Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the
race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. 3
Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.
4 In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.
5 And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons?
We are told that the Lord did the will of the Father, for the joy set before Him. He knew what was His, because He knew heaven. And in fact, He has taken his place
there even now, sitting down at the right hand of the Father.
The point of all of this is that we have been called to this life of self-denial, we are called to run this race and empty ourselves but we do so, as I said, not by
looking at self, but by looking to Jesus.
When the running grows tiresome, we think not of our pain, but of His, and not at the moment, but on heaven, on eternity. As we saw Wednesday night the apostle Paul
in II Corinthians says that these trials are “working for us…” We often think that the difficulties work against us, but the Apostle says, no, they work for us to help us fix our eyes upon Christ and to see the unseen world, to be motivated by the joy set
before us in heaven with Jesus.
We are called to self-denial in this text to the laying aside of encumbrances, and of the sin that so easily entangles us, in running with endurance the race before
us, to resist and strive against sin.
By way of application to this issue of self-denial, let’s dive in. First, we deny our own righteousness. As Paul says in Philippians 3:9, “…that I might be found
in him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith.”
We confess this as much in our text when we run the race with our eyes on Jesus who is the author and finisher of our faith. We deny any part of our own salvation,
its birth, or its continuance as being in our power or strength.
We are not speaking of having moral virtues, being good people and even religious people, we are speaking of the acknowledgment that only the Lord God can work in
us that is going to bring us to the great day in holiness and joy.
Remember the rich young ruler who said that he had kept all the commandments, that he was moral, a good guy, and Jesus yet said, “one thing you lack…” And the Lord
showed him that his heart was bound up in the work of his own hands, his love not for the Lord but for his wealth.
Matthew Paris, in the 17th century, told the story of a man who gave several lectures proving that Jesus was God. This man’s lectures were stunning, he
was brilliant and at the end he was highly applauded for it and he actually cried out saying: O Jesus, you are beholden to me this day for thy divinity. The story says that he was struck suddenly with some odd sickness that rendered him with such stupidness
and forgetfulness that this once brilliant man could never again say the Lord’s prayer unless a little child led him through it.
Denying our righteousness, Christ is beholden to us in nothing but that our sin was ours alone and he by necessity did take it from us. That is, the only thing we
offer in this salvation is the sin form which we need to be saved.
Second, along with this we are to deny self-confidence. Paul says to the Corinthians, “let him who thinks he stand, take heed lest he fall.” The church is filled with
Christians who are filled with themselves and with what they can do, what they have been trained to do.
Paul says to every man that is among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think. This is no small sin and in the Christian life, strike comes when
men think too highly of themselves, when little thought is given to others and even less to the Lord Jesus.
Chrysostom calls self-conceit the “mother of hell” for it is an idolatry, a self-worship. Our text calls our eyes to be fixed upon Christ who gave his life away and
not upon self that seeks to preserve our own agendas.
We see this selfishness in young children and realize that if not arrested it will become even uglier as they get older. They want primary attention, they want the
biggest piece, the most! “This all demanding self will mature into that of a grasping adult. Though clever devices will make the selfishness seem polite and genteel, all of life outside of Christ is for one thing…self.”
Again, in the words of our text, look unto Jesus…consider Him. “He died for all that they who live should no longer live for themselves but for Him who died for
them and rose again.” (2 Corinthians 5:15)
This was Pauls’ grand explanation of the Christian life. The bible describes sin as selfishness. All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned each one to his
own way. This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come, for men will be lovers of their own selves.”
Ahab the prophet gathered 400 men around him to tell him what he wanted to hear and was infuriated when the one man, Micaiah said differently. Ahab was so filled with
self that he only brought people into his presence who would say what he wanted. And he had no tolerance for the truth of God for he had made his will the only rule for life.
Our Lord’s death and all that He suffered, that we are called in our text to consider, to think on, He who is our chief example, the One whom we are called to follow,
did not die to provide selfish men with eternal life while they remain abandoned to self-serving!
As He struggled, as He endured the cross and despised the shame, His aim was to please God the Father and to eradicate the self-love that resides in the hearts of
men and implant in its place true love for God.
There are many Christians who have escaped the rocks of gross scandal only to be destroyed in the eyes of Christ by self-seeking, As Thomas Watson said, “Oh how may
have been blown to hell with the breath of popular applause.”
Prayer: Father, the consideration of who You are is deeper than the ocean, I can scarcely comprehend your majesty and then to fathom the wound that sin is to You.
Father forgive me. I sin so easily and thoughtlessly, but to consider what my sin has cost You, what had to be done that I might belong to Your family, this is sobering. Give me a holy hatred of all that displeases You and a consciousness to see clearly, that
I might bring You joy and not wound, through Jesus Christ my Lord, Amen.
Hymn: Benedictus
