The believers also experience the dispensing of the processed Triune God by running the course of the race. In 1 Corinthians 9:24 Paul says, “Do you not know that those who run in a race-course all run, but one receives the prize? So run, that you may lay hold.” This verse reveals that the believers are runners in a race. The Christian life is a race that we must run successfully. The prize is a reward as an incentive; to “lay hold” is to obtain the prize.
First Corinthians 9 reveals that the Christian course involves the preaching of the gospel. To preach the gospel is to dispense Christ into others. By dispensing Christ into those who are receptive to our preaching we run the Christian course. However, because many believers today are not running the race, we need Paul’s word, “So run, that you may lay hold.”
To run in a race-course is to labor, but to receive the prize is to have enjoyment. As we preach the gospel today, we are running the course. But to receive a reward, a prize, at the coming of the Lord Jesus is to have a particular enjoyment.
Hebrews 12:1 says, “Therefore let us also, having so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, putting off every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, run with endurance the race which is set before us.” The race we are running is actually Christ Himself. The Lord Jesus said, “I am the way” (John 14:6). A race is a way, a course. Because Christ is the way, He is also the race. The race we are running is Christ. Our way is our race. These are not two things, one the way and the other the race. No, the way we are walking is the race we are running. Therefore, Christ, who is the way, is the race.
As believers, we should not stand still in Christ. Even walking in Christ is not adequate. We must run the race. We should not take the time to consider or look around, to stand still or walk slowly. We need to run the race, which is Christ Himself as our way. Although Christ is our way, we should not take this way as a way; rather, we should take the way as a race to run.
In 2 Timothy 4:7b Paul could declare, “I have finished the course.” Paul began to run the course of the heavenly race after he was taken possession of by the Lord, and he continually ran (Phil. 3:12-14) that he might finish it (Acts 20:24). Then at the end he triumphantly proclaimed, “I have finished the course.” For this he will receive from the Lord a reward-the crown of righteousness (2 Tim. 4:8).
Because the Christian life is a race, the believers must run the race to win the prize (1 Cor. 9:24), which is not salvation in a common sense (Eph. 2:8; 1 Cor. 3:15) but a reward in a special sense (Heb. 10:35; 1 Cor. 3:14). The prize we win for running the race is an incorruptible crown (1 Cor. 9:25). The prize in 1 Corinthians 9:24 is a reward as an incentive, and this reward is an incorruptible crown, which the Lord will award His overcoming saints who win the race. This reward is in addition to salvation. Eternal salvation is by faith, having nothing to do with our work (Eph. 2:8-9), whereas reward is for our work after we are saved (1 Cor. 3:8, 14). We may not receive a reward but rather suffer loss, even though we are saved, because we are void of the work which the Lord would approve (1 Cor. 3:15). The reward will be given to us according to our works at the Lord’s coming back (Matt. 16:27; Rev. 22:12; 1 Cor. 4:5). It will be decided by the judgment seat of Christ (2 Cor. 5:10) and enjoyed in the coming kingdom (Matt. 25:21, 23). The Apostle Paul strived to gain the reward (1 Cor. 9:24-27; Phil. 3:13-14; 2 Tim. 4:7-8).
We, the believers in Christ, have all received His salvation through faith in Him. This has been settled once for all. But whether we shall be rewarded by the Lord depends on how we run the race. In 1 Corinthians 9 Paul was running the race. In Philippians, one of his last Epistles, he was still running (3:14). It was not until the last moment of his running, in 2 Timothy 4:6-8, that Paul had the assurance that he would be rewarded by the Lord at His coming. With this reward in view, Paul charged the believers to run the race so that they may obtain the reward, the prize, an incorruptible crown.
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