Today is our third day in the book of Hebrews As we consider the first few verses in the chapter 12. We started two days ago and we considered the role of faith in salvation. We also continued with it yesterday when we considered the meaning of the word race from the Greek perspective and ended with explanation of the "cloud of witness". Before we come to today's exegesis, I would like to take this opportunity to wish all women here a HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY.

Our mothers have been the closest gift God has given to us when it comes to relationships and they remain as such until marriage . Whiles celebrating this day, I would like to say AYEKOO (well done) to my sweet mother Tutuwaa Anna. God bless you for your good heart for your children.

Going back to the studies for today, we shall continue from where we ended yesterday. The text before us is taken from the verse 1.

Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, (Hebrews 12:1, NASB)

We got to understand what this cloud of witnesses are. We understood that they are not some saints in heaven spectating us whiles we agonise in this race of faith. No. Rather the cloud of witness is the examples of men and women of faith explained in the previous chapter. That's made palpable by the use of therefore in the introduction of this chapter.

With that said and building from where we ended, We shall consider the expectation laid by the writer of Hebrews when he said

let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,
We are told to get rid of any weight that may prevent us from running in a fast pace as we contest in the race of faith. It's from this that we shall observe

1. The encumbrance and
2. The sin

1. THE ENCUMBRANCE

Encumbrance means burden. We can all attest to the fact that every athlete makes sure that every weight is stripped off his body. They work enough to make sure that even their own bodies do not produce any friction that will lag them behind in the race. Because of this, training is always made to get rid of every fat in the body. Runners may train with weight in their ankles but they never compete with it.

Bringing this picture to the Christian life, we can liken it to the weight of religion. The weight of legalistic Judaism. Those who preach that people are to try hard to be justified by the law. There are many people who became Christians from the background of legalistic religion. It's very hard for such people to easily let go of the old stuffs that entangled them.

Paul clarified this when he spoke to the Galatians in chapter 1 that . He said;

I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel; (Galatians 1:6,NASB).

From this text we see that although the Galatians had come to salvation by grace through faith, they were still worried by the legalistic judaizers who tried to bring these people into the bondage of the law once again. That is what the writer of Hebrews is opening our eyes on. That we should lay aside any burden that may entangle us and slow us down in the race.

As I've explained earlier, we live in a better covenant, a better priesthood and a better temple. This gives us no tangible reason to go back our old religion. Those dead works, the observation of new moons and Sabbath should not prevent us from running this race smoothly. We read in Paul's letter to the Colossians the following words

16 Therefore no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day-- 17 things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ. (Colossians 2:16-17, NASB)

I must also add to this encumbrance the love of mammon. The bible says that we cannot serve both mammon and God. There are others under the weight of money. And because of that they can't run the race properly. Here we're told to get rid of them. Materialism, self glorification and any other temporary thing that may put a weight in us must be done away with.

2. THE SIN

The next thing that the writer made mention of is the sin. What is this sin that he was referring to? I would like to give you what I think this sin is. There are many sins in the bible that slow down the Christian in his walk, but the greatest amongst them is unbelief. Why am I saying its unbelief? Every sin that a man commits can be traced to unbelief. To commit any sin at all is to show a sign of unbelief in the warning God has given concerning that sin.

Let's go back to the garden, where man sinned first. Reading from Genesis 3.

3 but God said, 'You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.'" 4 But the serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die. (Genesis 3:3-4, ESV)

We now hear the words of the serpent, 'But the serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die.'. This is the pattern of all sin. The devil gives us a better idea about what God has said and we follow him rather. We also read from 1 John that

Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. (1 John 3:4, ESV)
Therefore since sin is the transgression of the law, It shows that anyone who transgreses the law of God is practicing unbelief in his law. Adam and Eve did not believe that they would die because of what the devil told them. In effect whenever we commit sin, we are telling God that sin is not what He says it is, rather sin will make us become satisfied and happy and in so doing we deny His Word.

This is the end of today's message. Don't miss out on the third part where we will consider the second verse. Waiting to hear from you. Till we meet tomorrow, stay blessed

Links to previous parts
https://steemit.com/steemchurch/@gadol/the-race-of-faith-part-1

https://steemit.com/christian-trail/@gadol/the-race-of-faith-introduction
image source
Nana Yeboah
@gadol from @ghana and @sc-g