NEWS

The Christian and the Olympian

The 2020 Olympics has just finished under the shadow of a pandemic. Australia fared well with a haul of medals. There were some unexpected wins and losses. Regardless of win or lose, we really appreciated the athletes’ doing their utmost in every event they participated in. That was their privilege and duty to their country and themselves. This is the picture Paul presented to us in 2Tim 4:7-8 using himself as an illustration: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.” It reminds me of Harry Garside wining the boxing bronze medal for Australia, first in 33 years, and Patrick Tiernan, Australian 10,000m runner, staggering to the finish line before collapsing. They did not win gold, but the most important thing was that they fought the good fight and finished the race. That is what the Lord asks of us, in response to His saving grace and to be worthy of our calling, just like our athletesics striving to do their best in response to their calling of being their countries’ representatives. The Lord will judge us, not in comparison to others (whether we win gold or not), but our diligence in being who He has called us to be.

In saying that, it may raise questions in the minds of some Christians: Doing the Lord’s will, paying the cost of discipleship, being diligent in witnessing for Christ in daily life, and developing a good habit of consistent Bible reading, prayer and personal devotions all take effort and discipline. In doing so, are we relying on self to earn God’s favour and salvation? Is it not biblical to “rest” and abide in the Lord always, relying totally on Him to change and sanctify us? The Bible admonishes us in a strongly imperative sense to do certain things, including to believe, repent, bear

fruit, and strive to enter the narrow gate (Lk 13:24: RSV). It also talks about seeking rest in the Lord and abiding in Him. Are these teachings contradictory? I do not think so. The seeming contradiction could be resolved if we take account of the following:

1. Our diligence is the rightful response to grace, not the means of earning God’s favour. Just like the Israelites in the OT were given the Law to obey AFTER God brought them out of Egypt; not requiring them to observe the Law first to earn their redemption. The latter would have been “salvation by works”.

2. Salvation by grace does not nullify our necessity to be diligent, as James says “faith without works isn dead”. A person who has no desire to follow Christ and grow, is like what the writer of Hebrews said of his original readers in Hebrews 6 (preached on last Sunday). A “Christian” who does not grow should re-examine himself whether he/she has truly believed.

3. Human diligence and God’s work of transformation are not mutually exclusive. They should co-exist. Paul taught the Philippian Christians “…continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose. (Phil 2:12-13).

It is interesting that the writer of Hebrews urges us to “strive to enter God’s rest” (Heb 4:111), and Jesus invites us ““Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” (Mat 11:28-29). We need to go to Jesus to find rest, but even that requires us to do something on our part: to take on His yoke and to learn gentleness and humility from Him. The latter is our response to His saving grace, it does take effort, there is a cost of self-denial, and we cannot expect Jesus to do that for us. But He has promised to empower us to do what we need to do to bear the fruit of true repentance (Mmatt 3:8). Praise the Lord.

Let us, in God’s grace, fight the good fight and finish the race.