When running in an endurance race, ample reasons to quit do surface. Overwhelming fatigue, blisters, and other irritations will grate on your resolve. Eating the wrong food will cause your energy to deplete. You might experience dehydration. You might even become mentally depressed when alone on the course. As each malady presents itself, the temptation to quit is strong. But the experienced endurance racer pushes through and finishes their course.
The Christian life is likened to a race, and we are told to "run with endurance the race that is set before us" (Hebrews 12:1). And in our race, there are ample opportunities to quit. Endurance is hard. Therefore, through some straight talk, Hebrews 10:19-39 teaches us how to endure. Jesus, after all, is worthy of our allegiance. His race is the greatest adventure on which we could ever embark. We must keep moving.
The truth of this passage flows from the rest of Hebrews. Namely, that "we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus" and that "we have a great priest over the house of God" (Hebrews 10:19, 21). Since Jesus' blood gets us bold access to God, and since Jesus has become our heavenly high priest, we can endure. Here's how:
1. Commune With God
"Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water." (Hebrews 10:22).
The writer of Hebrews, after nearly ten chapters of teaching, comes to a massive point of application. He's built an elaborate case that Jesus' blood gets us access to God and that he lives to make intercession for us today. But what should a believer do with this blood-bought, cross-enabled invitation into the throne room of God? Take the invitation. Use it. Draw near to God.
The writer knows how humans work. We could easily read and study and hear of the great access Christ's atoning work on the cross has offered, yet do nothing with that access. We might clap our hands and shout with joy over the invitation of God to come into his presence. We've been washed of our sins, our righteousness is Christ's, and we run boldly into God's presence to find mercy and grace to help us in our time of need (Hebrews 4:16). Still, this information must be applied. To celebrate the invitation is not enough. We must go into God's presence.
The writer knows how the race works. If we are going to endure on the course God has for us, we had better learn how to personally lean upon him. The believer whose Bible collects dust on the shelf, who never learns to take up the battle of prayer, who cannot seek the strength of the Spirit for the mission at hand, will not endure for long. The journey is rugged, and our world is not conducive to Christianity. We'll be swallowed whole by culture if we don't learn how to use the access we've been granted.
2. Hold Tight to the Gospel
"Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without waver, for he who promised is faithful" (Hebrews 10:23).
We must recall the letter's original recipients. Hebrews' author had a Jewish audience in mind, Christians who had left Judaism, but who were tempted to enter back into it, forsaking Christ in the process. So he is immensely concerned with their gospel confession. It is in this light that he proclaimed some of the sternest warnings in the New Testament. He would go on to say, "For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries" (Hebrews 10:26-27).
There is a person, in the author's estimation, who puts themselves into jeopardy due to a deliberate sin. They are in great danger. Reading this, we ask, what does it mean to "sin deliberately"? The phrasing might make us think it means the opposite of sinning accidentally, but careful consideration will help us remember how most, if not all, sin is deliberate. We calculate, plan, and submit to temptations which come into our hearts all the time. Is this what the author refers to by speaking of deliberate sin? No, for this would be a violation of the whole Bible, Hebrews itself, and the immediate context of this chapter. The author will go on to record what he means here by a deliberate sin.
"Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace?" (Hebrews 10:28-29). Here, our author defines deliberate sin. It is a willful rejection of Jesus. This apostate person has developed a blatant disdain for Jesus, for they trample underfoot the Son of God. They disrespect the blood of Christ, calling it a common thing, for they "profaned the blood of the covenant." Ultimately, all this led to the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, for they rejected his witness of Christ, having "outraged the Spirit of grace." Keep in mind the original audience, and what you have here is someone who confessed Christ for a little while and then blatantly disregarded and disrespected him and his work.
Because of all this, the author's appeal rings true. "Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering." We must hold tight to the gospel message. And if the apostate person developed a disrespect for the cross of Christ, we must cultivate a growing appreciation for it. Every increasingly, we should learn and discover the implications and ramifications of Christ's glorious work on Calvary.
A word of advice: to increase your appreciation of the gospel, learn the epistles of the New Testament, for they often plumb the depths of Christ's work. It is in these letters the church discovers just how far the blood of Christ has run. In them, our gladness and joy over the cross will increase.
3. Meet With One Another
"And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near" (Hebrews 10:24-25).
To endure in the race set before us, we need to belong to a community. In our self-focused, find-yourself, pursue-your-dreams, live-your-best-life-now world, belonging to a community of faith comes as a shock, but it is necessary so that we might aid each other on the mission of Christ. There were some, as there are in our day, who neglected to meet with other Christians. They avoided the church, feeling no need for fellowship.
We are told today that the church is shrinking because of the rise of a fresh wave of atheism. Churches everywhere, we are taught, are receding in attendance because their members have rejected a belief in God. But it seems this is not all true. On further inspection, people still believe, but a new belief has arisen, one which requires nothing of a believer, especially not church attendance or participation.
