Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. [1 Cor 9:24]
I can remember being in some running races during high school. If I was nearing the finish line, and some were slightly ahead of me or behind me, I could notice the intensity to win welling up inside me. I would try even harder to win. Paul uses the same example in telling us how to run lives for the Glory of God.
Paul is not trying to teach that there will be only one winner in heaven, but yet a race is the model he chose to illustrate the intensity of the
good soldier of Jesus Christ [2 Tim 2:3]
John Bunyan in his writing The Heavenly Footman expounds the doctrine: They that will have heaven, must run for it.
That this running is not an ordinary, or any sort of running, but it is to be understood of the swiftest sort of running;.. It is taken from that 20th of Joshua, concerning the man that was to flee the city of refuge, when the avenger of blood was hard at his heels, to take vengeance on him for the offence he had committed; therefore it is a RUNNING or FLYING for one's life. A running with all might and main, as we use to say. So run! [The Heavenly Footman, John Bunyan, The Works of John Bunyan Vol 3, pg 381, The Banner of Truth Trust]
The Heavenly Footman stands as a model for holy living. I believe people are encouraged to sin when they hear preaching like "well if you sin, Jesus is waiting to forgive". Our model must be to run for heaven, instead of sinning and then running to Jesus.
People today are reasoning to solve their problems, instead of applying God's Word. The mind has an amazing ability to rationalize. We must always be on guard for
the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? [Jer 19:9]
Do you know how Satan tries to get you and me to commit many sins? He plays evangelical preacher. He says go on, you can always repent after you have enjoyed the sin and go back to Christ and be forgiven. Stop your ears. That is gross presumption. You cannot give to yourself repentance anytime you please. Repentance is a gift of God. You cannot guarantee that once you start down a particular course of sin you will ever come back. Do not get hung-up with the possible exceptions of verse 19 [None that go unto her return again, neither take they hold of the paths of life. Proverbs 2:19] my friend. Drill it into your mind, pray it into your soul that you better treat yourself like this; "If I ever go down that path, I might never return, therefore I will not take the first step!" [Jim Hufstetler, tape TE-CY-002, Reformed Baptist Church, Grand Rapids, MI]
The human mind likes to be flattered. Thus we must always guard our minds from corrupt teachings.
For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. [2 Tim 4:3-4]
I am amazed, though not really, at how some of these so called "indulgence preachers" of Martin Luther's time could have tricked so many people. In Luther's 95 Theses, number 27 is as follows:
They preach only human doctrines who say that as soon as the money clinks into the money chest, the soul flies out of purgatory.
And we must stand guard against those preaching human doctrines today. Unless we test everything with the
more sure word of prophecy [2 Pet 1:19]we will be believing human doctrines as well.
Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip. [Heb 2:1]