The Race

In Hebrews 12.1 we read, Wherefore, seeing we also our compassed about, Which so great a cloud of witnesses, Let us lay aside every weight in the sin Which doth so easily beset us, And let us run with patience the race That is set before us. We are told in our text, friends, that the Christian life is like a race. I believe it is a race, not a relay race where you hand off the baton and let someone else finish the race for you.

But a race you must run yourself. It is not a sprint, but a marathon. I've known some church members, sadly, who got close to the finish line and fell into apostasy.

We must hold on and hang on, and we must keep on running until we cross that finish line in death. The race is measured in not how fast we run, nor how far we run, but how well we run. We want to finish well.

I'm closer to the grave now than I've ever been before, and I've had a couple of close calls recently, but I'm still here, and I'm still in the race, running on the track God has sovereignly placed me. I want to finish well. That's important to me.

I want to run to please the judge of the race, my Lord Jesus. Years ago, when I was a young man, I visited the ancient site of the first Olympic Games in Olympia, Greece. There, I walked around that ancient tract and saw the old bima seat where the judge would sit, viewing the competing athletes.

I and some other young tourists ran our own little mock race that day on that ancient site. It was exciting, and it also was a solemn event, touring that area and trying to imagine the great crowd there that day. Our text says we ought to lay aside every weight.

The athletes of old would disrobe out of their cloaks that would otherwise entangle their feet, and they ran naked and unhindered. We have a race to run, and we have a great cloud of witnesses as well. Some scholars say that cloud of witnesses are those believers who went before us, like those mentioned in the previous chapter of Hebrews 11.

We are to follow their godly example. Other scholars say that the great cloud of witnesses refers to our loved ones who have gone to heaven before us, and they are in the heavenly grandstand, so to speak, watching us and cheering us on. Either way, we have a race to run, and how we run that race will impact all of eternity.

We are told to lay aside the sin which easily besets us, the sin that makes us stumble, the sin that makes us fall on our face. We need to put it aside and run, run, run. And as we run the race, our eyes should be on Jesus, as the next verse declares, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who, for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

That's who our eyes should be fastened on as we run the race. There may be some obstacles in our way that we need to hurdle and overcome as we run this race, because we're constantly distracted by the world, the flesh, and the devil. But we must keep on running, with our eyes on the prize.

It's tempting to take our eyes off of Jesus, to look at the finish line, but we need to keep looking at him, and we need to keep running for him, for it is he who will eventually pull us over the finishing line. At last, to meet him face to face, to hear him say, at last, oh, well done, good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of the Lord. J. Sidlow Baxter, the Bible theologian who lived to be in his late 90s, always had a parting word of encouragement to his close friends.

He would shake their hand with one hand, and with the other, he would point heavenward and say, keep looking at him As we run this marathon of the Christian race, we must keep looking at him. Let us pray.