The previous commentary began the expository rendering of one verse: “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Phil 1:21). The one word “gain” was presented but it certainly has not been fully explored. “Gain” to Paul was essentially the “prize” in the race of life: “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).
Paul spoke literally of an Olympiad when there was only one champion in each race. He applied that to a metaphorical, even a spiritual, race but not where only one wins the prize but just a few. Nowadays all that enter are rewarded a prize just for entering. They run the race, even slovenly, but still get a prize, for just being there. Many never even finish the modern races but are still rewarded. That is not the Way it is done in spiritual races.
In the case of Adam and Eve, the race was much different than what one would expect: “So He (God) drove out the man; and He placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life” (Gen 3:24). Perhaps the flaming sword is more than coincidence since the Olympiad has the Flame of Olympia that lights the way to the race. Paul must have been as much a sports enthusiast as he was a zealot for God!
One big difference: The Olympiad events were run fully naked, but Adam’s and Eve’s “race” was run fully clothed, both wearing the full-length Garment of God. So, consider the marathon as how Paul likened the spiritual race.
That race was run naked as well. It was symbolic of running in the flesh. For many who attempt to run the spiritual race; they too expect to run it in the flesh. They are unworthy to run because the flesh is only an image, and the race of life is a spiritual Olympiad. The prize is awarded only at the end of the race and not before. The spiritual runners must run for the duration; as Jesus said, “He that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved” (Mat 24:13).
Endure what? Iniquity (Mat 24:12). Iniquity is the “economy” of the world, and it must be overcome. Grace is that Jesus, for those who rightfully qualify, aids the runner. Jesus addressed that issue when He said, “In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; ‘I have overcome the world’” (John 16:33).
Remember those cherubim guarding the Way to the Tree of Life? Cherubim are guardians of the Way. They are the “watchers” along the Way to overcome the endurance of the runner.
The most notorious of the “cherubim” were the Anakim giants that blocked entrance to the Land of Milk and Honey at the entrance to the Garden of God. They were as grasshoppers to Joshua, but Joshua and Caleb overcame them! Joshua was the Name of Jesus and Caleb means the “servant,” obviously of Jesus.
Abraham had also found grace but he and his fellow-worker, Lot, were blocked by “cherubim” in Sodom and Gomorrah. The residents of those great cities had become another kind of being — they had become depraved beasts full of iniquity.
If Abraham and Joshua had their cherubim blocking the Way to the Tree of Life in Jerusalem, any that run the race have their cherubim too. They are so great that if people could see them that they could be identified as cherubim. The world is full of unseen cherubim and the pleasurable images that are presented as entertainment are full of cherubim. They are the obstacles to winning the race for life!
Sincere Christians run the race full “clothed.” The reward is of course eternal life, but the “Prize” is the Tree of Life that remains in the Paradise of heaven and is still guarded by cherubim: “And before the throne there was a sea of glass like unto crystal: and in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, were four beasts full of eyes before and behind” (Rev 4:6). Those beasts are cherubim who remain along the Way to guard the Tree of Life. For those who enter the race and think that the race is easy, it certainly is not!
Why all the cherubim? Because there must be obstacles for the runners to face to endure to the end. No entrant can coast any of the Way! Faith is a gift, but it must be used and worked to please God.
What is at the end of the race? The reward: “To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the Tree of Life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God” (Rev 2:7). That goes back to Genesis wherein Adam and Eve entered the race for the Tree of Life, and all along the Way, from then to the crucifixion, cherubim kept them out of the Garden. When Jesus was crucified, the Way for them, and all mankind, was provided so long as the Coat of the Lamb of the God is put on and worn.
So, the “gain” of which Paul wrote is the prize — to no longer eat of the Tree of Knowledge of both good and evil but only of the Tree of Life of which, “the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations” (Rev 22:2), meaning the “whosoever” in John 3:16.
The finish of the race — the gain — is this: “Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the Tree of Life and may enter in through the gates into the city” (Rev 22:14). Just what is the “right” to the reward? They that do as Jesus commands — to love God and all of Adam’s kind.
