Reflections based on Hebrews 12:1–14.

Let’s start by reminding ourselves of some central truths that we have discovered during our devotional on holiness. Today’s reading is a great motivational passage to help us run our race of life well, refusing to give in to sin. It teaches us to remember Jesus and how He lived His life with His goal always before Him. There is a ‘big picture’ being painted here, which is there to help strengthen us in those moments when we feel like giving up our efforts. 

We are also told to ‘Endure hardship as discipline’ (v7), as we are God’s children and that ‘God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in his holiness’ (v10). Jerry Bridges in The Pursuit of Holiness says that, ‘Holiness is … required for our well-being’ and makes the point that God’s discipline is a way in which He enables us to become holy. He disciplines us because He loves us and desires to have the type of close relationship a father has to his child.

Again we see the word ‘Therefore’ being used in verse 12. There is a sense that we need to be responsible and disciplined in our lifestyles and that it isn’t just for our benefit. We are to be good examples to others and live at peace with one another.

I have ended today’s reading with the reminder that ‘without holiness no one will see the Lord’. Yes it is a gift freely given, but if we long to see God we must run hard after holiness. I love how Kevin de Young puts it: ‘To run hard after holiness is another way of running hard after God’.* It isn’t holiness as an end in itself that we are seeking, but the One in whom it is all hidden: Jesus.

Prayer: Father, help me to understand the unending love that is behind Your discipline. And that seeking holiness is really seeking to know Jesus more. Amen.

*Kevin de Young, The Hole in our Holiness (Crossway, 2007)