Hebrews 12:1-2 Why seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight… I. THE PERSON" SET FORTH HERE IS JESUS; He, whose name is the light and glory of Scripture; whose coming and work formed the subject of ancient type, and symbol, and prophecy. 1. We are led to consider Him in His Divine nature and character. 2. The person set forth in the text is to be considered in His most gracious undertaking on behalf of men. II. THE HABIT COMMENDED — "Looking unto Jesus." This word expresses the mental posture, which the apostle would have all Christians maintain in relation to Jesus, their Saviour-God. It is not a single, unrepeated act that he wishes here to enforce, but a holy habit of soul. As the gaze of the mariner, steering his vessel through perilous seas, is perpetually fixed upon the compass, so we, voyaging to eternity through the treacherous waters of time, must have eye and heart centred on Christ, as the sole director of our progress. The word expresses a continuous and sustained action of the inner man. But it does more. It not only means " looking," as the translation gives it, but looking off, or away. We are taught to look away from all else to "Jesus only?' Let the counter attraction be what it may, its power is to be resisted: its spell is to be broken, and the full gaze of the soul is to concentrate itself on Immanuel alone, Now, in the direction of the apostle, as thus expounded, I think we are called to note particularly three suggested thoughts. 1. The entire sufficiency of Christ to meet all human requirements. 2. It is the sad tendency of man, notwithstanding, to turn to other dependencies. 3. This tendency must be corrected, in order to Christ's becoming all that He would be to any. III. THE END CONTEMPLATED — that we may run well our Christian race; run it free from entanglement; run it with purity; run it with patience; run it with perseverance. Oh! is there anything that can compare with these objects in the estimation of a believer? We may well ask, then, how the " looking unto Jesus" will enable us to compass these objects; in other words, how it will secure that we shall run well our Christian race? And here the answer is threefold. 1. "Looking to Jesus" supplies the strongest motive to run well our Christian race; that is, love towards Himself. You know that fire and force are the effect of a supreme affection; how it makes light of difficulties, and changes leaden feet into feet of angel swiftness. Love lightens toil, and makes even waiting more than endurable. 2. "Looking to Jesus" furnishes all needful strength for running well our Christian race. This is the act on our part that appropriates it for our various occasions and exigencies; just as plants, by opening out their leaves, to them the organs of assimilation, imbibe the light and dew, and distribute sustenance through their entire structure, so we, by " looking to Jesus," receive those communications of a spiritual kind, upon which the life of our souls and the vigour of our Christian walk depend. 3. "Looking to Jesus " brings before us the highest example of a successful runner in the Christian race. When you are in doubt, ask, "What, in such a case, would my Master have done?" (C. M. Merry, B. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: 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, |
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