Sunday, August 23, 2015

The Struggle against Sin - Hebrews 12:1-13

Life is full of choices. We’ve been studying the most significant choice of our lives for the last several sections. The author of Hebrews laid out his case for Jesus’ deity, kingship, priesthood, and eternally sufficient sacrifice up through chapter ten. At that point, he told us we have to make a choice. We can either “draw near” or we can “deliberately sin.” He’s not going to force us one way or the other; the decision rests entirely on us. For those of us who choose to draw near, God calls us to endure until the end because Jesus is coming and we must live by faith until that happens.


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We find ourselves at the beginning of chapter twelve facing more details about the lives of those who choose to draw near. It’s not an easy life; the heroes of the faith in chapter eleven witnessed to this fact. However, God’s given us a few advantages to help us as we journey by faith. I encourage you to start by reading Hebrews 12:1-13.

Who are the Witnesses? Why are they surrounding me? (12:1)

The witnesses are the heroes of the faith from chapter eleven; they are witnesses to an agreement made between God and us. The book of Hebrews calls that agreement a promise. Even more, the author of the book has been explaining it to us since chapter three. We discussed the promise in detail in an earlier section so I won’t review it again here.

They surround us as a memorial to our faith. We studied twelve groups and individuals whom God approved for their faith in the last three sections. Their stories took us from creation to the flood, from the flood to the law, and from the law to the Promised Land. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the detailed stories stop with the peoples’ entrance into the Promised Land. Here’s why…

The Israelites crossed the Jordan River to enter the Promised Land after wandering in the desert for forty years. “After the entire nation had finished crossing the Jordan, the Lord spoke to Joshua: ‘Choose 12 men from the people, one man for each tribe, and command them: Take 12 stones from this place in the middle of the Jordan where the priests are standing, carry them with you, and set them down at the place where you spend the night’” (Joshua 4:1-3).

The men did as Joshua instructed. “Joshua set up in Gilgal the 12 stones they had taken from the Jordan” (Joshua 4:20). The name Gilgal means wheel or a large circle of stones. The stones served as a memorial, in short, “that all the people of the earth may know that the Lord’s hand is mighty, and so that you may always fear the Lord your God” (Joshua 4:24).

Here’s how this connects with Hebrews 12:1 and our surrounding witnesses… The word for “surrounding” means to lay objects around something or to encircle it with those objects. Joshua laid the stones in a circle at Gilgal to remind the people that God is mighty and they were to fear Him as they entered the Promised Land. Likewise, God lays the witnesses around us to testify of His might and to remind us to fear Him – not our circumstances. In other words, to live by faith.

Their stories encircle – or surround – us as memorial stones. They stand as a witness to...
  • the reality of our unseen hope,
  • the reality of the promise in a future Promised Land, and
  • the reality of our victory that defeats our fears.

How Should I Respond? (12:1-2)

God laid these witnesses of the faith in a circle surrounding us. His purpose in doing so calls for a change in each of us.

Lay These Aside
He laid the witnesses around us so we might lay aside the weight of our burden. Yes, this applies to many burdens but I think it specifically applies to one – the prominent, bulging mass of sin that weighs us down for eternity.

He surrounded us with witnesses so sin might not encircle us. The verse says, “the sin that so easily ensnares us” (Hebrews 12:1). The word for easily ensnares seems to be an extremely rare Greek word but it communicates the idea of something that is very good at surrounding something else. Sin is skilled at encircling us. However, God laid witnesses of faith around us so we can lay aside the sin that is so good at surrounding us.

Run the Race
Our second response to the witnesses of the faith is our willingness to run the race. It’s not an easy race; at times, it will take everything you’ve got and more. At times, you’ll only be able to put one foot in front of the other by the power and endurance of the Spirit working within you.

We run with our eyes focused on Jesus. He is the source of our faith and the One through whom our faith will come to perfect completion before the holy throne of God. The whole picture we’ve considered throughout this study is a focus on Him – the Alpha and the Omega. We don’t turn our head to the sin trying to encircle and ensnare us. We keep our eyes straight ahead just like Jesus did as He focused on the joy that lay before Him.

Take note of that a second… Jesus focused on the joy that lay before Him as He endured the cross and the shame. Jesus is God – He was present at creation, participated in the glory of the Father in eternity past, and delighted in the triune communion of Himself, the Father, and the Spirit. He had it all; what joy could He find in the suffering and shame of the cross? The only thing missing from the sinless, glorious perfection of heaven was us. The whole of humanity – God’s beloved creation – had rejected Him and separated themselves from Him. The love of the triune God was too powerful for that so it was with joy that Jesus kept His eyes on the cross before Him that He might restore our relationship with Him in the beauty of God’s eternal presence.

Why run the race? (12:2-4)

In short, we run the race because Jesus ran the race. We struggle against the problem of sin because He struggled against the problem of sin. He ran with His eyes focused on the joy of the cross. We run with our eyes focused on Him.

Jesus’ struggle against the problem of sin led to the shedding of His blood. Only His sinless blood was sufficient to sprinkle on the true altar of the heavenly sanctuary. As hard as our struggle may get, we haven’t endured to the point as did Jesus. No one has asked us to shed our blood to pay the debt of sin for all mankind.

Why the pain? (12:5-12)

We endure pain in our struggle against sin because God loves us; He wants us to come willingly to Him as a child. Part of that process is allowing us to feel pain in our sin struggle so we choose to turn away from it (repent) and turn toward Him. If we felt no pain in our struggle against sin, then we would never turn away from it. We would never leave our masochistic relationship with sin.

You know, I’ve wondered why Jesus had to endure the torment of a Roman flogging before they hung Him on the cross. His death was necessary for our sin atonement but why permit them to whip Him first? Turns out it was all a part of prophecy – Hebrews 12:6 quotes Proverbs 3:11-12 when it says “The Lord disciplines the one He loves and punishes every son He receives.” The Greek words for disciplines and punishes both contain the idea of scourging and flogging. Jesus struggle against sin endured flogging because He was the beloved Son of the Father. He couldn’t fight the battle of sin’s struggle without enduring the pain associated with sin. He never knew the pain inherent in one of God’s children as we recognize our own sin because He never sinned. However, He experienced the pain literally and physically as every piece of metal and glass on the tips of the whips shredded His holy skin into bloody ribbons.

We struggle with sin because God loves us and chose us. If we aren’t feeling the pain of the whips with each sin that expresses itself in our lives, then maybe we aren’t God’s child. Maybe we need to personally and individually examine that possibility a little. If we’re feeling the pain of the whips when we sin, that means God is at work within us to draw us unto Himself. We recognize the ugliness of the sin in our lives and struggle to get rid of it.

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