| Introduction Paul is still dealing with the subject of food offered to idols. One would think that he would not have spent so much ink on what seems to be a trivial, or easily resolved matter. But, this issue gave him a window into the Corinthian Christians' hearts, and it provides a window into our own hearts. Paul's whole point in this larger passage is that the grace of God in Jesus Christ kills! That is to say that a Christian, by the grace of God, is dying to self and living for the glory of God and the good of others. Therefore, a person has been grasped by the grace of God will have no room for pride, arrogance, or notions of superiority. The grace that took of hold of his/her life will transform him/her so that he/she does rejoice in sin. Once again Paul uses his own example as normative to all – he does state it as a principle in 10:12. I. Two Preliminary Points A. The imagery that Paul uses in this passage is borrowed from the Isthmian games. 1. Every two years the best athletes would gather at Isthmia, just north of Corinth for the city sponsored games. a. They competed in five categories: wrestling, footraces, boxing, chariot racing, and poetry. b. The competitors would take 10 months out of their lives to train rigorously for the games. c. The champion in each category would receive a wreath – in Paul's time it was made of celery. 2. The people in the church would have been very familiar with the games. B. There are two ditches that we can fall into with passages like this one. 1. One ditch is to say that it really doesn't matter what we do with our lives because once saved always saved. a. After all it is all about God's grace, right? b. We will call it the Roman ditch as in Rom. 6:1-2. Rom. 6:1-2 – What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? c. This belief ignores passages such as this one before us today and often excuses sin and not doing what God calls us to do. 2. The other ditch is to say that the only thing that matters is what we do with our lives. a. Jesus did enough to get us started, but now it is up to us to stay saved. b. We will call it the Galatian ditch as in Gal. 3:1-2 Gal. 3:1-2 – O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified? This only I want to learn from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? 3. The path we need to stay on is that salvation (from regeneration to glorification) is all of God's grace and this grace is manifested in our striving unto obedience. II. What Is at Stake in This Race? A. Becoming a Fellow-Partaker of the Gospel 1. Here Paul comes to the end of his description (19–22) of how he is willing to become all things to all men in order to save some (v. 22), and he sums up this passion for people and for the gospel in v. 23. 2. This is the first description of what is at stake in the way Paul runs the race of his life – our standing in the Gospel. a. " . . . that I may be partaker of it with you." b. " . . . that I might have a share in the gospel." c. " . . . that I might obtain what the gospel promises." 3. Now what the gospel promises is salvation. Rom. 1:16 – For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. 1 Cor. 15:1-2 – Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, 2 by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. a. So what Paul is saying is this: "I live for the sake of the gospel—I preach it and become all things to all people, not only that they might be saved, but that I might inherit the same salvation with them." b. He said the same thing to Timothy. 2 Tim. 4:16 – Take heed to yourself and to the doctrine. Continue in them, for in doing this you will save both yourself and those who hear you. 4. God has called Paul to preach the gospel. a. Whether he does or not is evidence of his living relationship to Christ. b. It is evidence of whether he has been born of God and given a new heart of love to Christ. c. Therefore, persevering in the path of obedience and his fighting the fight of faith is the reality of Paul's own standing in grace, his own participation in the gospel. B. Disqualification is at stake in this race, 27. 1. What Paul is saying here is this: "If I do not take heed, if I give way to some of the impulses of my body, I could find myself on the slippery slope of disobedience away from Christ, and get to the end of my life and hear the judge of the race say, 'Disqualified!'" Mt. 7:22-23 (the words that Paul, or nobody else, wants to hear) – Many will say to Me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?' And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!' 2. The best evidence perhaps that this is what Paul means is the use of the word "disqualified" (adokimos) in 2 Corinthians 13:5. 2 Cor. 13:5 – Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you are disqualified. 3. To be disqualified means that Christ is not in you. a. The race has been run in vain b. It was a sham. c. Paul warns the Corinthians again in 10:12. 4. Paul does not believe that his race and his fight have been in vain. a. His whole life a living demonstration that Christ is in him and Christ is mighty to save. b. The way he runs and the way he fights is not because he doesn't have Christ and hopes to have him, but because he does have Christ and means to show it to the world. Phil. 3:12 – Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. c. The running and the fighting of the Christian life are a running and fighting for eternal life. 1) But it is a race and a fight in the confidence that we have been taken hold of by Christ for that very life. 2) Our running and our fighting, with all its pain, is proof that the Christ who ran his race and fought his fight and endured his cross for the joy (the prize) set before him is alive and real in our hearts. C. The Prize of Heaven, 24 – Run to win the prize 1. The idea here is not that each Christian is running against each other and only one gets the prize and everybody else loses. 