November 23, 2007

• Reasons for Thanks Giving, Part 4: The Great Cloud of Witnesses

  Through the hand of God's sovereign grace upon me, time and again God meets me in the words and lives of the great cloud of witnesses.
  
  In his commentary on Hebrews 12, John Calvin writes:

  Wherefore, seeing we also, etc. This conclusion is, as it were, an epilogue to the former chapter [Hebrews 11], by which he shows the end for which he gave a catalogue of the saints who excelled in faith under the Law, even that every one should be prepared to imitate them; and he calls a large multitude metaphorically a cloud, for he sets what is dense in opposition to what is thinly scattered. Had they been a few in number, yet they ought to have roused us by their example; but as they were a vast throng, they ought more powerfully to stimulate us.

  He says that we are so surrounded by this dense throng, that wherever we turn our eyes many examples of faith immediately meet us. The word witnesses I do not take in a general sense, as though he called them the martyrs of God, and I apply it to the case before us, as though he had said that faith is sufficiently proved by their testimony, so that no doubt ought to be entertained; for the virtues of the saints are so many testimonies to confirm us, that we, relying on them as our guides and associates, ought to go onward to God with more alacrity.

  Thank You, Father, for the gift of the great cloud of witnesses.

  Thank You, Father, for surrounding us with this vast and dense throng, that wherever we turn our eyes many examples of faith immediately meet us.
  
  By Your grace may we turn our eyes to this great cloud of witnesses so we might rely on them as our guides and associates, be roused by their example and be prepared to imitate them so we might go onward to You with more alacrity.

  May their examples assist and sustain us as we look unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith...and follow His steps...

  
  

  • 11:35 AM
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