Run the Race by Looking away unto Jesus, the Author, Leader, and Perfecter of Faith

As believers in Christ, we run the Christian race by looking away unto Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith; Jesus Christ is our focus in our running, for only by looking unto Jesus can we have faith infused into us to run the race with endurance. Amen!

Our Christian life today is a race, the heavenly race, and we all run to gain the prize.

Paul was brought into this race when he was converted, and he ran on the race his whole life until, right at the end, he could say that he finished the course.

Each one of us has a race, a course, to run.

We need to seek the Lord to know what is the course He has assigned to us to run in our Christian life.

We cannot run someone else’s race, nor can we compete with others in our running the race.

Rather, we all need to look unto Jesus, the One who initiates faith and who also perfects faith, so that we may run the race with endurance and arrive at the destination to receive the prize.

On one hand, as believers in Christ we are saved eternally, and we don’t have to do anything to obtain our salvation.

God saved us through grace and by faith, for simply by believing into the Lord, we are saved and receive eternal life. Hallelujah!

On the other hand, there is a reward set before us, a prize, that is given to those who run the race with endurance.

In many portions of the New Testament we are told that the Lord as the Master of the slaves will reward each one according to his doing.

Some may say that we don’t have to do anything for our salvation, and they are correct: we don’t have to work to obtain salvation.

However, as Paul said in Phil. 2:13, we need to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who operates in us both the willing and the working for His good pleasure.

God didn’t save us so that we may wait until He brings us into heaven to be with Him forever.

This is a very low gospel.

He didn’t save us from eternal perdition just so that we may be His children, and one day He will come to bring us with Him where He is.

Rather, God saved us so that we may enjoy Him, partake of Him, experience Him, and run with endurance the Christian race set before us.

We need to pursue Christ to gain Him (Phil. 3:12-14) and we need to lay hold of the One who has laid hold of us.

We do this day by day, even moment by moment, as we contact the Lord and experience Him in our daily living.

May we be those who run with endurance the race set before us by looking at nothing else but Jesus, the One who has initiated faith and who will also perfect our faith!

We Run the Christian Race by Looking away unto Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our Faith

How can we run the Christian race?

We may hear that we need to run with endurance the race set before us, but we may not be a competitive person, nor are we naturally inclined to make too much effort to obtain something.

Running the Christian race has nothing to do with how we feel and what we can do; it has everything to do with looking away unto Jesus! Amen!

We run the Christian race by looking away unto Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith (Heb. 12:2).

What does it mean to look away unto Jesus?

The Greek word translated “looking away unto” means “to look with undivided attention by turning away from every other object.”

In other words, as we run the Christian race, we should not look to the left or the right but simply look away from anything else unto Jesus.

When the runners run in a hundred-yard race, they do not look at the people around them nor do they look at their fellow competitors; they just run, having their eyes set on the goal.

It is so easy today to be distracted by so many things. Good things and bad things alike can distract us from running the Christian race.

We should not just stand here looking around, considering, and thinking about this thing or that negative matter that happened to us.

Rather, we must turn away from everything other than Christ and look to Him with undivided attention.

Many times we lose sight of the Lord, for there are so many pressing things and immediate situations that demand our attention.

So we slow down in our running the race, or we are hindered from continuing with the Lord.

The solution is not to try to deal with all these negative things or solve the problems that are at hand; the solution is simply to look away unto Jesus!

We run the Christian race by looking away unto Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith.

When we look away from all the earthly things unto Jesus, He infuses us with faith to run the race.

This is a long-term race, even a lifelong race; we may be running well today but tomorrow we may not run at all.

We need to learn to look away from all the things in our environment, look away from our failures in the past, and look away even from our good experiences, so that we may freshly run the race with endurance and gain more Christ (Acts 7:55-56)!

Even our good experiences of Christ can frustrate us from going on with the Lord and running the Christian race, for we may be content and complacent with what we have.

We all need to run the race with endurance, looking away from anything else unto Jesus.

The Apostle Paul was a pattern in this matter. He had much experience in the Lord and he had a very good background in Judaism, but he testified that he put all these aside, for he was stretching forward to gain Christ.

He did experience Christ and he had much knowledge of the Lord, but he did not allow anything to distract him or frustrate him from enjoying Christ to the uttermost.

We need to pay attention to the Lord Jesus, not to the things in our environment.

We need to look away from any distracting thing to Him. He is the Author of our faith, and He will also perfect our faith.

As we look away unto Jesus, He initiates faith, He leads us in our faith, we follow in His footsteps in the faith, and He also perfects our faith.

Lord Jesus, we want to run the Christian race by looking away unto Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith! Oh Lord Jesus, we love You and we focus only on You. You are our goal. You are our focus. You are our everything. We look away from anything else unto You. Amen, Lord, we want to focus on You with undivided attention. We forget about our failures and mistakes. We do not want to linger in our successes or good experiences of Christ. We simply want to stretch forward to gain Christ! Amen, Lord, You are the Author and Perfecter of our faith. You initiated our faith and You will also perfect it. We want to follow in Your footsteps by looking away unto Jesus with undivided attention. We do not want to stand here considering and looking around. We turn to You. We turn away to You. We turn from all earthly things, from our religion, and from the things in our environment and look away unto Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our Faith!

Look away unto Jesus, the Author, Originator, Leader, Pioneer, Forerunner, and Perfecter of our Faith!

In the Old Testament the saints were only witnesses of faith, but we today have faith, for we have Jesus as the Author and Perfecter of our faith.

He is the Author of our faith; this implies that He is the Originator, Inaugurator, Leader, Pioneer, and Forerunner of our faith.

