![Therefore let us also...put away every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles [us] and run with endurance the race which is set before us. Heb. 12:1 - Run the Race with Endurance to Gain the Prize, Putting away any Encumbrance and Sin](https://i0.wp.com/www.agodman.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Therefore-let-us-also...put-away-every-encumbrance-and-the-sin.jpg?resize=800%2C450&ssl=1 "Therefore let us also...put away every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles [us] and run with endurance the race which is set before us. Heb. 12:1 - Run the Race with Endurance to Gain the Prize, Putting away any Encumbrance and Sin")
The Christian life is a race, and we all must put away every encumbrance and sin to run the race with endurance to win the prize, which is the full enjoyment and experience of Christ. Amen!
We need to run with endurance the race that is set before us. In running the race, what matters is how we finish and not merely how we start or how we run in the middle.
We may begin the race well, and we may be running well in the middle of the race, but what matters is our finishing the race.
What matters is our daily running the race and how we finish the race. If we run the race with endurance day by day, running the Christian race which is Christ Himself, we will finish in a good way.
Our Christian life is a race, and this race is not a 200 metres race but a marathon, a lifelong race.
It is tragic when someone runs the race and, just before the finish line, he falls; he may have run well, but he did not finish and therefore did not receive the prize.
He who receives the most praise in a race is one who is hurt and fails but rises up and runs and finally wins the race.
This person will surely receive unceasing praises.
Being hurt and falling is not a problem; it can happen, but as soon as it happens and we realize it, we need to rise up and continue running the race.
If we fail or suffer, if by any means we are encumbered or hindered in our race, we need to rise up again and continue running.
We should not give up, and we should not be weary or faint in our souls for some reason.
Rather, may we look to the Lord, looking away unto Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith, and run the race which is set before us!
In our Christian life, we run the Christian race, and our race is simply Christ.
We may have many experiences in our Christian life, and many things may come along to hinder us from continuing in the Christian race.
But praise the Lord, we can just turn to the Lord, exercise our spirit, stand up, and continue running the race!
If we simply remain open to the Lord, no matter what happens, even if we are in a low condition, He has a way to speak to us and cause us to get up and continue running.
The Lord uses all things to keep us going in the race, and all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.
Even our failures, mistakes, and weaknesses work out for good for us, for we love the Lord, we want to run the race with endurance, and the Lord has a way in our being to cause us to keep going on with Him until we win the race.
Our Christian Life is a Race: We must Run the Race to Win the Prize, the Full Enjoyment of Christ and the Salvation of our Soul
The Christian life is a race; no matter whether we like it or not, at the moment we were regenerated, we were put on a racecourse, and we are now running the race to live the Christian life.
Every saved Christian must run the race to win the prize (1 Cor. 9:24). Running the race in our Christian life is to live Christ.
And what is our race? What is the race that we run? The goal of our race is our being perfected and glorified to express God corporately in glory.
The process of the race is the inner working of the law of the Spirit of life, which operates in us to impart God with all His divine elements into our being and reconstitute us with God Himself.
The way to run the race is for us to lose our soul-life, that is, to exercise our spirit and deny the soul its enjoyment in this world today for the sake of the Lord.
![Not that I have already obtained or am already perfected, but I pursue, if even I may lay hold of that for which I also have been laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brothers, I do not account of myself to have laid hold; but one thing [I do:] Forgetting the things which are behind and stretching forward to the things which are before, I pursue toward the goal for the prize to which God in Christ Jesus has called [me] upward. Phil. 3:12-14](https://i0.wp.com/www.agodman.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Not-that-I-have-already-obtained-or-am-already-perfected-but-I-pursue-if-even-I-may-lay-hold-of-that.jpg?resize=450%2C675&ssl=1 "Not that I have already obtained or am already perfected, but I pursue, if even I may lay hold of that for which I also have been laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brothers, I do not account of myself to have laid hold; but one thing [I do:] Forgetting the things which are behind and stretching forward to the things which are before, I pursue toward the goal for the prize to which God in Christ Jesus has called [me] upward. Phil. 3:12-14")
Our race, the way we run, is Christ Himself; He said in John 14:6 that He is the way. God has prepared a unique way for all the believers in Christ to take – Christ Himself.
Before Christ came, there were many types used in the Old Testament to show us God’s way, which is Christ, the most striking of which is the way to enter into the Holy of Holies in the tabernacle.
There was a way in the tabernacle, starting from the altar, passing through the laver, the showbread table, the lampstand, and the incense altar, to arrive at the Ark, where God’s presence and the law of life is.
Today Christ is our race, and our Christian life is a race; we must run the race with endurance to obtain the prize!