Nearly everyone today agrees with the statement "organized religion is bad, but personal spirituality is good." Christians might even say it like this: "It's not a religion. It's a relationship." In making statements like these, if we mean that God does not want dead religiosity or a stale religious experience, then we are correct. If, on the other hand, we mean we need not belong to a church family, that faith is entirely personal and void of Christian relationships, and we have no need for elders or the institution of the church, we are dead wrong.
The culture we live in prefers loose networks and affiliations, the collection of "friends" online, membership without any cost. We are suspicious of institutions, including the church. Many believers have succumbed to the spirit of the age, one which has disciplined them well to be untrusting of any organization and to instead focus on the self. Church commitment is rejected as asking too much of us. We think it dangerous. But the race is hard, and the Chrisitan life cannot be lived alone, and a community of faith helps build the beliefs and doctrines which make us Christian in the first place. If you aren't part of one, you will too quickly ditch basic Christian doctrine.
The Apostles' Creed has a line in it many modern believers could not, with honesty, hold: "I believe in the holy catholic church." It isn't a statement about Roman Catholicism, for that was far from their minds at that moment in church history. Instead, it means that we believe in the church Jesus established here on earth, that it is the pillar and ground of the truth (1 Timothy 3:15). We believe in the church. It is not difficult to imagine many modern believers saying things like, "I believe in Jesus Christ, but not the church." But this flies in the face of the New Testament, which taught us about Christ's establishment of his church. We must not give in to "the habit of some" who have decided to withdraw from the church.
When we gather on Sundays, in small groups, at prayer meetings, on service teams, and in discipleship groups, we are "stirred up to love and good works." We need the stirring up, the encouragement, we receive from other believers. When we are together, the examples around us speak volumes. It is good to hear Christian doctrine but then seeing it lived out also builds our walk with God. And when you are part of a church community, you will take creative risks in stepping out to try acts of love and good works. You launch out because of the encouragement of your church, but also because you feel safe in your Christian relationships. If you fail in your endeavor, you know they'll still love and receive you.
4. Expect Suffering for Christ
The author continued in his appeal. He wanted his audience to run their race with endurance. He wanted them to advance in the Christian life and not to lose heart. So he asked them to remember the former days when they "endured a hard struggle with sufferings" (Hebrews 10:32). He recounted how they were "sometimes publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated" (Hebrews 10:33). He recounted the days when they "had compassion on those in prison," prisoners who were made so for their devotion to Jesus (Hebrews 10:34). They had "joyfully accepted the plundering of their property" (Hebrews 10:34). How had they endured that financial persecution? They "knew that they themselves had a better possession and an abiding one" (Hebrews 10:34).
These Hebrew-Christians had experienced many hard trials for their faith. The mission of Christ to go into all the world and make disciples was a struggle. Many of them had suffered in a way unique to Christianity -- persecution, concern for the lost and the church, and decisions to lay down their lives had made life painful at times. They'd endured ridicule for their faith, and as Hebrew-Christians they had felt marginalized in their culture. Some of them had been imprisoned, not for their faults, but their doctrine. Others had even endured economic persecution as their goods were plundered. Through it all, they tried to keep their eyes on Christ, knowing they had a "better possession" which would abide forever in Jesus.
Still, in all this, the author wants them to remember the past in preparation for the future. They were tempted to let go of their confession, partly because life was so hard. As the pressure mounted, some of them thought about ditching their walk with God and trust in Christ. So the author tries to get them to remember their previous suffering to help them anticipate it in the future.
When we expect to suffer for Christ, we are prepared for the endurance race that's in front of us. But far too many of us aren't ready for the reality that suffering for Jesus is not a rare exception, but an inevitable reality. There is no ideology or age Jesus cannot handle. I don't envision him pulling out his hair in bewildered exasperation as he considers the way the nations rage. You might be shocked at our world today, but Jesus isn't, for he knows what's within man (John 2:25). No, these are days Jesus can handle, exciting times in which the church can truly operate in the simple Spirit and power Christ intended. In the west, we will no longer find social acceptance. It is likely we won't be merely tolerated. That won't be enough. We'll be blamed. Many will see the church, along with its doctrines, as a blight to be removed, an error to be corrected, a group to be expunged.
As believers, in these last days, we must watch out for a sort of prosperity gospel. I'm not talking about the lavish displays of televangelists who beg their audience for another private jet. Sure, beware of that form of prosperity doctrine, but I'm talking about something more subtle. We must watch out for the message which says, If I do disciple things I will be cool, attractive, well-traveled, with a gorgeous spouse, a perfect looking life, eat great food, be in world-class physical condition, accumulate wealth, and essentially live the dream. If we aren't careful, through our Instagram feeds, we might communicate how walking with Jesus gets you all those things.
Look, I know fashionable, fit Christians who have externally beautiful families. I know believers who live adventurous and thrilling lives. I know Christians who have skill in the world of enterprise and have done well in that world. But just because these things can happen in the life of a believer doesn't mean they will. We must be careful not to communicate a Christian life that is palatable to worldly impulses and desires, for suffering for Christ is bound to come.
