Pistol Shot
by Chris Cumming

Today is the first Holy Day of the Days of Unleavened Bread and the first Holy Day of the entire annual Holy Day season.  The Days of Unleavened Bread denote our entire time in the Salvation Process.  You will notice that the Passover/Lord’s Supper came first.  Just about 39 hours ago we participated in the Lord’s Supper service which pictures the sacrifice of our elder brother, Jesus Christ.  It is by the shedding of His blood that we now have the opportunity to enter the Salvation Process and ultimately gain eternal life in the Kingdom of God.

The first Holy Day shows our initial call by God to repentance, baptism and the receiving of the Holy Spirit by the laying on of hands.  This day, therefore, has been fulfilled for you.  You are now in the Salvation Process denoted by the seven days of Unleavened Bread.  The last day of Unleavened Bread is also a Holy Day.  This one is yet to be fulfilled.  It denotes our making it entirely through the process to eternal life.  This last day is fulfilled at the return of Christ, which is pictured by the Day of Trumpets in the autumn of the year.

As long as we remain in the Salvation Process we are guaranteed to be saved.  This life in the Salvation Process is often likened to a race.  Notice a key scripture:

1 Corinthians 9:24 
Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain.

So we are in a spiritual race.  Rather than giving you hundreds of words to describe what running a spiritual race is like, I am going to share with you three short videos of real physical races.  Most of you have seen each of them already.  I want to make them a part of this important sermon.

What you are about to see are just human, physical races.  However, each has at least one spiritual lesson for us as we run the real spiritual race of the Salvation Process.

Note:  My hope is that each of these videos plays in this online meeting room.  Should they fail, play them later on your own computer.  For those reading through this sermon now, take the time to read the description of each and then to view the YouTube video for yourself.

Race One:  Derek Redmond’s Olympic story.  In this physical race we see Derek virtually unable to finish the race on his own after a terrible injury to his hamstring.  Watch as his earthly father comes to his aid and helps him to the finish line.  This physical father is likened to our Father helping us to the finish line as we run our race.

Derek Redmond’s Incredible Olympic Story 3:20
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZlXWp6vFdE

Race Two:  Steve Jones in a 10,000-meter race.  He was told that he could not win.  The lesson here is to never give up and never give in.

They told him he could not win 2:45
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZ-_3Ug3wqU

Race Three:  Heather Dorniden running a 600-meter race in the 2008 Big Ten Championship.  The lesson here is Philippians 4:13 which says, “I can do all things, through Christ, who strengthens me.”  In your race, even if you slip and fall along the way, you get up and keep running.

Girl takes a fall during a race  2:39
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NsOBaV_93yQ   

Let us go back to that key verse we read in 1 Corinthians 9.

1 Corinthians 9:24-27 …and I will read through verse 27
24 Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain.
25 And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible.
26 I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air:
27 But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.

Verse 24:
Know ye not that - In those famous games which are kept at the isthmus, near your city. They who run in the foot race all run, though but one receiveth the prize - How much greater encouragement have you to run; since ye may all receive the prize of your high calling! ~John Wesley Explanatory Notes

At this point in my preparation for this sermon, I felt I would have time to look at a number of verses that speak to this spiritual metaphor of running the race of Salvation.  However, we will be spending the rest of this sermon in this verse 24 and much of it in just two words, “so run.”

So run - In the Alexander MacLaren commentary you will see no less than 2,500 words explaining the meaning of this two-word phrase, "so run."  I will share some of them with you.

HOW THE VICTOR RUNS

So run  -  Does that mean ‘Run so that ye obtain?’ Most people, I suppose, superficially reading the words, attach that significance to them, but the ‘so’ here carries a much greater weight of meaning than that. It is a word of comparison. The Apostle would have the Corinthians recall the picture which he has been putting before them-a picture of a scene that was very familiar to them; for, as most of us know, one of the most important of the Grecian games was celebrated at intervals in the immediate neighbourhood of Corinth. Many of the Corinthian converts had, no doubt, seen, or even taken part in them. The previous portion of the verse in which our text occurs appeals to the Corinthians’ familiar knowledge of the arena and the competitors, ‘Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize?’ He would have them picture the eager racers, with every muscle strained, and the one victor starting to the front; and then he says, ‘Look at that panting conqueror. That is how you should run. So run-’meaning thereby not, ‘Run so that you may obtain the prize,’ but ‘Run so’ as the victor does, ‘in order that you may obtain.’ So, then, this victor is to be a lesson to us, and we are to take a leaf out of his book. Let us see what he teaches us.

