The Race
The Race
by Danny C. Wash
"Let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and perfecter of our faith" (Hebrews 12:1).
"... let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves. The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions."(Galatians 5:16-17 NLT).
“We are destroying arguments and all arrogance raised against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ” (1Corinthians 10:5)
But we have the mind of Christ." (1 Corinthians 2:16)
What is this race we are told to run? Is this a race we are to run just for fun? No, this is a race set before us by God, that our new inner spiritual person, as a Christian, runs against our old natural inner person of the flesh and those obstacles that prevent Jesus’ power through His Spirit in our spirit from causing our soul– our mind, will, and emotions– to put to death the unfruitful actions of the world, the flesh, and the devil, which are instigating our old ways and desires rather than the desires and life of Christ in our soul. This race is not a race of our old natural person against itself. No! It is a race enabled by the Holy Spirit to cause us to produce the victory in our soul. But, our will can quench the Holy Spirit’s power to war against these enemies in our soul when we resist the Spirit’s will.
Our old mind in our soul is to be constantly renewed by the mind of Christ, which is given to us by the Holy Spirit in our new inner spiritual person. The Holy Spirit in us is fighting against the old sinful natural desires that are still in our natural mind in our soul. Jesus is the creator of our faith in Him and He is the perfecter of this faith through the Holy Spirit that is also strengthening us in the race set before us. It is a battle of the new mind of Christ in us against the old mind of our flesh and the deeds of the flesh. We must evaluate and decide whether our thoughts or decisions are from the old mind of the flesh or the new mind of Christ in us. Those thoughts from the old mind, which do not line up with the word of God, should be rejected and those peaceful thoughts from the mind of Christ should be embraced and obeyed.
We are to take every thought captive to the mind of Christ in our spirit and evaluate whether it is to be rejected, if it is not obedient to that mind. When our mind seems to resist the call of the Holy Spirit to act or not act, we can be sure that is the old mind in our soul resisting because the inner spiritual person always wants to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit. We are not to aimlessly stroll through our life in this world as a Christian. We must seek the Lord to perfect us in this race so that we have a vision of the finish line and the reward set before us, which is not Heaven, because this has already been given to us by faith in Christ. It is the inheritance and reward in the afterlife of participating with Him in the Kingdom of His reign and battle against the enemies of God in the thousand year reign of Christ on the earth. This occurs after His return from Heaven and the judgment seat of Christ regarding the reward of His Kingdom reign, but not whether the believers are saved or any punishments for sins covered by the blood of Jesus shed on the cross.
