As I get older I can’t help noticing who is and who isn’t ageing well. Some look like improved versions of their younger selves. Most look like the same people only with more pounds, wrinkles, grey hair and bare scalp. Some age well others don’t.
The other thing that happens as you get older, is you receive clearer evidence that you are a sinner, not resident in heaven and not utterly sanctified. Although the Christian might look back and see the numerous sins before their conversion, they can also see how each day since would add to their sin ledger.
This becomes more important when we get criticized, confronted, and charged by other people. In accounting terms, we can have the data of our sins inputted on an accrual basis. The ledger gets longer as our age gets higher.
For all of the misunderstandings and false accusations, there will also be many exposures of sin which will be accurate and real. Without any way to deal with the accounting of our sin, our debt would continue to multiply. A record of debt stands against us with “its legal demands” (Col 2:14).
As we age, it would be crippling to have the accrual of our sins piled upon us. For those who ignore this accrual, we can see their utter arrogance as they look at themselves in a purely sunny light. But for the sinner without Christ, there is only the growing despair which the sin ledger brings. Our sins don’t age well.
Justification ages well when our sins don’t. There is an evergreen character to justification that never withers or fades. There is no sin in the believer that remains unatoned for at the cross. There is no failure of obligation that is not satisfied by the active obedience of Christ. There is no accusation from earth or heaven which cancels the verdict of God when he declares a sinner just (Ro 3:26).
If you believe in Jesus Christ alone, relying upon his blood and righteousness for the forgiveness of your sins, you have a right standing before God. Then even if you add pounds and wrinkles, you don’t have to worry about ageing badly. You can even have the accrued sins of a long life reckoned as obsolete because God’s verdict never breaks down.
On another Reformation Day, you can know and announce that your justification is ageing quite well thank you.
More people are becoming racers these days. Spartan races. Ironman races. Marathons. Road races. Few Sundays pass when there isn’t a group of people wearing bright stretchy shirts trying to remind themselves that they are still alive.
But on Sundays there is another group of racers. They don’t have sweat-wicking shirts, though they might carry a water bottle. These other racers are fighting to finish the race of life. And they are committed to doing it within the boundaries of the path of faith.
The Other Endurance Race
The second group of racers have it harder, not easier than the first group. The fight of faith and the endurance to finish the race requires continued faith in Christ. An eight-month training regime will not do. To race the endurance course of faith means that you give your life to the race, and you run it until your running days are over.
The Christian believer continues forward through pain and trials, while still believing in Jesus Christ. To stop believing is to quit the race. But to keep on believing is the greatest challenge of all the obstacles a believer encounters.
Paul’s Strategy for Racers
The first-century Greco-Roman world was well aware of marathons, olympiads, races, boxing matches and other contests. Paul of Tarsus, a Roman citizen, frequently used the metaphor of these contests to illustrate Christian faith.
When he spoke to the leaders in the Ephesian church he expressed his desire to be more than a race participant. He wanted to be a finisher. He said:
But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.
Acts 20:24
Paul was prepared to sacrifice his own comforts in order to finish his course. Since the opportunity to race was given to him by his Lord Jesus, he treated the privilege of participating in the race with the honour it deserved. To be permitted to run was a higher privilege than the mayor Boston could give to a marathoner.
Paul’s goal was not a perishable wreath (1 Cor 9:24-27). Unlike the winners of the Boston Marathon or the Tour De France, Paul’s name would not be forgotten. The reason is that death makes all our earthly achievements to be short-lived and perishing. Only the rewards that are granted in the heavens by an ever-living Lord are the victories that can last.
The Racers’ Reward
Paul was committed to winning this imperishable prize. He would fight to the end to attain it because it was so valuable, worthy and honourable.
He possessed the single-minded focus of a long-distance runner. Paul explained his manner of running in a letter to the Philippian church:
…forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
Phil 3:13-14
Paul’s running strategy sounded similar to the best strategies of marathoners through the centuries. The great difference however was the track. Paul was running in the race of faith, desiring to persevere in crossing the finish line still believing in the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Racing with Jesus
No feature of the road race analogy differs more between the sporting marathons and the biblical life of faith than the inclusion of Jesus himself.
Although races have fans, and even the Christian life is surrounded by “so great a cloud of witnesses”, (Hebrews 12:1), there is nothing that compares to the presence of Jesus running before the Christian.
In fact, Jesus has already run the course, and has ensured that all who follow him will finish it. So the final key strategy which the Christian marathoner must employ to simply to look to Jesus. The result of this focus is that Jesus himself will lead us to victory. Looking to Jesus holds the key to crossing the finish line. The writer to the Jewish Christians told them they should run in this way:
looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
Hebrews 12:2
Unlike any Spartan race, Jesus himself is the trailblazer (archegos, Gr.) who guarantees the finish (teleiotes, Gr.) of all the racers. No marathon organizer can make that personal guarantee. And the race of faith is utterly impossible without the gift of faith being given by the trailblazer and brought to completion by his power too.
It’s no wonder then that the Christian in the race of faith is called to endurance. Jesus himself took delight in the reward of being vindicated as truly God. His delight in the finish was greater than the shame of sacrifice and suffering.
Finishing the Race
The Christian must have the reward in their eye. They are called to single-minded focus. Christians are instructed:
…let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,
Hebrews 12:1
Christians may not go to church in logo-covered lycra but they are in a race. They live in faith until the end when they can say, as Paul did, “I have finished my course, I have kept the faith” (2 Tim 4:7) since the one who started them in the race is the one who guarantees their finish (Phil 1:6).