Paul was such a one: he said that he ran with a clear aim, even buffeting his body to make it his slave, so that he would not become disproved or disqualified but rather, win the prize of the Christian race (1 Cor. 9).
In Phil. 3:13-14 he said he didn’t account of himself to have laid hold of Christ but one thing he did, forgetting the things which are behind, he pursued toward the goal to gain Christ to the uttermost.
We need to be such ones; we need to be the people of faith running the Christian race with endurance to win the prize.
And we shouldn’t focus on our failure or our suffering, nor should we look at our weaknesses and sins; rather, we should forget about yesterday with its failures and TODAY turn our heart to Him, enjoy Him, and run the race with endurance.
Yesterday is over, and even what happened five minutes ago is over; we have today, right now, and we can enjoy the Lord today!
We need to be people of today, forgetting the things which are behind, forgetting even our past experiences of Christ, so that we can have a new and fresh experience of Him today, even right now.
May we stretch forward to the things which are before, realizing that there’s a vast, unexplored territory of Christ before us.
Christ as the good land is before us for our enjoyment, and we can simply run the Christian race with endurance to enjoy Christ, gain Christ, and win Christ.
He has called us toward the goal, which is the full enjoyment and experience of Christ, and we can run the race with endurance day by day.
![Before Christ was manifested, God used types to signify this matter of Christ as God's way, the most striking of which was the tabernacle… [In] the tabernacle there is a way, starting from the altar; passing through the laver, the show-bread table, the lampstand, and the incense altar; and ushering us into the Ark, the place where the law of life is. The way in the tabernacle is a picture of Christ as our unique way. In Hebrews 6 Paul told us to flee [v. 18]. We must flee everything into the Holy of Holies where our Forerunner, Jesus Christ, has entered within the veil. This is what it means to run the race. There is much opposition to this race. Thus, we must run it with endurance (12:1). This means that in order to run the race of Christ, we must suffer the opposition with endurance, never growing weary or fainting in our souls. Life-study of Hebrews, pp. 563-564, by Witness Lee](https://i0.wp.com/www.agodman.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Before-Christ-was-manifested-God-used-types-to-signify-this-matter-of-Christ-as-Gods-way.jpg?resize=450%2C675&ssl=1 "Before Christ was manifested, God used types to signify this matter of Christ as God's way, the most striking of which was the tabernacle… [In] the tabernacle there is a way, starting from the altar; passing through the laver, the show-bread table, the lampstand, and the incense altar; and ushering us into the Ark, the place where the law of life is. The way in the tabernacle is a picture of Christ as our unique way. In Hebrews 6 Paul told us to flee [v. 18]. We must flee everything into the Holy of Holies where our Forerunner, Jesus Christ, has entered within the veil. This is what it means to run the race. There is much opposition to this race. Thus, we must run it with endurance (12:1). This means that in order to run the race of Christ, we must suffer the opposition with endurance, never growing weary or fainting in our souls. Life-study of Hebrews, pp. 563-564, by Witness Lee")
We can pray that the Lord as the law of the Spirit of life would cause us every day to have the fullest enjoyment of Christ and bring us into the fullest gaining of Christ.
In 2 Tim. 4:7-8 Paul said that he felt that he finished the course, and the crown of righteousness was laid out for him.
The Lord will reward all those who have loved His appearing with the crown of righteousness. May we be those who love His appearing, His fresh appearance to us, His instant and moment-by-moment presence.
We want to see Him today, even right now, to enjoy Him and partake of Him, and to become His witnesses of the things in which He is appearing to us.
Amen, may we be those who wait on Jehovah, who renew their strength, mount up with wings like eagles, and run and not faint (Isa. 40:30-31).
May we look to the Lord as we run the race, and may we take Him as our way, our race.
To wait on Him as the eternal God means that we terminate ourselves; we stop ourselves with all our doing and we receive God in Christ as our life, our person, and our replacement.
When we do this, when we fully open to the Lord as we stop our natural being, we will mount up with wings like eagles, and we will run the Christan race with endurance. Hallelujah!
Lord Jesus, we want to run the race with endurance to win the prize, the highest and utmost enjoyment and experience of Christ! Amen, Lord, we look away from anything that is around us and do not pay attention to anything that would hinder us – we simply look away unto Jesus and run the race with endurance! We forget the things which are behind, whether good or bad, and we stretch forward to the rich, vast, all-inclusive Christ to be enjoyed and experiences ahead of us! Amen, Lord, we apply the blood, we rise up from any failure or weakness, and we want to continue running the race to win the prize! We trust in You, dear Lord, and we wait on You as we run the race. May the law of the Spirit of life empower us and strengthen us to run the race with endurance to the end so that we may win the prize!
