Hebrews 12 — Life Is Like a Race

Big Idea: Life is like a race. Are you running the right way?

Don’t Get Weighed Down (Hebrews 12:1–3)

Hebrews 12 opens by reminding us that we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses — the faithful believers described in chapter 11 who have gone before us. With that picture in mind, the author calls us to “lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely,” and to run with endurance the race set before us.

Some things in our lives are clearly sinful and must be repented of. Other things are “weights” — not necessarily sinful in themselves, but they slow us down from chasing Jesus wholeheartedly. Work, money, relationships, hobbies, or even good things can become weights if they keep us from running freely after Christ.

The question is not just “Is this a sin?” but “Does this help me run, or does it weigh me down?” If our number one goal is to honor Jesus with every second of every day, we will sometimes need to set down good but distracting things for the sake of the race.

Don’t Get Distracted (Hebrews 12:1–3)

We are called to run “looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith.” Jesus endured the cross, despised its shame, and is now seated at the right hand of the throne of God. He ran His race with the joy set before Him, and now He is both our example and our focus.

In a busy, hyper-individualistic culture, it is very easy to look to other things: social media, comfort, money, power, entertainment, sports, or simply a normal, comfortable Midwestern life. None of those can carry the weight that only Jesus can carry.

Part of running the race well is regularly asking, “What am I actually looking to right now?” When we fix our eyes on Jesus — who He is, what He has done, and where He is leading us — we gain the endurance we need to keep going.

Don’t Get Discouraged (Hebrews 12:4–11)

Following Jesus in a world of sin and brokenness is hard. We struggle against sin, we suffer, and we face painful seasons. Hebrews 12 reminds us that in all of this, God is treating us as His children. He quotes Proverbs 3 to show that the Lord disciplines those He loves and chastises every son He receives.

Discipline never feels pleasant in the moment; it is painful. But later it “yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.” Earthly fathers discipline their children as seems best to them for a short time, and we respect them for it. How much more should we trust our perfect, eternal Father who disciplines us for our good so that we may share His holiness.

Instead of letting discipline drive us into discouragement or resentment, we can receive it as proof that God loves us, knows us, and is committed to shaping our character. He is not indifferent; He is actively forming us into the likeness of His Son.

Don’t Forget Your Friends (Hebrews 12:12–17)

Verses 12–17 shift the focus from “me” to “us.” In English we often read “you” as singular, but in this passage it’s plural — the equivalent of “y’all.” The commands here are aimed at the whole community of faith.

We are called to “lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet,” so that what is lame may be healed rather than destroyed. We are told to “strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.”

Then comes a striking phrase: “See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God.” We do not control God’s grace, and we cannot force anyone to believe, but we are responsible to care about one another’s spiritual health. We pray, pursue, encourage, warn, and help. We refuse to walk past struggling brothers and sisters like the priest and Levite in the Good Samaritan story saying, “Not my problem.”

The author adds specific warnings: see to it that no root of bitterness springs up and defiles many, and that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who traded his birthright for a single meal. Bitterness, unrepentant sin, and spiritual short-sightedness don’t just affect individuals — they harm the whole community. Part of running the race well is taking responsibility for one another.

Don’t Forget Your End (Hebrews 12:18–29)

The final section contrasts two mountains: Sinai and Zion. At Sinai, in the Exodus story, the people encountered blazing fire, darkness, gloom, and a terrifying voice. Even Moses said, “I tremble with fear.” It was a scene of holy awe and distance.

Hebrews tells us that in Christ, we have not come to that mountain. Instead, we have come to Mount Zion — the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. We are heading toward “innumerable angels in festal gathering,” the assembly of the firstborn enrolled in heaven, God the judge of all, the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant.

The author says that we are coming “to sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.” Abel’s blood cried out from the ground for justice and vengeance after his murder. Jesus’ blood cries out something far better for His people: grace, forgiveness, welcome, and love.

God has promised that He will once more shake not only the earth but also the heavens, removing everything that can be shaken so that what cannot be shaken — His kingdom — may remain. Because we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, we respond with gratitude and offer God acceptable worship with reverence and awe, “for our God is a consuming fire.”

Life is like a race. The finish line is not vague or uncertain; it is the presence of God in an unshakable kingdom, gathered around Jesus whose blood speaks a better word. The call of Hebrews 12 is to run that race with endurance — not weighed down, not distracted, not discouraged, not isolated, and not forgetting the end.

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Lifegroup Guide — Hebrews 12: Life Is Like a Race

Warm-Up

• When you hear the phrase “life is like a race,” what comes to mind for you — excitement, pressure, exhaustion, purpose?
• Share about a time you trained for something (a sport, a project, a goal). What helped you keep going when you wanted to quit?

