Hebrews 12

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin... and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross.” The author calls them to endure the Lord’s fatherly discipline, which trains His sons and “yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.” He urges them to pursue peace and holiness and not to fall short of grace like Esau. They have come, not to the terrifying Mount Sinai, but “to Mount Zion... the heavenly Jerusalem,” to God, to Jesus “the mediator of a new covenant,” and to His sprinkled blood. Therefore they must not refuse Him who speaks, for they are “receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken”; let them offer “acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.”