We must Run the Race with Endurance, Putting away any Encumbrance and the Sin which so Easily Entangles us
When Heb. 12:1 speaks of running the race, we are told that we need to put away any encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us.
An encumbrance is a weight, a burden, or an impediment; an encumbrance is anything that weighs us down, burdens us, and impedes us from running the race.
The runners of a race need to strip off any unnecessary weight, every encumbering burden, so that nothing may impede them from winning the race.
As believers in Christ, we need to run the race with endurance, putting away any encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us.
We must flee anything that holds us back and enter into the Holy of Holies where Christ, our Forerunner, has entered within the veil (Heb. 6:18).
We all have particular things that may burden us, weigh us down, and impede us from running the race; as we run the Christian race with endurance, we realize that we need to put away such things so that we may run and win the race.
There is much opposition to this race; therefore, we must run it with endurance.
This means that, as we run the race with endurance, we will suffer persecution, and we should not grow weary or faint in our souls.
In particular, there is a sin that entangles us so easily. Here this sin refers to the willful sin, the sin of forsaking the assembling together with the saints, of giving up the new covenant way in God’s economy and of going back to Judaism.
Both the encumbering weight and the entangling sin would have frustrated the Hebrew believers and restrained them from running the heavenly race in the new covenant way of following Jesus.
We need to look away from anything that encumbers us, anything that frustrates and hinders us and look unto Jesus, taking Him as our person and our life so that we may put off every weight and put away every sin.
May we be those who run with endurance, asking the Lord to direct our hearts into the love of God and into the endurance of Christ (2 Thes. 3:5).
This love is our love toward God, issuing from the love of God (1 John 4:19) that has been poured out in our hearts (Rom. 5:5).
![And hope does not put [us] to shame, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. Rom. 5:5 We love because He first loved us. 1 John 4:19 I John, your brother and fellow partaker in the tribulation and kingdom and endurance in Jesus... Rev. 1:9](https://i0.wp.com/www.agodman.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/And-hope-does-not-put-us-to-shame-because-the-love-of-God-has-been-poured-out-in-our-hearts.jpg?resize=450%2C675&ssl=1 "And hope does not put [us] to shame, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. Rom. 5:5 We love because He first loved us. 1 John 4:19 I John, your brother and fellow partaker in the tribulation and kingdom and endurance in Jesus... Rev. 1:9")
And this endurance is to endure with the endurance of Christ that we have enjoyed and experienced (Rev. 1:9).
This has been bequeathed to us in our will, in the New Testament; we stand on these divine facts, and we want to cash in all these riches.
We simply need to ask the Lord to direct our hearts into the love of God day by day and to direct our hearts into the endurance of Christ.
And He is bound to do it: He is bound to direct us in this way, for this is what He has promised to us.
He directs our hearts by the leading of the Spirit, through whom the love of God has been poured out into our hearts (Rom. 8:14, 5:5).
On the negative side, we need to participate in the endurance of Christ so that we may endure the sufferings as He did, standing against the enemy of God.
On the positive side, we need to enjoy the love of God so that we may love Him in order to live for Him. Amen!
May we bring these matters to the Lord and allow Him to work this out in us as we run the race with endurance by looking away unto Jesus Christ, the Author and Perfecter of our faith!
Lord Jesus, we want to run the Christian race with endurance to the end! We put away any encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and we run the race with endurance! Amen, Lord, direct our hearts into the love of God and into the endurance of Christ. Fill us with Yourself as love and be our love toward You and toward others. Be our endurance today for us to run the race and win the prize of God’s high calling. Dear Lord Jesus, we look away from any encumbering thing and any entangling sin unto You to run the Christian race with endurance to the end!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by the brothers, and portions from, Life-study of Hebrews, msg. 50 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, God’s Economy in Faith (2022 spring ITERO), week 4, entitled, Running the Christian Race So That We May Obtain the Prize by Looking Away unto Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of Our Faith.