I. The first thing is, the utmost tension and energy and strenuous effort.

It is very remarkable that Paul should pick out these Grecian games as containing for Christian people any lesson, for they were honeycombed, through and through, with idolatry and all sorts of immorality, so that no Jew ventured to go near them, and it was part of the discipline of the early Christian Church that professing Christians should have nothing to do with them in any shape.

And yet here, as in many other parts of his letters, Paul takes these [worldly] things as patterns for Christians. ‘There is a soul of goodness in [some worldly things], if we would observantly distil it out.’ It is very much as if English preachers were to refer their people to a racecourse, and say, ‘Even there you may pick out lessons, and learn something of the way in which Christian people ought to live.’

On the same principle the New Testament deals with that diabolical business of fighting. It is taken as an emblem for the Christian soldier, because, with all its devilishness, there is in it this, at least, that men give themselves up absolutely to the will of their commander, and are ready to fling away their lives if he lifts his finger. That at least is grand and noble, and to be imitated on a higher plane.

In like manner Paul takes these poor racers as teaching us a lesson. Though the thing be [of the world], we can get one valuable thought out of it, and it is this-If people would work half as hard to gain the highest object that a man can set before him, as hundreds of people are ready to do in order to gain trivial and paltry objects, there would be fewer stunted and half-dead Christians amongst us. ‘That is the way to run,’ says Paul, ‘if you want to obtain.’

Note:  Mr. MacLaren is saying that Paul is expressing to us that we should be putting in the same effort to salvation what Olympic runners put into running and winning a physical race.

Continuing in the commentary now…

Look at the contrast that he hints at, between the prize that stirs these racers’ energies into such tremendous operation and the prize which Christians profess to be pursuing. ‘They do it to obtain a corruptible crown’-a twist of pine branch out of the neighboring grove, worth half-a-farthing, and a little passing glory not worth much more. They do it to obtain a corruptible crown; we do not do it, though we professedly have an incorruptible one as our aim and object. If we contrast the relative values of the objects that men pursue so eagerly, and the objects of the Christian course, surely we ought to be smitten [to repentance] of our own unworthiness, if not of our own hypocrisy.

Note:  In other words, if in our self-examination of our status or maturity or journey in the salvation process, we find our efforts, in comparison to these Olympic runners, wanting, then we should repent and begin invoking Fervency, Diligence and Zeal in our race to Salvation.

Now back to the commentary…

It is not even there that the lesson stops, because we Christian people may be patterns and rebukes to ourselves. For, on the one side of our nature we show what we can do when we are really in earnest about getting something; and on the other side we show with how little work we can be contented, when, at bottom, we do not much care whether we get the prize [any prize] or not.

Note:  The next 378 words of the commentary has complex wording so I will summarize:

a) If you and I really believe in the value of eternal life that Paul is speaking of, we would put the effort into attaining this crown as we would for anything on this earth like money, success and prosperity.

b) We continually see the massive efforts successful people put into attaining that success including Olympic runners.  Are we willing to put in the same kind of effort?

c) All our lives we have put in great effort to attain any success we have experienced.  Are we willing to put in that kind of effort for eternal life?

d) If Christians would put as much effort into becoming like Christ that Olympic runners put into a physical prize or that a violinist will take to master his instrument, we could each be much further along in our Salvation Process journey.  How many moments do you believe the runner and violinist put into their efforts?  Are you putting anywhere near the same?

