Hebrews 12

Hebrews 12:3-4, 7 ESV

Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.

It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline?

"You have not yet resisted to the point of blood." Hebrews 12 flows directly our of chapter 11? There is a whole "cloud of witnesses" that have gone before us. They believed God even when they did not receive the promise. Some of them believed God even when it meant losing their lives for their faith. This chapter is a call to follow in their footsteps.

God's discipline comes to those he loves. His discipline is for our good. Bad things happening in our lives are not a sign of God's displeasure, but of his love for us. We can endure because these "witnesses" who went before us endured. We can endure because Jesus endured for us. We can endure because God loves us. We can endure because our faith is rooted and grounded in something bigger and better than a mountain in the wilderness and a set of laws carved in stone.

Hebrews 12:22-24 ESV

But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.

Because of Jesus we can endure. We no longer need to default to our old sinful escapes. We don't need to default to anger, bitterness, immorality and unholiness. We have a higher calling, therefore:

Hebrews 12:1b-2 ESV

... let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Father, thank you for the example of those who have gone before me, and for the founder and perfecter of my faith, Jesus. Forgive me for my petty selfishness that often acts more like the world owes me something than like a son of the King. Today may I walk in faithfulness no matter what my circumstances. I rest in your sovereign love.

By His grace,
Rick Weinert