Hebrews 12:1-2
“Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
Hebrews 12:1 is a call to constancy in the Christian profession; it is an exhortation unto steadfastness in the Christian life; it is a pressing appeal for making personal holiness a supreme business and quest. In substance, we can compare Hebrews 12:1 to Matthew 16:24; Romans 6:13; Second Corinthians 7:11; Philippians 3:12-14; Titus 2:12 and First Peter 2:9-12. It gives in brief the Christian’s two fold duty: the duty of mortification and of vivification – the putting off of the old man, and the putting on of the new man (Ephesians 4:22-24). Or like someone has defined it: -
Mortification is the process whereby the lusts of the flesh are subdued and kept under; and vivification, is the process by which the life which God has put within us is made to be a well of water springing up unto everlasting life.
We are enjoined to “run the race that is set before us” and second – “lay aside every weight” and in the third place there is the essential grace of “patience in running” and lastly, the encouragement of “the great cloud of witnesses”.