August 03, 2010
The Prize
Every evening my neighbors drive their 4 X 4 truck up to our group of mail boxes. Their son, who is 8 years-old, jumps down out of the truck, gets the mail and hands it back to his mom through the open passenger window. Then hunching down on the sidewalk on imaginary starting blocks, he aligns himself with the front of the big red truck. When the signal is given, both boy and truck race around the corner of the block to his house. The dad gooses the diesel engine a couple of times for sound effects causing the boy to grin from ear to ear and run all the faster. Whether or not he wins or loses, it appears that the young man always runs to win. The Apostle Paul wants to see that type of character in believers, “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.” (1 Cor 9:24 NIV)
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Gail;
-----Paul’s analogy would seem to fall down on the basis that only one in a race gets the prize, yet everyone racing for eternal life through Christ will get it. In the eternal race, it does not depend upon getting somewhere first or better than someone else, as does the race against others. Therefore, the subjunctive mood of running “in such a way as to get the prize” retains his analogy. For in what Paul is expressing there remains a very real need to win a contest. Running this race requires an athletic focus of its own type on a conditioning towards a particular win.
-----In a race the winner beats those against whom he competes. In the contest for eternal life, the winner must beat himself. Paul uses the body to imply the concept of this physical life as being subjected to error and death, the imperfection of our human nature. Constraining its subversive and destructive elements, he trains it by eliminating what is not consistent with the call upon the Lord which he makes in answer to the call of the Lord made to him. Were he not to do so he would be found not to be what he intended and preached. And he would be disqualified.
-----Many legalistic sentiments are fueled by this passage, and many efforts are made to bring to it a list of this and that and the other for training out of the body. But that is as much about what to beat as a race against others is about who to beat. The race for eternal life is no more a contest against a list than it is a contest against others. The prize is freely given to those who ask. So what this race of Paul’s is against is whatever might make your asking to become insincere, that is, to become a request for what you really do not want. You have asked the Lord for eternal life, and eternal life is about merciful attitudes, so do you desire to forgive? It is also about patience, so do you long for your patience to become complete? It is about joy, so do you really want to joyfully deal with those around you in whatever circumstance? It is about numerous things, so do your desires match your call upon the name of Christ? Do you make any motion towards the finish line because of your desires? These are the contest.
-----We must make motion towards the finish line, but we can not actually reach it ourselves. Only the work of Jesus Christ will bring us across it. That is why it is not the race against a list, but a race to qualify our call by the reality of our progress. Neither does the lack of progress or the progress of anyone else effect our own position within the race. So there are as many races as there are runners. But there are less winners than there are races. And that is why we must compete with athletic focus.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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