Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
The sermon text is from 1 Corinthians 9: Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. So far the text.
Most professional athletes are incredibly driven and disciplined. They dedicate their lives to excellence in their sport. They wake up early. They condition, run and lift weights. They eat right. The elite athletes are so mentally and physically sharp that their daily lives and their training are all oriented toward their goal.
Paul likens the Christian life to the disciplined life of a runner, constantly focused on the goal, whose preparation makes him or her stronger and better prepared to win the prize. But why should we live disciplined lives, isn’t it true that “we are justified by grace apart from the works of the Law?” Isn’t it true that salvation is God’s free gift to us through faith in Jesus, and that even our faith is God’s work by the power of the Holy Spirit? Luther’s 3rd article in the catechism says, “The Holy Spirit calls, gathers, enlightens and sanctifies the whole Christian Church on earth, and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one, true faith.” Philippians 1 says, “God, Who began [the work of faith] in you will carry it on to completion in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.” If God alone saves you, apart from any goodness and deserving on your part, what’s all this stuff about discipline and training?
Salvation is 100% God’s work and gift through the death and resurrection of God’s Son, our Savior. Even the faith that trusts in Jesus for salvation is the Holy Spirit’s work, and the Holy Spirit keeps us in this faith as He feeds our bodies with the pure, wholesome food of God’s Word and Christ’s body and blood. You didn’t and couldn’t do a thing to earn it. It’s all God’s grace – His undeserved love in Christ. You don’t and can’t do a thing to keep it – it’s all God’s power as He sustains us by the Holy Spirit.
Now, imagine you’re a world class sprinter. In every race you run, you win “by a mile” and set a new world record every time you step onto the track. Everyone calls you the winner before the race even starts. They even put your name on the medal. You’re so sure you’ll win, you get lazy and stop training; you eat like a slob and stay out all night partying. The day you’re supposed to race, you can hardly bend over to start.
As Christians, God joined us to Christ’s death and resurrection in Baptism. We are “more than conquerors.” In Jesus, we are winners. Yet, we know the good stuff God has waiting for us. Jesus ran the race that makes us victorious. But God forbid, we might say, “I’m saved so I don’t need to go to church or Bible class; I don’t need to pray for strength; I don’t need the Lord’s Supper; I can despise God and be filled with bitterness and hate to my neighbor.” God’s promises to me in Christ are still true, but what’s happened – I’ve fallen away from trust in God and worshiped the false “gods” of the world: wealth, leisure, false pride. Paul encouraged a disciplined life, so that we “not be disqualified for the prize.” The danger Paul warns about is spiritual laziness, getting fat and slow and out of shape, because instead of focusing on Christ, we’re focused on feeding our old, sinful flesh.
Godly discipline is important, because the Holy Spirit uses it to focus us on Christ. When we fall, the Holy Spirit calls us to repentance and feeds us with the Gospel of Christ’s saving death and resurrection. The devil wants us to be like a drunken runner stumbling from the ditch on one side into the ditch on the other, instead of keeping the focus on Christ and running toward the goal.
There are two ditches lining the road we run. The first ditch is works-righteousness, that’s when we really trust in ourselves and our goodness to be saved instead of Christ. The other ditch is cheap grace, believing Jesus’ death gives us permission to live however we want, so who cares about God and His Word!
Paul wants us to avoid both ditches when he says, “Run in such a way as to win the prize.” We run well simply trusting in God’s accomplished work in Christ. The whole race of our lives circle the cross, constantly returning to the forgiveness won in Jesus’ death and resurrection. “Fix your eyes on Jesus,” Hebrews says, “the Author and Perfecter of our faith.”
So we aren’t distracted, Paul urges Christians to be disciplined in how we live. Spiritual disciplines are good. Lent will be here soon, and we tend to associate certain Christian practices with Lent, but they are edifying and helpful all the time. The Bible commends fasting – giving up food for a chosen time and dedicating that time to prayer and God’s Word. It doesn’t have to be food, you can fast from watching TV. The point is not letting ourselves be mastered by worldly things, and learning to rely only on God. In the Small Catechism, Luther commends fasting as good preparation for receiving the Lord’s Supper, but adds that person is truly worthy who has faith in God’s Word. In other words, yes, discipline your bodies, but don’t trust in anything but Christ.
Setting up a specific time or times for prayer and reading God’s Word are spiritual disciplines. Every family should make a time for family devotions, otherwise they’ll never get done. God wants us to read His Word and study it together. He wants us to learn to come to Him as dear children ask their dear fathers. God wants us to pray, knowing that our true strength and salvation and life comes from Him alone.
Paul described beating his body and making it his slave, as if he were saying, “Whatever it is that I’m attached to; whatever I feel I need and can’t do without; whatever distracts me from complete reliance and trust in Christ alone, I get rid of, so as to rely only on God’s heaven-sent Savior.” If I get distracted and daydream during prayer, I might use the order of morning and evening prayer in the hymnal or the book of Psalms as a structure to guide my prayer life. We might get out our catechism and use the section on the 10 commandments to make confession to God privately or with your pastor, confessing from the 10 commandments where we’ve sinned against God and our neighbor.
Luther advised returning every day to our Baptism through contrition and repentance, by being sorry for our sins and trusting in Jesus. He said that by this Christian discipline, we were drowning the old, sinful flesh daily.
This is what Paul means when he describes disciplining our bodies. In Colossians 3, Paul says, “Put to death, therefore whatever belongs to your earthly nature, sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry… Rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.”
It ought to be the most normal and natural thing for Lutherans to know and insist that there is no other way to heaven, nothing we can do, but that Christ alone has won our salvation. Still, that confidence in Christ alone dare never be turned into an excuse for laziness and undisciplined lives. These spiritual disciplines Paul describes, serve as a daily reminder of our inborn sin. They remind us that our powerful enemies, the devil, the world, and our sinful flesh will use every moment to steal our souls from God.
Thanks be to God that in Christ the race has already been won. It rests not in your great training techniques, but in the Savior Who ran the race of life perfectly for you, never stumbling into sin. This holy and perfect God-in-the-flesh won the crown of life and salvation for you. He gives you the victory, through Spirit-given faith. He makes you “more than conquerors through Him Who loved you and gave Himself up for you.” He ascended to the right hand of God crowned with glory and honor. By His undeserved, unearned grace, His victory has become your own, His crown your crown, and His life yours now and eternally. Amen.
And now may the peace of God which surpasses human understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.