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`I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in
Christ Jesus' (Phil. 3:14).
The background of this exhortation is provided by the record of Israel
in the wilderness. Of the great number that were redeemed out of Egypt, two
only of all who were twenty years old and upward, were counted worthy to
enter the land of promise, namely Caleb and Joshua. This historical
background supplies the material for Hebrews 3 and 4 and no exposition of
this epistle can be acceptable that does not take this background into
account.
It is recorded in Numbers 14:4 that Israel said, `Let us make a captain
and let us return into Egypt'. The word there translated `captain' is
rendered in the LXX archegos, the very word used in Hebrews 2:10, `Captain',
and in 12:2 `Author', the one related to `leading many sons to glory', the
other to `running with patience the race', and both as we have already seen,
associated with `perfecting'. `Finisher' in Hebrews 12:2 is literally
`Perfecter'.
We have further parallels to record between Hebrews and Philippians.
`We remember', said the Israelites, `the fish, which we did eat in
Egypt freely' (Num. 11:5).
`Leaving ... let us go on' (Heb. 6:1).
`Forgetting those things which are behind' (Phil. 3:13).
It is a true conception of the teaching of Scripture that is expressed
in the saying, `no cross, no crown', and it will be discovered that the
`cross' is referred to in Hebrews and Philippians in connection with the
`perfecting' and the `prize', while enmity to the cross is also associated
with failure to go on to perfection and attain to the prize.
The Cross
`Let us run with patience the race that is set before us, 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' (Heb. 12:1,2).
`He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of
the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him' (Phil. 2:8,9).
Enemies of the Cross
`It is impossible ... if they shall fall away, to renew them again unto
repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh,
and put Him to an open shame ... whose end is to be burned' (Heb. 6:4 -
8).
`For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even
weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: whose end is
destruction' (Phil. 3:18,19).
Here in these references to Race and Prize, to pressing on and to
drawing back, to the association of the cross with overcoming we have further