LIFE & GAME CHANGER 14 OF 16

THE ONE WITNESS

"Looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith, Who for the joy that was set before Him endured the Cross, despising shame, and hath sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."—HEBREWS 12: 2

            In our previous article we were considering the first verse of this chapter, a verse in which the writer was look­ing back over the line of history from Abel, with its illus­trations of men and women who lived by faith. It is indeed a marvelous roll of heroes and heroines of the world history. The world was not conscious of their great­ness. The writer in a parenthesis said concerning them, "Of whom the world was not worthy." Nevertheless they lived and wrought and suffered and triumphed by faith.

            In the light of that history, those to whom the letter was addressed, we’re urged to continue in the great suc­cession, "Therefore let us also." The appeal is that we do not permit the past to be violated by our action,

            "Seeing we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses,"

That is, those who bear witness to us of the value of faith. We are called upon to lay aside the weights and the sin admired of many, and run the race. That is the great appeal. It is, as we have said, that we carry on, that we do not let the enterprise of God in the world down, that we set our faces toward the same goal, and run on the same principle, and with the same diligence.

            We now come to words which are closely linked to those already considered. There is a sense in which the previous meditation was in itself unfinished. The appeal of the witnesses is made, but there is something more to be said, and that something is final.

            The first word of this verse shows the intimate connec­tion between what is now to be said, and what has already been said. It is the word "looking," a participle marking continuity.

            The whole burden of the writer of this letter has been concerned with the supremacy and authority of the Son of God. Without for a moment departing from that con­ception, in these words he places Him on a level with ordinary human life. It is significant that here he makes use of the human name, "Looking unto Jesus." It is true that he does that again and again in the course of the letter; but there is significance in its use here. Glancing back over chapter eleven, we read names: Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, and others, and at last JESUS. He is in the same line, in the same succession, the same humanity, and the same race. By a tran­scending act of literary inspiration, he says in effect, The Son of God Who is supreme and final, lived His life on the same level, and by the same principle that men are forever called to live.

            I think the reader of this verse in his Greek New Testa­ment would inevitably be arrested by this first word, "Looking." It places no such arrest upon the mind of the English reader, which I think is the fault of transla­tion. Weymouth, in his rendering, has given due weight to the Greek word, as he has it, "Looking off unto Jesus."

            If we are reading the New Testament in all the stories of Jesus, and those in the Acts, and indeed in the letters, we constantly necessarily find the writers making reference to the use of the eyes; and in our English language, as in the Greek, different words are employed to signify the differing use of the eyes. In the Greek there is a word which simply means looking in the ordinary sense. There is yet another which means to look with perception, with understanding.    There is another which implies earnestly inspecting as we look. There is yet another which means to watch critically. These are but illustrations, which might be multiplied. All this to emphasize the fact that in the word employed here by the writer of this letter, we have one that has never before occurred in the New Testament, and is never again found. It has as its root significance, a looking which can only be described as that of staring; not a casual glance, not the looking of complete apprehension, not the look of investigation, not the look of critical activity, but the look that suggests amazement, the seeing of something which has com­pletely captured the mind. Here, however, that root is strengthened by a prefix apo, which suggests not merely the staring with wide-open eyes, but such complete capture by the thing seen that all other visions have faded. We are to look off. The utmost value of it is gathered by a contrast between it, and what has already been said. We are to see the witnesses, but there is another vision which will turn off our eyes even from them, and from all other matters. The word suggests first the element of surprise, and secondly, that of such complete capture as to make one unmindful of all else.

            That, then, is the real secret of running this great race. The witnesses are of value. They argue magnificently for the strength of faith, but the final capture of person­ality in order to continuity is not intellectual, or shall I rather say, it is highly emotional, but is surcharged with the intellectual. By this word, then, that the writer uses, is suggested that there is a vision of Jesus which, once seen, will capture the soul, and make it forget all else; and in itself, shall I say, automatically loosen the hold of the runner upon the weights that hinder, and make impossible the sin of unbelief.

            What, then, is this vision of Jesus? This question is answered in the statement of the writer. Continuing, he says, "Who," and by the use of this word links all to be said with the One to Whom reference has been made by His name "Jesus." "Who for the joy that was set before Him endured the Cross, despising shame, and hath sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."

            In those verses we have a vision of our Lord in the realm and region of His human life illumined for us in a few brief sentences, every one of them flaming with glory, radiant with light. We may first summarize by saying the writer presents to us the picture of an ideal life. He was the Author and Vindicator of faith; then shows Him as mas­tered by a passion for the victory of God, "the joy that was set before Him," but further reveals His procedure upon the pathway. "He endured the Cross, despising the shame"; and finally He is presented in His absolute victory, He "sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."

            We may summarize in yet another way. Looking off unto Jesus, what do we see? A principle mastering life, faith; a passion inspiring and energizing life, the joy that was set before Him; a procedure in answer to the prin­ciple, and in obedience to the passion, enduring the Cross; a pre-eminence resulting from a principle and passion, and procedure, He sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Let us glance at these things briefly.

            First we see faith as a master principle. In order to understand the reference, we must pause with certain technicalities. The Revised Version reads:

            "Looking unto Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith."

