teaches us that membership of the one body and participation in its one hope is entirely outside the range of

attainment on our part. And with equal certainty He assures us that the prize of the high calling, the reward of the

inheritance, and the crown of righteousness, fall within the category of attainment. True, nothing but grace will

avail, but it is grace used. The reason for the apostle's assurance that our life is hid with Christ in God, is that we

might know that life is not in question. He does not say in Colossians 2:18, let no man beguile you of your life, or

membership, or position - these are never in question. But he does echo the words of another dispensation and say:

`take heed, that no man take your crown'.

In 1 Corinthians 9:24-27 the apostle enlarges upon this figure of the race and the crown, supplementing his own

inspired figures of the `ensamples' provided by Israel in the wilderness (1 Cor. 10:1-13).

Grace is emphasized in the epistles of Paul written before Acts 28 as an examination of Galatians and Romans

will demonstrate.

No single chapter repudiates the flesh and its efforts more strongly than does the first chapter of 1 Corinthians,

yet the apostle sees no incongruity in stressing with equal emphasis the running of a race, the fact that only one

receives the prize, and the necessity for discipline and temperance on the part of all who enter the lists, with the final

warning, that he himself could possibly become `disqualified' (adokimos 1 Cor. 9:27, not `castaway') even as with

many of Israel, though redeemed out of Egypt, the Lord was not `well pleased' eudokeo (1 Cor. 10:5).

In the last epistle Paul wrote, he speaks not only of the association of `crown' and `running the race' in

connection with himself, he applies the same principles to `all them also that love His appearing' (2 Tim. 4:7,8); but

he distinguishes very clearly between the unalterable position of those who `died with Christ' as compared with the

condition attached to `reigning with Him' (2 Tim. 2:11-13). Life with Christ is one thing, reigning with Him is

We trust the passages which have been brought before our notice make it clear that the doctrine of prize, crown

and reward is by no means absent from the epistles of the Mystery. We can therefore return to the passage in the

third chapter of Philippians, which speaks of the `prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus', assured that we

are examining a passage of Scripture that applies with undiminished force to ourselves.

`Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are

behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high

calling of God in Christ Jesus' (Phil. 3:13,14).

`Forgetting ... I press'. What things did the apostle wish to `forget'? What things if remembered would hinder

his running and spoil his chances for the Prize? It cannot refer to the fact that Paul was once a Pharisee and an

enemy of the Gospel, for this is remembered with deep appreciation of grace in 1 Timothy 1:11-16, and urged upon

the remembrance of Timothy himself in 2 Timothy 1:3; 3:10-14.

In the twelfth chapter of Hebrews, in connection with running `the race that is set before us', the apostle urged

his readers to `lay aside every weight', which turns us back to the sixth chapter where he says, `leaving the word of

the beginning of Christ, let us go on unto perfection' (Heb. 6:1 margin). The Hebrews were hindering their ability to

run the race that was set before them, and to go on unto perfection, by clinging to the doctrines and practices of a

dispensation that had passed.

So, even though the Philippians were called to salvation by the preaching recorded in Acts 16, and referred to in

Philippians 4:15, they must nevertheless beware of bringing over from the Pentecostal dispensation, which had now

fallen in abeyance, doctrines and practices which were once right and proper, but now obsolete and hindrances.

They must forget the things that are `behind'. For the apostle himself, the things that were `behind' would embrace

all that he had counted loss for Christ's sake, and for each one of us, there will be a similar personal assessment that

we alone can make.

From the prison on the Palatine Hill at Rome (Phil. 1:13) Paul would hear the shouting and cheering of the

multitudes as they encouraged their favourite charioteers in the Circus Maximus. Paul, though a prisoner, was also a

charioteer, he too had a `mark', he too `stretched himself forward' as the racer did in the lists.