One day, a recruit came to Jesus, wanting to be part of his team. Jesus said, "Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head" (Luke 9:58). In other words, Jesus didn't make the Christian life sound or look glamorous. No, Jesus invites his followers into a warzone.
5. Look Ahead to Heaven
For our endurance in the race Christ has set before us, there is another truth to which we must cling. The author tells us, "Do not throw away your confidence, which has great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised" (Hebrews 10:35-36). In Hebrews 11, he would write that the ancient patriarchs waited for "a better country, that is, a heavenly one" (Hebrews 11:6). It is this heavenly country he wants his readers to fixate upon, for it is with an eye on eternity that helps us endure today. We must look to heaven; we must look forward to the great, promised reward.
There have been seasons in the church -- I think we're engaged in one today -- where the predominant thought has been to make sure we aren't so heavenly minded that we are no earthly good. If, when making this statement, someone means that we shouldn't be so ethereal and spiritual that we make no impact on today, great. But if someone means we should put off thoughts of heaven to focus on helping the beautiful world we are in today, I have my doubts.
C.S. Lewis believed a focus on the great reward of heaven enabled greater fruitfulness on earth. "If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next. The Apostles themselves, who set on foot the conversion of the Roman Empire, the great men who built up the Middle Ages, the English Evangelicals who abolished the Slave Trade, all left their mark on Earth, precisely because their minds were occupied with Heaven. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this. Aim at Heaven and you will get earth 'thrown in': aim at earth and you will get neither." (C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, p. 134).
In other words, focus on tomorrow and you'll make a difference today. Focus exclusively on today and you will cease to make an impact on it. You'll miss out on the eternal rewards as well. It seems when we focus too much energy on making this world more beautiful, loving, creative, and joyful, but without an emphasis on eternity, we will eventually let go of the doctrines that made us want to make an impact in the first place.
In an excellent book on this subject, Mark Sayers writes: "In the beautiful world, there is a point in which many realize that while their hip and fantastic church may offer them opportunities to engage in justice projects, a life group that meets for community and meal at the pub, and digestible life advice, they can leave the church and find similar opportunities. The kicker is that you can still enjoy all of this while ditching the biblical prohibitions on sex, or having to measure up to the limitations of biblical holiness, or the commitments of creedal Christian community. If you still want to keep your sneaker toe in the Christian camp, no problem. Just pick up a book or subscribe to that podcast by a "progressive" Christian author who will reassure you that you can still be a Christian while not getting too stressed about sex or Scripture or going to church. In an increasingly world-focused evangelical church, what looks like leaving faith or church, to the actual leaver simply seems like a small shimmy to the left, in which the beautiful world promises that you can have it all." (Mark Sayers, Disappearing Church, p. 99).
What he means is that if we focus on this world alone, we will eventually drift away from the very truths we used to espouse. We will begin to realize that community, beauty, and justice can be engaged in without the context of Christianity or Scripture. In a world that is beautiful and good, we only have to take a couple of steps away from Orthodoxy to, while feeling like we're still in it, be completely removed from it. Instead, we must think of the eternal realm. We must allow the reward of heaven to inform the way we live today. We must remember the eternal judgment.
6. Learn to Live by Faith
Finally, as the last help for our endurance race with Christ, there is the life of faith. Quoting from Habakkuk 2:4, the author tells us, "Yet a little while, and the coming one will come and will not delay; but my righteous one shall live by faith." Of this person, the quote continues, "If he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him." Hebrews goes on, "But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls" (Hebrews 10:37-39).
The author, knowing how the life of faith is vital for a Hebrew-Christian community who no longer had a visible and earthly high priest and tabernacle system to engage in, but a heavenly one, told them to live by faith. He would go on to give them Hebrews 11, commonly referred to as the "Hall of Faith," for it includes various facets of faith as found in great Old Testament saints. There, the author would teach them how to walk by faith, how to endure by a trust in the living God.
We also, like this ancient audience, must learn to live by faith. This is not blind optimism or wishful thinking, but a confidence and trust in God. When we cannot see, we lean on him, allowing our lives to fill with the peace and grace he offers. And it is this life of faith that we need to "run with endurance the race that is set before us" (Hebrews 12:1).
Remember, this life is a race. There are a million reasons to give up and give in. We must commune with God. We must stir up and meet with one another. We must hold tight to our gospel confession. We must expect to suffer for Christ. We must look forward to the great, promised reward. We must learn to live by faith.
Perhaps, as we moved through this passage, you felt a sense of conviction over an area or two (or six!). Maybe you now know how God has given you ways to endure, but you haven't used them. Remember there is grace. He has told you the truth so that you might run in it. The Father is, with open arms, standing and asking you to run to him. Use the blessings and aids he has given to help you endure. Put on your helmet. "Take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm" (Ephesians 6:13).
