The great witnesses to faith in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews, beginning with Abel, who offered a sacrifice by faith, down to those nameless others whose stories are not success stories by any stretch of the imagination, did not know Jesus, God’s full revelation of Himself. Yet they believed. Yet they were strong in faith. It was, although they were ignorant of it, Christ on whom their faith rested. Faith depends on Him “from start to finish” (Heb. 12:2). The whole saga of human faith from Abel to us depends on Him who endured a cross. The whole story of any one individual’s faith also depends on Him from start to finish. There is no other ground anywhere. He is the Rock.
I don’t know why I keep forgetting this and assuming that somewhere along the line (or the racetrack) I am supposed to manage it by myself. It is Jesus at the start, Jesus every foot of the track, Jesus at the finish. Trust Him. Trust Him. Trust Him.
So through life, death, through sorrow and through sinning,
F.W. H. Meyer, “St. Paul”
Christ shall suffice me, for He hath sufficed.
Christ is the End, for Christ was the Beginning—
Christ the Beginning, for the End is Christ.
**Excerpt originally published in Lamp Unto My Feet, pp. 54-55.