Now continuing with the MacLaren commentary…

II. The victorious runner sets Christians an example of rigid self-control.

Every man that is striving for the mastery is ‘temperate in all things.’ The discipline for runners and athletes was rigid. They had ten months of spare diet-no wine-hard gymnastic exercises every day, until not an ounce of superfluous flesh was upon their muscles, before they were allowed to run in the arena. And, says Paul, that is the example for us. They practice this rigid discipline by way of preparation for the race, and after it was run they might dispense with the training. You and I have to practice rigid [discipline] as part of the race, as a continuous necessity. They did not abstain only from bad things, they did not only avoid criminal acts of sensuous indulgence; but they abstained from many perfectly legitimate things. So for us it is not enough to say, ‘I draw the line there, at this or that vice, and I will have nothing to do with these.’ You will never make a growing Christian if abstinence from palpable sins only is your standard. You must ‘lay aside’ every sin, of course, but also ‘every weight’ Many things are ‘weights’ that are not ‘sins’; and if we are to run fast we must run light, and if we are to do any good in this world we have to live by rigid control and abstain from much that is perfectly legitimate, because, if we do not, we shall fail in accomplishing the highest purposes for which we are here. Not only in regard to the gross sensual indulgences which these men had to avoid, but in regard to a great deal of the outgoings of our interests and our hearts, we have to apply the knife very closely and cut to the quick, if we would have leisure and sympathy and affection left for loftier objects. It is a very easy thing to be a Christian in one aspect, inasmuch as a Christian at bottom is a man that is trusting to Jesus Christ, and that is not hard to do. It is a very hard thing to be a Christian in another aspect, because a real Christian is a man who, by reason of his trusting Jesus Christ, has set his heel upon the neck of the animal that is in him, and keeps the flesh well down, and not only the flesh, but the desires of the mind as well as of the flesh, and subordinates them all to the one aim of pleasing Him. ‘No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life’ if his object is to please Him that has called him to be a soldier. Unless we cut off a great many of the thorns, so to speak, by which things catch hold of us as we pass them, we shall not make much advance in the Christian life. Rigid self-control and abstinence from else legitimate things that draw us away from Him are needful, if we are so to run as the poor heathen racer teaches us.

The referenced scripture:
Hebrews 12:1 
Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us.

Barnes Notes gives the meaning to, “weight” this way: “As applied to Christians it means that they should remove all which would obstruct their progress in the Christian course.”

III. The last grace that is suggested here, the last leaf to take out of these racers’ book, is definiteness and concentration of aim.

‘I, therefore,’ says the Apostle, ‘so run not as uncertainly.’ If the runner is now heading that way and now this, making all manner of loops upon his path, of course he will be left hopelessly in the rear. It is the old fable of the Grecian mythology transplanted into Christian soil. The runner who turned aside to pick up the golden apple was disappointed of his hopes of the radiant fair. The ship, at the helm of which is a steersman who has either a feeble hand or does not understand his business, and which therefore keeps yawing from side to side, with the bows pointing now this way and now that, is not holding a course that will make the harbour first in the race. The people that to-day are marching with their faces towards Zion, and to-morrow making a loop-line to the world, will be a long time before they reach their terminus. I believe there are few things more lacking in the average Christian life of to-day than resolute, conscious concentration upon an aim which is clearly and always before us. Do you know what you are aiming at? That is the first question. Have you a distinct theory of life’s purpose that you can put into half a dozen words, or have you not? In the one case, there is some chance of attaining your object; in the other one, none. Alas! we find many Christian people who do not set before themselves, with emphasis and constancy, as their aim the doing of God’s will, and so sometimes they do it, when it happens to be easy, and sometimes, when temptations are strong, they do not. It needs a strong hand on the tiller to keep it steady when the wind is blowing in puffs and gusts, and sometimes the sail bellies full and sometimes it is almost empty. The various strengths of the temptations that blow us out of our course are such that we shall never keep a straight line of direction, which is the shortest line, and the only one on which we shall ‘obtain,’ unless we know very distinctly where we want to go, and have a good strong will that has learned to say ‘No!’ when the temptations come. ‘Whom resist steadfast in the faith.’ ‘I therefore so run, not as uncertainly,’ taking one course one day and another the next [1 Corinthians 9:26].

Referenced verse:
1 Peter 5:9 
Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.

Now, that definite aim is one that can be equally pursued in all varieties of life. ‘This one thing I do’ said one who did about as many things as most people, but the different kinds of things that Paul did were all, at bottom, one thing. And we, in all the varieties of our circumstances, may keep this one clear aim before us, and whether it be in this way or in that, we may be equally and at all times seeking the better country, and bending all circumstances and all duty to make us more like our Master and bring us closer to Him.

