EXCERPTS FROM THE MINISTRY

THE EXAMPLE OF THE APOSTLE PAUL

Surely we have been saved eternally, but whether or not we will be able to share in the manifestation of the kingdom is the problem. As a concluding word we need to consider the history of the apostle Paul. First, let us read 1 Corinthians 9:24-27: “Do you not know that those who run on a racecourse all run, but one receives the prize? Run in this way, that you may lay hold. And everyone who contends exercises self-control in all things; they then, that they may receive a corruptible crown, but we, an incorruptible. I therefore run in this way, not as though without a clear aim; I box in this way, not as though beating the air; but I buffet my body and make it my slave, lest perhaps having preached to others, I myself may become disapproved.” Surely Paul had the assurance that he was saved. Yet he emphatically told us that he was running the race. During the time that Paul was living, there were the Greek Olympic games, where people ran the races in order to receive a prize. Paul used this as his example, saying that he too was running a race to receive a prize.

Philippians 3:13-15 says, “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. Let us therefore, as many as are full-grown, have this mind; and if in anything you are otherwise minded, this also God will reveal to you.” At the time Paul wrote Philippians, he was old and had been with the Lord many years, but he was not yet certain that he had attained to the goal. Only at the time of the writing of 2 Timothy, which was close to the time of his martyrdom, did he have the assurance that he had reached the goal. This did not mean that he was not sure whether he was saved but that he was not sure whether he had gained the reward of the manifestation of the kingdom. When he wrote 2 Timothy, he was sure that the crown of righteousness was waiting for him. That is the crown to be a king. This means that when the Lord comes back, Paul will be rewarded with the manifestation of the kingdom of the heavens. We must be very clear: to be saved is one thing, and to be exercised in the kingdom is another. Today we need to be exercised so that tomorrow we can be rewarded.