True Resistence

“Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.” (Heb 12:4 AV)

Some commentators believe the writer is speaking of coming persecution.  However, the context is our Savior, who plead with the Father, spilling drop of blood and going to the Cross spilling all that remained.  Jesus Christ strove against our sin with all His blood.  What follows is encouragement to endure the chastening hand of God and the Father seeks to liberate us from the temptations of the flesh, mind, and spirit.  The writer compares the severity of our chastening with the severity of the passion of Christ and rightly states we have not, nor may ever, strive against our own sin like Jesus strove against all the sin of mankind.  Therefore, endure the rather tepid chastening hand of God compared to the wrath of the Father experienced by the Son.

 As I have mentioned before, I have been watching documentaries on the Civil War as well as the Second World War.  There are many impressions with which one can walk away.  There is the insight of the reality of a generation that was willing to sacrifice the lives of their loved ones for the cause of a greater good.  There is the pure evil of the axis powers that should have forever changed the face of the world and given us a resolve to never let that happen again.  There is the lesson that political turmoil only leads to centralized power.  But the lessons that are most impressionable are the lessons of personal bravery seen in the lives of those who served, bled, and died that evil not take root.  Story after story of men and women who had to put their personal emotions aside and fight against the face of Satan as he attempted to exterminate God’s chosen people.  The interviews of the surviving veterans were especially moving.  Their willingness to take up the battle even when they were being shot at; with injured limbs, blood loss, and extreme fatigue to continue advancement on the enemy is moving.  What really strikes me as truly moving is the determination to continue the fight even in the midst of great loss.  There were several battles which resulted in great losses on both sides.  Losses in the tens of thousands.  As an individual soldier, this had to be nearly impossible to continue when you knew, statistically speaking, charging the beach meant your death.  But strive they did!  Because there was an evil that had to be conquered.  If it took their death to do so, so be it.

 What concerns me is the generation is which we have grown up.  A generation that really has no idea of what striving for right truly means.  If we don’t have our smart phones, a warm bed, or food in our belly, we don’t know how to survive.  If the power goes out for more than two hours, it may as well be Armageddon.  We know nothing of striving.  We are losing the war because we are not engaged in the battle.  We cannot get beyond the personal loss.  We cannot see the greater good and are unwilling to sacrifice for it.  When it comes to our own sin, which is really what is at stake here in our passage, we cannot even tell ourselves ‘no’ over the simplest of pleasures.  We cannot even conceive of the first step of true discipleship which is self-denial.  We have not yet resisted unto blood.  I wonder if we ever will?