Read

• Read Hebrews 12:1–29 out loud as a group.

Observation

• What images and metaphors stand out to you in this chapter (race, discipline, mountains, shaking, etc.)?
• What repeated words or ideas do you notice?
• How does the tone of this chapter feel — comforting, warning, encouraging, urgent?

Interpretation

• In verses 1–2, what do “weights” and “the sin which clings so closely” refer to? How are they similar and how are they different?
• Why do you think the author tells us to run the race by “looking to Jesus”? What about Jesus in verse 2 helps us endure?
• How does Hebrews 12:5–11 help us understand God’s discipline? What are some wrong ways we might interpret hardship if we forget this passage?
• In verses 12–17, what does it mean for the whole community to “see to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God”? What responsibilities does that place on us toward one another?
• How does the contrast between Sinai and Zion (vv.18–24) change the way we think about approaching God?
• What does it mean that we are receiving “a kingdom that cannot be shaken” (v.28)? How does that connect to God being “a consuming fire” (v.29)?

Application

• Don’t Get Weighed Down: What might be a “weight” in your life right now — something that isn’t necessarily sinful but is slowing you down in following Jesus? What would it look like to lay it aside or reorder it?
• Don’t Get Distracted: Practically, what helps you fix your eyes on Jesus during a normal week (not just on Sundays)? Is there one small change you could make to look to Him more consistently?
• Don’t Get Discouraged: Can you think of a season where God used painful circumstances to grow your character? How might remembering that help you or someone else who is discouraged right now?
• Don’t Forget Your Friends: Is there someone in your life (in your Lifegroup, your church, or your family) who may be drifting, isolated, bitter, or stuck in sin? What would it look like to “see to it” that they don’t miss the grace of God?
• Don’t Forget Your End: How might your daily decisions change if you kept the “finish line” of Hebrews 12:22–24 in view — angels in festal gathering, the church gathered around Jesus, and an unshakable kingdom?

Prayer

• Thank God for His loving discipline and ask Him to help you receive it as His fatherly care, not His rejection.
• Pray for endurance to run the race with your eyes fixed on Jesus, especially in areas where you are weary or tempted to quit.
• Pray by name for friends who may be drifting, bitter, or weighed down by sin — asking God to draw them back and to use you as an encourager.
• End by thanking God for the unshakable kingdom you are receiving and ask Him to help your group live with that end in view.

Memory Verse

Hebrews 12:1–2 — “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith…”

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Full Transcript

Well, good morning and welcome to Lifepoint Church. We’re so glad you’re here to worship Jesus with us this morning. Whether it’s your first time or you’ve been here more times than you can count, we’re really thankful that you’re here to worship Jesus with us this morning.

If we haven’t had a chance to meet yet, my name is Adam and I get to serve as the lead pastor here. We’re nearly done with our study through the letter to the Hebrews. We’re in chapter 12 today and then chapter 13 next week, and then we’ll have a short Christmas series. After that, getting into the new year, we’re going to do Ephesians together as a church family. That’s kind of where we’re going.

I have multiple announcements to mention to you before we turn our attention to Hebrews 12.

One, we have Lifepoint Buddy Bash coming up. It’s a way for us to serve our broader community—people who may not have a church home but would be interested in coming and having their kids connect with Santa and Buddy the Elf. There are invite cards you can grab if you want to use them to invite friends.

Second, our staff team has talked a lot about Christmas Eve. We’ve done three services the last couple of years and wondered if that would be enough room or if we should do four. After praying and talking, we decided to do four services this Christmas Eve: 2:00, 3:15, 4:30, and 5:45. There are cards you can use to invite friends and family who live locally and may not have a church home. Christmas Eve—candlelight, “Silent Night,” the whole thing—often feels delightfully nostalgic, and even if people aren’t fully there on faith yet, they may be willing to come with you. We’d encourage you to be thinking and praying about who to invite.

It’s also budget season, and the proposed budget summary is at the info center if you’d like to grab one. If you have questions, please reach out—we’d love to answer them.

Next week, we’re celebrating baptisms. Some of you already know that’s your next step, and we’d love for you to reach out to us so we can talk with you. Others of you might not know what baptism is but you’re curious; we’d love to talk with you as well about publicly identifying with the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ through believer’s baptism.

Finally, back in August we shifted our service times to 8:30, 9:45, and 11:00. The problem we were facing was that the second two services were full and the first service was more or less empty. We want to be a church where we are consistently identifying our “one,” praying for our “one,” sharing the gospel with our “one,” and inviting them to come to know Jesus and be discipled with us as a church family. If there are no seats left, then we either have to stop sharing about Jesus in our community—which feels sinful—or we have to find ways to make room.

