Philippians: Run the Race

Because of snow conditions, Sunday’s service was cancelled. Instead, Vicky Griffiths shared this week’s message with newsletter subscribers by email on Sunday morning. Vicky reflects on Paul’s words in his letter to the Philippians, where he describes the Christian life as a race. She reminds us that following Jesus isn’t about being perfect but about pressing forward with humility, discipline, and focus, leaving the past behind and fixing our eyes on Christ. Run the Race Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. Only let us hold true to what we have attained. Philippians 3:12-16 (ESV) If you have ever taken up running or any other athletic activity, you’ll know the joys and challenges of training for something. Sometimes it feels great; the motivation is there, you hit your stride, you know you’re performing well, pushing yourself to your upper limits and making great progress. Other times, your enthusiasm wanes, or you don’t feel in your best health; you might have to push yourself even to try, and everything you do, even perhaps things you’ve done before with ease, just feel a little or even a lot harder. In fact a lot of things in life, even life itself, can be just like this! In Philippians 3:12-16, Paul paints a picture of living life as a Christ-follower as like being in a race, where the ultimate goal is to become like Jesus (see Phil 3:8-11) and where the prize that we win at the end is to achieve this goal and be with Him forever.  This was clearly an idea that Paul really resonated with because he uses the race metaphor in three other places in the New Testament in 1 Corinthians 9:24-27, Acts 20:22-24 and 2 Timothy 4:7-8. He continually describes his goal as being to run the race of his life with Jesus really well, so that he might stay the course and reach the prize. Paul knew his utter dependence on Jesus to be saved. As we heard last week, there was no credential he could hold or activity he could do to save himself, it could only be done through faith (Phil 3:4-9). Yet, rather than seeing Christ’s saving work in his life as being the end of the race, he sees it as just the beginning. It becomes the very reason, the very motivation why Paul must now run the race with all his might; “I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.”  Paul knows he has been saved from his sins, but he also knows that he is not yet like Jesus- he is not yet living in all the fulness of what God has saved him for, and he fully intends to take hold of it and claim it as his own: “ Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect…Brothers, I do not consider I have made it my own.” What a gift these words are to the church at Philippi and to us! Paul is not perfect and neither are we expected to be simply because we are saved. Instead of fixating on or languishing in our imperfections and the ways we fall short as Christians, instead of despairing of ever being better, we instead are invited to run the race like Paul. “But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”  This is the one thing that Paul is now intent on. And look how Paul describes the way in which he is running the race. It’s not half hearted; it’s with energy and focus. He presses on - he says that twice- I press on or in some translations ‘ I pursue ’ this to make it my own (v.12), I press on toward the goal (v14). He describes straining forward (v13). The theol