- Hymns on this topic:
– There’s a race for us to run—Hallelujah, / And a way for us the race to win. / To all those who have begun—Hallelujah, / God has spoken, “Look away to Him!” / Look away from all around—Hallelujah, / Look away from all the strife and din; / Look away where peace is found—Hallelujah, / Look away from everything to Him. (Hymns #1206)
– There’s a way before us and a race to run— / Christ our way, Christ our way! / Turn away from everything distracting us— / Run the race, run the race! / From the altar through the Holy Place, / Through the veil into our God, / To the law of life within the ark; / ’Tis the goal, our great reward. (Hymns #1207)
– Years I spent in sorrow ’round the cross, / Still repenting over sins and dross. / Then at last the river I did cross, / To touch the throne. / Mercy now is flowing, oh, the grace— / That I find of Him to run the race! / Boldly now I come again to taste / My glorious Lord. (Hymns #1208)
About aGodMan
The race [is] not perfection or glorification, for that is the goal of the race. Neither is the race the inward working of the law of life, for that is the process of the race. The race is not even the losing of the race soul, because that is the way to run the race; it is not the race itself… The Lord… in John 14:6 [said], “I am the way.” A race is a way, a course. Because Christ is the way, He is also the race. The race we are running is Christ. In the universe God has prepared the unique way which we must take… Before Christ was manifested, God used types to signify this matter of Christ as God’s way, the most striking of which was the tabernacle… [In] the tabernacle there is a way, starting from the altar; passing through the laver, the show-bread table, the lampstand, and the incense altar; and ushering us into the Ark, the place where the law of life is. The way in the tabernacle is a picture of Christ as our unique way. In Hebrews 6 Paul told us to flee [v. 18]. We must flee everything into the Holy of Holies where our Forerunner, Jesus Christ, has entered within the veil. This is what it means to run the race. There is much opposition to this race. Thus, we must run it with endurance (12:1). This means that in order to run the race of Christ, we must suffer the opposition with endurance, never growing weary or fainting in our souls. Life-study of Hebrews, pp. 563-564, by Witness Lee
Our Christian life is a race, and this race is just Christ Himself.
We need to put away any encumbrance and the entangling sin and run the race with endurance, asking God to direct our heart in the love of God and in the endurance of Christ.
Hallelujah! Lord, do direct our hearts to the love of God! Look to Jesus!
Amen brother. We run the race in order to obtain the reward of the kingdom, the crown of life.
This race is so special. All participants can obtain the prize as long as they run the race in the God-ordained way.
What is that way? It’s the New Testament way. We must beware of the temptation to wilfully forsake the New Testament way of Christ.
Today, we must run the race according to God’s up-to-date New Testament economy.
May we all enjoy the love of God and be willing to participate in the suffering of Christ in order to complete our race
Dear brother, as saved Christians we must run the race that is set before us, not for salvation in a common sense but for the obtaining of the prize, the reward which is glorification as the goal of the Christian race.
The way for us to run this race – Christ Himself – is that our hearts would be directed into the love of God and the endurance of Christ.
As we love Him we enjoy Him and live for Him. As we suffer opposition from the enemy we experience the endurance of Christ to run this race.
Aaaameen. There’s a race for us to run hallelujah.
This race is to obtain the prize of God’s high calling in Christ Jesus. Thus, this race is not a competitive race, but a race of endurance.
Heb 12:1 …put away every encumbrance and the sun which so easily entangles us and run the race with endurance which is set before us!
The unique entangling sin in this context was the willful sin of forsaking the assembling together with the saints.
This endurance is to endure with the endurance of Christ that we have enjoyed and experienced (Rev. 1:9).
Until we all arrive!
By looking away to the way! Jesus!!!
Paul had experienced and gained Christ tremendously, yet he did not account of himself to have experienced Christ in full or gained Him to the uttermost. He still endeavored to pursue toward the goal — the gaining of Christ to the fullest extent. Phil. 3:13, note 1, RcV Bible
In order to gain Christ to the fullest extent, Paul not only forsook his experiences in Judaism but also would not linger in his past experiences of Christ. He forgot the past. Not to forget but to linger in our past experiences, however genuine they were, frustrates our further pursuing of Christ. Phil. 3:13, note 2, RcV Bible
Brother, Hebrews 12:1 tells us that the christian life is a race we must run with endurance. This race is not perfection or glorification, for that is the goal of the race, it is not the inward working of the law of life, for that is the process of the race, it is not even the losing of the soul, because that is the way to run the race, wow, the race we are running is Christ!!!
The Lord in John 14:6 said I am the way!! Christ is the unique way we must take! There is no other way!
On the one hand we are running, on the other we are fleeing from everything into the Holy of Holies where our Forerunner, Jesus Christ, has entered within the veil!!
Amen Lord for Christ Himself our race! Lord direct our heart in the love of God and in the endurance of Christ to run the Christian race until we obtain the prize of God’s high calling!
Ameeennn!!!
The race that God has set before us is Christ! It’s new to me to see that the tabernacle is a type of this race. It starts from the outer court with the goal to arrive or finish at the holy of holies.
We run this race by looking unto Jesus as the Author and Perfecter of our Faith.
The prize to the succesful runner of this race is the incorruptible crown, the crown of righteousness, the prize of the high calling which is the fullest enjoyment of Christ in the millenium reigning as co-kings of Christ.