As an Athlete

(This is part 2 of a 3 part series titled Be Strong.)

2 Timothy 2:5

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God’s Word says, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. In second Timothy, (2 Timothy 2:3-7) the Apostle Paul gives us three examples of ways to be strong, and he tells us to reflect on them. And the Lord will give you insight into all this. He talked about being a soldier. The next thing he says is in verse five he says.

Similarly, anyone who competes as an athlete does not receive the victor’s crown except by competing according to the rules. (2 Timothy 2:5)

So what does it look like to be strong? Well, it looks like following the rules of the race, of the athletic competition. The only way to win is to compete according to the rules. Otherwise, you can be disqualified. And without naming any particular names, I bet you can probably think of some high profile times when people have been excluded, disqualified from athletic events. You can think about baseball or swimming or cycling or gymnastics. And even though a person seems to perform well, if they don’t perform according to the rules, they’re out.

Dear Christian friend, I don’t want you to be disqualified from running this race and winning this race. So how do we do that? Well, first of all, if we want to compete according to the rules, we should have a good idea of what the guidelines are. So we’ll get to know our Bibles well, and we’ll see what God’s Word says to us. And God’s Word and his promises might even inspire some real changes in your life. If you see that I’m not competing according to the rules, and I’m on a dangerous track, that actually leads me away from Christ, it’s a beautiful thing when people repent and turn and change. And the only way that we can do that is by knowing how this race actually goes. What are the rules to this?

And as I reflect on that, the Christian faith is not all about Following rules. It’s about standing in the grace that comes from Jesus and the one who kept all the rules for us. In fact, the Christian faith really looks like you’re cheating because there’s actually no rules that you have to follow. You simply look to Jesus, who kept every rule, every stipulation, every commandment perfectly in your place. And you trust that he took all of your failures to the cross, and that he gives you his perfect life, that he’s actually carried you across the finish line, and that you’ve won the race and that God has taken away and doesn’t count any of your sins against you. You have the victory because Jesus won it for you.

That grace, that undeserved love, is the only thing that creates a desire for us to look at God’s rules and follow them with joy. So dear Christian compete as an athlete. You’ve won the victor’s crown.