fixing our eyes on Jesus,
the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the
cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God
Hebrews 12:2
There
is a real touch of Paul in this Letter to the Hebrews – "Looking off unto
Jesus." Whoever actually wrote this Letter, the shadow of Paul is over it.
His influence is everywhere. And certainly he was called upon to look off unto
Jesus. Now that is a very vital lesson for us to learn. We have to do that
again and again in our Christian life. If we get our eyes upon anything but the
Lord Jesus we just go to pieces. Have all respect for God's saints. I am not
saying that you have to eye every servant of God with suspicion and be saying
all the time: "Well, of course, he is not perfect, you know." Give
honor to whom honor is due, but never build your faith upon any man, however
good he may be.
And
as for ourselves – well, I think perhaps we are more tempted to look at
ourselves than anything else! This is one of our real Christian exercises. We
have continually to remove our eyes from ourselves and everything to do with
ourselves. There is nothing more discouraging than this self of ours, and
nothing more misleading. Our own judgments are all wrong, and so are our
thoughts and ideas. They are not God's thoughts. We must take our eyes off
ourselves, but not look out into space and be vacant. "Look off unto Jesus,"
and you know how that sentence is finished – "Jesus,
the author and finisher of our
faith." Did you start this thing? Are you a Christian because you
decided to be a Christian? Well, the Lord help you if that is so! No, He
started this thing. Are you not glad that you can say: "It was the Lord
who found me. It was the Lord who put His hand on me." What He said is
very true: "Ye did not choose Me,
but I chose you" (John 15:16). He was the author of our faith, and
it says that He is the finisher – He will finish it.
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