Sermon Idea: The Christian life is a marathon in which we press on toward the prize of God in Christ Jesus.
Introduction: In the past, I have been a curmudgeon when it comes to rewriting great hymns. It is not that I don’t think it should be done, but that I’ve often seen it poorly done. I once heard a modern version of How Firm a Foundation that nearly made me punch my radio. That one means a lot to me.
However, there are some remarkable exceptions today, and this is winning over this boring curmudgeon one hymn at a time. One example is the 2019 version of Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus, written by Sovereign Grace.
It includes the hymn’s well-known refrain as the opening verse,
Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
In the light of His glory and grace.
But it adds a chorus that echoes our passage this morning,
Jesus, to You we lift our eyes
Jesus, our glory and our prize
We adore You, behold You, our Savior ever true
Oh Jesus, we turn our eyes to You
In our text this morning, we are called to turn our eyes to Jesus Christ, who is our very prize at the end of our Christian lives.
Last week, we saw how Paul’s testimony teaches that salvation is through Christ and Christ alone. As we stand before God, we are not to be confident in ourselves but in the finished work of Christ.
We saw that knowing Christ is of surpassing worth because in Christ, we gain righteousness that is from God, and one day, we will attain the resurrection from the dead. Life for Paul is Christ-centered. All of his life is now in reference to who Christ is, what Christ has done, and what Christ promises to do.
Paul wants to clarify now that although he is in Christ and totally dependent upon him for salvation and righteousness, he has not yet arrived and attained all that is in Christ. His life is in Christ, but he remains imperfect and has not yet become what he will be in Christ Jesus.
This means that Paul’s life has one singular vision. His eyes are lifted to Jesus, whom he sees as the prize at the end of his life. He will fix his eyes on Christ like a marathon runner with one consuming goal—to finish the race and claim the prize that awaits him as he crosses the finish line.
The New Testament often uses the imagery of a race or a marathon to describe the Christian life. In Hebrews 12:1-2, for example, the author encourages us to strip ourselves of any and every weight that would inhibit our ability to run our race well.
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. (Heb 12:1–2)
This morning, we want to trust in Jesus Christ alone. Through faith, we want God’s righteousness, the power of Christ’s resurrection, and the hope of the resurrection from the dead.
Yet, we also want to see that we are not yet what we will be; the Christian life is less like a promotion we receive in this life and more like a marathon in which we press on toward the prize of God in Christ Jesus.
We press on because Christ has made us his own. We press on for the prize of God in Christ. We press on holding true to what we have already attained in Christ.
I.) Press on because Christ has made us his own (Phil. 3:12)
Mature Christians rightly acknowledge the grace they have received in Jesus Christ, how far that grace has brought them, and how far they have yet to go. Without minimizing God’s gracious work in salvation, Paul acknowledges and embraces his imperfection. He knows he has not attained all that it means to be in Christ Jesus.
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. (Php 3:12)
Thinking of the Christian life as a marathon protects us from despairing over our imperfections and how far we have yet to go. There is little doubt in my mind there are believers here in the Lord who are deeply discouraged by how far they have to go. You love the Lord, and you’re saved by grace through faith, but you’re hyper-aware of just how far you have to go to be more like Jesus Christ.
No one looks at someone in the middle of a marathon and condemns them for not having crossed the finish line yet. The important thing is that they are running in the race.
For those of us who have been saved by God’s grace and baptized in the name of the triune God, we have started our race. We know that a long journey lies ahead and that we have not fully attained all that it means to be in Christ Jesus, but the essential point is that, by God’s grace, we are in the race.
That is how Paul sees his life. He isn’t ashamed to admit that he hasn’t achieved perfection yet because his life is always heading in that direction; he just hasn’t crossed the finish line yet.
This awareness signifies spiritual maturity. When you mistakenly believe that you have arrived, that you have crossed the finish line, you cease running and stop pressing on.
