The other reason that we struggle in the fight of faith to endure to the end, is because we have the wrong object of faith. In verse 2 it says, “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.”
A huge mistake we all make in the fight of faith, in this race that we are all in, is looking at others around us. Or maybe being fixated on the examples that were set before us. You are not supposed to look at the saints of old, and be locked in on them, and then compare yourself to them. They are testimonies of what choosing faith will be in the end, but you’re not to stay fixated upon them. But often we read testimonies of old, or we look at brothers and sisters around us, and we say, “My faith is weak, not like theirs,” and we become discouraged. One of the problems is the object of our faith.
What other objects do we look at in our faith? Ourselves. Ourselves. “What do you mean by that?” Because we are given the responsibility, and the command to endure to the end, to persevere. Then we look at ourselves, and we try to conjure up enough faith to make it to the end. But you see, when you’re the one who’s conjuring up enough faith as you look within, do you know where your faith is lying then?
It’s lying in you and your own faith.
We are not called to have faith in our faith. There is a different object of faith that the writer of Hebrews is pleading with you here in verse 2 to make the object of your faith. He says, “looking to Jesus” – present, active; continually looking at Jesus Christ. If we’re going to persevere to the end, we all must be constantly, continually, and pointedly looking at Jesus Christ, and removing anything from our lives that distracts this view right here, or keeps us from it. He has gone before us as a forerunner. He was perfect in faith.
It says, “for the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross”. He is the perfect example and object of faith. One greater than Moses has come. One greater than Abraham has come. Do not fix your gaze upon Abraham, upon Moses, upon David, or upon saints around you, or upon yourself. Fix your gaze upon Jesus Christ, the author and perfecter of our faith.
Jesus has secured all the promises the Father has made through his Word to his chosen people, through his life, death, burial and resurrection.
Jesse Barrington pastors at http://www.gracelifedallas.org/