“Blessed” has two meanings: (1) reward in the Presence of God, and (2) God taking a knee to the winner. Those who finish the race shall be served by Jesus. Rather than you, taking a knee to Him in mockery as the soldiers did at the crucifixion, God will take a knee to the finishers of the race.
Back to the one who finishes. It is not a relay race. It is a personal race for individuals. No others can endure for you, and you are all alone in the race as if by yourself. Your parents cannot lead you nor any of your friends. Your preacher cannot help you, but only Jesus can! It is just you and God, runner.
Now to continue: “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” The race was for Paul. It was him alone, racing to the prize.
There are other runners, but their courses are elsewhere. There are no shortcuts but there are detours. The race can be lengthened, not according to time, but distance. Taking the eye off the prize can be either a detour or somewhere along the Way there could be a roadblock that cherubim have put up. Keeping the eyes on the prize keeps the race as short and obstacle free as can be. Nowhere does the runner just sit down in apathy and give up. If that happens the cherubim will hover around and see that they are immoveable.
Faith must be steadfast; that there is a prize at the end, and it is already as if yours because you believe it to be real and true. The runner has the hope of winning (1 Thes 5:8) but it is not a sure thing because you are not God, but only an image of God.
Only God is certain, and runners are hopeful. Nobody runs without a shadow of a doubt but the cherubim shadows them all the time and puts much doubt in their Way. Doubt must be overcome, and that is by steadfast faith (Col 2:5) and keeping on the whole armour of God for the duration of the race.
The Garment of Adam was his “armor,” and it was passed down to Noah. Noah found grace (Gen 6:8) and he put on the whole armor of God. He wore it through all the tribulation, but Noah never made it to Salem where the Tree of Life was there in the form of Melchizedek.
The Tree of Life did not wither; it endured the storm, and all that water washed the cherubim away from Noah until he was on dry ground.
There, for some reason, Noah took off the Garment of Adam, and exposed himself to a cherub in the soul of his son, Ham.
Noah, thereafter, did not make it all the way to the middle of the “bow” that we think of as a rainbow but is perhaps the fertile crescent with the Tree of Life in its midst! Noah finally made it all the Way because Jesus made the propitiation for his past sin (Rom 3:25) — of becoming drunk and exposing himself in insobriety to the tactics of the cherubim.
For Noah, the “race” was not finished at the mountains of Ararat (Mount Judi in greater Ararat) but at the Cross on Good Friday, AD 33 — all because he failed to wear faithfully the armor of God!
Next in the key verse is “live.” People think of life as physically growing and accomplishing things in the word and having all their biological needs met. Adam and Eve also failed to understand life and death because they had never experienced death. They body of knowledge was incomplete before sin.
As a child, I experienced death, not in reality, but in a vision. God provided a vision of me as if I was floating alone in nothingness toward somewhere, perhaps Hell in the heavens.
I never saw Hell itself, but only the Way there. Like Paul, it was for me alone. Nobody else was there as I was all alone in time and space.
I really had that vision when I was a child, and I was on the path to Hell. The “gate” was indeed broad, but I was entering it by myself, as surely there were many more on different paths in the expanse of the universe. I never saw Hell itself, but I saw where I was heading, For me, to die was isolation; and to live was gain. I had to stay alive! I had seen death, but I wanted life.
Imagine if you will, the sinners in the days of Noah. They experienced what I saw. My “water” was empty space but theirs was H20 water. My way was Hell via the waters of space (Gen 1:6) but theirs was the waters on the face of the Earth. Either way, waters were separated from the waters, but both were ways to Hell.
By grace, God drowned the sinners and the cherubim in them. I believe they saw what I saw as they were sucked down the Well of Souls beneath the Foundation Stone. For me, I went the other “waters” in my vision. I went unto the heavens by a different route as I glided like a dove straight to Hell, and neither would this “dove” ever come back.
To be straightforward, that vision scared the Hell out of me, and I sought grace. Like Noah long before, I entered the race and intend to be there for the “prize” to see God take a knee to me rather than me a mocking knee to Him!
Can you not see? Life is the Way to the Prize. Death scared me. Paul saw life, and he saw it as gain. I began to see what Paul saw!
(continued tomorrow as this is getting lengthy)
(picture credit: iStock; "Running a Race")
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