Press On and Run the Race
We have seen that Paul’s ambition, his desire is to gain Christ perfectly, know Him fully, become like Him, and gain the resurrection from the dead, eternal life. This should also be our lives’ ambition. To gain Christ, we, like Paul, must consider everything, all things, a loss, as garbage because they may prevent us from gaining Christ and knowing Him fully. However, this goal to be perfect in Christ will be fully realized only at the end. That’s why Paul now explains that he, and also we, have not yet obtained this. Therefore, in this life and in this world, we must press on and run the race to take a hold of the prize, that is to gain Christ fully, to be perfect in Him. While we are pressing on and running this race we must hold on to the salvation we already have in Christ, the new, kingdom life, and we must live up to what we are already in Him, citizens of heaven.
1. Press On to Take a Hold
Not that I have already obtained this, or have already been made perfect — This refers to all that Paul explained in the previous verses. We have not yet gained Christ fully. We do not yet know Him completely. We are not yet perfect in Christ. We are in the process, being made perfect. We have not yet arrived at the final goal. Therefore, we press on to take a hold of that for which we have been taken hold of by Christ Jesus. “Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses” (1 Tim 6:12). Through his death and resurrection, Jesus Christ took a hold of us. He saved us. He made us righteous, holy, and perfect. He gave us new life. He bought us with his life and made us his own. He made us children of God.
Because He took a hold of us, grasped us, we now press on to grasp Him, to take a hold of Him and the new life He had won, taken a hold of for us. We press on, we strive, we make every effort to become perfect in Christ Jesus. We run, we chase after Him and the new life in Him. Our passion now is to serve our Lord wholeheartedly and to fulfill the calling for which Christ had won us to himself, that is, to live the kingdom life, to be his disciples, to make disciples, to be his witnesses, to be the salt of the earth, and the light of the world.
2. Press On To Run the Race
Like Paul, in humility, we should not consider ourselves to have taken a hold of it. We should have an honest view of ourselves. “Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you” (Rom 12:3). We have not yet arrived. We are not yet perfect. We are all growing. No one of us should consider ourselves as better than others. Yes, some of us may be more mature in our spiritual growth in Christ, but our ministry is to look out for one another and to help others in this journey of growth. We must not judge others or look down upon them. Matthew 7 again — Do not judge others and first remove the log in our own eye before we try to remove the speck from our brother’s eye.
We all are in this race together. Yes, we are running a race. Like in many other places Paul here again describes living the Christian life as running a race—from the day we believed, the day Christ took a hold of us, to the end, we are running a race. And in running this race, we should focus on one thing. We should press on to run this race with a single-minded focus, our eyes fixed on Jesus and the finishing line, on the prize waiting at the end.
ILLUSTRATION OF RACE — everything else excluded — crowds, cheering, noise are all a blur — focused on finishing line & doing utmost best applying skills & techniques — don’t look at other runners to see how they are doing— don’t look around, don’t look back to see how much ground covered — with all strength, every breath, every thought, every muscle strain forward eyes fixed on the finishing line. This is how we press on to run this race.
We forget what is behind — We do not look back otherwise we will slow down. We will become distracted from running the race and our goal. We don’t look back at our failures and get hung up on them. Then we cannot move forward. We live in the grace of God. We are forgiven. They are past and over with. We don’t look back at our achievements and successes. They are accomplished, finished, and over with. Looking back at them opens us up to the dangers of pride, arrogance, and self-righteousness. The self-satisfaction with our past successes may cause us to become complacent, to relax, and not run the race with our utmost best. Looking back, we may boast in those achievements and not in the Lord. We may forget that those achievements were God’s grace and work in us, not our work.
We do not look at the world and listen to them. Just as we exclude the crowds and people alongside the track, we exclude the world with all its sounds and cries that are calling out to us. If we take our focus away from Jesus and the finishing line we will become distracted. We will stumble and fall. We may stop running. We may even leave the race.
We do not look at others. We do not compare ourselves with them. We do not compete with one another because there is no need. The winners in this race are not the person who crosses the finish line first, but everyone who finishes this race is a winner. We win and receive the prize by finishing the race.
Instead, we strain toward what is ahead. We push hard, do our utmost best. We run with our eyes fixed on Jesus and the finish line. We will not allow ourselves to be distracted by anything. And so we press on toward the goal, the prize that awaits us. This is no aimless running around in circles. We have a clear vision, a single purpose, and goal. And that is to win the prize of God’s heavenly call.
