The apostle, having deserted the heroes of the faith, represents them as witnesses of the great race which Christians in all ages have to run. All through the chapter he keeps up the idea of the great Olympic games, and represents the saints as occupied with spiritual athletics in the presence of God, the angels, and glorified men.
Hebrews 12:1. 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,
In those games, those who ran and wrestled wore very little clothing, or often nothing at all. A runner might lose the race through being entangled by his scarf, so he laid aside everything that might hinder or hamper him. Oh, for that blessed consecration to our heavenly calling, by which everything that would hinder us shall be put aside, that we may give ourselves, disentangled, to the great gospel to race!
Hebrews 12:2. Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
His race is complete; his wrestling is over; so he sits down with the great Judge of all as the One who has won his crown for ever. Let us look to him.
Hebrews 12:3. For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.
Think how he wrestled, think how he ran; and let your consideration of him nerve you for your struggle, and brace up every muscle of your spirit so that you will be determined that, as he won, so will you by the divine help of him who is «the author and finisher of our faith.»
Hebrews 12:4. Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.
Paul reminds you that, in your wrestling, you may have to endure a still sterner struggle: «Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.»
Hebrews 12:5-7. And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?
The apostle's intention is to harden us to any suffering that may come to us in this mortal life. He does so first by showing us that we are like wrestlers and racers, and that we must expect to endure much hardship if we are to win the crown. We are to «endure hardness.» The crown cannot be won without it. You know what men will do to win an earthly crown; but the heavenly crown is an immortal, unfading one; so how much more may be expected of you in the way of patient endurance in your heart to win it. Then Paul changes the figure, and says, «You are the sons of God, and that is the reason why you are admitted to the arena where these sacred strugglings take place, and as you are the sons of God, you must endure the chastening rod. Dear brethren in Christ, will not each one of you thankfully accept it, and say, «As this is one of the evidences of my sonship, I will thank God for every cut of the rod, and bless his holy name for every twig of it.»
Hebrews 12:8. But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.
A man may neglect such a child as that, for he is not his legitimate child; and God does not care for professors, who, though they seem to be his children, are not his true sons, so they are pampered, indulged, and spoiled, and left to enjoy themselves while they are here, as the Lord well knows that they will have nothing but sorrow and misery hereafter.
Hebrews 12:9-10. Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness.
God is the Father of our spiritual nature, so, if he pleases to chasten us for our profit, shall we not humbly yield ourselves up to him, and let him do with us whatever he wills?
Hebrews 12:11. Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous:
It would not be chastening if it were a joy to us; it is necessary, in order that it may be chastening, that it should be grievous.
Hebrews 12:11. Nevertheless afterward-
Oh, what melodious music there is in those two words to ears and hearts that are divinely taught to appreciate it! «Nevertheless afterward»
Hebrews 12:11-14. It yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees; and make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed. Follow peace with all men,-
Run after it. It will often seem to run away from you, so you must pursue it, and capture it: «Follow peace with all men,»
Hebrews 12:14-15. And holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord: looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God;
«Lest he should come short of the grace of God,» and as it were fall back. Paul is still keeping to his illustration drawn from the wrestling at the Olympic games. Sometimes, the wrestler gave his opponent a back fall, and down he went, and so lost the crown; beware lest such a fall should happen to you in your spiritual wrestling.
Hebrews 12:15-16. Lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled; lest there be any fornicator,-
Fornication was the special sin of that age: in fact, so common was it that the heathen did not reckon it to be a sin at all. Knowing of the tendency to licentiousness in all around them, Paul specially warned the Hebrew Christians against that horrible evil.
Hebrews 12:16-17. Or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears.
His father could not transfer to him the blessing which he had given to Jacob.
Hebrews 12:18-21. For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest, and the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; which voice they that heard intreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more: (for they could not endure that which was commanded, And if so much as a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned, or thrust through with a dart: and so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake:)
«You have come to something very different from that mount of terror even to a great gathering of holy being in the midst of whom you should exceedingly rejoice.»
Hebrews 12:22-27. But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel. See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven: whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.
All that is eternal must, of course, endure for ever. The everlasting covenant, «the glorious gospel of the blessed God,» the purchase of the Saviour's blood, the work of the Holy Spirit,-all these shall stand fast for ever, they can never be shaken.» The immutable Word spoken by the mouth of the unchanging God, liveth and abideth for ever!
Hebrews 12:28-29. Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: For our God is a consuming fire.
The God who gave the law on Sinai has never changed: the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of Moses who overthrew Pharaoh and his hosts in the Red Sea, and slew Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, and the multitude of murmurers, idolaters, and fornicators in the wilderness, «this God is our God for ever and ever: he will be our guide even unto death.» I would again remind you of what I have often said concerning the wickedness of putting into this passage words that the Holy Spirit never inspired Paul to write. Many people say, «God out of Christ is a consuming fire:» but Paul wrote nothing of the sort. It is «our God» and he is not «our God» except as we view him in Christ,-who is «a consuming fire.» How greatly we ought to reverence him, and how earnestly we ought to ask of him that the divine fire may burn up everything in us that ought to be consumed, that only that may remain which will first endure the great shaking, and which will afterwards endure the great burning. May the Lord graciously grant to each one of us that grace which shall abide the fire!