Jude 3 says that we should “contend for the faith once for all delivered to the saints.” In this verse, as in 1 Timothy 6:12 and 2 Timothy 4:7, the faith refers not to our subjective believing but to our objective belief, that is, to what we believe. The faith denotes the contents of the New Testament as our faith (Acts 6:7; 1 Tim. 1:19; 3:9; 4:1; 5:8; 6:10, 21; 2 Tim. 3:8; Titus 1:13), in which we believe for our common salvation. This faith, not any doctrine, has been delivered once for all to the saints. For this faith we should contend.
The faith—our belief—is constituted of certain basic truths. First, we believe that God is one yet triune—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. Second, we believe that our God became incarnated in the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Third, we believe that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was incarnated as a man, lived on earth, and died on the cross for our sins to secure our redemption. On the third day He was resurrected from the dead both physically and spiritually to become the life-giving Spirit. Today He is our Savior, our Lord in resurrection, and our life. Because we believe in Him, our sins have been forgiven, He has come into us as our life, and we have been regenerated. Eventually, the Lord Jesus will come back to receive all His believers to Himself. These are basic truths, basic doctrines, that constitute the faith for which we should contend. Because every sound, genuine believer holds these basic truths, these truths are called the common faith (Titus 1:4).
The faith in the objective sense is equal to the contents of God’s will given to us in the New Testament. This will includes even the Triune God Himself. However, the contents of this will do not include such matters as head covering, foot-washing, or methods of baptism. Nevertheless, some believers contend for such things, thinking that they are contending for the faith. But this is not the correct understanding of what Jude means by contending for the faith once for all delivered to the saints. In Jude contending for the faith is to contend for the basic and crucial matters of God’s new will, His new testament. Someone may say that Jesus died on the cross not for redemption but because He was a martyr and sacrificed Himself for His teachings. This understanding of the death of Christ is heretical; it is contrary to the basic items of the faith. Therefore, we need to contend for the truth concerning Christ’s redemption. This is what it means to contend for the faith once for all delivered to the saints. The faith, the common faith, has been delivered to the saints once for all, and what we need to do now is to contend for it.
The believers also experience the dispensing of the processed Triune God by running the course of the race. The Christian life is a race, and we are runners. Hebrews 12:1 says, “Let us also, having so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, put away every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us and run with endurance the race which is set before us.” Paul also says in 1 Corinthians 9:24, “Do you not know that those who run on a racecourse all run, but one receives the prize? Run in this way, that you may lay hold.” These verses indicate that we must not only run, but run successfully in order to obtain the prize, which is a reward as an incentive to us. First Corinthians 9 reveals that the Christian course involves preaching 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. To run in a racecourse is to labor, but to receive the prize is to have enjoyment. When we preach the gospel, we are running the course. However, to receive a reward, a prize, at the coming of the Lord Jesus is to have a particular enjoyment.
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. Christ is the race because He is the way. The way we are walking is the race we are running. Therefore, Christ, who is the way, is also the race we have to run. Although Christ is our way, we should not take this way simply as a way; rather, we should take the way as a race to run. We should not take the time to consider, look around, stand still, or walk slowly. We need to run the race until we can declare, like Paul did in 2 Timothy 4:7, “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 continued to run (1 Cor. 9:24-26; Phil. 3:12-14) until he finished the course (Acts 20:24). Then at the end he triumphantly proclaimed, “I have finished the course.” He also proclaimed that he would receive from the Lord a reward—the crown of righteousness (2 Tim. 4:8).