The prize is the full and complete gaining of Christ, of finally being perfect in Christ. It is the blessings of everlasting life, living in perfect fellowship with Christ for eternity. This is the prize of God’s call in Christ Jesus, the prize promised by God’s call. God called us to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth. He called us to this through the gospel that we might share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ (2 Thes. 2:13-14). It is the call to let the peace of Christ rule in our hearts (Col 3:15). God who is faithful called us into fellowship with Christ (1 Cor 1:9) so that we are conformed to the image of Christ (Rom 8:29-30). It is the call to receive salvation and eternal life (1 Tim. 6:12; cf. Eph. 1:18; 4:1, 4; 2 Thes. 1:11; 2 Tim. 1:9); all in and through Jesus Christ who made all this possible.
This is an upward, a heavenly call. This is God calling us to become citizens of heaven, to enter his kingdom and glory (1 Thes. 2:12). God called us. We believed. We received the new, kingdom life in Christ. We have entered the race, and now we are pressing on to run the race with all our strength, with our eyes fixed on Jesus in order to finish and win the prize, to gain Christ fully, to enter and live forever in God’s kingdom.
3. Think This Way, Hold On To and Live Up To
And now in verse 15 Paul returns to his favorite word and calls us to have this mindset, have this attitude, or think this way. All of us who are in Christ, who are running this race, who are maturing and growing in Christ should think like this. Like what? This way refers to everything Paul has explained so far. We should have the same mindset as Christ. We should consider all things loss for the sake of gaining Christ. And now, we should have the right view of ourselves. We should know that we have not yet arrived, and therefore, we should press on and run this race. We should have the same Christ-centered ambition and focus that Paul had. We should press on and run the race.
And if we think differently on anything else, on the minor things, God who has begun a good work in us will complete his work (Phil 1:29). He will remove the inadequacies and inconsistencies in our lives. He will lead us further into his truth. God the Holy Spirit lives in us and the power of his resurrection is at work in us, making us perfect in Christ as we run this race. For this to happen though, we must make sure that we abide in Christ, walk in step with the Spirit, so that we remain open and ready to hear God’s Word, his teaching, and council.
Only, in all of this, as we run this race we must hold on to and live up to what we have already attained. We must hold on to the salvation we have received in Jesus Christ our Lord. In Him, we have obtained the new, kingdom life. We are already in Christ. We are following Him. We are growing and becoming perfect like Him. Our lives have changed and are changing. To that salvation, to Jesus, and to the new life we have in Him we must hold on. We must hold on to the growth we have already experienced in Him.
We are children of God. We are already citizens of heaven, kingdom people. Now, as we run this race we must live up to what and who we are in Christ. To run this race involves holding on to and living out the salvation we have received. It involves living up to our Lord’s kingdom rules, principles, and values. We know what they are. He taught them very clearly to us in the Sermon on the Mount, in His Word, the Bible. To run this race is to put His Words into practice, and to obey everything He commanded us. “He has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace” (2 Tim 1:9). “As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace” (Eph 4:1-3).
We are called again to take action. We must put our faith into practice through obedience to our Lord. We are called, commanded, and sent to hold on to and to live up to our identity as kingdom citizens. This is the time to die to self, to put aside our personal ideologies, viewpoints, and politics.
I want to leave a thought in our midst. Many times I hear people say that America is going downhill because of the immorality and sins that have taken over society and our culture. We judge and point fingers at others and the unbelievers in our society. But I am wondering, is God not perhaps withholding his blessings because we are not living up to and holding onto the kingdom life He gave us in Christ Jesus and called us to live. Perhaps we deserve that God takes away our God-given rights because we are not willing to sacrifice, to suffer, to press on, to run the race to live as citizens of heaven. We have become like the world instead of becoming like Christ. We have conformed to the world instead of being transformed by the Holy Spirit. Instead of considering everything a loss in order to gain Christ, those things have become our idols, in which we boast and seek our salvation.
This is the time to put aside our differences over petty and minor issues. There are larger, more important, and urgent kingdom issues at stake in this world at this very moment in history. This is the time for us to make every effort to live the kingdom life, to be radically different than the world around us, to not look at and listen to the world, to not play the games of this world. This is the time to rise above party politics, worldly ideologies, and issues and to live as kingdom people. To die to self, to love as God commanded us to love, to love, honor, and respect others above ourselves, and to look out for their interests above our own.
Dear brothers and sisters, this is a crisis time for us as God’s people in America. We are all in the same battle but let us not fight this battle in worldly ways but in kingdom ways, biblical ways, in true, real love. We all are in this race together. We should not give up now. We should hold on to what we already have in Jesus Christ. We should live up to our citizenship in heaven. We should press on and run this race with our eyes fixed on Jesus and the price that is awaiting us. Press on, take a hold of, hold on to, and live up to our calling in Christ.
Let us live up and be who we are — Let us be the poor in spirit. Let us mourn and be meek. Let us hunger and thirst for righteousness. Let us be merciful and pure in heart. Let us be the peacemakers. Let us be persecuted and when we are persecuted, let us rejoice in the Lord.