There was an unfortunate demonstration of this on national television this year when a young player for the New York Jets repeated one of football’s greatest mistakes. Malachi Corley, a rookie wide receiver, ran 18 yards right into the endzone. It would have been his first career touchdown in the NFL, except that he celebrated too early, and at the one-yard line, he dropped the football. His body crossed the goal line, but the football did not. It was an 18-yard run and fumble.
Overestimating your spiritual position has far greater consequences than the outcome of a football game. Stopping this race will harm your soul.
The Christian life is a marathon that we keep running because we are aware that we are not yet perfected in Christ. So we press on; we keep running because of what God has done for us in Christ Jesus.
To press on means “to move rapidly and decisively toward an object.”
It is the same word that Paul uses to describe his persecution of the church in 3:6,as to zeal, a persecutor of the church (Php 3:6)
What an incredible image! Paul is transformed from rapidly and decisively persecuting the church to rapidly and decisively moving toward his savior, Jesus Christ.
Don’t miss what is fueling this persistence! It is because Christ Jesus has made Paul his own. Christ is Paul’s life. He says so clearly in Galatians 2:20,I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Ga 2:20)
The motivation for pressing on in the Christian life, running our marathon with purpose and intent, is that Christ has made us his own, and we now belong to him.
This morning, I cannot unpack the doctrine of salvation from election to glorification. However, a few passages capture quite well what it means for God to make us his own through Christ.
12 remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. (Eph 2:12–13)
We once had no hope and were without God, but He made us his own through the blood of Jesus Christ. When we placed our faith in Christ, our sins were forgiven, we were reconciled to God, and given access to all the promises to all the promises that come in the gospel.
9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. (1 Pe 2:9–10)
By God’s grace, the church is the people of God. If you’re in Christ, that is who you are. You belong to God in Christ and are a member of God’s very own people.
Paul, writing to Titus, says that Jesus gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works. (Tt 2:14)
What a glorious phrase! We are a people for Christ’s own possession.
Just as Paul can say, Christ Jesus has made me his own; all who in Christ can say that Christ Jesus has made us his own.
Beloved, we press on in the faith not because we long to be accepted by God, but because God has already accepted us in Christ.
We press on not to earn God’s love but because we have known it abundantly in Jesus Christ.
In one sense, we run our Christian race because of what God has already done for us in Christ. In another sense, we run our Christian race because of the prize that awaits us. Look with me at verses 13-14.
II.) Press on for the prize of God in Christ (Phil. 3:13-14)
13 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, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. (Php 3:13–14)
The priority of Paul’s life is to continue straining forward to what lies ahead of him. He presses toward the goal of the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
The word “call” here is worth noting because it is another reminder that all Christian life is fueled and sustained by God’s grace. We press on because God has called us by his grace to a glorious, upward prize.
In order to faithfully run this race, we cannot be content with we far we have come. This is what I think Paul means when he says, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead (Phil. 3:13)
It means he does not expect his past progress and current status to bring him to the finish line. He is not satisfied with basking in his accomplishments; he presses on for something greater and more rewarding that lies ahead.
This past Friday, I had the privilege of visiting our sister, Shirley Jennings, with Jack and David on a pastoral visit. It was both sweet and sad.
I couldn’t help but watch closely and be encouraged by Jack, who exemplified pastoral presence and care. Here is a man in his eighties who has spent decades in ministry. In moments like these, I see no contentment in coasting on successful years in the past but a pastor who is pressing on, even now, toward the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
Friends, I praise God for your progress in the faith and rejoice in all of your good works and acts of devotion. But let us not be content with the spiritual growth that is behind us. Let us, with joy, look only ahead, with our eyes fixed on Jesus Christ, who is our very prize at the end of our Christian lives.
Of course, the prize refers to a reward. A similar idea is discussed in 1 Corinthians 9:24.
24 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. 25 Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable (1 Co 9:24–25)
Christians should not dismiss the idea that a reward or prize awaits them in heaven. The New Testament uses the promise of a heavenly reward to motivate believers to keep the faith and live in greater obedience to Jesus Christ.
