◄ Hebrews 12 Devotional Commentary ►

Hebrews 12:1

Hebrews gives us a wonderful list of people who are commended by God for their faith. It is a catalogue of men and women, named and unnamed, that stand as witnesses to lives that honoured the Lord – men like Abraham who looked for a city whose Builder and Maker is God; women like Sarah who considered God was faithful to keep His promise.

They are called "a great cloud of witnesses," and indeed their lives demonstrate a trust read more...

Hebrews 12:2

For all of eternity, Christ is in the bosom of the Father, exchanging love and being loved. He is forever the Beloved Son of the Father, in Whom God is well pleased. The mutual love within the Trinity is incomprehensible to mere human beings, and yet for three very significant hours of deep darkness, Christ was separated from the Father He loved so dearly, and the Spirit Who had been the ever-present Lover of His soul throughout His earthly life.

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Hebrews 12:2

As soldiers of the Cross, we are called to live by faith like so many in that great list of Old Testament saints whose exploits were recorded in Hebrews 11. They were men and women who trusted the Lord despite the terrible circumstances many of them had to face, but as we move into Chapter 12, that great cloud of  witnesses is replaced by one wonderful Witness - the Lord Jesus Christ.

Jesus is the supreme Witness, for read more...

Hebrews 12:3

Hebrews is a book that focuses on faith, which is simply believing God's Word. We are to have faith in God the Father and faith in His Son. We are to have a faith that holds firm through all the changing scenes of life, whether we face trouble or joy. We are called to live by faith in the Word of God, for without faith it is impossible to please Him, and we are encouraged to remember His faithfulness towards us and to avoid the unfaithfulness exhibited by the read more...

Hebrews 12:5

The writer of Hebrews often directs the gaze of those who read his epistle, to words and wisdom in the Old Testament as a warning to avoid their mistakes. The counsel in Proverbs 3 is to accept that chastening rod of God, for as an earthly father corrects his son, so our Heavenly Father disciplines His children. And in Hebrews, we are similarly admonished to endure suffering as a discipline, because God is dealing with us as sons, mature sons, adult sons, blessed read more...

Hebrews 12:6

The Father generally trains His children through trials, difficulties, and sufferings, just as the Lord Jesus also learned obedience: "Through the things that He suffered." But when a believer is disciplined or chastened by the Lord, we often imagine that God does not love us anymore, or that He is inflicting some cruel punishment on us, from which we make every endeavour to escape. But chastening from the Lord is a sign of love that comes from read more...

Hebrews 12:7

Too often we shy away from words like chastening, discipline, correction, and submission, because our lives have experienced the world's efforts at chastening, discipline, correction, and submission, which falls far short of its godly meaning in the Bible.

We need to recognise that God's chastening is not His wrath or some angry punishment or penalty, but rather God graciously deals with us as a loving Father Who seeks to mould us read more...

Hebrews 12:8

How important to patiently endure the child-training we all must receive from our gracious Heavenly Father. How wise to willingly submit to the godly discipline and necessary chastening that every child of God receives from our Father in heaven so that we may be conformed into the image and likeness of our Saviour, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Were we not chastened by the Lord, we would not be His sons but illegitimate children, but read more...

Hebrews 12:10

The training and discipline of earthly parents which is given during infancy and childhood, is compared and contrasted with the perfect instruction and chastening rod that we receive from our heavenly Father.

The correction given by earthly parents is, too often, far from perfect, even though they try to rear their offspring in the way they think their children should be brought up. The Bible tells us that our parents disciplined read more...

Hebrews 12:11

Before we were born again, we were children of the devil and estranged from God. We were dead in our sin and under eternal condemnation. Before we were born again, we were enslaved in sin and under the curse of the Law, en route to the lake of fire and eternal separation from our Creator God. However, since we have been saved by grace through faith, we have become children of God and joint-heirs with Christ. Now we have the promise of eternal life, a read more...

Hebrews 12:14

Following a beautiful chapter on faith, which reminds us of our privileged position in Christ and the glories that are yet to be realised in Him, Hebrews 12 exhorts the Church to maintain our hope in Christ; the Author and Finisher of our faith.

We are reminded that this world is not our home, and as sojourners in a foreign land, we will have to undergo the same sort of hostility the Lord Jesus endured, from sinners who opposed read more...

Hebrews 12:15

The Word of God tells us that if we allow bitterness to creep into our hearts and if we become bound up in resentment, discontent, acrimony, and grudges against others, we come short of the grace of God and have allowed the ungodly characteristic of bitterness to sink its deadly root into our heart. This bitterness defiles us before the Lord and causes no end of trouble in our own lives and in the lives of others too.

Bitterness read more...

Hebrews 12:23

Believers in the Lord Jesus Christ are called, "the General Assembly and Church of the Firstborn," and through faith in Christ's sacrificial work on the Cross and His glorious Resurrection, our names are, "enrolled in heaven." The book of Hebrews explains that the privileges we receive through the new and better Covenant which was cut on Mount Zion - at Calvary, are so much superior to those given to Israel - at Mount Sinai, for read more...

Hebrews 12:24

The Old Covenant was given, through Moses, to the nation of Israel and although it was good, it was unattainable. God chose Israel out of the sea of fallen humanity to be His special people, and God's perfect Law was given to imperfect Israel at Mount Sinai. It was given to separate them from the swamp of fallen humanity and show them how God wanted His people to live - it was designed to expose the imperfections of fallen man. read more...

Hebrews 12:26

We have been saved in the same way as that great cloud of witnesses who were listed earlier in the book of Hebrews; saved by grace through faith. They believed the Word of God as they looked forward to the arrival of the promised Seed of Abraham, man's Kinsman-Redeemer Who was the greater Son of David. We also believe the Word of God as we look back to the Cross of Christ to Jesus, our God and Saviour, our risen, ascended, and glorified Lord.

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Hebrews 12:27

When God speaks, His children should listen, and when God repeats Himself, His children should pay extra special attention to the Word of the Lord.

It was the prophet Haggai that first announced to Israel that God was going to shake the heavens, the earth, the sea, and the dry land. Haggai challenged God's people to re-examine their priorities and practice, and to re-establish God back into the centre of their lives and to trust read more...

Hebrews 12:28

Hebrews is a book that was mainly written to Jewish believers in the early Church who found it very difficult to let go of many of their former traditions and Jewish rituals. It was written to help them come to terms with the New and better Covenant, which was promised by the mouth of Jeremiah, cut through the precious blood of Jesus Christ our Saviour, and will be fully and finally ratified when Jesus returns to set up His Millennial Kingdom on earth.

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Hebrews 12:28

While Galatians was a book that was written to warn Gentiles not to be lured into legalistic, Jewish practices, the target audience of Hebrews was predominantly towards Jewish converts to Christianity in the early Church.. who were being lured back into Jewish legalism.

Both books are equally relevant to Christians today who are continually being enticed back into the legalistic practice of the pre-Cross dispensation of Law... read more...

Hebrews 12:29

The book of Hebrews was particularly important for Jewish believers in the early Church. Step by step it showed that Christ was superior to angels and of greater importance than Moses, Aaron, and Joshua. It identified Jesus as preeminent among prophets, priests, kings, and the entire angelic realm. Hebrews is the book that showed believing Jews that the New Covenant promised through Jeremiah, had been cut at Calvary.

It explains read more...