“And also if anyone competes in athletics, he is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules.”– 2 Timothy 2:5 NKJV

What I believe Paul was trying to tell Timothy and us through the example of an athlete was the mindset. The first thing that all athletes do is learn how the game is played. Without understanding the rules, there can be no competing. If the rules were arbitrary, no one can win and yet everyone can be counted a winner, but only according to their own rules they have made up. Such is the case with our lives as well, if we have no standards to follow or we make up our own standards, everything we do can be right in our own eyes and absolutely wrong in God’s eyes at the same time. We have the rules (or laws) given by God, the creator of the entire universe and we are to obey and abide by it, if we are to be crowned with eternal life (James 1:12). 

What are the rules?

Simply put they are the God-given law applying to areas such as (and not limited to), our thoughts, words, actions, relationship with our Creator, relationships with other people, and so on. Well in short, it covers everything conceivable under the sun. When we confess Christ as Lord (Adonai) of our lives, we are confessing Him to have all sovereign and supreme authority over our lives and therefore every aspect of it. It can be likened to taking a bath where the water covers every part of our body. Such should be our surrender and obedience: complete. All this ‘rule-following’ can be hard for us as humans, afterall the saying goes ‘to err is human’. Well… this is true (Acts 15:10-11) and what follows is the message of the Gospel in a nutshell. God gave laws in the Old testament for the Israelites to uphold and thereby become a witness to God’s salvation to the Gentiles. The Israelites failed and so God sent His son Jesus into the world and Jesus lived a perfect life, where He never broke the law and therefore when He was crucified on the cross, He took our place, and bore our sins. The power of the law itself was broken over all our lives and we come under something much, much better called ‘grace’. It is the unmerited, divine favor of God that finds us, even in our sinfulness.

“For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.”

–Romans 6:12 NKJV

The law of grace

Grace is a free gift of God that comes through believing in Christ and His finished works on the cross. As Ephesians 2:8-9 NKJV says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” Grace brings the salvation of God, it frees us from the condemnation of the law (Romans 8:1-4, Galatians 3:10-14), it is sufficient in all things (2 Corinthians 12:9-10), and it leads to eternal life in Jesus Christ (Romans 5:20-21, John 1:17). 

For all the wonderful things grace does, it is important to mention what it does not. Grace does not mean a free-pass to continue in sin (Romans 6:1-2,14). It does not make the law void (Romans 3:31, Matthew 5:17). Grace won’t be removed but we can fall from it (Galatians 5:4, 2 Peter 2:20-21). Grace and the law are independent of each other, yet grace does not cancel the law. The law is good and holy (Romans 7:12), the law is God’s spoken word to Moses and the Israelites and God cannot go back on His own word (Numbers 23:19). An analogy I find helpful to understand the relationship between law and grace is this: The law of God is like a mirror which we stare into, the mirror then revealing our sinful nature within us (Romans 7:7) ; then we seek grace to be renewed and transformed into God’s image (2 Corinthians 3:18). The law is important because it gives a true reflection of ourselves and grace helps us to be transformed into who God wants us to be through His Spirit.

“But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.”

–2 Corinthians 3:18 NKJV

And therein is how we are encouraged to run this race, looking to our upward calling (Philippians 3:14), finding grace in our needs (Hebrews 4:16), remembering always that we run not for a perishable reward but for an imperishable crown (1 Corinthians 9:24-27) and towards God’s eternal glory. May we all finish strong what has been started, saying at the finish: “only by grace, only by grace!”

“But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.”–1 Corinthians 15:10 NKJV