Notes of Faith October 26, 2025
How Do I ‘Look to Jesus’?
Article by Scott Hubbard
Managing Editor, Desiring God
If you wanted to capture the heart of the Christian life in a phrase, you might do no better than these three words: “Looking to Jesus” (Hebrews 12:2). From beginning to end, from morning till night, yesterday and today and forever, we Christians look and look and look to Jesus.
As John Newton wrote, after quoting the words “looking to Jesus” in a letter, “The duty, the privilege, the safety, the unspeakable happiness, of a believer, are all comprised in that one sentence” (The Letters of John Newton, 47).
Or, as Robert Murray M‘Cheyne memorably counseled a friend, “Learn much of the Lord Jesus. For every look at yourself, take ten looks at Christ. He is altogether lovely” (The Memoir and Remains of Robert Murray M‘Cheyne, 293).
Or, as Charles Spurgeon preached, any Christian desiring to “pursue life after a right fashion must look to Jesus, and must continue looking unto Jesus.” Indeed, “think of him, consider him, study him, and in all things regard him as first and last to you” (“Eyes Right”).
But for all the inspiration we find in the phrase “looking to Jesus,” we may struggle to know exactly what it means. Look to Jesus, yes — but how? Picture him in my mind’s eye? Remember a story about him from the Gospels? Repeat his name in prayer? How does “looking to Jesus” turn from a beautiful but vague idea to an “unspeakably happy” practice?
Taking our cue from Hebrews, we might say that looking to Jesus means looking personally, patiently, and powerfully at the unsearchable Christ of Scripture.
Seeing the Invisible
Before considering those three ways of looking, ponder for a moment what we even mean by the word look. How do we look to a Savior we cannot see?
The kind of looking Hebrews has in mind does not involve physical eyesight. The blind can obey Hebrews 12:2. Looking to Jesus happens with the eyes of the heart, not the eyes of the head; as Paul might say, “we [look] by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7).
Hebrews 11 offers several examples of this spiritual look. Abraham “was looking forward to the city that has foundations” (verse 10). He and the other patriarchs “died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar” (verse 13). Likewise, Moses left Egypt by “looking to the reward,” and he “endured as seeing him who is invisible” (verses 26–27). Faith turns “things not seen” — heaven, the Holy Spirit, Jesus, the world to come — into precious, spiritually visible realities (verse 1).
Note how, in each case, these saints saw something they first heard about. Abraham and Sarah, Jacob and Moses saw “the things promised” by the God who speaks (verse 13). The invisible became visible only through the glasses of God’s word. In a remarkable way, they saw through their ears; they looked by listening and considering “him faithful who had promised” (verse 11).
So, when we look to Jesus, we hear something God has said about his Son — and by faith, we let what God has said speak a louder word than what we see. No matter how real or powerful or alluring our circumstances may be, we look to Jesus and believe that he is more real, more powerful, and more alluring still.
And we do so, first, by looking personally.
Look Personally
When we look to Jesus, we don’t look as a college student might look at an astronomy textbook or as someone might look at faraway news: interesting, perhaps, but not relevant to my life. We look instead as a wounded man looks at first-aid instructions or a lost man looks at a map. We look as those involved in a deeply personal way.
The words “looking to Jesus” come in a context of acute personal need. Many of the believers who received the letter of Hebrews felt weary and fainthearted. In the race of faith, they had lost sight of the finish and so were beginning to stumble. Some wanted to stop running altogether.
And so, when the author tells them to look to Jesus, he does so in a way that connects their personal need to his person and work. The Jesus he tells them to look to is the one who ran the race himself “for the joy that was set before him” and who now sits at the Father’s right hand as “the founder and perfecter” of his people’s faltering faith (Hebrews 12:2). So, “look to Jesus” does not mean “think of anything at all about Jesus” but rather “think of Jesus in a way that perfectly suits your pressing need.”
“We have no problem Jesus can’t address, no riddle he can’t solve, no wound he can’t heal, no pain he can’t comfort.”
“From every text of Scripture there is a road to Christ,” Spurgeon said. And from every need of our souls there is a road to Christ. Throughout Hebrews, the author ransacks the glories of Jesus and applies those parts of his character that connect most closely with his readers’ needs. For the tempted, Jesus is “a merciful and faithful high priest” (2:17); for the dull and distracted, he is “the radiance of the glory of God” (1:3); for the conscience-stricken, he is the “once for all . . . sacrifice” (9:26). And on and on we could go.
We have no problem Jesus can’t address, no riddle he can’t solve, no wound he can’t heal, no pain he can’t comfort, no sin he can’t forgive, no enemy he can’t overpower, and no longing he can’t meet fully and forever. As M‘Cheyne writes, “There is nothing that you can possibly need but you will find it in him” (Memoir and Remains, 304).
