Hello everyone and welcome back to Deeper Waters. There is a lot going on now in the life of your blogger here. I ask for your prayers that hurdles in my path will be removed and that I will think and live the way that I ought. I’m doing much looking into my own psyche and finding some bad beliefs that need to be dealt with. I ask for your prayers in this. As for now, let us continue our Trinitarian commentary. We are in Hebrews 12 tonight and we’re going to look at the first three verses:
1Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. 2Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.
The 12th chapter comes right after the great faith chapter of Hebrews and we are told of all the great heroes of the faith, and of those who suffered so much for the faith. I believe all the saints of the past are the ones the writer has in mind when he tells his readers about the great crowd of witnesses.
What is the connection with them and Jesus? The verse speaks of Jesus as the author and perfecter of faith, but the idea could also be that of a leader in the faith. It would be the idea then that Jesus is not only the one who started the faith but is the inspiration. This makes sense in light of the statement in the 11th chapter that Moses considered the joys of Christ to be worth more than that of Egypt, even though Moses did not know of Jesus.
This would point to a Jesus who transcends time. He is there for the Old Testament saints and the New Testaments ones as well. Hebrews is a book written with the mindset of Christian history and this is important to consider when reading it.
In the ancient world, history was often seen as cyclical. This is understandable with the idea of seasons repeating. The Hebrews were the ones who actually thought that history was going somewhere, which is why they placed so much stress on genealogies. They were people who saw a God outside of space and time who was guiding it to a future destination, which is one reason why prophecy is so important. This God knows the future.
The Hebrews writer uses the same idea with Jesus as the cornerstone of history. Thus, Jesus is the cornerstone of faith. He is the one who the prophets spoke of and he is the one speaking in the last days. He was there for the saints of old and he is there for us now.
The same Jesus who was with them is ours today. Isn’t that good news?
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