The Pulpit Commentary — Hebrews — Section 371

HOMILETICS. Vere. 1--3.-The life of faith, and its supreme Exemplar. In these verse~ the R_po~tle gathers up the practical lesson to be derived from his historical demonstra- tion of t_he power of faith contained in eh. xi. The figure of the passage is that of a rnce which the believer is requireJ to run, the reference being doubtless to the foot-race in the Grecian games. . I. THE CHRISTIAN RACE. (Ver. 1.) Glance here at the points of analogy, or truths mtende~ to be taught by this figure. The life of faith is: 1. .An arduoU8 struggle. "The righteous is with difficulty saved" (1 Pet. iv. 18). 'l'he Christian calling is not ~ stroll or a saunter, but a race. It entails strenuous effort. 2. A struggle whirh involves fixedness of aim. It is "set before us." There is a goal to be kept in view, and R prize to be won ; and there is, accordingly, a prescribed path of faith and duty. 3. A struggl,e which 1'.nvolves perseverance. The believer must "run with patience." He must not allow his ardour to decline. He must not desist until he finishes his course. 4. A struggle which will soon be over. "Yet a very little while," and the Cbri1>tia.n shall have reached the goal, and won Christ. 5. A public spectacle. "We are com!)assed about with a great cloud of witnesses." We run this race under the eye of God himself. Other spectators are the holy and the fallen angels, "the spirits of just men made perfect," our fellow-believers on earth, and the ungodly world around us. II. THE CONDITIONS OF suOCEssFUL BUNNING. (Ver. 1.) 'l'he Olympic runner put off his flowing robes, and everything else that might impede his course. So the Chris- tian is to "lay aside," 1. Weights. This word denotes whatever would put one to disadvantage in running, whether it be in itself innocent or not. Of course every evil passion is a weight, which can only clog the believer's heavenward progress. But even that which is in itself lawful may become, if we abuse it, a heavy load. We may pervert a good gift of God into a dead weight. And some habit which is no hindrance at all to my Christian brother may have proved to be a great spiritual cumbrance to me. There is, e.g., the weight of prosperity, of care, of sorrow; the weight of worldly business, of earthly ambition, of human affection. "The things which are seen" must not be allowed to lie heavy on the soul, if we would successfully run the Christian race. 2. Sin. This is the essential burden. It" easily besets us," i.e. cleaves to us, wraps itself round us like a cloak, clings to us as a parasitical plant to a tree. It is sin in general which the apostle characterizes as "easily besetting." The adjective in the original does not refer to the particular sins, whatever these may be, to which indi- viduals are most prone; although, of course, in takin~ home the exhortation to the conscience, this thought will naturally be suggested. The writer probably had in his mind just now (indeed, be never forgets it throughout this letter) the sin of apostasy- the danger to which the Hebrew Christians were exposed of drifting back to Judaism, and thus of" falling away from the living God" (eh. iii. 12). This sin, and all others, must be laid a.~ide. If we do not renounce sin, we give up the race. III. ENCOURAGEMENTS TO PERSEVERE IN BUNNING, In the.midst of affliction and weariness, as well as of powerful temptations to apostatize, how are our fainting hearts to be revived? Two great motives are presented. 1. The presence, as spectators, of the farmer heroes of faith. (Ver. 1.) The Old 'festament saints are "witnesses" now of the race which they once ran themselves. They not only testify to the power of faith; they are also spectators of the struggles and conflicts of their successors. The apostle's lan,,uaae is not that merely of poetic imagination. He seems to say that "the spirits of j~st ~en made perfect" are cognizant of what is done upon the earth, and take an absorbing interest in it. We are to think of them as hovering over us in the heavens. They circle and crowd around us, tier upon tier, on both sides of the race-course. On the one side is the gallery of the saints before the Flood, that of the Hebrew Pilgrim Fathers, of the heroes of the Exodus, of the judges, and of the prophets; while on the olher side i.s the gallery of the apostles, that of the Christi_an confessors and martyrs, of the missionaries of the Church, aud of our own departed fnends who have gone to glory, These spectators are a "great cloud "-multiludinous in number; they are radian' with the brightness of immortality; and, having themselves passed through the samt nxperience as we, they keenly Ryrnpathize with us. We should therefore take heart, 08, nI, 1-29,] 'i'HE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. .'365