Photo: Leah Hetteberg – Unsplash

Do you ever find yourself tempted to lose heart – in your Christian life, or in life generally? If so you’re not alone – it seems lots of people are at the moment. There’s lots that could discourage us, and make us lose heart. Perhaps you feel stuck in a rut in your Christian life. Maybe you don’t seem to be making any progress in your struggle against sin and temptation. Perhaps you face some situation in your personal life which is hard and getting worse and there’s no solution in sight. Perhaps you’re losing heart because people don’t seem to be becoming Christians; or you’re frustrated by developments in your church, denomination or the wider culture. 

Several people have mentioned Hebrews 12:1-3 to me recently, and so it seems timely to share some encouragement from them. The Hebrews to whom the letter is written were followers of Jesus from a Jewish background, and they were facing persecution for their faith in Jesus: some of them had been put in prison, others had had their property confiscated, still others had been publicly humiliated and insulted (Hebrews 10:33-34). They’re being tempted to turn away from Jesus Christ, and the writer – possibly the apostle Paul – is seeking to persuade them to stick with him.

In Hebrews 12:1-3 he uses the image of an athlete completing a race:

Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.

Hebrews 12:1-3

He says as followers of Jesus we’re athletes in a race, and in spite of the hardships and obstacles we need to keep running the race to the end. It doesn’t matter how long it takes, where we come in the finishing order, how hard it is or how much it costs us. All that matters is that we finish: That we keep going as Christians, clinging to Christ, and identifying with God’s people. This may not sound hard, but the Christian race is a marathon, not a 100m sprint. And we’ll be aware of people who have fallen away from the race over the years.

The writer tells us four things (all related to running a race) that will help us keep going.

1, Remember the cloud of witnesses

Think back to the Olympics, and the great mass of spectators in the athletics stadium or the swimming arena. Think in particular of the loud roar when a French competitor or team was in contention. What a difference that must have made to the athletes!

And there’s something similar going on for us:

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses.

Hebrews 12:1

He’s referring back to chapter 11 in which he’s given a catalogue of men and women from the Old Testament who lived by faith. Abel – Enoch – Noah – Abraham – Isaac – Jacob – Joseph – Moses – the list goes on. They all persevered, keeping going through hardship and adversity – because they trusted God for what he had promised them. For example:

All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.

Hebrews 11:13-16

We are surrounded by this great cloud of witnesses. And they’re not just spectators: they’ve also run the race, and now they’re looking on, cheering us on, saying “I’ve finished the race, you can finish the race.” And of course we may want to include in the crowd other Christians we’ve been inspired by – including Christians from other generations who’ve followed Jesus to the end.

So when I’m tempted to lose heart, I can read about Noah and Abraham and Moses and others. I can be encouraged by how they kept going in difficult circumstances. I can think of them even now spurring me on, encouraging me. And I can speak to a friend – tell them I’m struggling, and ask them to pray for me.

2, Throw off burdens and sin

During the Olympics we marvelled at the outfits worn by the athletes – all designed to make the athlete as streamlined as possible, so nothing hindered them from running as fast as they could.

In the same way the writer says:

let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles.

Hebrews 12:1

Burdens that hinders are worldly things that weighs us down or hold us back in our Christian life. They could be a good thing which is distracting us and preventing us from running the race as we should. We might be spending too much time in the office; being held back by a relationship or the fear of offending or upsetting people.

And then there’s sin. The image of entangling reminds me of bindweed which entangles plants and begins to smother them. And sin is the same as we try to run the Christian race. It so easily drags us down, making us unproductive and choking our spiritual life. Whether it’s pride or anger or lust or bitterness, some kind of addiction – whatever it is. The theologian John Owen wrote these words which have helped me greatly over the years:

Be killing sin or it will be killing you.

John Owen

We’ll never be completely free of sin until Christ returns and takes us to be with him. But we need to be struggling against it, killing it – day by day. Because if we’re not it will be killing us, slowly strangling us like bindweed. 

So how can this help us? Don’t wait until you lose heart – throw off burdens and sin. When you get home take some time to ask God – are there worldly things holding me back, or sins strangling me?

And then bring them to God in prayer. Help me – help me seek first your kingdom and your righteousness. Help me throw off that burden, that sin like an athlete throws off their tracksuit before the race. 

3, Fix our eyes on Jesus

Every athlete is trained to fix their minds eye on something: often the finishing line, sometimes something else. It’s the same in the Christian life – we need to fix our minds eye on Jesus:

Fixing our eyes on Jesus

Hebrews 12:2

But what in particular about Jesus are we to focus on as we run the race so we don’t lose heart?

There are three main things that are mentioned:

Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners.

Hebrews 12:2-3

The pioneer of faith

A pioneer leads the way into new territories – for example, Christopher Columbus leading Europeans to the Americas; or Tim Berners Lee leading the way to the internet. But Jesus was the ultimate pioneer, opening the path and showing the way to salvation.