So we want you to know we’re continuing to work as a staff team to help us have three equally attended services so that when new people come they don’t feel like there’s literally nowhere to sit. We’ve started specifically inviting some families to move to the 8:30 service and they’re praying about that. We’ll continue to make some more personal invitations, but if you’re someone who could move to 8:30—even on a cold, blustery, windy, gross day after staying up late watching the game—we’d love for you to pray about that. The purpose behind it is that we want people to know Jesus and to disciple them, and this is part of how that happens. We want to continue to make room for those people.

So, one big idea for our time together this morning is this: life is like a race. Some of you immediately hear that and think of the song “Life is a Highway” and now it’s in your head—sorry. That might also be true, but that’s not what’s in our passage today. The big idea from Hebrews 12 is that life is like a race, and the question is: are you running the right way?

To give you a sense of the shape of the message today, as we turn our attention to Hebrews 12, here’s how we’re going to divide it out:

We’ll look at Hebrews 12:1–11, and we’re going to frame it around a few “don’t” statements. You’re not going to see the word “don’t” a lot in the passage itself, but I thought it might be easier to track with the passage by framing it that way.

So first, from Hebrews 12:1–11: “Don’t get weighed down.”
Then, “Don’t get distracted.”
Then, “Don’t get discouraged.”

Then we’ll look at Hebrews 12:12–17 around this idea: “Don’t forget your friends.”

And last of all, Hebrews 12:18–29: “Don’t forget your end.”

That’s how we’re going to frame out the message.

Before we read all of chapter 12, let’s take a moment and pray.

Father in heaven, God, we praise You and thank You for the privilege we have of being here together this morning to worship You. As we turn our attention now to Your holy and perfect Word, we confess to You that we need Your help. What we want is for every single one of us to love Your Son Jesus, trust Your Son Jesus, obey Your Son Jesus, enjoy fellowship with Jesus, and to do those things more and more. And we can’t do any of that unless You help us. So Father, by Your Holy Spirit, would You please give us the help that we need so that each of us might grow in our love for Jesus Christ? We pray this in His holy name. Amen.

Hebrews chapter 12, we’re going to read verses 1–29.

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 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.

Consider Him who endured from sinners such hostility against Himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.

And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons?

‘My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by Him. For the Lord disciplines the one He loves, and chastises every son whom He receives.’

It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.

Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, that we may share His holiness.

For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed.

Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.

See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled; that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears.

For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest, and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them. For they could not endure the order that was given, ‘If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned.’ Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, ‘I tremble with fear.’

But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.

See that you do not refuse Him who is speaking. For if they did not escape when they refused Him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape if we reject Him who warns from heaven. At that time His voice shook the earth, but now He has promised, ‘Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.’

This phrase, ‘Yet once more,’ indicates the removal of things that are shaken—that is, things that have been made—in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain.

Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.”

So as I already told you, the way we’re going to spend the rest of our time looking back at Hebrews 12 is in these three sections around these ideas: don’t get weighed down, don’t get distracted, don’t get discouraged; don’t forget your friends; and don’t forget your end.

Let me tell you how I see those ideas in the text.

He starts off and points us back to Hebrews chapter 11. Pastor Brian did a great job last week talking about the “Hall of Faith” and all these people who have gone before the original listeners to this letter—and before us—who were faithful. They loved God and followed Him. So when he says we’re “surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses,” he’s pointing us to that image of life as a race.

He says, “Let us lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.” As you run this race, don’t get weighed down. Don’t get tripped up or tied up by the sin that clings so closely and by the things that weigh you down.

We have to ask, okay, not having sin be a part of your life as a follower of Jesus—that makes sense. The sin that clings so closely: get that out of your life. When I think about that phrase, “sin which clings so closely,” the image that comes to mind for me is walking through the woods.

I grew up out near Amity and still love to be in the woods. Growing up as a kid, we were in our neighbors’ woods all the time—we thought they were ours. You learn very quickly as a kid that sometimes you walk through the woods like this, with your hands up in front of your face. You look kind of silly, but why? Because sometimes you don’t see that spiderweb. You’re just marching through the woods and suddenly you’re covered in a web that clings to you, and you’re wondering, “Where is the spider?” So you learn: when I’m walking between two trees that are close together, I’m going to look a little weird and put my hand up. Sometimes that saves you from a spiderweb that clings so closely.

Sin can be like that. It clings to us and we have to intentionally get rid of it.

