Hebrews 12:3-11

“The sin that doth so easily beset us.” from Hebrews 12:1-11

What weighs you down? What comes between you and the you that you want to be? What keeps you/u from moving forward in your spiritual, emotional, and relational life?

What is sin? That may well be a question for another day.

Here is a quick stab at it.

The Hebrew and Greek words that are thus translated all refer to missing a mark. In the Hebrew scriptures, there is an evolution from ritual impurity to corporate sin, to individual responsibility. All indicate something that creates a distance from God.

The author of Hebrews thinks of it as an unwanted weight that slows us down or stops us in our tracks.

Sin weighs us down and besets us at every turn.

It is our enemy. It lives in our flesh and will take every opportunity we give it to distract, sidetrack, and derail us from the way that God has set before us.

But sin is rendered impotent by the power of God and when we exercise focus on Jesus Christ by grace, we find the place of repentance and renewal.

We have not, will not, and will not be called upon to endure what Jesus endured. We cannot bear what He bore, but neither do we bear our own burdens and temptations alone.

It is His power within us that triumphs in the struggle with sin and it is His merciful and gracious love that forgives us when we fail and holds out the hope of a new start.

Jesus, I trust in Your life through me to overcome the sin that so easily besets me.

Hebrew 12:3-11 offers us guidance for disempowering sin and having its weight lifted from our shoulders,

First, we are urged to look at Jesus as an antidote to losing heart.

Consider him who endured such hostility against himself from sinners, so that you may not grow weary or lose heart. 

We have not endured nearly what he endured. He did so and overcame. That should be an encouragement to us,

Second, we are encouraged to resist.

In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted the point of shedding your blood. 

He reminds us that we have not done all the resisting that we can because we are still alive. We have the power to say yes and the power to say no.

Third, we are reminded that we ought to accept discipline and to regard it as training  as athletes and as children. It is a sign that we are special, accepted, and chosen.

And you have forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as children– “My child, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, or lose heart when you are punished by him; for the Lord disciplines those whom he loves, and chastises every child whom he accepts.” 

Fourth, we are admonished to endure. Endurance is a way of passing through a trial and emerging triumphantly.

Endure trials for the sake of discipline. God is treating you as children; for what child is there whom a parent does not discipline? If you do not have that discipline in which all children share, then you are illegitimate and not his children. Moreover, we had human parents to discipline us, and we respected them.

Fifth, we are to remember that this is all for our good and that the result is that we will have been trained and enabled to enjoy the peaceful fruit of righteousness.

Should we not be even more willing to be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share his holiness. Now, discipline always seems painful rather than pleasant at the time, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

We are offered two kinds of pain by life. One is a weighty one, sin, that slows us down stops us in our tracks, destroys our hopes, and sabotages our success.

The other is righteousness, which comes as we lay aside that sin, focus on Jesus, receive the forgiveness of God and enter into God’s training program of resistance, endurance, and faith.

Our choice. My choice. Your choice.

God, help us choose well.