Consider how Jesus pioneered salvation: As God, he was seated for all eternity with God the Father in the perfect heaven; and yet in love and obedience to the Father he came to earth as one of us, growing up in a normal family. He spent 3 years travelling, teaching, caring, loving; he healed the broken, cleansed the unclean, welcomed the despised – some of whom came to love him, some of whom despised him. He endured betrayal, beating, scorn and shame, nakedness, crucifixion, being cut off from his Father and all that was good; and then he rose again. As a result all who trust and follow him have fellowship with God through the Holy Spirit and have the certain hope of a glorious eternity with him.

The perfecter of faith

Jesus shows us what perfect faith looks like. We might think “It was easy for Jesus because he’s God.” But no: he was a human being like you and me; he grew up as we did. We’re told he learned obedience (Hebrews 5:8): We don’t know exactly how that worked but it certainly wasn’t easy, and yet he kept obeying and trusting. He never sinned, he always loved perfectly, and even as he faced betrayal and whipping and crucifixion – he kept trusting his heavenly Father. “Not my will but yours be done” he said in the Garden. Jesus perfected faith. And so whatever we have to endure, it will never be as much as Jesus endured; and he kept going, and we have the Holy Spirit who helps us to keep going.

For the joy set before him he endured

Finally, we come to consider the finishing line in the race.

Jesus knew what the future held: He predicted his death several times; in his agony he sweat blood in the Garden of Gethsemane; he knew how agonising the cross would be – and even worse what it represented, being cut off from his heavenly Father with whom he’d enjoyed intimate fellowship for eternity. He knew the shame of being publicly exposed naked; he knew the opposition he would face – the mocking, the cruelty, the hatred. And yet he kept going – for the joy set before him,  the knowledge of what was to come, a knowledge built on rock solid trust in his faithful Father.

And what was the joy set before him? That 3 days later he would be raised from the dead in glory; yhat he would ascend back to his Father in heaven; that from there he would rule over the nations as their sovereign Lord. Even more than that – that through his death he would win a people for himself – a bride who, in the words of Ephesians, he had

‘made holy, cleansing her… to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.

Ephesians 5:26-27

So that he and the Father and the Spirit and the bride would live forever in joyful fellowship; and he would receive glory and praise which would be reflected to the Father and which would bring fulness of joy to his people forever. Jesus knew the future, he knew why he was enduring this suffering. And that enabled him to keep enduring.

And of course as Christians we also know the future – we know the finishing line. Being with Jesus, part of the bride, in joyful fellowship forever. Receiving a crown and a kingdom and purposeful work and being beyond tears and death and crying.

So the writer says ‘fix your eyes on Jesus.’ Again in verse 3 he says ‘Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners.’ How can we do this, when we’re tempted to lose heart? We can get in the practice of meditating on Jesus – who he is, what he’s done. As one commentator puts it,

Contemplation of Jesus offers greatest encouragement to Christians in their struggle.

William Lane, Hebrews 9-13

Sit quietly with a bible, maybe some paper and a pen if that helps you to think; read some words about Jesus – perhaps starting with Hebrews 12:1-3 – and think about him. Visualise his character, what he did, what he endured, his love. And as we do that we become like him (2 Corinthians 3:18).

4, Remember that our loving Father disciplines those he loves

Every athlete has a coach who wants them to do their best in the race. With that in mind, they will often make the athlete do things they don’t want to do: Early morning training; an extra session in the gym; a particular diet. It’s the same in the Christian race:

And have you completely forgotten this word of encouragement that addresses you as a father addresses his son? It says,

“My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline,
    and do not lose heart when he rebukes you,
because the Lord disciplines the one he loves,
    and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son.” Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father?

Hebrews 12:5-7

As Christians we have a loving heavenly Father who wants us to complete the race, and therefore disciplines us. A loving earthly father disciplines his children – he teaches them what is healthy and what is unhealthy, what is good for them and not. Sometimes he has to impose sanctions to teach them the right and the wrong way to go. And so it is with our heavenly Father: When we sin, we face negative consequences to teach us that sin is bad for us; and our Father is constantly teaching us humility, love and dependence on him.

It’s worth us asking the question “is there an element of discipline involved in what’s happening to us / me?” How is my father using this hardship to teach me something? How is he using it to make me more like Christ, to help me finish the race?

Conclusion

The Christian life is a race, and we need to keep going until the end – to ‘run with perseverance the race marked out for us.’

What enables us to do it? Christ, the pioneer of our faith. He is the one who supplies us with strength and energy; the one who is praying for us continually (Hebrews 7:25); he is the one who has sent the Holy Spirit to give us the ability to do those four things. It is Christ who prepares us for the race, leads us in the race, and gives us strength to keep going to the end of the race.