Hebrews 12:1  Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us,

Four of the most misunderstood words in the Bible: "Therefore let us also..." There are two ways we can read these words in the context of running a race under the supervision of the "Great cloud of witnesses." One is moralistic, and the other is according to the Gospel, and these four words make all the difference.

When we first read these words, we could think the Bible is preaching moralism. We get a list of Old Testament heroes, a list of great things they were able to do, and then we get "therefore let us also," followed by a list of things we're supposed to do! And then, as we read the passage again, we realize there was a key to properly reading this passage. The key rests in the list of heroes: Gideon, Samson, Jephthah, David, and Samuel. They are painfully flawed, to man. It's the list of who's who in the great cloud of witnesses that enables us to see that the writer to the Hebrews is preaching something much more powerful than moralism: he is preaching the very Gospel of the crucified and resurrected Christ.

It is in our nature, because we desperately want to have something to contribute, to read Hebrews 12:1 this way: "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us." Therefore, because of the great cloud of witnesses around us, let us run the race that has been set before us with endurance, as they did. This, clearly, is moralism. But the writer here has something much deeper in mind: because you  are like the great cloud of witnesses, you are able to run the race with endurance. We don't run the race to become something; we can run the race because we are something.

Moralism says to run the race with endurance in order to become the thing we should be. The Gospel says that what enables us to run the race with endurance is that we have already been made the thing we should be.

We are chosen, like David, Gideon, and the rest. Because of this, we can run with Christ's endurance, needing none of our own.