Looking unto Jesus
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 12:1-2
Theodore Monod (1836–1921) was a French pastor, author, and hymn-writer. Monod was the son of a Reformed minister. He served as pastor of the Chapelle du Nord and the Reformed Church in Paris and was an agent for Home Missions in France. He wrote Life More Abundant and hymns such as, “O the Bitter Shame and Sorrow” and “On Thee My Heart is Resting.”
Monod also wrote a small pamphlet called Looking unto Jesus, in which he directs his readers in simple, devotional paragraphs on how to turn their gaze from all things to Jesus.
Theodore Monod writes,
Looking unto Jesus…
Hebrews 12:2…Only three words, but in those three words is the whole secret of life.
Looking unto Jesus in the scriptures, to learn there what He is, what He has done, what He gives, what He desires; to find in His character our pattern, in His teachings our instruction, in His precepts our law, in His promises our support, in His person and in His work a full satisfaction provided for every need of our souls.
Looking unto Jesus, revealed by the Holy Spirit, to find in constant communion with Him the cleansing for our sin-stained hearts, the illumination of our darkened spirits, the transformation of our rebel wills; enabled by Him to triumph over all attacks of the world and of the evil one, resisting their violence by Jesus our strength, and overcoming their subtlety by Jesus our wisdom; upheld by the sympathy of Jesus, who was spared no temptation, and by the help of Jesus, who yielded to none.
Looking unto Jesus to go forth from ourselves and to forget ourselves; so that our darkness may flee away before the brightness of His face; so that our joys may be holy, and our sorrow restrained; that He may cast us down, and that He may raise us up; that He may afflict us, and that He may comfort us; that He may despoil us, and that He may enrich us; that He may teach us to pray, and that He may answer our prayers; that while leaving us in the world, He may separate us from it, our life being hidden with Him in God, and our behavior bearing witness to Him before men.
Looking unto Jesus and at nothing else, as our text expresses it in one untranslateable word (aphoroontes), which at the same time directs us to fix our gaze upon Him, and to turn it away from everything else.
Looking unto Jesus and not at our meditations and our prayers, our pious conversations and our profitable reading, the holy meetings that we attend, nor even to our taking part in the supper of the Lord. Let us faithfully use all these means of grace, but without confusing them with grace itself; and without turning our gaze away from Him Who alone makes them effectual, when, by their means, He reveals Himself to us.
Looking unto Jesus and not at the dearest, the most legitimate of our earthly joys, lest we be so engrossed in them that they deprive us of the sight of the very One Who gives them to us. If we are looking at Him first of all, then it is from Him we receive these good things, made a thousand times more precious because we possess them as gifts from His loving hand, which we entrust to His keeping, to enjoy them in communion with Him, and to use them for His glory.
Looking unto Jesus and not at the brightness of our joy, the strength of our assurance, or the warmth of our love. Otherwise, when for a little time this love seems to have grown cold, this assurance to have vanished, this joy to have failed us—either as the result of our own faithlessness, or for the trial of our faith— immediately, having lost our feelings, we think that we have lost our strength, and we allow ourselves to fall into an abyss of sorrow, even into cowardly idleness, or perhaps sinful complaints. Ah! rather let us remember that if the feelings with their sweetness, are absent, the faith with its strength remains with us. To be able always to be "abounding in the work of the Lord" (1 Cor. 15:58) let us look steadily, not at our ever changeful hearts, but at Jesus, who is always the same.
Looking unto Jesus as long as we remain on the earth,—unto Jesus from moment to moment, without allowing ourselves to be distracted by memories of a past which we should leave behind us, nor by occupation with a future of which we know nothing.
UNTO JESUS NOW, if we have never looked unto Him,—
UNTO JESUS AFRESH, if we have ceased doing so,—
UNTO JESUS ONLY,
UNTO JESUS STILL,
UNTO JESUS ALWAYS,
with a gaze more and more constant, more and more confident, "changed into the same image from glory to glory". (2 Cor. 3:18) and thus awaiting the hour when he will call us to pass from earth to Heaven, and from time to etenity,—The promised hour, the blessed hour when at last "we shall be like Him, for we shall Him as is".