2. The idea is that each Christian is running his/her own race and he/she is to run it in order to win. a. Pierre de Coubertin founded the modern Olympic games in 1896. b. One of his famous maxims was that what matter was the competition, and not the winning – what is important is to compete. c. Well, in the Christian life we are called to win the race that were running and the fight that we are in. 3. The prize is heaven itself! D. The Imperishable Crown of Righteousness, 25 1. The Isthmian athletes competed for a celery wreath, but we run for an eternal crown. 2. The "imperishable crown" is the righteousness that finally fits us for heaven. a. We don't have it yet. 1) We still sin. 2) We repent. 3) God forgives. b. But we fight and we run in the pursuit of righteousness. Heb. 12:14 – Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord… c. We hunger and thirst for righteousness with the confidence, Jesus says, that "we shall be satisfied" (Matthew 5:6). d. We do not run in vain! III. Affirmation and Denials concerning the Race A. Life is a game with lasting consequences. 1. The way we live our lives has eternal consequences. 2. Life is a proving ground where we prove who we are, whom we trust, and what we cherish. 3. Eternal life, the upward call, the crown of righteousness—all these hang on what our life says about who we are, whom we trust, and what we love. B. Denial & affirmation # 1: life is not a place for proving to God or anybody your strength; life is a place for proving whose strength you trust—man's or God's. C. Denial & affirmation # 2: life is not a place for proving the power of your intelligence to know truth; it is a place for proving the power of God's grace to show truth. Mt. 16:17 – Jesus answered and said to him, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. D. Denial & affirmation # 3: life is not a field for demonstrating the force of our will to make good choices; it is a field for showing how the beauty of Christ takes us captive and constrains us to choose and run for his glory. E. Denial & affirmation # 4: the race of life has eternal consequences not because we are saved by works, but because Christ has saved us from dead works to serve the living and true God with Olympic passion. Heb. 9:14 – how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? F. Denial & affirmation # 5: the race of life has eternal consequences not because grace is nullified by the way we run, but because grace is verified by the way we run. 1 Cor. 15:10 – But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. G. Denial & affirmation # 6: eternal life hangs on the way we run and the way we fight not because salvation is based on the merit of works, but because faith without works is dead. IV. We Run to Get Hold of Because We Have Been Laid Hold Of Phil. 3:12 – Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. A. This is the utterly unique thing about the way a Christian runner runs: 1. We don't run as though we see Jesus the judge at the end merely scrutinizing while we rely on ourselves for strength; 2. We run as those who have already been taken hold of by Jesus for the prize; 3. We run to win the prize in the power of having been taken hold of for the prize. B. We run to obtain eternal life because we have already been obtained for eternal life. C. Our running for it is the proof that we have been obtained for it. V. Our Running Is on the Basis of Work – God's Work A. We have been obtained by God's sovereign election before the foundation of the earth (Eph. 1:4). B. We have been obtained by his predestination to adoption (Eph. 1:5). C. We have been obtained by the reconciling death of his Son while we were still sinners (Rom. 5:6–10). D. We have been obtained by regeneration and effectual calling (1 Cor. 1:24; 1 Jn. 5:1). E. We have been obtained by the indwelling, sealing work of the Holy Spirit (Eph. 1:13; 4:30). F. On the basis of this massive work of God in Christ to obtain us apart from any initiatives of our own Paul says what he says in 1 Corinthians 9:24. 1. God has not saved us to sit in the stands. 2. God has not saved us to lie on the track. 3. God has not saved us to sit on the edge of the pool with our feet in the water. 4. God has saved us to spend ourselves for the glory of his Son. 1 Cor. 6:19-20 – Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. 5. The point of salvation is to make the glory of God visible in the universe. a. Running and fighting glorify God. b. Running and fighting demonstrate he is real and worthy and precious and powerful and pure and loving and holy and satisfying. Conclusion Running and fighting are all about revealing who Christ is for us and who we are in him and how precious the prize of eternal life with him is to us. http://olympiabp.blogspot.com/2013/06/grace-filled-striving-1-cor-923-27.html | |||
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Friday, June 28, 2013
Grace Filled Striving - 1 Cor. 9:23-27
