Men's Devotional Bible
Finish Lines
Recommended Reading: 2 Samuel 22:32—23:5; Colossians 2:6–15; 2 Timothy 4:1–8; Hebrews 12:1–2
Climb inside the mind of a guy who has qualified to run the Boston marathon for the first time. Listen to his thoughts.
He’s run this race countless times in his mind and has run hundreds of miles in training. He’s completed other marathons in his attempt to qualify for this one. But none of those other races resemble even one mile of this race—one of the largest in the world. The 26.2-mile course takes him way outside the city, and the paved running surface harbors all kinds of potential hazards. As he passes mile marker after mile marker, every change in elevation and terrain brings new challenges.
Even though there are people at the roadside water stations to refresh his body and crowds of individuals (including other runners) cheering to revive his spirit with their encouragement, it’s still just him out there—just his two legs and two arms pumping, feet burning with heat and effort in the April sunshine. While he hasn’t actually run this course before, his effort has one thing in common with all the other running and racing he’s done: the pain and the finish line.
Ah, the finish line! It makes all the pain bearable. As he expends every last ounce of strength, a surge of joy fills his heart, making the challenge of the race and all the pain it took to get there absolutely worth the effort. Bucket list goal: check.
Jesus understood that intense drive to finish. With one of his last breaths, he cried out, “It is finished” (John 19:30). In the original language of the New Testament, that’s a one-word exclamation: “Done!”
Jesus had joined the human race for a very special and specific reason—to finish God’s plan to provide forgiveness, salvation and eternal life for a fallen humanity. When Jesus shouted “Finished!” he was declaring that he had endured the judgment of sin on behalf of all humankind. He’d crossed the finish line for each of us. In order to finish, he had to seal the arrangement with his life.
The cross represented the last hours in a long race marked out for Jesus. Even though he knew exactly how the race would end—with his sacrificial death—he still ran. Even though he had his disciples around him to provide companionship and support, not one of them knew exactly what he was going through in his final hours.
Jesus knew that he’d experience excruciating pain. He knew that many would never accept his sacrifice, but he also knew that many would, and for us he ran. And he finished. For this we’ll spend eternity in grateful appreciation.
To Take Away
- Do you see your life as a race? Why? How would you describe your progress so far?
- When you think of Jesus dying on your behalf on the cross, how does it make you feel? What effect does this reality have on your daily life?
- How can Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross motivate you to run the race God sets out before you?