So often, the New Testament writers were corner men. You know, those guys with the towels on their shoulders and the water bottle in their hands who wait for the bell to ring between rounds of a boxing match and then go into action trying to get their fighter ready for the next round. Sometimes their guys come back pretty beat up . . . their job is to patch them up and get them back in the fight . . . 10% attendance to the physical . . . 90% focus on the mental. That’s what comes to mind as I read the last half of Hebrews 10 this morning . . . the writer is a corner man trying to encourage his readers not to give up the fight. And the “secret sauce” for endurance? Faith.

For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised. For, “Yet a little while, and the coming One will come and will not delay; but my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.” But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.   
                                                                                 (Hebrews 10:35-39 ESV)

These Hebrew believers had been “enlightened” (v.32). They had grasped something of the “new and living” way that God had opened up to them through Jesus the Great High Priest . . . they had tasted something of the confidence to “enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus” (v.19-21). They had also suffered for their allegiance to the Christ . . . they were regarded as rejecters of the law of Moses . . . they had been “publicly exposed to reproach and affliction” and the “plundering of their property” (v.33-34). And as such, many were now wavering . . . the fight was tough . . . they were feeling somewhat beaten up . . . thinking about throwing in the towel. Enter the Corner Man . . .

For nine-and-a-half chapters the Corner Man has been painting a picture of the superiority of Christ over those things that foreshadowed Him in the law. A better minister than angels . . . a better mediator of a better covenant . . . a better builder of a better house of God . . . a better high priest in a better tabernacle . . . a better sacrifice for sin opening a better way into the most holy place. And then, to those who are reeling from going round after round with opposition and trial, the Corner Man says, “The just will live by faith . . . and we are those who have faith and preserve their souls.”

Not to be overly simplistic . . . not to minimize suffering . . . not to think lightly of trials . . . but, at the end of the day, when you’re kind of feeling beat up, doesn’t it come down to what we believe that propels us to get up again the next morning and enter again into the fray? Isn’t it with an eye to the sky, owning by faith that “the coming One will come” (v.37) that we determine, as much as lies in us and by the power of the Spirit upon us, to keep on keepin’ on? When we seem to be losing everything around us, isn’t it because we believe that we have “a better possession and an abiding one” (v.34) that we press on towards the finish line . . . believing that we will “receive what is promised” (v.36)?

Faith is the fuel of endurance.

And so the Corner Man whispers in our ear as He strengthens the inner man, giving us living water to drink . . .

. . . let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith . . . let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful . . . let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works . . . encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.  
                                                                                   (Hebrews 10:22-25 ESV)

The righteous . . . those declared righteous through the work of the cross and their place in Christ . . . the righteous will keep on keepin’ on by faith . . . by really believing what they say the believe . . . by not relying on their own ingenuity, strength, and abilities, but in His finished work and in the power of His resurrection . . . by not trusting in “horses and chariots” to win the battle, but trusting in the name of the LORD our God (Ps. 20:7).

O’, that by His grace we might walk by faith. Let us fight the good fight . . . by faith alone in God alone . . . for His glory alone. Amen?