ICorinthians 9:24-27 Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. I therefore
so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: But
I keep under my body, and bring
^ into subjection: lest that by any when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway. Each man runs this race countless times in his mind if he is spiritual. He trains his mind to be able to run it right. He’s completed other tasks as he continues toward his goal. But none of those other races resemble even one mile of this last race. As he passes mile marker after mile marker, every change in elevation and terrain brings new challenges.
Even though there are people at the roadside to refresh him and crowds of individuals cheering to revive his spirit with their encouragement, it’s still just him out there—just his two legs and two arms pumping, feet burning with heat and effort in the sunshine. While he hasn’t actually run this course before, his effort has one thing in common with all the other running and racing he’s done: the pain and the finish line.
Ah, the finish line! It makes all the pain bearable. As he expends every last ounce of strength, a surge of joy fills his heart, making the challenge of the race and all the pain it took to get there absolutely worth the effort. Bucket list goal: check.
Jesus understood that intense drive to finish. With one of his last breaths, he cried out, “It is finished” (John 19:30). Jesus had joined the human race for a very special and specific reason—to finish God’s plan to provide forgiveness, salvation and eternal life for a fallen humanity. When Jesus shouted “Finished!” he was declaring that he had endured the judgment of sin on behalf of all humankind. He’d crossed the finish line for each of us. In order to finish, he had to seal the arrangement with his life.
The cross represented the last hours in a long race marked out for Jesus. Even though he knew exactly how the race would end—with his sacrificial death—he still ran. Even though he had his disciples around him to provide companionship and support, not one of them knew exactly what he was going through in his final hours.
Jesus knew that he’d experience excruciating pain. He knew that many would never accept his sacrifice, but he also knew that many would, and for us he ran. And he finished. For this we’ll spend eternity in grateful appreciation.
Hebrews 12:1-2 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 that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Do you see your life as a race? Why? How would you describe your progress so far?
When you think of Jesus dying on your behalf on the cross, how does it make you feel? What effect does this reality have on your daily life?
How can Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross motivate you to run the race God sets out before you?
2Timothy 4:6-8 For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.
