THE HEAVENLY RACE
‘So run, that ye may obtain.’
I speak to those who, really believing in Christ, are emancipated from the fetter of sin and are living in the obedience of God’s moral law, to those who feel that the vows of God are upon them—that they have solemnly pledged themselves—and that they are desirous to proceed, in the Lord’s Name, to the holy work of getting to heaven.
I. In the stripping-room.—St. Paul, in another place (using the same image), calls all to go who would get to heaven to the stripping-room, to the stripping yourselves of all those unnecessary ‘weights’ which must inevitably trammel your steps, and prevent your progress, and preclude your triumph, if you ‘run.’ ‘Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us.’ There are some here who, while they could not be fairly charged with any particular breach of God’s moral law, are, nevertheless, sadly and fearfully ‘weighted’ with many things. You call them ‘pleasures.’ God calls them ‘weights.’ Getting money, hoarding money, personal vanity, worldly amusements, society where God is not, self-indulgence, private selfishness—what are these things but clogs, clogs that have loaded your soul for many a year and dragged it down to the dust? And what has been will be again. You cannot ‘run’ with those things on. Will you cumber and tie up your energies when you need to stretch them to the uttermost? Will you bind the soul which longs to fly? Why, in the natural course, men are minute and accurate to the weight of an ounce, and will you trifle with those fearful odds?
II. Pressing toward the mark.—St. Paul, speaking of himself in the Epistle to the Philippians, says, ‘I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.’ Do you understand the expression, ‘I press toward the mark for the prize’? It cannot be that ‘the mark’ and ‘the prize’ are the same thing. What does ‘the mark’ mean? ‘The mark’ means a certain line, which was drawn along the course, to show the runners exactly where they were to run; so that if you would run lawfully, take care not only that you are going to the right object, but that you are pursuing that object along the right line. ‘Press to the mark.’ And what is the Christian’s ‘mark’ to which he must ‘press’? In general words, the scriptural method of salvation which God has pointed out—true doctrine, the use of all ordinances, prayer, public worship, sacraments, the Bible, personal holiness, the fellowships of Christians, works of love.
III. Every race quickens as it proceeds; and the competition grows greater. The whole man must be in it. Every faculty that God has given you must be put forth. Your intellect, your affections, your spirit, your body, must all work, and work intently. You must stretch to the point, and beyond the point where the stretch is pain. Your conflict, indeed, is not with those who are engaged with you in the same pursuit—for in this race he wins the highest prize who has urged on and assisted, all the way, his fellows—but your race is to beat the world; your race is to outstrip your own wicked heart; your race is to overcome wicked deeds, and you are to emulate and strive to overreach that which is good.
IV. The secret of every race is fixedness of eye.—Therefore this Apostle has given us, in two separate places, two directions in this matter of the fixed eye.
(a) The first is that we should ‘forget the things which are behind’—which means, not the world, which we have abandoned; and our old tastes and pursuits, which we had once; but that we must be always counting our own past attainment nothing, utterly despising all we have done and all we are, contrasting it with the higher degrees always opening before us with infinite series, in which grace is always to be climbing up to glory, and glory climbing up to God.
(b) Secondly, the Apostle gives us this one short, emphatic, blessed exhortation—the very sum and centre of all the peace and of all the triumph of every soul that ever got to heaven—‘Looking unto Jesus.’
—Rev. James Vaughan.
Illustration
‘Your stadium is the little span of your present existence; the spectators are none other than the holy angels, who are encompassing you all round, and look down upon you from their higher spheres; the heralds are the ministers of God’s grace, who call you to the contest and animate you by the way; the competitors are the whole Church militant; the umpire, to award the victor’s crown, is the Lord Jesus; and the crown is life eternal.’
(SECOND OUTLINE)
THE RACE OF LIFE
Man has to overcome sin, to subdue self, and to live a holy life. The Apostle compares that endeavour which lasts through all our life to a race. The life of man is like a race.
