Running to Win

Running to Win

We are here to win! Paul exhorted young Timothy; “Run your best in the race of faith, and win eternal life for yourself; for it was to this life that God called you when you firmly professed your faith before many witnesses.” (1 Timothy 6:12, GNT) Paul summarized his journey in Christ in like manner; “This is the only race worth running. I've run hard right to the finish, believed all the way.” (2 Timothy 4:7, Msg) Faith is the one common denominator in all spiritual, Christ-Centered transactions.  For example, faith is the doorway into the depths of believing in God’s amazing and unconditional love.

A non-negotiable aspect of running to win by faith, that is rarely mentioned or understood, is living under the direction and influence of Holy Spirit throughout the race. “And every man who takes part in the sports has self-control (same word as under the management/influence of) in all things. Now they do it to get a crown which is of this world, but we for an eternal crown.” (1 Corinthians 9:25, BBE)  

Sometimes our crowns get tarnished by difficulties or momentary afflictions. And we try to control it or fix it in our strength. It is at these moments in our faith journey that we are humbled and cry out for merciful help. And we discover anew, Holy Spirit has already been gently guiding us toward Papa’s intervention of Grace by faith! Do the following scriptures from Romans 7-8 ring true to your faith journey?

17”But I need something more! For if I know the law but still can't keep it, and if the power of sin within me keeps sabotaging my best intentions, I obviously need help! 18 I realize that I don't have what it takes. I can will it, but I can't do it. 19 I decide to do good, but I don't really do it; I decide not to do bad, but then I do it anyway. 20 My decisions, such as they are, don't result in actions. Something has gone wrong deep within me and gets the better of me every time. 21 It happens so regularly that it's predictable. The moment I decide to do good, sin is there to trip me up. 22 I truly delight in God's commands, 23 but it's pretty obvious that not all of me join in that delight. Parts of me covertly rebel, and just when I least expect it, they take charge.  

24 I've tried everything and nothing helps. I'm at the end of my rope. Is there no one who can do anything for me? Isn't that the real question? 25 The answer, thank God, is that Jesus Christ can and does. He acted to set things right in this life of contradictions where I want to serve God with all my heart and mind, but am pulled by the influence of sin to do something totally different.” (Romans 7: 17-25, Msg)

1” With the arrival of Jesus, the Messiah, that fateful dilemma is resolved. Those who enter into Christ's being-here-for-us no longer have to live under a continuous, low-lying black cloud. 2 A new power is in operation. The Spirit of life in Christ, like a strong wind, has magnificently cleared the air, freeing you from a fated lifetime of brutal tyranny at the hands of sin and death. 3 God went for the jugular when he sent his own Son. He didn't deal with the problem as something remote and unimportant. In his Son, Jesus, he personally took on the human condition, entered the disordered mess of struggling humanity in order to set it right once and for all. The law code, weakened as it always was by fractured human nature, could never have done that.  

4 And now what the law code asked for but we couldn't deliver is accomplished as we, instead of redoubling our own efforts, simply embrace what the Spirit is doing in us. 5 Those who think they can do it on their own end up obsessed with measuring their own moral muscle but never get around to exercising it in real life. Those who trust God's action in them find that God's Spirit is in them - living and breathing God! 6 Obsession with self in these matters is a dead end; attention to God leads us out into the open, into a spacious, free life.” (Romans 8: 1-6, Msg) These awesome truths are the heart of our freedom to run the race as an Overcomer in Jesus!

 “But we have faith that we will get salvation through the grace of the Lord Jesus in the same way as they.”(Acts 16:11 BBE) We run the race by faith in the Gospel of Grace. It is not run by our efforts or by keeping the law. “Faith would be emptied of its substance and the principle of promise would be meaningless if the law of personal performance was still in play to qualify the heirs (the children of God).” (Romans 4:14, The Mirror)

Therefore since faith sponsors the gift of grace, the promise is equally secured for all the children (the reward system cannot match the gift principle). Faith is our source (that makes us heirs to all the promises) and that makes Abraham our (faith) father. Faith gave substance to hope when everything seemed hopeless… (Romans 4: 16, 18a, The Mirror).

Then why does it seem that so few run this race with the faith of Overcomer’s; so as to win beyond any shadow of doubt? The following scriptures shed some light on this tragic dilemma.

“Mankind has forgotten their Maker and in the process, their identity. You were unmindful of the Rock that begot you, and you forgot the God who gave you birth” (Deut 32:18 RSV). The mission of Jesus was not to begin the Christian religion. His mandate was to reveal and redeem the image and likeness of God in human form. He restores innocence and imputes (ascribes, which makes it sheer gift-not performance) righteousness.

“In the incarnation (the living form of Christ as the Son of Man) God deleted every definition of distance; every possible excuse man could have to feel separated or even neglected by God was removed in one day, through one sacrifice, once and for all. Life documented in the Rock of ages is now inscribed on hearts of flesh. Hear the echo, feel the resonance. Christ is all and in all. You are living Epistles, known and read by all men.”(Toit, Francois Du, Mirror Bible) 

Ezekiel prophesied centuries before Jesus arrived on the scene that the gift of the Gospel (Grace through Faith) would come equipped with a new heart! And oh, what a gift it is! Winners have the heart it takes to press through to the victory that is always there in Christ! 

This new heart will enable all who will listen, the sheer ecstasy of running the race of faith with Holy Spirit empowering and coaching us from start to finish! And at the same time we will partake of the intimacy here-to-for only shared between Jesus, Holy Spirit and His Father.  

“25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. 26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees." (Ezekiel 36: 25-27, NIV) His heart in us is continually crying to any who will hear to come home to Jesus!

A voice cries: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God (Isa 40:3 RSV). Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; every crooked place shall be made straight, and the rough places smooth (Isa 40:4). And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken” (Isa 40:5 RSV). 

“Beyond the tablet of stone, the papyrus scroll or parchment roll, (faith ignites) human life to become the articulate voice of God. Jesus is the crescendo of God’s conversation with humankind; he gives context and content to the authentic thought. Everything that God had in mind for man is voiced in him. Jesus is God’s language. His name declares his mission.” (Introduction, The Mirror, parenthesis mine) 

As Savior of the world he truly redeemed the image and likeness of the invisible God and made him apparent again in human form (Heb 1:1-3). The destiny of the logos was not the printed page. A mirror can only reflect the object; likewise, the purpose of the page was only to reflect the message which is “Christ in you.” He completes the deepest longing of every human heart. The incarnation is the ultimate translation. (Adapted from the Introduction, The Mirror) And Christ in us is the surety of victory at the finish line! What does winning look like?

“But then I will come and do for you all the good things I have promised and I will bring you home again. 11 For I know the plans I have for you," says the LORD. "They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. 12 In those days when you pray, I will listen. 13 If you look for me in earnest, you will find me when you seek me. 14 I will be found by you, says the LORD.”(Jeremiah 29: 10b-14a, NLT) How can we not finish the race well with all this going for us?

Now, Go Run to Win! Ron Ross