Running the Race

Running the Race
When one begins a race, the goal is to finish well. The Amazing Race is a popular show on television that has various people racing all over the world. We could consider J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy a type of race as well. Picking up after The Hobbit, we are introduced to Frodo Baggins (Bilbo Baggins cousin and adopted heir) who comes to inherit a magic ring from Bilbo. It is this one ring that will take him from his beloved Shire (where the hobbits live) through all the difficult places of Middle-earth. The story is one of Frodo pressing on to the end to see the one ring destroyed in the fires of Mount Doom and the evil of Middle-earth destroyed. Just as a marathon runner must press on mile after mile, so did Frodo need to press on to make it to the end.

In a similar way the Bible speaks of life in Christ as a race in which we are to press on. The Apostle Paul makes this comparison between the average athlete and the Christian. He says that they run for a crown that perishes, but we for one that is imperishable. The goal and prize that one may achieve in this life will fade, but the reward that Christ offers to those who endure to the end will never fade.

Part of running the race is dealing with sin. By no means will we achieve perfection until we are glorified with Christ. Even so, as we grow in Christ the battle against sin that dwells within will grow more and more. John Owen, a well known Bible scholar of old, once said that when the Christian finds sin in their life they are to take it by the neck and strangle it to death. Jesus gives us the image of tearing out an eye or cutting off a hand in Matthew 5. We are told to put to death what is earthly in us (Col. 3:5). It is critical to never be content with sin as we seek to live for Christ. 

The reality of not reaching perfection in this life should be no excuse for the Christian to make peace with sin. For when we understand the grace of Christ we are encouraged to press on into Christ-likeness. We are, as the Apostle Paul says, “debtors” to Christ and not to the flesh. Therefore we seek to kill sin not for the sake of moralistic-legalism, but because the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ has been shed abroad in our hearts and upon our lives. May God give us all a renewed sense of His grace and renew our desire to rid ourselves of all that keeps us from Him.

Grace be with you,
C. R. Hamilton