Words in italic type have been added for clarity. They are not found in the original Hebrew or Aramaic.

Hebrews 12

The Race of Faith

Hebrews 12:¹ Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,

• Imagine the arena in heaven, filled with the saints and angels. When the signal is given to run, the runner jumps, his heartbeat pounds in his ears over the roar of the crowd. His breathing is measured, and his footing sure. The race waits for no man. They fall on the left and the right, but the runner continues without looking back, intent on reaching the goal and receiving his inheritance.

Hebrews 12:² looking unto Jesus, the author (originator) and finisher (perfecter) of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

The Discipline of God

Hebrews 12:³ For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls.

Hebrews 12:⁴ You have not yet resisted to bloodshed, striving against sin.

Hebrews 12:⁵ And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons:

“My son, do not despise the (discipline) chastening of the Lord,
Nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him;

Hebrews 12:⁶ For whom the Lord loves He chastens,
And scourges every son whom He receives.”

Hebrews 12:⁷ If you endure chastening (It is for discipline that you endure), God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten?

Hebrews 12:⁸ But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons.

Hebrews 12:⁹ Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live?

Hebrews 12:¹⁰ For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness.

Hebrews 12:¹¹ Now no chastening [discipline] seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

Renew Your Spiritual Vitality

Hebrews 12:¹² Therefore strengthen the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees,

Hebrews 12:¹³ and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed.

Hebrews 12:¹⁴ Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord:

Hebrews 12:¹⁵ looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness (wormwood, gall) springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled;

• 

Hebrews 12:¹⁶ lest there be any fornicator or (godless) profane person like Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his birthright.

Hebrews 12:¹⁷ For you know that afterward, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought it diligently with tears.

The Glorious Company

Hebrews 12:¹⁸ For you have not come (to that which) to the mountain that may be touched and that burned with fire, and to blackness and (gloom) darkness and tempest,

Hebrews 12:¹⁹ and the sound of a trumpet and the voice of words, so that those who heard it begged that the word should not be spoken to them anymore.

Hebrews 12:²⁰ (For they could not endure what was commanded: “And if so much as a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned or shot with an arrow.”

Hebrews 12:²¹ And so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I am exceedingly afraid and trembling.”)

Hebrews 12:²² But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels,

Hebrews 12:²³ to the (festal gathering) general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect,

Hebrews 12:²⁴ to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel.

Hear the Heavenly Voice

Hebrews 12:²⁵ See that you do not refuse Him who speaks. For if they did not escape who refused Him who spoke on earth, much more shall we not escape if we turn away from Him who speaks from heaven,

Hebrews 12:²⁶ whose voice then shook the earth; but now He has promised, saying, “Yet once more I shake [will shake] not only the earth, but also heaven.”

Hebrews 12:²⁷ Now this, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken, as of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain.

Hebrews 12:²⁸ Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear.

Hebrews 12:²⁹ For our God is a consuming fire.

• When prophesying the destruction of the Assyrians, who resisted the true and living God and warred against His people, Isaiah refers to the tongue of the Lord as a consuming fire and His “arm coming down with raging anger and consuming fire” (Isaiah 30:27-30).

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