RUN YOUR OWN RACE, PART II: HEBREWS 12:2-3

Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. (Hebrews 12:2-3)

The first two directives of Hebrews 12:1-3 were examined in Part I: 1) to lay aside every encumbrance and the sin of unbelief and 2) to run with endurance the race set before us. We will now analyze the third and fourth directive in this passage.

Third Directive

We are to be fixing our eyes on Jesus. The phrase “fixing our eyes” is one word in the Greek meaning “to turn the eyes away from other things and fix them on something.”1 The author is adamant that our focus should be upon the Lord Jesus Christ. Lenski states that this directive “adds the supreme motive for running with unfaltering perseverance, supreme because it involves the certainty of attaining the goal."2 The goal being that our run of faith will successfully glorify Christ so that we become effective witnesses of the gospel and examples to other believers.

While our eyes are fixed upon Jesus, our peripheral vision is mindful of the obstacles (trials, testing, misfortunes, etc.) which impede our spiritual momentum. It is essential that we avoid human viewpoint advice in the midst of troubles, such as: face it head-on; pull yourself up by the bootstraps; rise above the situation; knuckle down harder; try to ignore or not think about the situation.

That is not where our counsel should come from. It must come from Our Lord Jesus Christ, for He is the author of faith. The word “author” means “the chief leader, one that takes the lead in anything and thus furnishes the example.”3  W.E. Vine states that this word “suggests a combination of the meaning of leader with that of the source from whence a thing proceeds.”4

He is also the perfecter of faith. The essential idea of the word “perfecter” is a finisher or “the one who completes,”5 meaning that by His death and resurrection, He has done everything necessary to secure salvation for all.

Some translations render the Greek article as the personal pronoun our in the phrase “perfecter of faith.” While this it is true that Jesus is the perfecter of our faith, the context may actually be referring to what has just been discussed in chapter 11—the course of life that is dictated by faith.6 This is the run of faith outlined in verse 1 which depicts a vibrant and active faith as exhibited by those mentioned in chapter 11, from Adam to Christ. It is this type of faith which we are to emulate while we rely upon Christ to see us to the finish line of our race.

The translation of the next phrase, “for the joy that was set before Him”, wrongly implies a reason He endured the humiliation of the cross. Note that the word for is the Greek word anti, the preposition of substitution meaning in place of or instead of.7 What this means is that at the time of His Incarnation, Jesus chose to endure the humiliation of the cross instead of experiencing the joy that was set before Him. Before explaining what this joy refers to, note that just as the Lord Jesus had a joy set before Him, we have a race set before us. This phrase set before is one word in the Greek meaning to set before someone a goal or destination.8 Our race set before us has a goal to serve God; Jesus had a destination set before Him. His destination is known theologically as His eternal session—His rightful place in eternity of sitting at the right hand of the throne of God. This is the joy that Our Lord temporarily postponed so that He could instead provide our eternal life.

The writer of Hebrews now declares that Christ endured the death of the cross. The gospel accounts relate all that He had to undergo: the betrayal (Matthew 26:47-56); the humiliating and unjust trials (Matthew 26:57-27:14); the scourging (Matthew 27:26; John 19:1); the ridicule of the Roman garrison and the Jews (Matthew 27:27-30); the bearing of His cross to Calvary (Matthew 27:31-34); the horrendous death of crucifixion (John 19:16-37). There is a false assumption that Jesus fell 3 times on His way to Calvary, but this is merely a tradition that has no Scriptural evidence. He never fell—he carried on completing His destiny.

He also despised the shame. This word “despise” doesn’t mean exactly how we use the word, referring to something that we hate or dislike intensely. Here the Greek word means to care nothing for, disregard, be unafraid of.9 Jesus disregarded the shame and humiliation of the suffering—He never demonstrated bitterness or animosity. We see that He was indifferent to it because He never complained or cursed those who persecuted Him. Peter confirms this:

For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps, who committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in His mouth; and while being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously. (1 Peter 2:21–23)

Why? Because He knew and accepted the Father’s will for Him. And as a result, He finished His work and is now sitting down forever, at the right hand throne of God.

However, we are not to sit down during our present run of faith. Our reward will come after we depart from this earthly home to be at home with our Lord Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:6-9). So in the meantime we are to continue to fix our eyes on Jesus, our example of endurance and determination for our run of faith.

Fourth Directive

The fourth command follows the idea of fixing our eyes on Jesus, considering Him and what He had to endure. The word “consider” means to do so by way of comparison. We need to recognize that Christs’ sufferings were far greater than anything we may encounter. And in spite of His tremendous suffering and ultimate death on the cross He never contemplated giving up and conceding defeat. This would have been disobedience to the plan of God for His life.

By His example of endurance, the believer should be encouraged to carry on the run of faith and not to become fatigued and exhausted—recognizing that our vitally needed strength comes from the power of His Holy Spirit (Acts 1:8; cf. 2 Corinthians 12:9). This is what the apostle Paul prayed:

That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith... (Ephesians 3:16–17a)

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[1] Wuest, K. S. (1997). Wuest’s Word Studies from the Greek New Testament. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 10. 214.

[2] Lenski, R.C.H. (2001). Commentary on the New Testament. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 10.426.

[3] Wuest, 10.215.

[4] Vine, W. E., Unger, M. F., & White, W., Jr. (1996). Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words. Nashville, TN: T. Nelson, 2.45.

[5] Vine, W. E. (1996). Collected Writings of W. E. Vine. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, Hebrews 12:2.

[6] Zodhiates, S. (2000). The Complete Word Study Dictionary: New Testament (electronic ed.). Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers, G5051.

[7] Zodhiates, G473.

[8] Arndt, W., Gingrich, F. W., Danker, F. W., & Bauer, W. (1979). A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and other Early Christian Literature. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, p. 420.

[9] Arndt, et.al., p.707.

 

© 2022 David M. Rossi