Counted As Righteousness

Someone has said that Jesus Christ came from the bosom of the Father to the bosom of a woman. He put on humanity that we might put on divinity. He became the Son of Man that we might become sons of God.

He was born contrary to the laws of nature, lived in poverty, was reared in obscurity, and only once crossed the boundary of the land in which He was born—and that in His childhood.

He had no wealth or influence and had neither training nor education in the world’s schools. His relatives were inconspicuous and un-influential. In infancy He startled a king. In boyhood He puzzled the learned doctors. In manhood He ruled the course of nature.

He walked upon the billows and hushed the sea to sleep.  He healed the multitudes without medicine and made no charge for His services. He never wrote a book and yet all the libraries of the world could not hold the books about Him.

He never wrote a song, yet He has furnished the theme for more songs than all songwriters together. He never founded a college, yet all the schools together cannot boast of as many students as He has.

He never practiced medicine and yet He has healed more broken hearts than all the doctors have healed broken bodies. This Jesus Christ is the star of astronomy, the rock of geology, the lion and the lamb of zoology, the harmonizer of all discords, and the healer of all diseases.

Throughout history great men have come and gone, yet He lives on.

Herod could not kill Him.

Satan could not seduce Him.

Death could not destroy Him.

The grave could not hold Him.

-as referenced on p.10 of The New Testament Commentary on Hebrews, J. MacArthur. (1983)

I hate running…  I get winded just thinking about it.

But then I read:

‘…and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us…’

…and that gets me all nervous… so I binge eat and get the meat sweats. 

My oldest son Nate is a pretty athletic kid.  He loves most sports and does quite well for himself.  He takes after his mother’s side, build wise.  And what I mean by that is, unlike me, he isn’t fat. 

This past fall, Nate decided he wanted to play football for our district’s 5th/6th grade football team.  Before a season ending ACL injury, he was doing quite well for his first year.

One night as I went to pick him up from practice l got to watch the team finish their conditioning.  The coach was calling different snap counts for the kids to fire off the line of scrimmage and run certain distances.  Normally these kids are dead on, but for whatever reason were having an off night… resulting in more running.  Lots of it.  I started sweating.

On the ride home I got to thinking about that verse in Hebrews… about running…

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Hebrews 12:1-2

Here were my thoughts…

I’m fat and often pretty lazy.  I don’t like running or things that get my heart pumping and cause pain to the rest of my body.  I have a lot of physical baggage that weighs me down.  It’s easier to just coast.

Nate, however,  is skinny and very much in shape.  Running isn’t painful.

Why?  He doesn’t carry around the physical baggage.  He’s healthy and conditioned. Therefore it’s easy for him, almost involuntary.

What did the author of Hebrews just say in verse 1?  Lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely.

In other words, drop the spiritual weight there tubby mcbutter-pants- make war and kill your sin, so you can run with endurance the race that is set before you! 

If you are a believer, you belong to Christ- you should daily be putting to death the garbage in your life!  You are not your own, you were bought with a price. 

Sin makes and keeps us spiritually fat and out of shape… and Satan knows it.  And he knows we hate to run, so he throws more donuts and fried chicken at us… and successfully keeps us ineffective.  And we like our donuts, so instead of fighting we sludge around on our Wal Mart scooter and let everyone else convince us we aren’t that bad.

Is it a wonder then why our “giants of the faith”, our strong brothers and sisters that fill pews on Sunday mornings-the ones we look at and envy and ask God why we aren’t like that- appear to have it together?

They are in shape.  They don’t carry around their baggage and feed their sin.  They daily make war, they daily kill it… and they are running with endurance.

Verse 2 tells us where they are looking… to Jesus, who is the founder and perfecter of our faith.  He endured the cross because of the joy that was set before Him, despising the shame.  He is now seated at the right hand of the Father and daily intercedes on our behalf.  How awesome is that! 

He carried that bloody stump of wood through the streets of Jerusalem and hung and died on it after he let Roman soldiers nail Him to it.  He did because we never could, we’d mess it up… we’d have to put our donut down.  Only He could be the perfect sacrifice, only He could beat death.

Dear friend drop the spiritual weight.  Stop messing with the sin in your life.  Run your race with endurance, looking to Christ.. and finish well.