According to Hebrews 12:2, for the joy set before Him, Jesus endured the cross, despising the shame. The Lord Jesus knew that through His death He would be glorified in resurrection (Luke 24:25-26) and that His divine life would be released to produce many brothers for His expression (John 12:23-24; Rom. 8:29). For the joy set before Him, He despised the shame (Heb. 12:2) and volunteered to be delivered to the Satan-usurped leaders of the Jews and condemned by them to death. Therefore, God exalted Him to the heavens, seated Him at His right hand (Mark 16:19; Acts 2:33-35), gave Him the name which is above every name (Phil 2:9-10), made Him both Lord and Christ (Acts 2:36), and crowned Him with glory and honor (Heb. 2:9).
Hebrews 12:2 tells us that Christ “has sat down on the right hand of the throne of God.” In His ascension Christ was seated on the throne of God’s government. In His ascension He was enthroned in heaven.
From 1:3 the book of Hebrews points us continually to the Christ seated in heaven. In all his other Epistles Paul presents to us mainly the Christ who dwells in our spirit (Rom. 8:10; 2 Tim. 4:22) as the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45) to be our life and our everything. But in this book he points us particularly to the Christ who has sat down in heaven and who is of so many aspects, that He may care for us in every way. In Paul’s other Epistles the indwelling Christ is versus our flesh, self, and natural man. In this book the heavenly Christ is contrasted to the earthly religion and all earthly things. To experience the indwelling Christ, we need to turn to our spirit and contact Him. To enjoy the heavenly Christ, we need to look away from all things on earth unto Him, who has sat down on the right hand of the throne of God. By His death and resurrection He accomplished everything that is needed by both God and man. Now in His ascension He is sitting in the heavens, in the person of the Son of God (Heb. 1:5) and the Son of Man (2:6), in the person of God (1:8) and man (2:6), as the appointed Heir of all things (1:2), the anointed One of God (v. 9), the Author of our salvation (2:10), the Sanctifier (v. 11), the constant Succor (v. 16), the instant Helper (4:16), the Apostle from God (3:1), the High Priest (2:17; 4:14; 7:26), the Minister of the true tabernacle (8:2) with a more excellent ministry (v. 6), the surety and the Mediator of a better covenant (7:22; 8:6; 12:24), the Executor of the new testament (9:16-17), the Forerunner (6:20), the Author and Perfecter of faith (12:2), and the great Shepherd of the sheep (13:20). If we look to Him as such a wonderful and all-inclusive One, He will minister heaven, life, and strength to us, transfusing and infusing us with all that He is, that we may be able to run the heavenly race and live the heavenly life on earth. In this way He will carry us through all the lifelong pathway and lead and bring us into glory (2:10).
Hebrews 12:2 also speaks of “looking away unto Jesus.” The Greek word translated “looking away unto” denotes “looking with undivided attention by turning away from every other object.” The Hebrew believers had to look away from all the things in their environment—away from their old religion, Judaism, and its persecution, and away from all earthly things—that they might look unto Jesus, who is now seated on the right hand of the throne of God in the heavens.
The wonderful Jesus, who is enthroned in heaven and crowned with glory and honor (2:9), is the greatest attraction in the universe. He is like an immense magnet, drawing all His seekers to Him. It is by being attracted by His charming beauty that we look away from all things other than Him. Without such a charming object, how could we look away from so many distracting things on this earth? When we look away unto Jesus, we see Him, and He is infused into us.
In order to learn to walk by faith and suffer by faith, we need to look away from all things and persons. Jesus is the origin and the completion of our faith. We need to look away unto Jesus. This is because only Jesus is. All the others are not. Anyone other than Jesus is nothing. We trust in the Lord; we do not trust in anyone else. Hence, we need to look away from all things which are not and unto Jesus who is. This is faith.
If we would have faith, we must look away unto Jesus, the source of faith. When we look away from all other things unto Him, He will radiate Himself into us, charging us with Himself. As a result, spontaneously we will have faith. Faith is Christ Himself believing for us in a very subjective way. He transfuses us with Himself, working Himself into us, until He, a living person, becomes the believing element in our being. In this way He makes us a believing being.
When we look away unto Christ, we give Him the opportunity and the freedom to work Himself into us as the law of life (Rom. 8:2). In this way the law of life can work in every inward part of our being until we are fully saturated with Him. The more we are saturated with Him, the easier it is to believe. This is the way to have faith.
It is through the law of life that Christ’s believing element is charged into our being. The more we allow the law of life to work in our being, the more we are able to believe. If we give the law of life the opportunity to work continuously in our mind, emotion, and will, its working will produce great faith in us. Faith is the firstfruits of the working of the law of life in our being.
As the law of life works within us to bring about the expression and testimony of God, the first issue of its working is our believing. The most believing person is the one in whom the law of life has worked the most. Such a person will have the faith to believe God to the uttermost without any strain or strife. His believing is spontaneous because it comes from the working of the law of life within him. When the law of life operates within us to make us the reflection, expression, and testimony of God, we find it easy to believe. May we all experience faith in such a subjective way by looking away unto Jesus.
Hebrews 12:3 says, “For compare Him who has endured such contradiction by sinners against Himself, so that you may not grow weary, fainting in your souls.” This short word refers us to the four Gospels, where we see how Christ endured such contradiction from sinners. At that time, the sinners were all the religionists, Judaizers, priests, scribes, and elders of the people. When the Lord Jesus was on earth, He confronted all these opposers who were doing their best to frustrate or stop Him from the way of God’s new covenant. But He was not frustrated; rather, He cut the way, slaying it by suffering the death of the cross.
We should not only look away unto Jesus but also compare Him who has endured such contradiction by sinners against Himself so that we may not grow weary, fainting in our souls. This indicates that the Christian walk is a way full of suffering, shame, and contradiction. To believe in Jesus Christ (Gal. 2:16) is a marvelous blessing, but this brings us to a way not only of peace and grace but also of suffering, shame, and contradiction. This is the way that Jesus took when He lived on the earth. In His human living, He suffered and was put to shame and contradicted by sinners, but all the while He looked away to the throne in the heavens.
We must learn of the Lord Jesus as our pattern. As we take the Christian way, which is full of suffering, shame, and contradiction, we should look away unto Jesus. When we look away unto Him, He is perfecting, finishing, the faith within us, infusing Himself into us as the believing element and ability. In our human life, we cannot avoid encountering many problems. Yet we should not look at these problems, for they are not worth looking at. Rather, we need to look away from all our problems unto Jesus and compare Him who has endured such contradiction by sinners against Himself. When we look away unto Him, we will receive the infusion of the believing element and ability. In this way, we will be happy and be rescued inwardly from all our problems and contradictions.