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"these all, having been attested through faith, received not the promise, God having provided
some better thing for us*, that they without us* should not be perfected" (11: 39-40).
Then follow the words of 12: 1-4:--
"Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses
(i.e., those already mentioned in Heb. 11:, not the modern meaning of `spectators'), let us
lay aside every weight (a swelling or a tumour, excess of flesh, which regarded
physically, or spiritually, would hinder running), and the closely surrounding sin (the
apostle alludes to the hampering effect of flowing robes--meaning that the runner must
`gird up the loins' and free his limbs), and let us run with patience the race lying before
us, looking off unto Jesus, the captain and perfecter of faith, Who for the joy lying before
Him, patiently endured a cross, despising the shame, and hath sat down at the right hand
of the throne of God. For consider Him Who patiently endured such a contradiction of
sinners against Himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your souls. Ye have not yet
resisted unto blood, striving against sin."
The full bearing of this passage is more easily seen when the structure is discovered.
We give it therefore, as follows:--
Heb. 12: 1-4.
A | Lay aside entangling sin.
B | a | The agony (agõni, contest, struggle) set before us (prokeima).
b | c | Looking off unto Jesus.
d | Captain and perfecter of faith.
B | a | The joy set before Him (prokeimai).
b |
d | Cross, shame, right hand.
c | Consider Him Who endured.
A | Striving against sin.
The race set before us is echoed by the joy set before Him. Those who are "good and
faithful servants" enter into the "joy" of their Lord. The "race" and "the joy" set before
the believer and the Lord has been already referred to in a similar context of overcoming
and "patiently enduring", namely, Heb. 6: 18, "the hope set before us". Heb. 6: 1 says,
"Let us go on unto perfection". Heb. 13: 13, 14 says, "Let us go forth therefore unto
Him without the camp, bearing His reproach. For here we have no continuing city, but
we seek one to come". The reference to the reproach and the city will establish the link
with Heb. 11: The whole epistle is taken up with the pursuit of this theme. The
perfecting of the believer, and the example of the perfecting of the Lord Jesus Christ
(Heb. 2: 10; 5: 8, 9; 7: 28, margin), the captain and perfecter of faith. The culminating
suffering and reproach in which "He learned obedience and was perfected" was the death
of the cross. Evangelical preaching has always maintained a foremost place in its
message for the cross of Christ. Readers must weigh the Scriptures over, and of course
come to their own conclusions. So far as we see the teaching of the Word, the message
of the cross, with the related doctrine of "crucifixion", is a message more for the saint
than for the sinner. In our next two articles we hope to deal with the references to the
cross in the Prison Epistles, and the doctrine of the crucifixion as it relates to the believer.
[* - "us" to be understood of those who are in the same dispensational place as the "Hebrews".]