What did Paul mean when he said he had finished the race?

Next Paul writes, "the course I have finished." There is the general idea of the games narrowed to the race only; and he looks back on the course as "finished". At an earlier day in writing to the Corinthians, familiar as they were with the Isthmian Games in their neighbourhood, he had applied the theme to the life and service of the saints in general, introducing himself as an example of one running not uncertainly, not beating the air but buffeting, or bruising, his body, and bringing it into bondage instead of surrendering it to relaxation, and indulgence, and luxury (1 Cor. 9:24-27). In Phil. 3:13-14, we hear him expressing the utmost ardour of devotedness in that race for the prize. The general reference recurs in 2 Tim. 2:5, in just the same spirit in which it was first urged in 1 Cor. 9:25. Now the apostle applies it to his own case, not for self-applause, as a bad conscience and an envious heart might think, but transferring these things in application to himself for Timothy's sake, and for all who afterwards in faith read these words. Boasting was far indeed from one who had one foot in the grave and all his heart with Christ in heaven.

The apostle there speaks of his past career in three distinct aspects: as a christian soldier he has "fought the good fight;" as a racer he has "finished his course;" and as a witness for God in this world he has "kept the faith."

There is no hint of disappointment or regret in prospect of his death, but fresh, vibrant joy. He had "fought the good fight," not "a good fight," as though drawing special attention to his own fighting; but the fight in which all Christianity is engaged, as against evil and for the glory of God: his fighting in this engagement was about to conclude. He had finished the course, he had kept the faith. He is not saying how well he had fought, nor how well he had run in the racecourse, nor how well he had kept the faith: these things God would estimate. But there was no other good fight, no other proper course, no other true faith except Christianity. In this he had continued to the finish.

Great is that end of the journey which resembles in what can be imitated that of our blessed Lord. He, the Author and Finisher of faith, resisted unto blood, striving against sin, but did it by self-surrender. So His faithful servant Stephen, whose end Paul recalls long afterwards in these touching terms, "And when the blood of thy martyr, Stephen, was shed, I also was standing by, and consenting unto his death, and kept the raiment's of them that slew him." And so now the persecutor of that day, condemned and worsted in human eyes, can with inexpressible satisfaction say, "I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure [release] is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day." Like his Master, "By weakness and defeat He won the meed and crown."

No end is more sweetly triumphant than this. He had fondly cherished it before, when he said, "I count not my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus." He was now being gratified in this respect. The few years that elapsed between his last interview with the elders of Ephesus, and his last defence before the Roman tribunal, had been, as he knew beforehand they would be, fraught with many a danger and sore temptation; hence the charm, now that the last contest was over, of saying, "I have finished." This means he was conscious of having left nothing undone, or half-done, of his extensive service, "That by me the preaching might be fully known, and that all the Gentiles might hear." O that each of our days went towards such an end! that we knew more of this holy and sober confidence as regards our feeble service

The Apostle, in the expectation of his departure, reviews his course and, as led by the Holy Ghost, he is able to affirm his fidelity. Precious grace of God to His devoted servant, to permit him to write such words with the unerring pen of inspiration! The fight he had fought, or the conflict he had waged, he knew was a good one. It should be noted that he only speaks of the character of the conflict, and not of the manner in which he had carried it on. His course was now ended, and he had kept the faith. Many had departed from it; but he by grace had kept it, maintained the truth, and had indeed transmitted it exactly as he had received it.

So he concludes, "I am now being poured forth" (v. 6). In Phil. 2 it had been, "If I be poured forth." Things have gone further here. "My release," is the thought, because he had been in the combat as an athlete. He can say, "I have fought the good fight, I have kept the faith." It was the finishing of his race and wrestling of 1 Cor. 9:24-27. The Lord would preserve him to His heavenly kingdom, if he was not to be preserved on earth (v. 18). Earlier, his desire was that he might finish his course with joy (Acts 20) Here he had done it: "I have finished my course, I have kept the faith."

"You were running well!" Paul loves the picture of the race. In 1 Corinthians 9:24-27, he exhorts the Corinthian believers from the same picture: "So run, that ye may obtain!" In Galatians 2:2 and Philippians 2:16, Paul speaks of himself in his own race, that he had not run in vain, or to no purpose. In Philippians 3:12-14, Paul sees himself still as the runner, but drawing nearer the end of the race. The goal is in sight, and that is not the time to relax; on the contrary, now is the time to put forth all his strength, so "down to the goal I press!" As he parted from his dear Ephesian brethren he thinks of the time when, the race finished, the goal passed, the prize won, only the joy remains: "… neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy" (Acts 20:24). It is the Greek word for the race course that Paul uses here once again. And in 2 Timothy 4:7, using the same word, he sees the race is over: "I have finished my course (again, the word means the "race course") … henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness." This was not the kingly crown of royalty, but it was the victor's wreath that the winner of the race received at the Olympic Games. That wreath was made of leaves, "a corruptible crown." But the crown that we receive is "an incorruptible" one (1 Cor. 9:25).

We are to run this race with patience, or endurance. The Galatians began to run well. Their faith was so bright, it was as though everything was enacted before their eyes; and their love so fervent that they would have plucked out their own eyes and given them to the apostle. But look how they began to falter. Questions come in as to the law — teachers subvert them from the gospel of Christ — and those who were running so well have been hindered. It is not enough that we have run up to the present time; until we reach the goal we are to press on. Where Christ is, is our goal; and until we are there with Him, we will never have finished our race.

It is an appointed race. Every step of this course has been marked out for us. We know not how long it is, but God knows every step that each of us has to take. It is one race that all the people of God have to run — from the cross up to the glory. Those are the two termini. You begin at the cross, when, as a poor sinner with nothing in your hands but your sin, you come to Christ. The other terminus is the goal, where He is, at the right hand of God.

Those are the general marks of the race course, but each of us has a specially appointed race answering to his life down here. Some of us live longer, some a short length of time. Some have passed through outward persecution, others have had very little of that; whatever the course may be, it is the race set before us. Our blessed Lord has gone the whole way before us; He has marked out the appointed course for His people. We are never called upon to take a single step where we do not find His footprints ahead of us to show us the way.

The course run by a Christian is compared to races in which 'one receiveth the prize': with the exhortation, "So run that ye may obtain." 1 Cor. 9:24-27. The prize that Paul was stretching forward to win was that of being with and like the Lord in the glory. Phil. 3:14.

The race, then, is the race of Christian life, and the contest that of well-pleasing to the Lord. With Christ as its starting-point, and Christ also as its goal, that race has to be run with patience by a faith which looks off from5 all other objects, to fix its gaze solely upon Him. But just as men did not, at the Grecian games, contend with halters round their necks, so neither is the Christian called to save himself by any effort or endeavour from the wrath to come; for as a sinner he has already fled for refuge to the hope set before him. He has run into the tower of his safety, and is safe.6 It is in his Saviour's name that he appears as a competitor within the lists, and by His Saviour's strength alone that he can hope to win. But there is a prize for those who overcome. And here we should note the contrast between the illustration and the living truth. At the trial of natural ability, all the competitors but one were sure to lose. In Christ, all are already more than conquerors, but such as draw back unto perdition by failing to continue in the grace of God. Yet, though in this sense every real Christian overcomes, there is another sense in which merit will be found and honoured, according to its measure, by the righteous Arbiter of all that has been wrought here in His name; a merit not original or inherent, but of grace. And it is in this latter sense, chiefly, that the apostle speaks of winning in this place.7