Also, He is the Perfecter of our faith.

In ourselves and according to our natural man, we have no believing ability.

The people in the world wonder about us how we can believe, for in them there’s no believing ability.

The believing ability, the faith, is not of us but of the Lord.

The faith by which we are saved is the precious faith that we have received from the Lord (2 Pet. 1:1).

When we look unto Jesus, when we hear the gospel and our heart turns to the Lord, He as the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45) transfuses us with Himself, with His believing element.

We simply need to look to Jesus and behold Him; when we see Him, we are infused with Him, and faith simply rises up in us.

Spontaneously, as we look unto Jesus, a kind of believing arises in our being, and we have the faith to believe in Him.

This is not of us; we don’t make up faith nor do we build up faith in and of ourselves but rather, we look away unto Jesus and He initiates our faith.

Christ imparts Himself as the believing element into us so that He may believe for us. He becomes our faith.

We believe simply by being infused with Christ as our faith, and we live Him as our faith, even live by His faith (Gal. 2:20; Heb. 2:10), not by our own. Hallelujah!

He is the Author and Originator of faith in His life and in His path on earth.

When we read the Gospels we see that the Lord Jesus lived a life of faith, and the path He walked was a path of faith.

He originated faith; He is the Author of faith.

He is also the Pioneer and Forerunner of faith, for in His life and living on earth He cut the way of faith.

The Gospels show us so many cases and situations in which there were many obstacles in the Lord’s way, and He had to cut the way of faith and walk on the pathway of faith.

Wherever He went, it seemed that there was a mountain or a river frustrating Him.

But again and again, step after step, Christ cut the way of faith.

He closed the gaps and removed the mountains like the builder of a highway; He cut the way of faith and was the Pioneer and Forerunner on the pathway of faith.

He became the Leader of our faith, even the Captain of faith.

He cut the way of faith, walked on the way of faith, and now He leads us to walk in the same way today.

He succeeded and was approved and received by God in everything He did, for He walked by faith and lived by faith.

Now as the Captain of faith, Christ can carry us through the pathway of faith in His footsteps.

We walk in the same footsteps of the Lord’s faith, following Him in spirit and by faith.

We do this by looking away unto Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith.

We read the Bible and exercise our spirit to look away unto Jesus, and faith is infused into us.

The more we look away unto Jesus, the more we are infused with Him as our faith.

As we look unto Jesus as the Originator of faith, faith rises up in us.

He as the Perfecter of our faith is in His glory and on His throne in the heaven, and as we look away unto Jesus, He transfuses us with faith and infuses us with the faith that He has originated and perfected.

We all can testify that simply by turning to the Lord again and again, we are strengthened and encouraged to continue running the Christian race.

If we don’t have the Lord Jesus, we will give up.

When we don’t set our eyes on Him, it is so hard to run the race.

It is actually impossible to run the race unless we look away unto Jesus!

God has put something into our being that becomes our faith, and we need to keep looking away unto Jesus to gain more of Him as our faith.

Eph. 2:8 says that the faith through which we were saved is not of ourselves; it is the gift of God.

We need to keep receiving this gift by looking away unto Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith.

The more we look away unto Him, the more we’re infused with HIm as our faith, and we can run with endurance the Christian race.

We run this race not by our faith but by the faith of the Son of God, who has been infused into us and has become our faith.

Lord Jesus, we look away unto You to run the Christian race today. We do not have faith in ourselves, Lord, but we come to You and look away from anything else unto You! Infuse us with Yourself as faith. Transfuse faith into our being. Become our faith. Oh Lord, we take You as our faith, for You in us can believe and does believe. Amen, Lord, we look away unto You from everything else! You are the Author of our faith, and You are the Pioneer and Forerunner of faith. We look into Your wonderful face and we believe into You! Thank You, Lord, for cutting the pathway of faith. Thank You for being the Leader and Captain of faith. Lead us in Your footsteps today on the pathway of faith. Amen, Lord, we want to live by faith, by Your faith in us! Perfect our faith. Increase our faith. Keep us running the Christian race by looking way unto Jesus, the Author, Originator, Inaugurator, Leader, Pioneer, Forerunner, and Perfecter of our faith!

Read this article in the Romanian language – citiți acest articol și în limba română via următorul link, Alergăm cursa privind țintă la Isus, Autorul, Conducătorul și Desăvârșitorul credinței.

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by the brothers in the message for this week, and portions from, Life-study of 2 Timothy, msg. 7, by Witness Lee, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Fighting the Good Fight, Finishing the Course, Keeping the Faith, and Loving the Lord’s Appearing in Order to Receive the Reward of Christ as the Crown of Righteousness (2023 ICSC), week 2, Finishing the Course.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – There’s a race for us to run—Hallelujah, / And a way for us the race to win. / To all those who have begun—Hallelujah, / God has spoken, “Look away to Him!” / Look away! O look away! / Look to Jesus now today! / Look away from everything unto Jesus, / Look away from everything to Him! (Hymns #1206 stanza 1 and chorus)
  – Press on, press on toward the goal— / The all-inclusive Christ. / To gain the prize of God’s high call, / Press on, press on to Christ! / Pressing on! Pressing on! / Pressing on! Hallelujah for the prize / We’re pressing on! On and on! / To gain the Christ of God! (Hymns #1205 stanza 1 and chorus)
  – O soul, are you weary and troubled? / No light in the darkness you see? / There’s light for a look at the Savior, / And life more abundant and free. / Turn your eyes upon Jesus, / Look full in His wonderful face, / And the things of earth will grow strangely dim, / In the light of His glory and grace. (Hymns #645 stanza 1 and chorus)