Laying Aside Every Weight

“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, 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 ESV)

The great cloud of witnesses, I believe, is in reference to Hebrews 11, which is regarded by many as the “faith chapter” of the Bible, for it details for us so many of the saints of old who walked by faith and who did what the Lord led them to do. They obeyed God, which was evidence that their faith was genuine faith. For imagine with me if Noah claimed to have faith but he did not build the ark, where would his faith be then? And what if Moses did not lead the Israelites out of captivity in Egypt? Faith is shown by what we do.

So, all of these people of faith set before us an example of what it looks like to have faith and to live by that faith, in practice. By faith Abel offered an acceptable sacrifice to God. By faith Noah, in reverent fear of God’s warnings, constructed an ark for the saving of his household, as directed by God. By faith Abraham obeyed God and went where God was sending him, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith Moses refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin, etc.

So, following their examples of faith, we are to lay aside every weight (hindrance), and sin which clings so closely. For faith in Jesus Christ is not of our own doing, but it comes from God, is perfected by God/Christ, is gifted to us by God, and it is persuaded of God. So those of genuine God-gifted faith in Jesus Christ will do as God commands. We will die with Christ to sin, not just once, but daily, and we will now walk in obedience to his commands in holy living, and no longer under the control of sin, in the power of God.

[Hebrews 12:1-2; Ephesians 2:8-10; John 1:12-13; John 6:44]

We will get rid of every hindrance to our walks of faith, too, i.e. all that tempts us to sin, and all that leads us into sin. We will discard them from our lives. We won’t “play with fire” and expect not to get burned. We will be proactive in knowing our areas of weakness so that we do not “tempt fate” and then expect not to fall. But the biggest thing that leads people into sin is what is stored up in their hearts. If their hearts do not change, they can try all they might to change, but they will keep going back to their sins.

So the weight that many need to lay aside is hate, pride, resentment, bitterness, anger, and unforgiveness, etc., for as long as these are what are stored up in their hearts, this is what they will produce. “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, and slander. These are what defile a person.” (see Matthew 15:17-20) For, “the good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil” (see Luke 6:45).

So, we must first of all have a spiritual cleansing of our hearts and minds of the Spirit of God, by God-persuaded faith in Jesus Christ. And this is what should take place by genuine faith in Jesus Christ whereby we die with him to sin so that we may now live for him and to his righteousness. Our hearts should be transformed of the Spirit of God and so we now are putting sin to death in our lives, by the Spirit, and we are now walking in the ways of the Lord. But we are still human, so we must do this daily.

And then, as empowered by God’s Spirit living within us, we can run with endurance the race that God has set before us to run. And all throughout the New Testament we read what that looks like. For Jesus said that if anyone would come after him, he must deny self, take up his cross daily (die daily to sin and to self) and follow (obey) him. For if we hold on to living in sin and for self, we will lose our lives for eternity. But if for Jesus’ sake we deny self, die daily to sin, and follow him in obedience, then we have eternal life (Luke 9:23-26).

But we cannot do this in our own flesh, of our own making. For Jesus Christ is the author and the perfecter of our faith, so our dependency is in his power and strength to help us to resist the devil and to flee temptation to sin and to walk in holiness and in righteousness and in purity of devotion to our Lord and no longer in deliberate and habitual sin. But our eyes and our minds and our hearts must be set on Jesus Christ and on following him in obedience and not on our own flesh and on our own fleshly desires.

And he is our example that we must follow, too, for he endured the cross, and he endured taking upon himself the sins of the entire world on that cross so that in his death he put our sins to death with him so that by faith in him we might now be crucified with Christ in death to sin and raised with Christ to walk in newness of life in him, no longer as slaves to sin, but now as slaves to God and to his righteousness. And this is possible through faith in Jesus Christ which dies daily to sin and lives to his righteousness.

[Matt 7:21-23; Lu 9:23-26; Jn 6:35-58; Jn 15:1-11; Rom 1:18-32; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; Rom 12:1-2; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 1 Co 10:1-22; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; Gal 5:16-24; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:1-17; Titus 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10; 1 Pet 2:24; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15] 

VOICE OF TRUTH 

By Mark Hall & Steven Curtis Chapman

II Corinthians 12:7-10/I Corinthians 1:20-24

Oh what I would do to have

The kind of faith it takes to climb out of this boat I’m in

Onto the crashing waves

To step out of my comfort zone

Into the realm of the unknown where Jesus is

And He’s holding out His hand

But the waves are calling out my name and they laugh at me

Reminding me of all the times I’ve tried before and failed

The waves they keep on telling me

Time and time again, “Boy, you’ll never win!”

“You’ll never win!”

But the voice of truth tells me a different story

The voice of truth says, “Do not be afraid!”

And the voice of truth says, “This is for My glory”

Out of all the voices calling out to me

I will choose to listen and believe the voice of truth..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CsiBjc0UIA

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