In Hebrews 12:1-2 the chapter starts with a glance back as well as one forward, both through an illustration of a foot race. The word for race here is where we get our English word for “agony” which describes anything but a passive stroll. This race will require self-discipline, determination and perseverance. But in context to this letter which is written not just to believers but to those who are intellectually convinced but have yet to become spiritually committed to Christ the first step is that they need to get into the race by faith. Some of the Hebrew speaking church were just pretenders Paul had address people like this before in his letters like 1 Corinthians 9:24-25 where he wrote, “Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it. And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown.”
The exhortation has to do with true faith that properly motivates as in athletic events if you don’t have the proper motivation, you will have little or no desire to win. I think many in the professing church today are suffering with no desire to win, they are content to be spectators in the stands of the church simply waiting for the spiritual contest to end so they can enter into the celebration as winners. This is why Paul continued on in 1 Corinthians 9:26-27 saying, “Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus, I fight: not as one who beats the air. “But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.” The “competition of the Christian” is different in two important ways:
• First, we DON’T compete against other believers, somehow trying to outdo each other in works or church pursuits so as to receive more recognition. Our race is not of works but of faith. We compete only by faith not with each other but against the enemy of our souls and his world system and even our own flesh all which does everything it can to defeat our faith.
• Second, our success is not because of our superior strength or training instead our strength comes from the Holy Spirit and our training of daily dying to our self centeredness.
The writer mentions three truths that can help the believer run a successful race of faith:
• 1a Right motivation
• 1b Right training: The writer mentions three things that will enable to run faster:
1Shedding the pounds: “Let us lay aside every weight”
2Right equipment, “less is more”: “and the sin which so easily ensnares us”
3The race is a marathon not a sprint: “and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.”
• 2 Right Coaching