We observe that the word "our" is italicized, and its introduction interferes with the true thought.            The writer was not referring to the fact that He is the Author and Perfecter of our faith, in the sense of being the Originator and Completer thereof. That is all true, but it is not what is here stated. Again, against the word "Author," a marginal reading is suggested, "Captain." I do not hesitate to say that that alteration does not at all help us. The Greek word employed there, rendered into plain English, is File Leader. Now a file leader is one who goes first in the procession, the one who takes pre­eminence. The survey of the past began with Abel, and here reaches Jesus. The writer, however, declares that whereas historically at this point He was the last as to His relation to faith, He takes precedence over all that have gone before. He is the utmost Illustration in human life of what faith means, and of what faith does.

            Once more, the word "Perfecter" would be better ren­dered as to its intention here by the word "Vindicator." Thus our Lord is presented not merely as the full and final interpretation of the value of faith, but the One Who in His own life and work has vindicated faith completely.        Thus in the midst of the travail of the centuries, and of the men and women who have lived by faith in God, One Who appears takes pre-eminence as Revealer. He is the File Leader and the Vindicator of faith. If our faith is waxing weak, and our feet are growing weary, and we are not running as we should in the race, we are called upon to behold this superlative Vision.

            As we glance back at the story of Jesus as told by the four evangelists, nothing is more remarkable, nothing is more arresting, nothing more persistently self-evident than the fact that He lived by faith. His faith was first of all faith in God; therefore it was faith in man; and finally it was faith in the future.

            His constant fellowship with God, and His unceasing obedience to the will of God are the unanswerable proofs of His faith in God. Was He acting? What My Father gives Me, that I do. Was He teaching? I do not speak from Myself; what My Father gives Me, that I say. In this sense He was the File Leader of all in human history who have believed in God.

            His faith in man is equally evident. His persistent belief in human possibility in spite of all its sin and degradation stands out in an amazing way upon the page that tells the story of His life and service. When He came into the presence of a human soul, however derelict that soul might be, He came as One believing in the possibility of its recovery. Necessarily the ultimate thing to be said in this connection is that whatever others may think of human nature, He thought it worth dying for.

            Once more, as we watch Him and listen to Him, we see His unqualified faith in the future. If we consider His ethical teaching, or His mystical teaching, His teach­ing of His own company, or His address to the crowds, we never find the faintest suggestion of His anticipation of ultimate failure. He fought to win. He suffered to save. He died to live. It was He Who did not

"Bate a jote of heart or hope, But moved right onward."

            In every respect the contrast between Him in this matter of faith and all that had gone before, puts Him at infinite distance. Abraham's faith was wonderful, but he lied. Noah's was remarkable, but he sadly failed. This is true of all those referred to by the writer. But here is One Who never failed. If I need inspiration for my faith in running, I will see the witnesses in passing, and then I will fix my eyes upon Him, "looking off unto Jesus."

            If that was the principle of His life, its passion is per­fectly expressed in the phrase, "the joy that was set before Him." We sadly miss the ultimate value of the declara­tion if we think of the joy set before Him as that of His return to the glory that He had laid aside. That was not the joy that filled the heart of Jesus. That was not the passion that sustained Him. That was not the secret of His ability to say to His disciples while yet in a tempest tossed world:

            "My peace I give unto you . . . that My joy may be in you."

What, then, was His joy? In answer to that we are reminded of the prophetic word:

            "I delight to do Thy will, O My God."

His personal joy was forever that of doing that will. All His ethical ideals were interpretations of that will. The passion of His heart was to bring men into submission to that will. His prayers sought it, as did that which He taught us to pray:

            "Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done."

Through all the mists and the gloom that lay along the valleys, through the unfathomable darkness of His Cross, He always saw the dawning of the day when God's will should be done on earth as in heaven. That was the joy set before Him. Because He ever beheld that as the ultimate, He always laid the measurement of the eternal upon the temporal, weighed the things of earth in the balances of heaven; and the joy that sustained Him was the certainty that one day the goal would be reached. To Him it was ultimately true, to employ the apostolic words, He "rejoiced in hope of the glory of God."

            If, then, the principle was faith, and the passion was the joy of the vision of full accomplishment, we ask how, in view of these things, did He act? The answer is found in the declaration:

            "He endured the Cross, despising the shame."

In reverent silence we meditate that matter. It was in­evitable in a world where there was no admiration for the will of God, in seeking to know the will of God, rebellion against the will of God when it was known, that He must pass along the pathway of suffering. The writer speaks of enduring the Cross, and just beyond the text, employing the word again he says:

            "Consider Him that hath endured such gainsaying of sinners."

Our old Versions read, "gainsaying of sinners, against Himself." The Revisers read, "Against themselves." Perhaps it should be said in passing that the American Revisers have restored the Authorized rendering. The difference is due to difference in MSS. Perhaps in the presence of this fact no one dares to be dogmatic. Never­theless the whole spirit of the argument seems to need the interpretation of the Revised rendering. He did not en­dure the gainsaying of sinners against Himself. To the daughters of Jerusalem, who were following and lament­ing His Cross, He said:

"Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for Me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children."

            It is true that the men of His time were gainsaying Him, but what He saw was the tragedy of such gainsaying as it reacted upon the people themselves. That indeed is the very heart of the Cross. We notice carefully that, whereas in the eyes of men, the shame of the Cross was its terror, that He despised.

            Here, then, we have the utmost inspiration for the running of the race, and the goal of it all was in His case that He sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. No language can be more perfect in setting forth the ultimate realization than this.