19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (Mt 6:19–21)
What is the nature of this prize? Paul simply says it is the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. God in Christ is the prize. Remember, this is the same man who referred to life as Christ and dying as gain.
Paul views Christ as his heavenly reward. In glory, Paul will come to know Christ free from any constraint or limitation. He will share in his resurrection, know him truly, and commune with him forever.
There is no greater prize or reward than the knowledge of God in Jesus Christ, but that doesn’t mean everyone experiences heaven equally. Our intimacy and communion with God now will determine the measure of our heavenly rewards.
“..we should think of rewards as varying degrees of capacity for heavenly glory…Although all of the redeemed will see God’s face, some will enjoy deeper intimacy with God. I believe all the redeemed in heaven will be perfectly happy, but not all will be equally happy. Rewards are an increased capacity for absorbing and comprehending the glory of God.” (Andrew M. Davis, The Glory Now Revealed)
If this sounds odd at first, let me encourage you to think about two Christians in the Bible: the thief on the cross and the apostle Paul.
The thief knew Jesus a very short time before death. Paul walked with Christ through suffering, missionary journeys, thorns in the flesh, church planting, etc. Paul’s communion with God in Christ was simply deeper than the thief on the cross. Both are now perfectly satisfied in heaven, but Paul most certainly has a great capacity for heavenly glory.
What’s the point? Run your Christian race, pressing on to make your capacity as great as possible now so that it will be of great capacity in heaven.
Confess sin and kill it, pray intimately with God, immerse yourself in Holy Scripture, gather with the church and worship God through ordinary means of grace, and commit yourself to good works as commanded in Scripture. Do all of this in faith, hope, and love, pressing on toward God’s upward call in Christ Jesus.
Let’s seek as much of God in Christ now, to get much of God in Christ then.
With a pastoral heart, Paul acknowledges that this vision of the Christian life is a mark of maturity and that not all believers have such a Christ-centered view of life.
Notice how gracious Paul is with these weaker and more immature saints. He doesn’t belittle them, he affirms them and expects God to reveal this to them in time. This confidence echoes the glorious truth of Philippians 1:6,And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. (Php 1:6)
That said, he does give them particular encouragement. Look with me at verses 15-16.
III.) Press on holding true to what we have already attained in Christ (Phil. 3:15-16)
15 Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. 16 Only let us hold true to what we have attained. (Php 3:15–16)
All true Christians grow, but they don’t all grow at the same rate or to the same degree. Paul recognizes this and extends grace to believers still growing up in maturity in the Lord.
We should seek to make Waldo a gracious and patient place where new believers and immature saints can grow in Christ.
The important thing is they hold true to what they have already attained,Only let us hold true to what we have attained. (Phil. 3:16)
In other words, realize the grace you’ve received and what God has done for you in Christ. You may be a baby in the Lord, but hold true to what you’ve attained. They all already have a vision for life in Christ and how to walk with him faithfully. Paul is saying to stay true to that.
Some of you in the room may have trusted in Christ and truly want to follow him, but there is so much you don’t understand or a level of maturity you have yet to reach. Friend, that is ok and expected.
Paul’s encouragement to you is to stay true and faithful to what you’ve already attained. God will bring growth; you simply must be a good steward of what you’ve been given.
Conclusion
The Christian life is a marathon in which we press on toward the prize of God in Christ Jesus. We press on because Christ has made us his own, for the prize that awaits us in Christ Jesus, and by holding true to what we have attained.
I will pray here in a moment. After that, Aaron will lead us in a hymn of response. For most of you, your response should be reflective. Are you thinking maturely about the Christian life? Is there anything hindering your ability to run and press on at full speed? How might you pray this morning to follow Paul’s example?
For others of you, I implore you to ask if Christ has made you his own. Do you have confidence that you belong to God, your sins have been forgiven, and you are reconciled to God? We are here99 to serve you, talk with you, and tell you more about the gospel of grace. Come, trust Christ, and be saved.
Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
In the light of His glory and grace.
Let’s pray.
Nathaniel R. Martin 