In running the race of faith, rather than being distracted, the runner is to “look toward” (cf. Phil 2:23) Jesus who is positioned as it were at the finish line. The Jesus who stands at the finish line is both the “author” and “perfector” of our faith.” Jesus is the author of our faith in that He endured the humiliation of the Cross. The circumstantial clause translated “despising the shame” illustrates the revulsion that the Son of God had toward the humiliation of the Cross. As Philip Edgcumb Hughes remarks, “Others have suffered the pain of crucifixion, but he alone has endured the shame of human depravity in all its foulness and degradation.”[1] The reason that He is the perfector of our faith is that He “has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Note the close relationship between the suffering and exaltation of Christ (cf. 1:3; 8:1). Christ crucified is Christ glorified. Note also the order. Suffering comes before exaltation. What is true of the Lord is also true of His followers. Those who first suffer in Christ will be later glorified with Christ.
[1] Philip Edgcumbe Hughes, A Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1977), 525.
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