⁴ You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin …

Wrestling with sin for many people amounts to the “normal” struggles of life: paying the bills, saving for the future, finding the right life partner, career, car, house, etc. Not that these things are sinful, but they certainly challenge our patience, generosity, humbleness—in short they can influence us toward un-Christlikeness. How many of us have been tempted to “reward” ourselves for our struggles by, or at least feel we are entitled to, straying in our internet usage where we know we should not go? Or giving in to cursing our boss at work for his ineptitude, under our breath of course. To be sure, in the normal humdrum of life, we wrestle with temptations of materialism, sex, pride, selfishness and the various visual and physical stimulants of life—just to name a few. Yes, we spend much time resisting sin.

But obviously, if you are reading this now, then you “have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood.” Neither have I. That phrase “shedding blood” constitutes a euphemism for death; it refers to a refusal to give in to sinning, even when it means physical, literal death as a result.

One recalls the example of Joseph who resisted the sexual temptations of Potipher’s wife, though the consequence could have involved execution (Genesis 39). And there is Daniel and his three friends in captivity who resisted the pressure to worship any but the true God of Israel, despite the threat of execution in the fiery furnace or the lion’s den. Think of the first martyr, Stephen (Acts 7) or the execution of the apostle James, and that, by a sword (Acts 12:1-2). No doubt many would have died through the efforts of one Saul of Tarsus (Acts 9:1-3). We hear reports of Christians in persecuted lands still giving their lives rather than turn to an intense, legalistic religion of fear.

The Word tells us that we should “resist the devil and he will flee from you” (James 4:7). Sometimes, however, Christians die in the process—but we who are alive are not there yet. But how well would we resist temptation if our very lives were at stake? Now we contemplate, along with the original readers of this letter to the Hebrews, just how extenuating our struggles really are.

Only a few can fully understand this, and they are not around to write about the final moments of their resistance—except for the One who has come back to tell us about it. The rest of us face temptations much less severe. Was this foreshadowed by Jesus when “being in agony He was praying very fervently; and His sweat became like drops of blood” (Luke 22:44)?

Lord, help me to resist sinning as though my very life depended on it.