Hebrews 11:29-12:2
Last week we looked at how, by our faith alone, our sins are forgiven, and we are judged in Christ himself; who presents us without blemish before the Father.
Today’s reading from Hebrews gives us examples of living the faithful life and how to persevere and mature in our faith.
Now the beginning of this chapter in Hebrews tells us that “faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Heb 11:1). Our faith is the basis of our hope, and the writer of Hebrews tells us that our hope is assured or guaranteed by Christ himself.
In today’s reading from Hebrews, we see a list of many faithful saints of the Old Testament who, just like us, are commended for their faith and nothing else. They ran the race that was set before them, just are we are to do.
It is our faith that will be commended too! Faith that frees us to be generous; faith that enables us to leave anxiety behind; faith that creates in us confidence about a future secured not by human endeavour or striving or achievement, but by God alone.
And it is God who gives us faith in his Son because of his faithfulness to us; his generosity toward us, for we are his treasure and the centre of his heart.
This is the assurance of all that we ever hoped for. The absolute certainty of all that we ever really wanted in our hearts; to be with Jesus.
This is what we sing: ‘Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine / O what a foretaste of glory divine / Heir of salvation, purchase of God, / Born of His Spirit, washed in His blood.’
These Old Testament saints, because of this same faith, are now part of what the writer of Hebrews calls the “great cloud of witnesses,” along with the whole host of angels and heavenly beings.
I’m going to focus on the last two verses of today’s reading (Heb 12:1-2), and see what happens when we too, persevere in our faith.
So today we are looking at maturing as children of God through perseverance in this faith, but firstly, a little bit of theological backtracking to provide some context.
Our faith is the starting point in the believing life – not the end point. If we ever think that we have faith in Jesus Christ and yet our lives are no different from when we didn’t have faith, we have missed something crucial.
We have missed exactly what it is that Christ did on the cross - that he died the most lonely, shameful, and humiliating death for our sins, for our sake.
Jesus took this humiliation and shame onto himself so we could have a relationship with the Lord God Almighty, not just any relationship, but as children of the living God.
By believing this, just as Christ was raised to life, we too by faith are raised to new life; born anew by the transforming of our minds by the Holy Spirit. This is the reality of our faith and the starting point of our life. There is no other starting point, just the cross of Christ.
At this point we are what the bible calls infants, little babies in our faith; not yet matured, not fully rounded in love in all our relationships - to God, our brothers and sisters in Christ, and our neighbours.
We need to be child-like in our faith, but adults in the way our faith is worked out in love.
Friends, there are many believers who are happy to remain little babies all their lives and not grow. Now God loves babies! But to attain the very fullness of life in Christ we are urged to become mature believers, and this happens when we persevere.
When we come to faith, God will permit things to happen in our lives that we won’t understand, or necessarily like. This is the way God tests our faith, not because he is a horrible father but because he brings us to a place where we have no alternative but to trust him.
There is no other way. We are forced to pray ‘Father, I am powerless in this situation – I give it all over to you.’ We are forced to break on the Rock of Ages; before the Lord God Almighty and allow his strength to carry us – this is the first step to maturity.
This is the beginning of perseverance. Paul, James, and Peter (Rom 5:4; Jas 1:3-4, 2Pet 1:6) all talk of perseverance as the great building block of maturity in Christ.
Through perseverance we find that letting go and truly allowing God to work brings us a peace and joy we have never known before. When we persevere, God brings us ever closer to him and more like our saviour Jesus.
Jesus’ brother, James, puts it like this; “For you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature, not lacking anything” (Jas 1:3-4).
God equips us so he can use us in the enlarging of his kingdom. Later this morning we’ll pray “Your kingdom come, your will be done,” and this is exactly the way God goes about it!
The deeper we get into God’s service and the more unified we become with our brothers and sisters in Christ, the more startling things begin to happen in our lives. We find ourselves being used in ways that exactly mirror our personalities, which become fully illuminated by the Holy Spirit.
The apostle Paul puts this testing by God like this; ‘[testing] produces perseverance, and perseverance produces character, and character produces hope, and this hope does not disappoint us, for God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us (Rom 5:3b-5).
We are not alone in this work we do. Apart from the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and all our fellow believers, we have all the angels and the whole host of heaven on our side.
We also have the saints of every age on our side. Today’s reading likens our life of persevering faith to an athletics contest in a huge stadium.
“Since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, … let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith.’
Imagine, if you would, being in the Olympics, competing in the Marathon. We have run around all the parkways and streets and highways lined with people and now we enter the vast stadium.
In the stands are tens of thousands of the faithful of God, not just of the bible, but of every age. This “cloud of witnesses” are screaming and cheering their hearts out for you!
We don’t have to win this race; just run it. In fact we can’t win it because we are keeping our eyes fixed on the one leading, whom we will follow for the pace we are to run our own race at, Jesus Christ.
The noise is overwhelming, but we don’t hear it. We are tucked in tight behind him at just our speed, in his slipstream. The crowd’s going wild! At just the right moment, we cross the finish line. Well done good and faithful servant. Let me pray …