“The Obligations of Faith”

Scripture: Hebrews 12:1-13

For the past three weeks, we have considered God’s great gift of faith. We’ve discovered that it’s a gift we could never afford, even if we had the resources to buy it; that it’s a gift that we could never define, create, imagine, or understand, even if we knew what it was all about.
We have seen faith described as “being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” (Hebrews 11:1) In other words, it cannot be purchased, it cannot be earned, it cannot be defined, and it definitely cannot be understood – but in spite of all the uncertainty that surrounds faith, we are to be absolutely confident in it and unquestionably certain that it is true.

Why should anyone be so trusting of such a nebulous concept? Unfortunately, many aren’t! But praise God, many are. Why do we believe? Because we see it as the promise and gift of our unfailing and Almighty God, and we find life in him as our Lord and Savior.

But is that all there is to this issue? Is the receiving of the gift all that is required? In all honesty, no! Once the gift is received, it can never be left to work all by itself, with absolutely no involvement on our part! A lot of folks that I know would like it to be this way, and even live their life as though it was true, but they’ve been deceived. Faith has been freely given, but if we don’t live it, and use it, and share it, we could very well fail to keep it.

Today, we consider the responsibilities of faith.

Read Hebrews 12:1-3

“Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.” It would seem that faith may have some obstacles associated with it! But isn’t this God’s gift to us? Why would he give us a gift that could be defeated? Upset? Restricted?
Because he has a great and glorious plan that is far beyond our understanding, and because he also gave us a gift called “free will”! We get to choose! Right or wrong, we choose.

I’ve been working up in my woods, trying to clear out the brush and scrub pines to open it up for the hardwoods to grow. I’ve made some progress over the years, but the problem is that the areas that have already been addressed still need to have attention paid to them every summer. Saplings still continue to spring up, dead limbs continue to fall, and areas that I haven’t gotten to yet continue to get worse. After I go through and clean things up each year, it looks pretty good for a while, but before long, the ugliness begins to reappear.

That’s what the writer of Hebrews is trying to tell us – when we first claim Christ as Lord and Savior, we feel pretty good about our new life. But before long, the obstacles, the old hindrances, the sins that we thought were gone begin to encroach on our new, our restored, our recreated lives. We must remember that we have a part in this new walk, and we have to be deliberate in choosing and re-choosing Jesus every day.
And we are told that we must run this race of faith with perseverance – that we can’t slacken our pace, we can’t get discouraged, we can’t take our course for granted – we need to be intentional and faithful in the tasks set before us, and to avoid the pitfalls that come with “free will” – remember that its free, not perfect!

Billy Graham writes:
The destiny of men and of nations is always being decided. Every generation is crucial; every generation is strategic. But we are not responsible for the past generation, and we cannot bear full responsibility for the next one. However, we do have our generation! God will hold us responsible at the Judgment Seat of Christ for how well we fulfilled our responsibilities and took advantage of our opportunities.
--Billy Graham, Just As I Am: The Autobiography of Billy Graham (New York: HarperCollins, 1997), 565.

Our faith is in Christ, we must respond with Christ, and we will be answerable to Christ. We read that Jesus is not only the author of our faith – the one who created it and granted it – but he is also the one who we turn to, to help us clean up the messes that either we create, or allow others to create, in our lives. And for anyone who may think that faith was developed in the sanctity and purity of heaven, we are reminded that it came to be right here on earth! It is in the teachings that Jesus offered, it is in the scorn and humiliation that he endured, it is in the agony of Calvary that he freely accepted, and it is in the resurrection that proved it all. He endured the hatred of the world, so that we might enjoy the fullness of joyful passion of heaven with him.

Read Hebrews 12:4-6

Not only do we have to stand up to the adversity that comes from the world on a daily basis, not only must we be constantly on the lookout for the encroachment of sinful ways, and prepared to resist these temptations, but we must also be ready to receive the discipline and correction that comes from Christ when we fail to live up to our call in faith.

I know that it will be hard to believe, but when I was young, I tended to need correction, almost on a daily basis! For some strange reason, I was always pushing the envelope of “goodness”, and Mom and Dad, usually Dad, had to bring me back into line. You would think I would learn after a while, but learning is a difficult process, especially when you think you “know it all”!
Mom and Dad’s ways were strange in those younger years, but after I joined the Navy, and would come home on leave from time to time, I discovered that they, somehow, had managed to get smarter during the months I was gone. I guess that proves that God was working in their lives!

I think our life in the Lord is very similar – we think that we’re pretty smart, and that we can make our own decisions. It’s a lie, of course, but if we constantly try to run our “faith race” to the best of our abilities, even though we may not always understand God’s ways, we will come to realize that they are the best ways. And as we grow in faith, and become more Christ-like in our walk, we begin to unwrap the person we were created to be.

This is a story floating around about the first President Bush. He was supposedly visiting a nursing home, where he took the hand of an elderly man walking the halls and asked kindly, “Sir, do you know who I am?”
The man replied, “No, but if you ask the nurses they can tell you.”

If you lay on others the responsibility for your identity, you might be shocked at what identity they give to you.
- Homelitics Online.

Don’t be shocked at who the Lord wants you to be – let him be the judge!

Read Hebrews 12:7-13

I have to admit that I have never enjoyed discipline. I didn’t like it when I was growing up, I didn’t like it in the service, I didn’t like it in my job, and I don’t always like it in faith. But I know that it is always necessary, and I have seldom been corrected for something that I didn’t do.
Discipline is all about eliminating those things that make us less, and changing us to make us all that we can be. Whether it is while we are young and still growing, or when we are more mature and are still in need of growth, it is one of the obligations that we accept when we claim Jesus. Before Christ, we are who we think we need to be – but in Christ, we become who he wants us to be, and that is to be more like him.

Larry Davis tells a very appropriate story about obstacles that need to be eliminated.
The musicians at a nightclub were complaining about an old piano. The keys would often stick, and the sound was truly hideous. After months of listening to the grumbling and whining, the owner finally decided to do something about it ... he sent the piano out to be painted.

Painted? Painted? What good would that do? Yet as Christians we often settle for a paint job when what we really need is to be re-tuned. It’s easy to play Christian without actually acting like one.
- We seek comfort ... instead of a challenge.
- You want rest ... not responsibility.
- I all too readily accept peace ... and surrender my passion for God.
- We look for a paintbrush rather than a toolbox.
-Larry Davies, “Pianos, rats and born again,” Sowing Seeds of Faith, August 13, 2002, sowseeds@nesbeonline.com.

Change is our greatest obligation in faith. We are no longer in charge of our life, for in Christ, we don’t get to make the rules any more, we don’t get to set the standards, we don’t get to determine the route and the path of our life’s walk, and we don’t get to choose our new image. As a matter of fact, when we try to improve on God’s ways and attempt to create our own Christian image, we tend to do just the opposite – we wind up making ourselves into something that has little or no resemblance to Jesus. We need to “Throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and … run with perseverance the race marked out for us.” Marked out for us, not of our own determination!

It is never easy, but letting Jesus remake us in his image, and letting him determine the direction for our lives, and turning to him for our way to eternity, that will be the most blessed thing that we will ever do. Let him make the repairs, and forget about your paint brush! He will make us work wonderfully and look beautiful!