shame, and ^chas sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

The Discipline of God

3 ^aFor consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, ^blest you become weary and discouraged in your souls.

4 ^aYou have not yet resisted to bloodshed, striving against sin.

5 And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons:
^a“My son, do not despise the¹ chastening of the Lord,
Nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him;

6 For ^awhom the Lord loves He chastens,
And scourges every son whom He receives.”

7 ^aIf¹ you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what ^bson is there whom a father does not chasten?

8 But if you are without chastening, ^aof which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons.

9 Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to ^athe Father of spirits and live?

10 For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for our profit, ^athat we may be partakers of His holiness.

11 Now no¹ chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields ^athe peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

Renew Your Spiritual Vitality

12 Therefore ^astrengthen the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees,

13 and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed.

14 ^aPursue peace with all people, and holiness, ^bwithout which no one will see the Lord:

15 looking carefully lest anyone ^afall short of the grace of God; lest any ^broot of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled;

16 lest there be any ^afornicator or profane person like Esau, ^bwho for one morsel of food sold his birthright.

17 For you know that afterward, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was ^arejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought it diligently with tears.

The Glorious Company

18 For you have not come¹ to ^athe mountain that may be touched and that burned with fire, and to blackness and² darkness and tempest,

19 and the sound of a trumpet and the voice of words, so that those who heard it ^abegged that the word should not be spoken to them anymore.

20 (For they could not endure what was commanded: ^a“And if so much as a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned¹ or shot with an arrow.”

21 And so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, ^a“I am exceedingly afraid and trembling.”)

22 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels,

23 to the¹ general assembly and church of ^athe firstborn ^bwho are registered in heaven, to God ^cthe Judge of all, to the spirits of just men ^dmade perfect,

24 to Jesus ^athe Mediator of the new covenant, and to ^bthe blood of sprinkling that speaks better things ^cthan that of Abel.

Hear the Heavenly Voice

25 See that you do not refuse Him who speaks. For ^aif they did not escape who refused Him who spoke on earth, much more shall we not escape if we turn away from Him who speaks from heaven,

26 whose voice then shook the earth; but now He has promised, saying, ^a“Yet once more I shake not only the earth, but also heaven.”

27 Now this, “Yet once more,” indicates the ^aremoval of those things that are being shaken, as of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain.

28 Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we¹ may ^aserve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear.

29 For ^aour God is a consuming fire.

Commentaries:

Forerunner Commentary
What is the Forerunner Commentary?

<< Hebrews 12:1

Hebrews 12:3 >>

What Does Hebrews 12:2 Mean?

Christ's joy lay not in the crucifixion but in what it produced: qualifying Him as King of kings, High Priest, and Savior, advancing God's plan for more sons and daughters. As "author" and "finisher," Christ starts, sustains, and completes salvation, running beside His people to the finish line; only they can fail. "Looking," aphorao (from apo and horao), means to look away steadfastly toward a distant object, fixing the mind on Him, while "unto," eis, implies identification with His character and purposes. The race is a marathon requiring enduring hope and patience as God sculpts His image through trials. Faith is God's gift: Christ's faith placed in believers. Focusing on Him prevents discouraging self-preoccupation, and enduring to the end brings salvation.

Hebrews 12:2

The faith through which we please God and receive salvation is God's gift (I Corinthians 12:4, 9). Those in His true church have the faith of Jesus. It is not just our faith in Him, but His faith placed in us. Faithfulness, therefore, is a gift of God produced through the Holy Spirit.

Martin G. Collins
Faithfulness

Hebrews 12:2

Our Savior was joyful that He could do this for us, that He could buy or redeem us to be His purchased possession. Obviously, there was not a whole lot of joy in dying on the cross in the way He was crucified—none at all. It was excruciating and terrible, but there was joy in what it produced—that He had qualified to become King of kings and Lord of lords and our High Priest—the Savior of all mankind, of all those who would believe in Him.

There was joy that this step in the process of bringing the Kingdom of God to this earth had been fulfilled. There was joy in heaven that the plan of God was moving forward, and God would then have more sons and daughters. The creative process of refurbishing the entire universe had taken a great leap forward. The King had succeeded. The Savior had saved. What joy there must have been in those in the spirit realm who understood that a great milestone had been passed, making it possible for all men and women who believed to be saved.

Richard T. Ritenbaugh
Parables of Matthew 13 (Part 3): Hidden Treasure

Hebrews 12:1-4

We can learn a great deal about why patience is so vital by comparing the process we are going through to an artist sculpting a work from a piece of marble. Chip by chip over a period of time, an artist uses hammer and chisel to shape a conception from a raw slab of rock until the finished figure is revealed. God is doing much the same with us except we are living, raw material with mind, emotions, and the liberty to allow or disallow the Artist to continue. If we are impatient, not allowing the Creator to complete His artistry by our constant yielding to His tools, we will never be perfect and entire.

It is easy for us to magnify our burdens. Notice, however, what grumbling did for the Israelites in the wilderness when God finally responded. Would we rather have our trial or grumble and receive what the Israelites did? We must begin to cultivate the habit of thinking of life, including all of its trials, as being God's way to shape godly character in us.

James makes what seems to be a paradoxical statement in James 1:2: We should count our various trials as joy. Why? Because verse 3 says that doing so produces patience! We need patience so God can mold us into His likeness. Even God cannot produce godly character by fiat. James is teaching us that we should not measure the experiences of life by their ability to please our ambition or tastes but by their capacity to make us into God's image. If we have any vision - and a zealous desire to live as God does - we can welcome our trials as steps in God's creative process and meet them with patience and hope.

Perfection in this life is to become what God wants us to become. What could be better than that? If we understand that our lives are in God's hands as He molds and shapes us, then the meanings - the eventual outcome - of joy and sorrow are the same. God intends the same result whether He gives or takes. The events of life are merely the scaffolding for shaping us into His image, and we should meet them with patience as He continues His work. This will work to flatten out the emotional extremes we tend to experience.

John W. Ritenbaugh
The Fruit of the Spirit: Patience

Hebrews 12:2

This verse touches on an aspect of Jesus' life important to us—that our hope, like His, cannot be fleeting. It must be an enduring hope because we are not involved in a hundred-yard dash. This verse also hints that the doctrine of "once saved, always saved" is not valid, as the realization of our hope is depicted as being future. God expects growth from the point of receiving His Spirit, so He provides us with sufficient time following our calling for that to be produced. Our race, then, is more like a marathon. Israel's marathon lasted for forty years. We should not looked upon this with discouragement but thanksgiving because God has mercifully given us enough time to grow.

John W. Ritenbaugh
Perseverance and Hope

<< Hebrews 12:1

Hebrews 12:3 >>