Tuesday

Related Verses
Heb. 12:1
1 Therefore 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,

1 Cor. 9:24-27
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.
25 And everyone who contends exercises self-control in all things; they then, that they may receive a corruptible crown, but we, an incorruptible.
26 I therefore run in this way, not as though without a clear aim; I box in this way, not as though beating the air;
27 But I buffet my body and make it my slave, lest perhaps having preached to others, I myself may become disapproved.

2 Thes. 3:5
5 And the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into the endurance of Christ.

Eph. 2:8-9
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not of yourselves; it is the gift of God;
9 Not of works that no one should boast.

1 Cor. 3:14-15
14 If anyone’s work which he has built upon the foundation remains, he will receive a reward;
15 If anyone’s work is consumed, he will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.

Related Reading
The Christian life is a race. Every saved Christian must run the race to win the prize (1 Cor. 9:24). This prize 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 apostle Paul, who ran the race and won the prize, was nearly the only one who likened the Christian life to a race. In the book of Hebrews he charged the Hebrew believers to run the race, saying, “Run with endurance the race which is set before us” (12:1). (Life-study of Hebrews, p. 545) 

—

The race we are running is actually Christ Himself. The Lord Jesus said, “I am the way” (John 14:6)…Because Christ is the way, He is also the race…Our way is our race…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…We must run the race. We should not take the time to consider or look around, to stand still or walk slowly. 

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” [2 Tim. 4:7]. For this he will receive from the Lord a reward—the crown of righteousness (v. 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. 

In 1 Corinthians 9:26a Paul says, “I therefore run in this way, not as though without a clear aim.” Paul did not run the race uncertainly but with a definite goal in view. Today we must run the race with a definite goal; we should not run uncertainly. 

In order to run the course of the race, we need to put off every encumbrance and the entangling sin (Heb. 12:1)…The runners in a race must strip off every unnecessary weight, every encumbering burden, that they may have no impediment to running the race. It is easy for us to pick up unnecessary burdens. But if we would run the Christian race, we need to put off every encumbrance, every unnecessary burden or impediment. From Hebrews 12:1 we see that we also need to put off “the sin which so easily entangles us.” Here the sin refers mainly to the thing that entangles us from running the race. Both the encumbering weight and the entangling sin frustrate us in running the race. The encumbrances are outward, but the sin is inward, for it involves our sinful nature. Within our sinful nature there is something that often entangles us. In order to run the course of the Christian life, we need to put off the entangling sin. 

At the end of Hebrews 12:1 we are charged to “run with endurance the race which is set before us.” We need to run with endurance because there is much opposition to the Christian race. In order to run this race, we must suffer the opposition with endurance, never growing weary or fainting in our souls (v. 3). (The Conclusion of the New Testament, pp. 1866-1869) 

Further Reading: The Conclusion of the New Testament, msg. 171