THE RACE

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honour beside God’s throne.” Hebrews 12:1-2

I want to first set the stage for you. Imagine you’re an athlete. You’re on the race track about to set off for your race. There are many people watching you from the stands, and there is a lot of pressure building up. Now, I want you to imagine that weighing you down is a 50kg backpack, 3 massive puffer coats, and heavy chains shackled to your feet. Dramatic? Yes. But I want you to really imagine what I’ll be writing about.

Now time to unpack this scenario.

What is this race?

This race is a race of life. This is the race that you are set to run for the entirety of your Christian life. To run this race, we need to be equipped with endurance and perseverance. As many of us know, living a Christian life is not easy but God wants us to finish the race we’ve started.

Hebrews 11 speaks about biblical heroes of faith in the Old Testament and chapter 12 draws from this. By saying “Since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses” in Hebrews 12, it alludes to the characters mentioned in the previous chapter (Chapter 11) surrounding us as we run our race. The word “cloud” used in this sentence translates into ancient Greek “Nephos” which is a figure of speech to mean ‘a large group’. During our race of life, we are surrounded by a large group of people who have finished their race and are watching us from above and by angels as mentioned in Ephesians 3:10-11.

The weights

Now, back to my scenario. You are on the race track with all this weight weighing you down. You can’t possibly run the race with all that dragging you back right? Of course not. We have to get rid of all the things weighing us down, or as the passage says “throw them off”.

These weights are representations of hindrances that keep us from running the race of life effectively; however, weights do not always necessarily equate to sins. Each one of us has our own weights that we know we need to get rid of, for example, stress, the constant need to be in control of everything, comparison or even self-doubt etc, but so we need to put our full concentration on Christ. The Holy Spirit is great in revealing these ‘weights’ to us. In 1 Corinthians 2:10 it says “These things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.” We must lay those weights aside with the help of the Holy Spirit.

The sins

Apart from weights, sins can also draw us back. Sins are extra baggage to carry along with you on your race, as it only leads you away from Christ and not towards Him. Some sins are easy to fall into, some sins are admired by society and some are just harmful and dangerous. Sins are also dangerous as they can bring about a guilty feeling which ultimately makes you feel as if you are far from God. But take notice, this is only a feeling. It is not true. God is in fact never far from us even in the middle of our sins. Like other ‘weights’, we have to lay sins aside with the help of the Holy Spirit. The bible further reminds us in Romans 8:26-27 that “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.”

The race

Once we lay off these things we are able to run our race to the finish line. The verse carries on in verse 2 by saying that as we are running we must “fix our eyes on Jesus''. When we lock eyes with Jesus, our focus will shift from our excess baggage and weight to Him. Jesus is the author and finisher of our faith and we have to remember that He too also ran His race. He ran his race and not only is He at the finishing line waiting for us to finish our race, but he is also at the starting line running the race with us. The Bible says that “He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion on the day of Jesus Christ.” Philippians 1:6

Jesus endured the cross and the public humiliation of death by crucifixion because he knew there was something bigger and better on the other side. Our salvation. In the same way, as mentioned earlier, the race will not be easy. Even if we lay aside the weights and sins, there is still shame that comes along with being a follower of Christ. Like when people treat you differently for being a Christian, and you can’t do certain things that are the norm in this society or simply when co-workers look at you differently when you mention Bible verse at work. But just like Jesus, we are called to despise the shame and carry on our race. Shame and embarrassment can be very hard to bear, but we have to endure the race and fix our eyes on what is important - Jesus. We have to look forward to our living hope and our reward in Heaven (1 Peter 1:3) . Some people are being persecuted daily for their faith and are still running their race so how much more should we that can worship freely, run our race.

Seeing that the race God set out for us is a lifelong marathon, we must commit ourselves to run to the very end. A daily regimen of prayer, worship, reading God’s Word and examining our lives for impediments will help. We will persevere by maintaining a Christ-like attitude even in the midst of trials (1 Peter 2:21; 4:1; 1 John 2:6).

Sources:

Enduring word

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