The Psalmist did not offer an impossible prayer when he said: ‘One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord and to enquire in His temple.’ Was David in ‘the house of the Lord’ when he was with his sheep in the wilderness, and when he was in Saul’s palace, and when he was living with wild beasts in dens and caves of the earth, and when he was a fugitive, hunted like a partridge upon the mountains? Was he always in the Lord’s house? Yes! At any rate he could be. All that we do may be doing His will, and over a life, crowded with varying circumstances and yet simplified and made blessed by unvarying obedience, we may write, ‘This one thing I do.’

Referenced verse:
Psalm 27:4 
One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to enquire in his temple. 

But we shall not keep this one aim clear before our eyes, unless we habituate ourselves to the contemplation of the end. The runner, according to Paul’s vivid picture in another of his letters, forgets the things that are behind, and stretches out towards the things that are before. And just as a man runs with his body inclining forward, and his eager hand nearer the prize than his body, and his eyesight and his heart travelling ahead of them both to grasp it, so if we want to live with the one worthy aim for ours, and to put all our effort and faith into what deserves it all-the Christian race-we must bring clear before us continually, or at least with the utmost frequency, the prize of our high calling, the crown of righteousness. Then we shall run so that we may, at the last, be able to finish our course with joy, and dying to hope with all humility [knowing] that there is laid up for us a crown of righteousness. ~ Alexander MacLaren commentary

Now from the Barclay commentary…

1 Corinthians 9:24
PAUL takes another line. He insists to those Corinthians who wanted to take the easy way that no one will ever get anywhere without the sternest self-discipline. Paul was always fascinated by the picture of the athlete. An athlete must train with intensity in order to win the contest; and Corinth knew how thrilling contests could be, for at Corinth the Isthmian Games, second only to the Olympic Games, were held. Furthermore, the athlete undergoes this self-discipline and this training to win a crown of laurel leaves that within days will be a withered wreath. How much more should Christians discipline themselves to win the crown which is eternal life?

In this passage, Paul sets out a kind of brief philosophy of life.

(1) Life is a battle. As the American philosopher William James put it, ‘If this life be not a real fight, in which something is eternally gained for the universe by success, it is not better than a game of private theatricals from which one may withdraw at will. But it feels like a fight – as if there were something really wild in the universe which we, with all our idealities and faithfulnesses, are needed to redeem.’  A flabby soldier cannot win battles; a slack trainer cannot win races. We must regard ourselves always as being engaged upon a campaign, and as pressing onwards to a goal.

(2) To win the fight and to be victorious in the race demands discipline. We have to discipline our bodies; it is one of the neglected facts of the spiritual life that very often spiritual depression springs from simply being physically unfit. If we are going to do our best work in any aspect of life, we must bring to it bodies that are as fit as we can make them. We have to discipline our minds; it is one of the tragedies of life that many may refuse to think until they become incapable of thinking. We can never solve problems by refusing to see them or by running away from them. We must discipline our souls; we can do so by facing life’s sorrows with calm endurance, its temptations with the strength God gives, and its disappointments with courage.

(3) We need to know our goal. A distressing thing is the obvious aimlessness of the lives of so many people; they are drifting anywhere instead of going somewhere. The Dutch novelist Maarten Maartens has a parable: ‘There was a man once, a satirist. In the natural course of time his friends slew him, and he died. And the people came and stood round about his corpse. “He treated the whole round world as his football,” they said indignantly, “and he kicked it.” The dead man opened one eye. “But,” he said, “always towards the goal.”’  Someone once drew a cartoon showing two men on Mars looking down at the people in this world scurrying here, there and everywhere. One said to the other: ‘What are they doing?’ The other replied: ‘They are going.’ ‘But’, said the first, ‘where are they going?’ ‘Oh,’ said the other, ‘they are not going anywhere; they are just going.’ And to go just anywhere is the certain way to arrive nowhere.

(4) We need to know the worth of our goal. The great appeal of Jesus was rarely based on penalty and punishment.  It was based on the declaration: ‘Look what you are missing if you do not take my way.’ The goal is life, and surely it is worth anything to win that.

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