Hebrew 12:1-2 & 11:40 – how do we run the race, how do we endure crisis after crisis with a sure outcome.
“So, I've put you down for the interschool 880 Lynn," this from my PE teacher as if the javelin, hurdles, and various jumping events weren't enough for her; from the sound of her voice, you'd think I was possessed with demi-goddess powers, capable of showing Wonder Woman who was boss! But here I was in my first year of senior school, a five-foot-two, seven-stone Northern lass, captivated by the facilities available but with more ambition than was good for me.
Needless to say, my ambitions for the athletics field, together with the hopes of my PE teacher, far outweighed my abilities; I’ll never forget the steady pounding of the other runners as they hurtled past me on the home straight!
Consequently, the first time I heard that a Christian is someone who is called to run a race I immediately pictured that athletics track…and my PE teacher!...and I also pictured coming home last…if at all!
Mention a race to some people and you can already see the exhaustion on their faces; mention the Christian life as a race, and their shoulders slump in defeat…adding that the Christian race is more of a marathon than a sprint does little to revive their enthusiasm.
When I first read Hebrews 12:1 I had a disturbing flashback to that running stadium and the crowd.
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.
Our Christian race is not like any of my 880 events; each one is called to run the race that we have been given and run it with whatever strengths and limitations we possess. We didn’t choose it, goodness knows if given a choice we would have selected a different route, a different track, a different pace, a different environment, a different distance, and possibly different teammates and coaches. We run it with whatever God gives us, whatever He permits to come our way, and we stay in the position He has placed us in, enduring through whatever comes our way... we endure because we are in it for the rest of our lives….like it or not this is our race….but it is a race we must be part of.
While I entered my races simply by adding my name to a list, for this race, the new birth is the means of entry: salvation via faith in Christ, in His person, in who he is, and in His perfect and complete work. You're not even in the race unless you believe in Christ; you're on the sidelines while the runners pound past you.
Your race will begin the moment you become a believer. However, just like with anything new, you must be constantly encouraged to run, and to run with all your might; you cannot simply jog, walk, fall back, or sit down and rest. We've all been there, we find the Holy Spirit constantly urging us forward, and we grow grateful for that urging over time because we all have times in our Christian lives when we appear to have slowed to a halt....we hobble, pull muscles, and some of us are even succumbing to temptation and regressing...we've all been there.
I did not win any of the races I entered at school, once the starting pistol was fired, my mind was filled with the realisation that I would never be the one to break that finishing tape..…I would never win the prize.
But the race I'm running now, the race you're running now, is different; it's a race run knowing that when we cross the finish line, we'll be holding a prize, the prize of eternal life. We also run with the assurance that we will succeed, despite the difficulties, fears, pain, and disappointments…we will cross that finish line…we will obtain the prize.
The second verse in Hebrews 12 tells us that Jesus ran His race in the complete and absolute assurance of success, of victory; that he would be seated at the right hand of the throne of God. He is the model of faith because He saw past the horrendous persecution, the horrendous suffering – far worse than any of us will ever be called to endure.
…..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.
Jesus endured because of the joy that was set before Him, the joy of being exalted to God’s right hand in the assembly of a redeemed people, His joy is in our redemption, which brings glory to God.
And as we run we need to know that there’s a seat for us on His throne with Him as well, we run knowing that God continues to work in us and preserves our faith every day….and that is the assurance with which we can run and endure whatever comes our way.
I will put the fear of me in their hearts, that they may not turn from me. Jeremiah 32:40
He is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory. Jude 1:24
The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom. To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen. 2 Timothy 4:18
….will sustain you to the end. . . . God is faithful, through whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son. 1 Corinthians 1:8-9
He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. Philippians 1:6
In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory. Ephesians 1:13-14
We share in the same joy because one day we will also be in the presence of God, at the right-hand of the Father, enthroned with Jesus as joint-heirs with Him, in a fullness of joy that will far outweigh anything experienced here on earth.
Paul has some very physical metaphors for the Christian life:
running – 1 Corinthians 9:24 & Hebrews 12:1;
wrestling - Ephesians 6:12;
boxing - 1 Corinthians 9:26;
warfare: soldiers & armour – 2 Timothy 2:3-4 & Ephesians 6
We run our race and fight our fight, not because we don’t have Christ and run in the hope of gaining Him, but because we already have Christ and long to show that to the world. But we do not stroll, or amble or trot, we run, we fight, just like Paul who simply did not recognise a Christianity that is not running a race and fighting a fight.
Let's not forget the witnesses from Hebrews chapter 11 and what they have to say: they say that living the life of faith is the life that wins. They ran their race through every crisis: ridicule, lion's dens, boils and unsound friends, childlessness, unfair treatment, imprisonment, wars, persecution, cruel mocking and scourging and bonds, they were stoned, sawn in half, tested, slain with the sword, and on and on, through crisis after crisis after crisis and they witness to the life of faith that wins, to the fact that you can run the race with endurance and know that God will sustain and honour you in the end.
They ran the race, and they witnessed the victory. But they are waiting for the final promise, the “something better”
And what is that something better? The answer lies in the last phrase of Hebrews 11:40: "That apart from us they should not be made perfect."
In other words, until all the runners finish the race, unless you finish your race, then the final perfected salvation of all of the saints who have gone before; the resurrection of the body, the reign of Jesus on the new earth, the restoration of all things—will not happen. They are waiting for us, for you, they are waiting for you to run your race, to endure, to finish your race and to win.
There’s only one way you won’t finish, won’t win …..if you’re not in the race; if you’re not in the race you can’t run, if you can’t run you can’t finish, if you can’t finish you won’t gain that final reward, the final prize.
So, are you in the race?
As I said at the beginning, entry into the race is salvation via faith in Christ. You might have an intellectual belief in the Gospel, you might think it’s a good idea, you may even have prayed a prayer, but until that point where you truly believe in who Christ is and what he has done, what he has achieved for you through his sinless life, his death and resurrection, that he died as a substitute for you, and then you repent; you turn from your way of doing life and put all your faith and trust in Him for your salvation, until you do that, you are not in the race, you are still sitting at the side of the track…you’re still playing around in the dust. It’s time to get out of the dust, to run your race, to fight your fight…it’s time to win.
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