Paul told his readers to consider Jesus who had endured the same kind of hostility that they had to face each day in Judea and Galilee, adding “so you won’t grow weary and lose heart” (Hebrews 12:3). Paul is, here, reiterating his words in verse-2 “fixing our eyes on Jesus” but wording it in a different light. He is telling them: if you don’t want to grow weary, if you don’t want to faint, then “fix your eyes on Jesus” or “consider (contemplate upon) him who has already endured like persecution that you are now facing” (Hebrews 12:2-3).
In Hebrews 12:1 Paul uses two different words, and he plays upon the thought of being hemmed in or surrounded. First he mentions the cloud of witnesses surrounding (G4029) his readers, and then he points to the sin that encompasses (G2139) the believers. Paul isn’t referring to the common sinful acts one commits. Rather, he refers to the sin of rebellion, which the believer faces in the lives of all those he lives and works with. At this point, Paul wants his readers to recognize how such a scenario draws them into their realm of influence, especially as that pertains to persecution they endure daily. Paul is pointing to the old man, the sin principle or the man of sin over whom neither the believer nor any other man has power to overcome.
I really appreciate the English translation of the Vulgate at this point, which in turn translates the Greek at Hebrews 12:13 as: “Take your standard from him, from his endurance, from the enmity the wicked bore him, and you will not grow faint, you will not find your souls unmanned.” The picture I receive from this translation is that in resisting the believer receives an unseen, unfelt divine power to overcome. In other words, in saying: “No!” the believer is empowered by God to make his “no” successful.
Paul then tells his readers that they have not yet resisted unto blood (Hebrews 12:4), or, in other words (according to most scholars), their persecutors haven’t drawn blood yet, either through abusive physical contact or through death. But, how does Paul know that? These believers may very well have shed their blood, and they may have known friends and family members who were slain, as they clung to Jesus as their Messiah. Such an understanding simply isn’t logical. So, what is Paul saying in this verse?
Since my argument is that Paul isn’t speaking of committing sins or trying to get his readers to stop sinning, we need to look elsewhere to make sense of what he says about blood in connection with sin. First of all, I believe Paul’s argument concerns the sin principle or the old man, which he claims elsewhere that we must cast off (Ephesians 4:22; Colossians 3:9), not overcome, or he must be reckoned dead (Romans 6:6), not defeated. The old man was our ‘covering’ or ‘clothing’ (compare Ephesians 4:24 and Colossians 3:10; see also Genesis 3:21). Nevertheless, the new man has become the believer’s covering, thus replacing the old man, who had always entangled us or beset us on all sides (Hebrews 12:1). It was this old man or sin principle in Jesus’ flesh that covered his union with his Father in Gethsemane, concerning which he drew blood from the pores of his skin, while he resisted, seeking to connect with his Father.[1] Paul knew that his Jewish brethren had not gone to this length to resist the old man. No one but Christ has done this, and because he had, he has the power to enable us to cast off our old man, provided we are willing to endure the trouble for a little while. Nothing is forever. The Lord will rescue us either out of our trouble or out of our grave. He will come to us, if we endure our discipline, which comes by way of those all around us.
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[1] See my earlier study in the Gospel of Luke, Jesus’ Prayer in Gethsemane.
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