I. There is only a certain time allowed for it.—The race must be won then, or not at all. The work of man’s life must be done during life or not at all. ‘Work while it is called to-day; for the night cometh, when no man can work,’ says our Lord Jesus.
II. It requires to-day’s duties to be done to-day; not left for to-morrow. We must not flatter ourselves with the idea that we will care for our souls by and by, that we will try to be good at some future time. ‘To-day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.’
III. Another point of likeness is that we must be in earnest.—That is the very thing the Apostle insists upon in the text. ‘So run that ye may obtain.’ How does the runner behave himself in the race? Does he loiter, does he look from side to side, does he stop, does he even slacken his pace and go easily and slowly? Not at all. His eye is fixed upon the end of the course; every muscle is strained to the utmost; his whole frame is full of one desire—to get forwards. His eagerness almost adds wings to his feet. What are the miles that lie behind him to his eager desire? It is those in front that engage his attention, that he longs to attain.
Illustration
‘At its times of eruption it is dangerous to go near Vesuvius. You may be suffocated by a shower of ashes, or consumed by one of the streams of lava (that is, liquid fire) which it casts out, and which flow down its sides like brooks. And this makes it still more dangerous to go any way up the mountain. It cracks open under your feet and throws up a fresh stream of boiling flame when you least expect it. You would not think that people would linger there exposed to such terrible danger, but they sometimes have done; they were held fast by the grandeur of the sight, they could not make up their minds to leave it; plenty of time yet, they thought, till a fresh gulf opened below them and the way to safety was cut off. Then the ground began to sway and bend under their feet, soon to give way altogether and give them alive into the very jaws of the fire. They had not been in earnest to escape. They had lingered too long. Now every human soul has a more fearful destruction than that of Vesuvius to escape from. He has to “flee from the wrath to come.” ’
(THIRD OUTLINE)
RULES OF THE RACE
The question for all of us is, How are we to run so that we may obtain? This question is for all, since, though in these old-world games only one received the prize while many ran, all who run the Christian race and reach the goal lawfully are crowned without exception.
I. Run, for the Christian life is a veritable race, with definite conditions and efforts and aims. Until this fact is realised by faith and spiritual enlightenment no one can or will run successfully. Unless a due sense of it is kept alive in our hearts by the impressions of God’s Word and providence made on them by the Holy Spirit, we do not feel, or we lose the feeling, that our life is a high and holy and arduous undertaking.
II. Run determined to win whoever else wins.—This is specially emphasised by the Apostle in connection with the fact that only one of many competitors received the prize in any contest. ‘Be like the winner,’ he says: ‘run as he runs. Do not grudge any self-denial or preparation or effort; turn aside for nothing; halt for nothing; strive each of you to be the champion of the course.’ In the Christian conflict all who run lawfully are crowned, and no one will fail who is bent on winning. But this must not weaken resolution, or energy, or endurance; must not gender carelessness, easy-going contentment with a slow and faltering progress, listlessness, false security. Though certain of winning along with others the incorruptible crown, we must not relax effort until it is won.
III. Run with due preparation and fitting self-mastery.—So St. Paul spoke of ‘keeping under’ his ‘body’—using a sort of technical term or slang phrase of the Greek wrestlers—literally, ‘I give my body a black eye.’ Regarding his body as the organ of sin, the seat of temptation, and the stronghold of ruinous self-indulgence, he showed it no mercy, dealt with it as an adversary, hit it hard, beat it black and blue, as it were, to subdue its sensuality, and make those fleshly lusts which warred against the spirit lose their power.
IV. Run with hope and fear.—Keep the crown before the eye of faith.
(FOURTH OUTLINE)
‘SO RUN’
I. Run with an obedient heart.—Obey the rules of the course and fulfil the Divine command. Not as ‘uncertainly.’
II. Run with a self-denying heart, taking up your cross daily and following Christ.
III. Run with a persevering heart, daunted by no dangers, surprised by no difficulties, overcome by no temptations.
IV. Run with a charitable heart.—Others in this race may gain a prize as well as you.