Though basketball has always been my favorite sport, I loved running
track as a kid. My favorite races were the 400 and 4x400 relay.
At a track meet, one of the members of my 4x400 relay team was sick, so
we had another kid (who was more of a sprinter) take his place running the
first leg. Our coach advised him on how to run this longer race, but he decided
to do things his way and try to sprint the entire length of the track. Though
he started well, by the 200-meter mark the kid was exhausted.
By the time he handed off the baton, our second leg runner was already
half-a-lap behind the first place team. It was a seemingly insurmountable lead
to overcome, but steadily the second and third leg runners gained ground. By
the time I got the baton for the anchor leg, we were neck and neck, and we
ended up winning that 4x400 by about 50 meters.
That race taught me an invaluable life lesson:
It’s more important to finish strong than to start strong.
The Apostle Paul made the same point in his
first letter to the Corinthians concerning a Christian’s salvation.
Do you
not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win.
Everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things. They then
do it to receive a perishable
wreath, but we an imperishable. Therefore I run in such a way, as not without
aim; I box in such a way, as not beating the air; but I discipline my body and
make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not
be disqualified. – 1
Corinthians 10:24-27
Wait a minute… Paul believed he could be disqualified from the race of
salvation? Didn’t Paul preach grace? Yes. He absolutely did. Look at what he
wrote at the beginning of the same letter:
I thank my
God always concerning you for the grace of God which was given you in Christ
Jesus, that in everything you were enriched in Him, in all speech and all
knowledge, even as the testimony concerning Christ was confirmed in you, so
that you are not lacking in any gift, awaiting eagerly the revelation of our
Lord Jesus Christ, who will also confirm you to the end, blameless in the day
of our Lord Jesus Christ. – 1 Corinthians
1:4-8
So is Paul speaking out of both sides of his mouth? How can Paul first
write of Jesus confirming us blameless to the end, and then a few pages later
write that he must beat his body into submission so he won’t be disqualified
for the prize of heaven? Is our salvation secure or not?
Perhaps what’s going on is that Paul is being like his Teacher.
Look at these words from Jesus:
My sheep
hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to
them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand.
My Father, who has given them
to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. – John 10:27-29
I don’t know about you, but I am comforted by these words of Jesus. No outside
force, not a demon or even Satan himself can cause us to lose our salvation.
Now look at what Jesus says to His disciples in John 15:
I am the
vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much
fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he
is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them
into the fire and they are burned. … Just as the Father has loved Me, I
have also loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will
abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His
love. – John 15:5-6, 9-10
What is Jesus trying to do to them? If they are already 100% secure in
Him, why would He tell them that unless they bear fruit (by loving Him and
obeying His commands) they will be thrown away into the fire and burned? The
only way that isn’t some sick mind game is if it’s truly possible.
The truth is,
there is a tension within promises of God. All
of the passages about the immense security in a relationship with God are true, and so are the ones that show how that security is conditional. Unfortunately, instead of living within the tension, we often tend to get
out our spiritual scissors and act like Thomas Jefferson, cutting and pasting together
a Bible that is acceptable to our personal tastes.
Some Hyper Grace
teachers have cut the red letters of Jesus right out of their Bibles and
proclaim Paul as their standard of truth. However, what should we do with the
tension Paul creates for Christians with these promises?
Do you
not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If any man destroys the
temple of God, God will destroy him, for the temple of God is holy, and that is
what you are. – 1
Corinthians 3:16-17
First, Paul says
that Christians have become the new holy of holies. Then Paul says that God
promises to destroy anyone who destroys a Christian. Marinate on that promise
for a minute.
What percentage of
the people fighting in the Revolutionary War claimed Christianity? What about
the Civil War? The Texas Revolution? Are all God’s promises true?
With all the horrific
events occurring in our society lately, we need to be reminded that it’s more
important to finish strong in the faith than to start strong in the faith. God
will give us the grace to run His race well and finish strong. But we need to depend
on our King by faith, and not allow worldly governments and media to exploit
and destroy us by convincing us that Jesus’ way just won’t cut it.
Don’t let fear and anger turn you into a
modern day Judas.
Christians, we
need each other now more than ever to hold each other accountable to the
commands of Jesus Christ. We need to make sure that none of us develops an
evil, unbelieving heart that chooses to forsake the living God. For, as one
early Christian teacher wrote in reference to Jesus’ words, “It is neither the faith, nor the love, nor
the hope, nor the endurance of one day; rather, “He that endures to the end
will be saved.”
If there was ever
a Christian who finished strong in the midst of severe persecution it was Polycarp,
the bishop of Smyrna and a personal disciple of the Apostle John. I encourage
you to read the story of his martyrdom. But for now, be encouraged by his
exhortation to the Philippians to give your allegiance to Jesus above all and
finish strong by the grace of God.
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