"...let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus..." (12:1-2).Why look to Jesus? Jesus is the starter and finisher of our faith. He is the ground of our every good. Through him we have come to know God in his glory. He is our peace with God, our assurance that God is our God and we are his people. His death is the ground that God is for us and not against us. He has given us his Spirit within us for present grace and as a guarantee of future glory. Look to Jesus and rest in the mercy of God for us who look to him in faith.
On the other hand, at the heart of every temptation to sin is an impulse to look away from Jesus. Thus, Puritan Richard Sibbs describes looking to Jesus as the safe way out of every temptation,
"In temptations it is safest to behold nothing but Christ the true brazen serpent, the true 'Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world' (John 1:29)."[The Bruised Reed, p. 2)
Whether today is easy or hard, filled with faith or unbelief, temptations or triumphs — or all of the above, may God grant us grace to look to Jesus, resting in him for the fullness God's grace to us and relying upon him for his all sufficient grace in our every weakness today (2 Corinthians 12:9).
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