1AND WHAT OF OURSELVES? With all these witnesses to faith around us like a cloud, we must throw off every encumbrance, every sin to which we cling, and run with resolution the race for which we are entered, 2our eyes fixed on Jesus, on whom faith depends from start to finish: Jesus who, for the sake of the joy that lay ahead of him, endured the cross, making light of its disgrace, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God.
3Think of him who submitted to such opposition from sinners: that will help you not to lose heart and grow faint. 4In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. 5 [ Pr.3.11-12. ] You have forgotten the text of Scripture which addresses you as sons and appeals to you in these words:
14Aim at peace with all men, and a holy life, for without that no one will see the Lord. 15Look to it that there is no one among you who forfeits the grace of God, no bitter, noxious weed growing up to poison the whole, 16no immoral person, no one worldly-minded like Esau. He sold his birthright for a single meal, 17and you know that although he wanted afterwards to claim the blessing, he was rejected; though he begged for it to the point of tears, he found no way open for second thoughts.
18REMEMBER WHERE YOU STAND: not before the palpable, blazing fire of Sinai, with the darkness, gloom, and whirlwind, 19the trumpet-blast and the oracular voice, which they heard, and begged to hear no more; 20 [ Ex.19.12-13. ] for they could not bear the command, 'If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned.' 21 [ Dt.9.19. ] So appalling was the sight, that Moses said, 'I shudder with fear.'
22No, you stand before Mount Zion and the city of the living God, heavenly Jerusalem, before myriads of angels, 23the full concourse and assembly of the first-born citizens of heaven, and God the judge of all, and the spirits of good men made perfect, 24and Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, whose sprinkled blood has better things to tell than the blood of Abel. 25See that you do not refuse to hear the voice that speaks. Those who refused to hear the oracle speaking on earth found no escape; still less shall we escape if we refuse to hear the One who speaks from heaven. 26 [ Hg.2.6. ] Then indeed his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, 'Yet once again I will shake not earth alone, but the heavens also.' 27The words 'once again'—and only once—imply that the shaking of these created things means their removal, and then what is not shaken will remain. 28The kingdom we are given is unshakable; let us therefore give thanks to God, and so worship him as he would be worshipped, with reverence and awe; 29 [ Dt.4.24, Dt.9.3, Is.33.14. ] for our God is a devouring fire.
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