10-26-2024, 04:08 PM
The previous chapter ends with heroes of faith. They are in Heaven, retired competitors who now sit in the stands as spectators watching us finish our endurance events here on earth. Jews living in Rome would have been quick to recognize this imagery from the Colosseum. Endurance racing required a long course in conditioning, and then stripping off the excess clothing to run unhindered. Shed your fleshly nature. The goal is coming face to face with Christ in death.
He's the one who laid out the course, having passed through all the trials Himself. Now He sits at the right hand of the Father, watching us in the Colosseum as we strive to honor Him. We aren't facing anything He didn't already handle.
Nobody is going to chase you through the course. If you don't desire the prize more than life itself, no one can make you do it. People of faith are driven from within. How you react to the trials and sorrows will reflect the inner discipline of pushing through the limits of the flesh.
What the Christian Hebrews in Rome had faced so far was relatively easy, mostly social pressure. They had not yet faced organized government oppression in the name of Christ. No one had shed blood in His name yet, but that day was coming. He called for His followers to carry their own crosses. This is what pleases the Father. Did not our earthly parents do the best they could to prepare us for adult life by punishing bad behavior? The discipline of the Cross is not just a reasonable estimate; it is guaranteed in our best interest.
Only sick and twisted minds enjoy pain. This is not a call to masochism, but to help you understand that the flesh will fight you, seeking to keep you enslaved to its lusts. We want in on what Jesus accomplished on the Cross. We want to heal our weak, injured and indolent spirits so that we can push on to the final prize.
Stop catering to the flesh. Don't you understand that this was how Esau lost it all? Jews always spit when saying his name. He trashed his divine inheritance in favor of the desires of the flesh, and no price could win it back later when he realized what he had lost. Don't join him.
The Covenant of Christ is not rooted in dark and fearful experiences at Sinai. We don't have to worry about facing a mountain shrouded in smoke, bristling with lightning and booming sounds that drove humans mad with fear. We come to a different mountain, more like Zion, but the Zion in Heaven. Instead of deafening thunder that shakes us to our bones, it's a choir of angels singing His glory. It's an entirely different kind of covenant focused on love and mercy. His blood at the Cross speaks more dearly to the heart of God than Abel's blood that called to Him from the ground.
Whose voice is calling to you now? Haggai 2:6 declared that Messiah would change everything, fulfilling implications of God's promises that Israel had not fully grasped. If the ear-shattering voice of the earth carried such authority in warning against sin, how much more the voice that speaks from Heaven? It's not just rattling the ground, but Heaven itself trembles at His voice.
How can you put so much faith in something that was designed to pass away, and ignore what God promised was eternal? When He judges sin like a consuming fire, what will be left? If you cling to the covenant of this world, you will perish with it.
He's the one who laid out the course, having passed through all the trials Himself. Now He sits at the right hand of the Father, watching us in the Colosseum as we strive to honor Him. We aren't facing anything He didn't already handle.
Nobody is going to chase you through the course. If you don't desire the prize more than life itself, no one can make you do it. People of faith are driven from within. How you react to the trials and sorrows will reflect the inner discipline of pushing through the limits of the flesh.
What the Christian Hebrews in Rome had faced so far was relatively easy, mostly social pressure. They had not yet faced organized government oppression in the name of Christ. No one had shed blood in His name yet, but that day was coming. He called for His followers to carry their own crosses. This is what pleases the Father. Did not our earthly parents do the best they could to prepare us for adult life by punishing bad behavior? The discipline of the Cross is not just a reasonable estimate; it is guaranteed in our best interest.
Only sick and twisted minds enjoy pain. This is not a call to masochism, but to help you understand that the flesh will fight you, seeking to keep you enslaved to its lusts. We want in on what Jesus accomplished on the Cross. We want to heal our weak, injured and indolent spirits so that we can push on to the final prize.
Stop catering to the flesh. Don't you understand that this was how Esau lost it all? Jews always spit when saying his name. He trashed his divine inheritance in favor of the desires of the flesh, and no price could win it back later when he realized what he had lost. Don't join him.
The Covenant of Christ is not rooted in dark and fearful experiences at Sinai. We don't have to worry about facing a mountain shrouded in smoke, bristling with lightning and booming sounds that drove humans mad with fear. We come to a different mountain, more like Zion, but the Zion in Heaven. Instead of deafening thunder that shakes us to our bones, it's a choir of angels singing His glory. It's an entirely different kind of covenant focused on love and mercy. His blood at the Cross speaks more dearly to the heart of God than Abel's blood that called to Him from the ground.
Whose voice is calling to you now? Haggai 2:6 declared that Messiah would change everything, fulfilling implications of God's promises that Israel had not fully grasped. If the ear-shattering voice of the earth carried such authority in warning against sin, how much more the voice that speaks from Heaven? It's not just rattling the ground, but Heaven itself trembles at His voice.
How can you put so much faith in something that was designed to pass away, and ignore what God promised was eternal? When He judges sin like a consuming fire, what will be left? If you cling to the covenant of this world, you will perish with it.