“Since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses, let’s strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let’s run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes (Gorilla-Glued) on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith.” (Heb.12:1-2)
Lord Jesus, wearing the lens of the Gospel radically impacts every Scripture we read. For example, I used to think of this “cloud of witnesses” as a select group of spiritual giants looking down from heaven cheering us on in our sweaty striving to join them one day. Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Moses, Esther, King David, the Apostle Paul, Euodia and Syntyche (Phil.4:2-3)—all winners, now motivating us to do more try harder, persevere, hold on, and finish strong. What a distorted, me-centered, Christ-absent, Gospel-void view of the Christian life.
I focused more on the race than your grace—vacillating between feelings of pride when I did well, and feelings of shame when I failed well. I related to you as the Author but not Perfecter of my faith, the Alpha but not the Omega of my Gospel, the Beginning but not the End of my salvation—my forgiveness but not my righteousness. Hallelujah, you rescued me—and still do when I drift, default, jump, or run back into performance-based spirituality.
The one thing ALL the saints listed above had in common was their consuming, desperate, 100% need of a salvation of which you are the source and supplier, meaning and measure, heart and heartbeat. They (like us) were saints not because they were “saintly” but because they were a mess needing Abba’s mercies and your perfect righteousness, Jesus.
Abraham was saved by you before he knew your name (Romans 4:1-25); we are saved because we do know your name and abandon ourselves to you 100%. Jesus, we’ll never over-believe it, over-celebrate it, over-rest in it—you are our “righteousness, holiness, and redemption” (1Cor.1:30). So VERY Amen.
