- Overcomer Literature Trust
- Swindon
- Wiltshire
THE ONE WITNESS.
By G.Campbell Morgan.
“Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the Cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Heb. 12 v2).
In the light of the history recorded at the end of Hebrews chapter 11, the writer continues “Since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses . . . let us fix our eyes on Jesus”.
The whole emphasis of the writer of this letter has been concerned with the supremacy and authority of the Son of God. It is significant that here he makes use of the human name and writes, “Fix your eyes on Jesus”. It is true that he does that again and again in the course of the letter, but there is a significance in its use here. Glancing back over chapter eleven, we read the names Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, and others, and at last JESUS. He is in the same line, the same humanity and the same race. The writer says in effect, ‘The Son of God who is supreme and final, lived His life on the same level and by the same principles that people are ever called to live’.
The reader of this verse in his Greek New Testament would inevitably be arrested by the word, “Looking”, as used in the King James Version. The word places no such emphasis on the mind of the English reader. If we are reading all the stories of Jesus, in the gospels and the Acts and indeed in the letters, we constantly find the writers making reference to the use of the eyes.
In our English language, as in the Greek, different words are employed to signify differing uses of the eyes. In the Greek there is a word which simply means looking in the ordinary way. Another means to look with perception and understanding. Another implies earnestly inspecting as we look. Yet another means to watch critically. The word employed here has never before occurred in the New Testament and is never found again. Its significance is a looking which can only be described as staring. Not a casual glance, not the looking of understanding, nor of investigation, but the look of amazement, the seeing of something which has completely captured the mind. This is strengthened by the prefix ‘apo’ which suggests not merely the staring with wide-open eyes, but such complete capture that all other visions have faded. We are to see the witnesses of chapter 11, but there is another vision which will turn our eyes from them and from all other matters. The word suggests first the element of surprise and secondly that of such complete capture as to make one unmindful of all else.
This is the real secret of running this great race. The witnesses are of value, and argue for strength of faith, but this word suggests that there is a vision of Jesus which will capture the soul and make it forget all else.
What is this vision of Jesus? The writer continues, “who”, and by the use of this word links all to be said with the One to whom reference has already been made by His name Jesus. “Who for the joy set before Him endured the Cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God”.
In those verses we have a vision of our Lord in His human life, painted for us in a few brief sentences. He is the Author and Maintainer of faith with a passion for the victory of God, who for “the joy that was set before Him, endured the Cross, scorning its shame”, and finally in His absolute victory, He “sat down at the right hand of the throne of God”.
In Hebrews 12 v2 the Revised Version reads, “Looking unto Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith”. The list of men and women of faith began with Abel and here reaches Jesus. The writer declares that whereas historically He was the last in the list He takes precedence over all those that have gone before. He is the supreme illustration in human life of what faith means, and of what faith does.
Our Lord is presented not merely as the full and final interpretation of the value of faith, but as the One who in His own life and work had maintained faith completely. Now, in the midst of the centuries and of the men and women who have lived by faith in God, One appears who takes pre-eminence as Revealer. He is the Perfecter and the Maintainer of faith. If our faith is growing weak and our feet are growing weary and we are not running as we should, we are called to look away to Jesus.
As we glance back at the story of Jesus, as told by the four evangelists, nothing is more remarkable, nothing is more arresting, nothing more persistently self-evident than the fact that He lived by faith. His faith was first of all faith in God, it was then faith in humankind and finally it was faith in the future.
His constant fellowship with God and His unceasing obedience to the will of God are the unanswerable proofs of His faith in God. When He was working - “What My Father gives Me, that I do”. When He was teaching - ‘I do not speak from Myself, what My Father gives Me, that I say”. In this sense He was the leader of all in human history who have believed in God.
His faith in human kind is equally evident. His persistent belief in human possibility, in spite of all its sin and degradation, stands out in an amazing way in the pages that tell the story of His life and service. When He came into the presence of a human soul, however derelict that soul might be, He came as One believing in the possibility of its recovery. The ultimate thing to be said in this connection is that whatever others may think of human nature, He thought it worth dying for.
Once more, as we watch Him and listen to Him, we see His unqualified faith in the future. If we consider His teaching, whether to His own disciples or when addressing the crowds, we never find the faintest suggestion of His anticipation of ultimate failure. He fought to win. He suffered to save. He died to live.
Abraham’s faith was wonderful, but he lied. Noah’s faith was remarkable, but he failed, and this is true of all those referred to by the writer. But here is One who never failed. If I need inspiration for running the race, I will see the witnesses from the past in passing but then I will fix my eyes upon Him, “looking unto Jesus”.
If that was the principle of His life, its passion is perfectly expressed in the phrase, “the joy that was set before Him”. We sadly miss the ultimate value of this declaration if we think of it as referring to His return to the glory that He had laid aside. That was not the joy that filled the heart of Jesus. That was not the passion that sustained Him, nor was it the secret of His ability to say to His disciples “My peace I give you . . . that My joy may be in you”.
So what was His joy? “I delight to do Thy will, O My God”. His joy was that of doing His Father’s will. All His ideals were interpretations of that will. The passion of His heart was to bring people into submission to that will. His prayers sought it, as did that which He taught us to pray, “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done”. Through all the mists and the gloom, through the unfathomable darkness of His Cross, He always saw the dawning of the day when God’s will would be done on earth as it is done in heaven. That was the joy set before Him. He always weighed the things of earth in the balances of heaven, and the joy that sustained Him was the certainty that one day the goal would be reached. For Him it was supremely true that He “rejoiced in hope of the glory of God”.
If the principle of life was faith and the passion was the joy of the vision of full accomplishment, how did He act? The answer is found in the declaration, “He endured the Cross, scorning its shame”. It was inevitable in a world where there was no seeking to know the will of God that He must pass along the pathway of suffering. The writer speaks of enduring the Cross and just beyond the text quoted says, “Consider Him who endured such opposition from sinful men”. Some versions add “against Him”, some read, “Against themselves”. He did not endure the opposition of sinners against Himself. To the daughters of Jerusalem who were following and lamenting His Cross, He said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for Me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children”. It is true that the men of His time were opposing Him, but what He saw was the tragedy of such opposition as it reacted upon the people themselves. That indeed is the very heart of the Cross.
Here, then, we have the supreme inspiration for running the race.
From: ‘God’s Last Word to Man’.