Often, then, the first step in looking to Jesus is naming our need. What temptation won’t leave us? What doubt won’t depart? What pressure or pain won’t relent? Whatever our need, something in Jesus is perfectly suited to bring rescue and relief.
Look Patiently
Jesus has no lack of resources to meet our every need. But given how varied, complex, and stubborn our struggles can be, tying what we need to who he is and what he’s done can take time. Looking to Jesus is more patient gaze than hasty glance.
How should a stressed and impatient mom look to Jesus? How should a young man struggling with lust? How should a Christian who clams up around unbelievers? How should you? True, some parts of Jesus’s person and work shine so clear and precious that they lend ready help to all kinds of needs. Knowing Jesus as near, faithful, strong, merciful, and oh so ready to help will take us a long way in any situation. But Hebrews has more for us.
The author of Hebrews spent untold hours poring over the Scriptures that testify to Christ. He lingered in Leviticus, puzzled over Psalms, meditated on Melchizedek, unpacked Davidic promises, and combed through the whole counsel of God to learn what he could of his Lord. If you were to ask him, “Who is Jesus?” he has more than a dozen answers. And if you were to follow with, “What has Jesus done?” he could give you at least two dozen more.
Jesus is God’s Son, the heir of all, the firstborn, and our brother. He is the founder of our salvation, the high priest of our confession, the forerunner on our behalf, and the mediator of a better covenant. He has become like us, spoken to us, tasted death for us, and gone ahead of us. He has suffered, learned obedience, remained faithful, and done God’s will.
Why such variety? Why such careful study? Why has our author spent more time in Leviticus than many of us have in Luke or John? Because an unclear Christ holds little power over all-too-clear sins. We can say the name of Jesus as much as we want and tell ourselves to “look to Jesus” every hour, but unless Jesus is filled with glorious, multifaceted, whole-Bible content, we are like the half-blind man who looked and saw people “like trees, walking” (Mark 8:24). Could it be that a certain sin holds power over you because you know it far more clearly than you know him?
Whoever we are, we could hardly do anything more practical than heed M‘Cheyne’s counsel and “learn much of the Lord Jesus.” For every bit of him benefits us — every jewel from his unsearchable riches, every line from the boundless book of his glory, every ray coming from his face that shines like the sun.
Look Powerfully
Looking to Jesus begins personally, proceeds patiently, and, when done well, ends powerfully. For the original audience of Hebrews, looking to Jesus would have led to laying aside weights and sins, and running their race without fainting (Hebrews 12:1–2). And so for us, looking to Jesus leads to practical obedience in the place of our need. We are not talking about a nice little technique that gives more peace of mind; we are talking about a practice with power.
But how does that work? How does our personal, patient looking lead to powerful obedience? It does so as our sight of Christ moves from mind to heart and will. Looking to Jesus involves not just knowing but also trusting and treasuring. The sight is not just specific but sweet, not just clear but compelling. Or, as Hebrews emphasizes, we come to see and feel that Jesus is bigger than our struggles and better than our sins.
We need a big Jesus, do we not? We need one whose death destroys the devil, one whose blood speaks a better word than the blood of Abel, one who reigns and rescues by the power of an indestructible life (Hebrews 2:14; 7:16; 12:24). And we need a better Jesus, do we not? We need one who offers a better hope, a better possession, a better country, and a better life than sin ever could (Hebrews 7:19; 10:34; 11:16, 35).
The power to see Jesus as bigger and better comes not only from finding the parts of him we most need but also from lingering over them, praying over them, meditating over them. Tim Keller describes this meditative process as “thinking a truth out and then thinking a truth in until its ideas become ‘big’ and ‘sweet,’ moving and affecting, and until the reality of God is sensed upon the heart” (Prayer, 162).
Maybe all this talk of looking personally, patiently, and powerfully daunts you. Maybe looking to Jesus once sounded simple but now no longer. If so, join me in taking heart. Looking to Jesus well takes patience and practice, yes — and I myself feel like a novice. But looking to Jesus is also something we can start doing (and benefit from doing) right now, however much or little we know of him. It begins by simply naming our need, finding something specific about Jesus that meets our need, and then lingering over it long enough to feel some of its sweetness.
The longer we look, the more we’ll see — and the more convinced we’ll be that his riches really are unsearchable and his perfections are perfectly suited to meet our every need.
Scott Hubbard is a teacher and the managing editor for Desiring God.
I pray that all believers and those we seek to reach with the gospel will look unto Jesus, that we will grow in the grace and knowledge of Him, that we pursue an intimate relationship with Him every day of our lives,
Heb 12:1-3
12 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. 2 Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.
It’s All About Jesus!
Pastor Dale
