With foot-racers there is a prize offered likewise, but it is not the prize that is hung out to their view while on the race-course; it is not the prize toward which they run, but the mark. There is the quarter-mile mark, the half-mile mark, the three-quarter-mile mark, and the mile mark at the close of the race; and each racer watches for and encourages himself as he passes one or another of these marks by the way, until finally he reaches the last one, the mark for the prize. And this watching of the marks by the way, and reckoning up to the standard, is a great incentive to him – an encouragement as he speeds along, a reminder if he is going slackly. So, too, it is with the Christian runner in the narrow way toward the mark of the great prize which God has promised – joint-heirship with his Son, the Lord of glory. It will encourage us to note the marks on our way, and to perceive our progress – if we are coming nearer and nearer and nearer to “the mark for the prize” – the mark which wins the prize. And if any be careless, indifferent, slack, in his running, nothing could be a greater stimulus to him than the knowledge that only his own carelessness or slackness can lose him the prize.

WHAT IS THIS GREAT “MARK” OF CHARACTER SET BEFORE US BY OUR GOD?

We answer, it is stated under various names; as for instance, our Lord Jesus mentioned it when he said, “Be ye perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.” (Matt. 5:48.) The same mark is mentioned by the Apostle when he says that God predestinated that all who will be of the elect must be “conformed to the image of his Son.” (Rom. 8:29.) These two statements differ in form, but are the same in substance. The same mark is mentioned again by the Apostle when he says, “The righteousness of the Law is fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit.” And again, he tells us that “Love is the fulfilling of the Law.” (Rom. 8:4; 13:10.)

Here, then, we have an aggregated definition of what constitutes the “mark” of Christian character, in the elect: it is godlikeness, Christ-likeness, Love. The requirement, therefore, would seem to be that the Lord’s people, holy and elect, must attain to the same character or disposition of love that God possesses and that was manifested also by our Lord Jesus.

But someone will say,

How can we, “who by nature are children of wrath, even as others,” ever hope to attain to so high a standard or mark of character as this, that we should love as God loves, as Christ loves?

We answer, that we need never hope to attain to this high standard as respects the flesh, for so long as we are in these mortal bodies, and obliged to use their brains, we will necessarily be more or less opposed by the selfishness which through the fall has come to have such complete possession of our race through the mental, moral and physical derangements incidental to six thousand years of depravity.

The attainment of this mark of perfect love is to be an attainment of the heart, of the will – the new will, “begotten, not of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God,” through the holy spirit. Nor do we find, nor should we expect that the new mind would come up to this standard at the beginning of our Christian experience. The new mind, although inspired of God through the exceeding great and precious promises of his Word, is nevertheless our own will, and more or less circumscribed by its channel and instrument, the human brain. Hence the Apostle informs us that the new mind must constantly fight a battle against the flesh, and that its victory means the death of the flesh – that it cannot be actually perfect until the “change” shall come, by which this newly begotten will shall receive its spiritual body in the first resurrection. But since the receiving of a spiritual body in the first resurrection will be the receiving of the prize, we see that the race toward the mark and the attainment of that mark must be made by the new mind while it is still in this mortal body or “earthen vessel.” – 2 Cor. 5:2-4.

In a word, the new mind must grow, must develop. As the Apostle exhorts, we, as new creatures, must grow in grace and in the knowledge and love of God – the growth here corresponding to the running in the figure under consideration. We must run or press nearer and nearer to the mark day by day, week by week, year by year, until it shall be attained, – if we would gain the prize. Nor is it merely a question of time, for we all know some who have been a long time in the race and have made comparatively little progress in the cultivation of the gifts of the spirit, the sum of which is comprehended in the one-word, perfect love – the mark.

And we probably all know some others who have been a comparatively short time in the narrow way who have made great progress, – going from grace to grace, from knowledge to knowledge, from glory to glory – rapidly nearing the mark. And we know some who, so far as human judgment can discern, have reached the mark; but of these more anon.

We continue with our next post.