But he doesn’t just say “sin”; he also talks about “weights.” Apparently, the weights we sometimes carry are different from the sin that clings so closely. So what are those? If you pause and reflect on your life, you can probably think of things that, if I asked you, “Is that a sin?” you’d say, “No, it’s not a sin.” But if I asked, “Does it slow you down from chasing Jesus?” you might say, “Yeah, it does.”

Maybe it’s a relationship. Maybe it’s work. Maybe it’s money. Again, the question isn’t, “Is this inherently sinful?” The question is, “If my number one goal is to run the race well and honor Jesus with every second of every day, is this like trying to run while carrying something bulky that I could put down?” The author of Hebrews is saying, “Lay that aside, because what matters most is you following Jesus.”

Then we get to what I’m calling “don’t get distracted.” The way he says it is, “Looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith.” He tells us to look to Jesus, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despised the shame, and is now seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

In our busy, hyperindividualistic culture, it’s easy for our eyes to drift. If I were to ask, “What are you looking to?” for some of us the honest answer would be, “I’m looking to social media, or money, or pleasure, or power, or just living a normal Midwestern nice life. I’m looking to the Buckeyes.” It’s easy to get distracted over the course of 70 or 80 years.

The author of Hebrews is saying, “As we run this race with endurance, look to Jesus.” Fix your eyes on Him. Remember who He is, what He has done, and where He is now. Looking to Jesus helps put everything else in perspective and is one of the ways we grow in endurance for the race we’re called to run.

Then, “Don’t get discouraged.” Where is that in the text? He talks about discipline. He says you’re going to experience discipline, and discipline is painful in the moment. As I read that passage, I thought about how, when painful things happen in our lives, it’s easy to become discouraged: “Following Jesus is hard. This hurts. I’m tired and I feel discouraged.”

The author of Hebrews says, “Don’t forget—God is treating you as sons.” He loves you. He cares for you. Because He’s treating you like a beloved child, He is going to bring discipline into your life.

He points out the obvious: discipline is rarely pleasant. It doesn’t feel good in the moment. He gives the analogy of earthly fathers. He says, “We’ve all had earthly dads who disciplined us as it seemed best to them for a short time, and we respected them.” They didn’t always know what they were doing, but they tried. “How much more,” he says, “should we be subject to the Father of spirits and live?”

Our heavenly Father is perfect, eternal, and He uses discipline in our lives to conform us to the image of Christ, to make us share His holiness. All discipline seems painful rather than pleasant at the time, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness for those who have been trained by it.

So rather than letting discipline drive us into discouragement, we can let it remind us: “I have a loving heavenly Father who cares about me and my character.”

Then we get to Hebrews 12:12–17. If you were listening while I read the passage, you might be thinking, “Adam, how in the world did you get ‘Don’t forget your friends’ from that?” This is where our English language can fail us a bit.

We don’t really have a good plural “you” in standard English. If you live in the South, you’ve got “y’all.” If you’re in Pittsburgh, you’ve got “yinz” or something like that. But in our normal English Bibles, we just see “you,” and we don’t always know if that’s singular or plural.

In Hebrews 12:12–17, all of those “you” words are plural. He is talking to the community of faith. He’s essentially saying, “Y’all do this. All of you together do this.”

That’s why I summarize that section as “Don’t forget your friends.” Because in our culture, we can easily slip into a mindset that says, “I’m going to run my race. I’m responsible for my walk with Jesus. Other people are running in front of me or behind me, but they’re not my responsibility. I hope they’re doing okay, but I’ve got my own race to focus on.”

Hebrews pushes against that. He says things like, “Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.” Most of us wish he had said, “Strive for peace with the people you like,” right? That would be easier. But he doesn’t say that. He says, “Strive for peace with everyone.”

We may not be able to achieve peace with everyone, but as far as it depends on us, we’re called to strive for it. Some of you, if I asked, “Who are you not at peace with right now?” you’d say, “Honestly, things are going pretty well.” Others of you already have a list of five people in your head and you’re thinking, “I do not want to strive for peace with those people. They don’t deserve it.” Maybe they don’t, but Christ still calls us to pursue peace.

He also says, “See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God.” That phrase jumped out at me. It raises the question, “Are we in charge of the grace of God now?” Obviously not. We’re not sovereign over God’s grace. But he is clearly saying that we have responsibility for each other.

For people who don’t yet know Jesus, it means we pray for them, love them, invite them, share the gospel with them, and do everything we can so that they might obtain the grace of God. We cannot control whether they ever have faith, but we can refuse to be indifferent.

