“Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain.” 1 Corinthians 9:24
From the day that Saul of Tarsus met Christ on the road to Damascus, something fundamentally changed in his life. The objective of his life, and purpose, came into clearest view, for he had met the Eternal God face to face, and never would he ever be the same. This man, Saul of Tarsus, who became Paul the Apostle, would learn very quickly that there was a reason for which God revealed Himself to him. He would also learn that there was a means by which he could know Him. Three days after his meeting Christ, being blind during that entire time, Paul was overwhelmed, and was giving himself to fasting and prayer. In that solitude, and after the meeting with Ananias who would be instrumental in him receiving his sight by God’s leading, Paul would begin a quest to know this God of truth, and of Life, whom he had been persecuting when he persecuted Christ’s followers. The quest was the pursuit of Christ Himself, to know Him, and the power of His resurrection life. Coupled with that pursuit, was the calling not only to know God, but to fulfill a mission, accomplish the will of God as related through Ananias by the Lord. The Lord said to him: “Go thy way: for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear My name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel: For I will shew him how great things he must suffer for My name’s sake.” (Acts 9:15) Later on, in Paul’s letter to the believers in Galatia, he would write: “But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me by His grace, to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood.” (1:15-16) Paul, in declaring this to the Galatian believers revealed not only the quest that he had embarked upon, to Know the God who had called him, but the specific mission or objective that he must pursue if he would truly KNOW this Christ, and the power of His resurrection. The question then must be asked, HOW was this to be done, and there be success in this objective?
In the epistle to the Hebrews, the author (some believe that it was the Apostle Paul), wrote concerning a race. He wrote: “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us RUN with patience the race set before us.” (12:1) There are several things that need to be grasped about this race of which the author speaks. It is first a race that is at the same individual, and one in the company of many. The appeal and call of Christ is first and foremost to the individual soul who seeks Him for salvation, and sanctification, all that is in Christ for the accomplishing of the will of God and the successful realization of the race. Secondly, there are obstacles to this race without and within. Scripture speaks of mountains to be overcome, opposition to be endured, and physical limitations to be reckoned with. There are also obstacles of the heart and soul, weights and burdens that must be cast aside, and then those sins which so easily assail us. Why must these things be dealt with? The burdened down soul cannot run with heavy weights upon him. All must be cast upon Christ. Besetting sins are still sins, and must be dealt with, if the blessing and strength of the Spirit of Christ are to be operative in the life. And lastly, when soul and spirit are free to run, there must be the appropriation of the persevering, overcoming, patient endurance of Christ by the Spirit. To finish well this race, one’s eyes must be fixed on Jesus, trusting Him wholly.
Dear Father, Strengthen us by Christ. In Jesus’ name, Amen.