Friday, July 8, 2016

Grace Pt. 12: Finish Strong

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.

Though you never saw Him for yourselves, yet you believe in Him … knowing that it is by His grace you are saved, not of your own doing but by the will of God through Jesus Christ. So gird up your loins now and serve God in fear and sincerity. … Put your trust in Him who raised our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead. … And He that raised Him from the dead will raise us also, if we do His will and live by His commandments,  and love what He loved, keeping ourselves from all unrighteousness, covetousness, love of money, evil speaking, false witness; “not rendering evil for evil.”  – Polycarp 135CE, Volume 1, p. 57 [CD-ROM]

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