Hebrews 12: Jesus is the perfector of our faith

Jesus Is: A study in the book of Hebrews / Hebrews 12

When was the last time you were tired. Not just a tired at the end of the day, but an exhaustion, where every resource you thought you had was gone. And even your backups were missing. Everything you thought you had to keep going was gone.

our weariness is heavy

Hebrews 12:1 ESV

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,

Maybe you’ve been in a season where faith is hard. and it feels easier to look to other things, to take on different weights. But taking anything on other than Christ Himself will ultimately wear you out. I think we are exhausted as a culture because we keep trying to run with weights on and that never works to get us to the finish line.

Christ is the perfector of our faith, not necessarily the protector

Hebrews 12:2–3 ESV

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.

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

We are called upon not just to look at Jesus but to look to Jesus. To keep our eyes fixed on HIm. Like holding onto the finish line, we are to focus on Christ because it keeps us moving in the right direction.

And notice what it says about Christ. That He is the author and perfector of our faith. He is the one who inagurates it and the One who perfects it.

But notice what it does not say. It does not call Christ the author and protector of your faith. He is called the perfector.

Hebrews 12:11–12 ESV

For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees,

We Behold Christ because Christ Beholds us

Hebrews 12:2 ESV

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.

Christ beholds us so we can endure and do the same, we behold Him.

And that is what that word, “looking” does in this passage. It is not a passive staring at or looking out to. It is not like looking at a painting or watching a fireworks show,. It is the idea of “looking until,” meaning that you are committed to it until “it” is completed and done. It is more like hanging onto something for dear life. It is more like clinging to the side of a mountain with nothing holding you up. And when you behold like this, you do not let go until something changes. You hang on until something is different.

The Gospel does not move and cannot be shaken.

Hebrews 12:22–24 ESV

But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.

Hebrews 12:28–29 ESV

Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.