We are in a race! It is a race that requires endurance. In other words, it’s not a sprint but a marathon. Although I prefer to liken it to the “tour de France.” The race is long, over many days, and each day is a whole different set of challenges.
The word in Heb. 12 for this “race” (it could
also be called a “fight”) is agown.
According to Heb. 12:1, this “race” is set before us. It is a course that has been laid out with
various obstacles and difficulties. To
achieve victory we must stay the course.
The Greek term for “set before us” is also used in Heb. 6:18 and applies
to believers, those “who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set
before us.” The course is before us but
so is the hope wherein we will find refuge as we run the race. In terms of context, our interpretation of
Hebrews is that the recipients of the letter are in that part of their race in
the difficult years just preceding the destruction of Jerusalem in 70AD. The race was definitely an agown, an
agonizing race; but there was a great hope upon the completion of the race, one
that would sustain them along the way.
Agown was originally a place of assembly,
then the place of the contest or stadium, then the “contest itself,” and
finally whatever kind of “conflict” was involved. Agonizomai (the verb) means “to carry
on a conflict, context, debate or legal suit”
(All this is from The Theological Dictionary of the New Testament).
·
Jesus and “the race.” Jesus used the term twice.
o
In Luke 13:24 He said, “Strive to enter through
the narrow gate, for many, I say to you, will seek to enter and will not be
able.” My understanding of this is that
the striving is not trying hard to do good things to qualify for heaven, of
course. It is the striving to come to the
point of faith, of not trying but trusting God. In Hebrews 4:11 this truth is put this way: “Let
us therefore be diligent to enter that rest.”
o
In John 18:36 Jesus told Pilate that His kingdom
was not of this world. If it was, His
followers would “fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews.”
o
Since Heb. 12:2-3 indicates Jesus was involved
in this race. The only place in the
Gospels where we see this referred to Christ is in Luke 22:44. It is another
noun, agonia (the only use of this term in the NT; it refers to the “inner
tension” or “anxiety” related to the race), and it says that “being in agony,
He prayed more earnestly.” What a great
truth this is for us. We set our eyes on
Him as we run our race (Heb. 12:2), and what we see is so encouraging.
§ Incorrectly,
I believe, the author of the related article in “The Theological Dictionary of
the New Testament” (Ethelbert Stauffer) says “this is not fear of death, but
concern for victory in face of the approaching decisive battle on which the
fate of the world depends.” Warren Wiersbe
(The Bible Exposition Commentary) relates the “agony” to what lay ahead,
including the humiliation and abuse and even more being “made sin for us and
separated from His Father.” My thought
is that Jesus was being tested by the evil one, as He had been in the
desert. It was not a sin but a
temptation, being tested with fear. It
would only be sin if He gave in to the fear, which He did not do.
Let’s do more on this tomorrow, as the Lord
wills. But for now, let us “press toward
the goal” of Christlikeness.
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