Receiving an Award

The Bible speaks about awards and prizes and crowns. Several of them are taken from the races at the ancient games, and those races were similar to those that we are familiar with today. The writer to the Hebrews makes a powerful use of athletics when he says in Hebrews 12:1-2: ‘Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, 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, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.’

Paul makes a few references to running a race. In Philippians 3:13-14, he says: ‘Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.’ In 1 Corinthians 9:24-26: ‘Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly.’

I would like us to think of why the Bible likens the Christian life to a race.  We can think about its commencement, its continuation, and its conclusion.

The commencement of the race

How does a person qualify to run in the Christian race? When we see runners lining up at the start of the race, we can see that they have prepared themselves for it by training. They had to engage in appropriate life practices in order to be able to run in the race.

The first preparation for the Christian race is recognising that we are not fit to run it because of our sins. What makes us unfit is that we are sinners who do not want to run in the race. We can hear lots of good things said about the race and its outcome, but because we are not interested in it, we don’t think about it. Instead, we prefer to spend our time doing other things, and the Bible describes those other things as sin.

In order to run the Christian race, we need a change of attitude. How does that come about? Basically, we hear things about Jesus. In one way or another, he is brought to our attention. We hear about his life, about his attitudes, about his reasons for being here. We discover that he came to help us, to deal with our sins, those things that we preferred to running the Christian race.

When he is brought to our attention, one of two things will happen. One is that we will find him attractive, and the other is that we will not find him attractive. That may sound a bit stark, but it is what happens. Perhaps initially, everyone finds him unattractive, but then some find themselves drawn to him. Without really knowing why, they find themselves thinking about Jesus and his claims, his promises and his actions.

This attraction to Jesus leads to trust in Jesus. They hear the gospel offer of forgiveness through faith in Jesus and they depend upon him. The attraction for him becomes affection for him because of what he did for them as sinners. It may be the case that the initial expression of faith is tentative, yet it is real because it is appropriate to test something that claims to be genuine. Jesus offers them forgiveness and welcome. They admit that they are sinners who deserve to be punished by him, and they regret having sinned against God. Now they are sorry for their sins, and they freely admit that is the case.

We could imagine some athletes at a start of a race speaking to one another about their preparations. What would those starting the Christian race say about their preparations? They would say that they attended to the message of Jesus, they discovered the attractiveness of Jesus, and they adhered to Jesus by faith, admitting that they were exactly the kind of sinners who would benefit from such a wonderful Saviour.

Continuation of the race

I was watching a race last week and one thing I noticed was the age gap between the runners. Some were younger. I also noticed that the runners belonged to different ethnic groups. It was also the case that all of them knew how long the race would be and that they would have to run the race carefully. Those aspects have equivalents in the Christian race.

How long is the Christian race? It will last from the time of conversion until the close of life. That is different from earthly races which are usually the same length for all competitors.

How many are running the race? At this moment, millions of people are, and they are doing it all over the world. They come from numerous ethnic backgrounds, and they are from different age groups. They have all started participating for the same reasons. They are sinners who found forgiveness through Jesus.

What help do they get? The race that I was watching was a long distance once and one help that was available for the athletes was water. The reason why it was available was because of the heat. Without the water, they might have had to give up. Help is given by God to those who run the Christian race through difficult stages. Here are some aspects of the help.

First, they have divine power through the activities of the Holy Spirit. He indwells them and enables them to keep on going. Sometimes we imagine this power as being like dynamite or something explosive. Yet the experience is much more mundane; the power that is given is perseverance, strength at each moment for that moment. Often, they might feel like giving up. But they persevere, and that is the sign of the Spirit’s life in them.

Second, they have divine encouragements to think about. Those encouragements are mentioned in the many promises found in the Bible about God’s pleasure in them, his care for them, his restoring grace when they fail, his taking them to be his people, his bringing them into the family of God, and there are many more such encouragements. Peter calls those promises great and precious, and they are. They provide consolation at different stages in the Christian race, and they are suitable for how a believer feels at a given time. Think of many Christians are receiving divine encouragement at this very moment.

We have just mentioned Peter. He started his race when he met Jesus after being introduced to him by his brother Andrew. On some occasions, Peter ran the Christian race very well, such as the time that he confessed that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the living God. On other occasions, his running was less impressive, and this usually happened when he depended on his own resources and thought little of the hindrances that prevented him from running well. On one occasion, he even denied Jesus forcibly. But how was he restored? Obviously, he repented of his sin, but his restoration involved step by step perseverance and thinking about the promises of Jesus.

Completion of the race

One of the differences between a literal race and the Christian race is that at the end of a literal race you get a prize which you can hold with your hand or wear round your neck, whereas at the close of the Christian race the prize that is given is a place to live. It is good for us, if we are runners in the Christian race, to think of the completion and what it will involve for believers. There are different pictures given of the completion in the Bible. Here is a brief mention of some of them.

The prize involves a commendation that lasts. Today, I cannot remember the name of the person who won the race that I was watching. No doubt, there are people who recall his name. But I suspect most of the viewers are like me and have forgotten his name. Yet the commendation that Jesus will give will last forever. Everyone in the eternal world will be aware that Jesus said ‘Well done’ to those than ran the race well. In some way, those in heaven will always know that the other inhabitants have been commended by Jesus. No failures there, although they may have thought that they did not run very well.

The prize involves elevation to a status not known in this life. In this life, kings are rare, but in the life to come in the glory of the new world everyone is a king of some kind. We see this in the parable of the talents that Jesus told in which he said that the good users of their talents were given authority over a number of cities. These descriptions are pictures of the heights to which Jesus will raise his people in the world to come. All the runners will be seated with him. We are not told what we will be reigning over, only that believers will be exalted.

The prize involves an unfading inheritance. Sometimes we read of a famous athlete who later in life made a mess of everything and lost his glory. In a sense, he has nothing to show for his racing apart from revealing that its benefits were temporary. And even with regard to those who do well and build on their success, it comes to an end one day, at the end of this life. But those who have run the Christian race will discover that ahead of them is eternal glory. As Peter says, they are redeemed for an inheritance that is incorruptible, which means that it is impossible for it to decline or fade away.

Application

The lessons for us are obvious. Have we commenced the Christian race? If we have not, then we will not get the prize given to others when they finish their race. But if we have started in the race, then we can run it looking unto Jesus, the One who ran a perfect race. That is the best way to continue running for glory. Regarding completing the race, one helpful way to think about it is to recall those we once knew as fellow runners in the race through life, serving the Lord, but who are now in the grandstand cheering on the other runners.