For believers, another way to paraphrase that idea is: see to it that no one fails to obtain the ongoing means of the grace of God. In other words, look around at other believers and recognize, “I have a responsibility, according to Hebrews 12, to help them continue to follow Jesus faithfully and joyfully, repenting of sin and growing in holiness.”

I think a lot about Jesus’ story of the Good Samaritan. You remember the story: a man is left for dead on the side of the road. Three people walk by. Two of them are religious leaders—a priest and a Levite. They see the man and their internal response is basically, “Not my problem.” And they keep walking. The third man, a Samaritan—someone the original audience would have disliked—stops, interrupts his plans, and helps.

In our individualistic culture, it is very easy for believers to be like the first two. We see someone struggling in sin, or someone who hasn’t been at church recently, or someone who has disengaged from their Lifegroup, and we think, “Not my problem. I’ve got my own stuff to do.”

The author of Hebrews says, “See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God.” Don’t forget your friends.

He continues: see to it “that no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled.” He’s referring to that all-too-human tendency to feel bitterness, sometimes for understandable reasons, and instead of taking that to the Lord and letting Him deal with it, we secretly cultivate it.

We water the soil instead of pulling the root. We choose to rehearse the hurt and nurse the grievance. He says, “Don’t let a root of bitterness take hold, because it won’t stay small. It will grow and defile many.” Bad things grow in that soil.

Then, “See to it that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal.” He’s not saying that every Christian or every pastor is now tasked with policing everyone’s private life. But he is saying we take holiness very seriously, and when we have opportunity to help one another live in a holy way, we don’t shrug and say, “Not my problem.”

Esau traded something of immense value—his birthright—for a moment of comfort, for a single meal. That’s a picture of spiritual short-sightedness. We’ve all seen people trade lifelong faithfulness to Jesus for a moment of pleasure or a season of compromise. Hebrews is saying, “Help each other not do that. Don’t forget your friends.”

Finally, “Don’t forget your end.” Hebrews 12:18–29 points us to where this race is going.

He starts by reminding us of the scene at Sinai in the Exodus story. God had rescued His people from slavery in Egypt and brought them to the mountain to give them the law. It was terrifying: blazing fire, darkness, gloom, a storm, the sound of a trumpet, and a voice so overwhelming that the people begged that no further messages be spoken to them. Even Moses said, “I tremble with fear.”

Hebrews says, “You have not come to that mountain.” That’s not where your race ends. Instead, “you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering.”

Festal gathering is not a phrase we use, but picture a massive, joyful celebration centered on Jesus—more angels than you can count, all dressed up for the party.

He says you’ve come “to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven”—that’s the church, the people bought by the blood of Jesus—“and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.”

Then he reminds us of a promise from Haggai: God will once more shake not only the earth but also the heavens. Everything that can be shaken—everything temporary and created—will be removed so that what cannot be shaken may remain.

As you run this race, there will be moments where it’s difficult. Hebrews 12 is saying, “Don’t forget the finish line.”

I imagine something like a stadium. I don’t know if it will be a stadium, but in my mind there’s a picture of Jesus at the center, angels everywhere, believers from every tribe and tongue and nation gathered, and it’s a celebration. That’s the end of the race. That’s what you’re running toward.

Because we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, Hebrews says, “let us be grateful, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.”

One of the things he lists in that description of the end is “God the judge of all.” If that were the only thing we were coming to, that wouldn’t be very comforting. On our own, approaching the God who is the judge of all is not good news. We are sinners. On our own, we are in trouble.

But we are also coming “to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.”

He’s referring back to the story in Genesis where two brothers, Cain and Abel, bring offerings to the Lord. Cain becomes jealous, and he murders Abel. God says, “Your brother’s blood is crying out to me from the ground.” Abel’s blood cries out for justice, for vengeance.

The author of Hebrews reminds us that as we come to the end of this race and stand before God the judge, we come covered by the blood of Jesus. His blood speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. Jesus’ blood over His people does not cry out for vengeance. It cries out for grace, forgiveness, mercy, and welcome.

Jesus’ blood cries over His people, “Welcome home. You belong here.”

Life is like a race. Are you running the right way? Are you running with Jesus, to Jesus, and for Jesus—laying aside weights and sin, fixing your eyes on Him, receiving discipline as love, caring for your friends in the faith, and remembering the finish line?

Would you pray with me, please?

Father in heaven, God, we praise You for Jesus Christ and for sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. We praise You that Jesus is the mediator of a new covenant, a new way to know You, to be reconciled to You, to be forgiven and set free.

God, would You please help every single one of us to run the right way? Help us to run to Jesus, for Jesus, and with Jesus all of our days. We love You. We pray this in Jesus Christ’s holy name. Amen.