All the witnesses for God spoken of in He-brews 11 are for our encouragement in the path of faith, but there is a difference between them and Jesus. Accordingly, the Apostle here singles Him out of all. If I see Abraham, who by faith sojourned in the land of promise as in a strange country, or Isaac who blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come, or Jacob on his dying bed of blessing and worship, they have all run their race before. In Jesus we have a far higher witness, and in Him there is also the grace to sustain us in the race.
A Motive and Source of Strength
In looking unto Jesus we get a motive and an unfailing source of strength. We see in Jesus the love which led Him to take this place for us, who “when He putteth forth His own sheep, He goeth before them.” If a race is to be run, we need a forerunner. In Jesus we have got one who did run before us and has become the Captain and Completer of faith. In looking to Jesus we draw strength into our souls. While Abraham and the rest filled up their several places in their little measure, Christ has filled up the whole course of faith. There is no position that I can be in, no trial whatever that I can endure, but that Christ has passed through it all and overcome. Thus I have got one who presents Himself in that character which I need, and I find in Him one who knows what grace is needed and will supply it. He has overcome and says to me, “Be of good cheer; I have overcome the world” (John 16:3333These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world. (John 16:33)). He did not say, “You shall overcome,” but “I have overcome.” It was so in the case of the blind man (John 9:34-4134They answered and said unto him, Thou wast altogether born in sins, and dost thou teach us? And they cast him out. 35Jesus heard that they had cast him out; and when he had found him, he said unto him, Dost thou believe on the Son of God? 36He answered and said, Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him? 37And Jesus said unto him, Thou hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh with thee. 38And he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshipped him. 39And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind. 40And some of the Pharisees which were with him heard these words, and said unto him, Are we blind also? 41Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth. (John 9:34‑41)) who was cast out of the synagogue. Why was he cast out? Because Jesus had been cast out before him. Now we learn that, however rough the storm may be, it only throws us the more thoroughly on Christ, and thus that which would have been a sore trial only drives us closer to Him.
Whatever turns our eye away from Christ is but a hindrance to our running the race that is set before us. If Christ has become the object of the soul, let us lay aside every weight. If I am running a race, a coat, however comfortable, would only hinder and must be gotten rid of; it is a weight and would prevent my running. I do not want anything to entangle my feet. If I am looking to Jesus in the appointed race, I must throw the coat aside; otherwise, it would seem strange to throw away so useful a garment. But there is a positive side as well as a negative in all this. If there is something to be laid aside, there is someone to whom to look. While there is much encouragement in the history of the faithful witnesses in Hebrews 11, our eye must be fixed on Jesus, the true and faithful One. There is not a trial or difficulty that He has not passed through before me and found His resources in God the Father. He will supply the needed grace to my heart.
Dependence and Undivided Affection
There were these two features in the life of Christ down here. First, He exercised constant dependence on His Father, as He said, “I live by the Father.” The new man is ever a dependent man. The moment we get out of dependence, we get into the flesh. It is not through our own life (for, indeed, we have but death) that we really live, but by Christ, through feeding on Him. In the highest possible sense, He walked in dependence on the Father, and for the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame. Second, His affections were undivided. You never find Christ having any new object revealed to Him so as to induce Him to go on in His path of faithfulness. Paul and Stephen, on the other hand, had the glory revealed to them, which enabled them to endure. When the heaven was opened to Stephen, the Lord appeared in glory to him, as afterwards to Saul of Tarsus. But when the heavens opened on Jesus, there was no object presented to Him, but, on the contrary, He was the object of heaven; the Holy Spirit descends upon Him, and the voice of the Father declares, “This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.” Thus the divine person of the Lord is always being witnessed to. The Apostle here gets hold of the preciousness of Christ in the lowliness into which He has come, but he never loses sight of the glory of Him who has come there.
J. N. Darby, adapted from
Collected Writings, Vol. 16:277-278