Bible Truth #327 - Hebrews 12:1

Hebrews 12:1

Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us.

This passage follows the Chapter known as the “Hall of Faith,” Hebrews 11, where the writer tells us of the great faith of some of the revered saints of the Old Testament and ends it by telling us some of the things that many other honored saints experienced and how some died gruesome deaths.

He then starts off Chapter 12 by telling us that our lives are being observed by a lot more people than we might want to consider. We may think that only God is watching us but that is not true.

However, what I’d like to point out is that the writer tells us to run with patience the race that is SET BEFORE us.

“Run” is translated from the Greek word trecho which has the meaning: to exert one's self, strive hard; to spend one's strength in performing or attaining something; and sometimes, especially in light of the preceding chapter, to incur extreme peril, which requires the exertion of all one's effort to overcome. And sometimes the only thing that is overcome is the fear of the type of death one will suffer.

“Race” is translated from the Greek word agon which in this context has the meaning: the contest for a prize at the Greek games; generally, any struggle or contest; a battle. Again, in light of the previous chapter and the discussion of the Christian life, I would understand “battle” better than any other definition.

Now we get into the purpose of why the Spirit led me to write this up. “Set before” is translated from the Greek word prokeimai which, in the context of the Christian life, has the meaning: to lie or be placed before a person or in front of; to be appointed, destined.

We can not run another Christian’s race, we can’t live their life. Each man has to live the life the Lord has placed before them. But the point is, that life, his entire life, has been placed before him. It has been set, and has been determined, a specific “race course” that God has laid out. A man can no more change the course God has set for him than he can change history. This is why Proverbs tells us that God has ordered our steps (Proverbs 16:9) and that we are to thank Him for it (Proverbs 3:5-6, Ephesians 5:20). The events that will transpire next week, next year, or even 100 years from now have already been determined and are history to God (Isaiah 46:10). To Him Who is outside of time, the future is history and it cannot be changed.

This is why all things work together for good (Romans 8:28), God has already worked in them. This is why the author of the letter to the Hebrews wrote that the race has been set before us, it is ours and we cannot change it. (Proverbs 20:24)