June 30, a Summary for Life
However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace.
Acts 20:24
The Apostle Paul spoke these words in a farewell address to the elders of the church at Ephesus. Paul had enjoyed a lengthy span of ministry with these friends and co-laborers, and now shared and endearing departure with a powerful summary of His own life.
“I consider my life worth nothing to me.” Paul’s passion for the Gospel led him away from his treasured companions to opportunities that would prove to be very difficult, and he finished the course of his life strong because of this resolve made known in his final meeting with the Ephesian elders. Paul counted all in his life as loss, and he had much over which He could boast (Philippians 3:4-8). But Paul had long sense laid these life accomplishments aside, along with any benefit these accomplishments could have afforded him. He laid his comforts, dreams, and his own safety aside for a greater task than his personal pursuits.
“My only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me.” The above resolve became a reality in part because of Paul’s endurance. One of his favorite analogies of life was the example of athletic competition (particularly the Olympic type games very common in Paul’s culture). And Paul knew the value of living by faith as a runner would attend to a competition: enduring every step with a desire to finish well. In 2 Timothy 4:7, Paul summarized, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”
The resolve for Paul to finish well also came from His acknowledgement of Jesus as Lord: “to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me.” The Lordship of Christ was a common theme in Paul’s writings, and such references prove that Jesus could only be fully understood in His deity as God’s Son.[1] Therefore, for Paul, Jesus’ Lordship was the only motivation necessary to stay strong and finish well.
“The task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace.” Paul not only referenced the Gospel as the good news, but as the good news of God’s grace. He proclaimed the grace of God in life as much as he depended upon God’s grace in death. His public testimony was of God’s grace. He led others to this grace, and fiercely held accountable those who taught “another gospel” - those who erroneously held the law over grace. He saw in Christ Jesus the love and acceptance that fully demonstrated God’s nature. And Paul boasted in the cross of Jesus, and in the cross alone. Grace became the message of his ministry and the measure of his life.
Using the above three statements of Paul, how does your life measure? I can think of no greater summary to one’s life than this which Paul spoke:
I consider my life worth nothing to me.
My only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me.
The task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace.
So today, reconcile your life’s significance with the heart of our Lord Jesus and His mission in the world. Today, reconcile your life with the call to finish well. Today, reconcile your life with the gospel of grace: are you living in grace, and or you proclaiming that grace to others?
What a powerful summary for life!
Blessings.
READ
Read Acts 20:17-38 and be encouraged by Paul’s commitment to the Gospel of grace.
[1] Gordon D. Fee, Jesus the Lord According to Paul the Apostle.
