He will render to each one according to his works: to those who by perseverance in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. (Romans 2:6-8, ESV)
Scottie Scheffler stood on the platform and cried. There he was in all his glory, proud yet humble, having finished nine under for the day after winning the gold medal at the 2024 Olympics. Scottie was proud that he had won for his country yet humble before the God he chose to honor.
After defeating Tommy Fleetwood of England by one shot and Hideki Matsuyama of Japan by two, he stood with his hand over his heart, singing the national anthem with tears in his eyes and quivering lips.
He wasn’t crying because he had won staggering amounts of money or uncharacteristically emotional because he had beaten the world’s best golfers. He was fighting off tears because he had honored the nation he loved with extraordinary play. He had competed for something significantly more important than himself: “glory, honor, and immortality.”
Forty-plus years ago, the world was introduced to another Olympian, Eric Liddell, through the Oscar-winning movie Chariots of Fire. Many poignant scenes captivated our hearts on the big screen, not the least of which was Eric getting knocked down early in the 400M, only to rise, catch the other runners, and win with head back and arms flailing.
Eric was torn between running in the Olympics and going to China as a missionary. His well-meaning sister tugged at him to forget track and field, and his friend and manager suggested he forget China. He chose to seek advice from his father, a Presbyterian minister.
In this pivotal moment, the dad, in Solomonic wisdom, said, “Eric, you can praise God by peeling a spud [potato] if you peel it perfectly…run in God’s name.” By this, he meant one doesn’t have to be a “man of the cloth” to honor God.
Eric Liddell could honor God by running and becoming a missionary. As is well known by now, he did both. One hundred years ago, at the 1924 Olympics in Paris, Eric won the gold medal in the 400-meter race. Years later, Eric would die as a missionary in a Chinese prison camp, malnourished and neglected, five months before liberation.
Eric’s dad counseled his son that honoring God is a matter of doing one’s best for the glory of God with the gifts one has. In his case, running fast was a gift God had endowed Eric with. God had also called him to the foreign mission field.
For those who know this story, Eric was fond of saying, “When I run, I feel his pleasure.” Eric Liddell and Scottie Scheffler have discovered something that many inside and outside the Christian faith have failed to realize: Just like any parent standing on the sidelines of their kid’s sporting event, The Father is rooting for his kids with unimaginable joy and pride.
Most of us are not called to be foreign missionaries or Olympic champions like Eric and Scottie, but we are all commissioned to shine as lights in whatever arena we are called. Ours is a derivative light! We shine as we reflect the glory of God we experience in our communion with Christ.
Paul is not suggesting that God redeems us through our efforts in seeking glory, honor, and immortality. That would contradict everything he teaches in Romans and elsewhere.
He distinguishes between those who have placed their faith in Christ and consequently endeavor to seek the glory, honor, and immortality that will be awarded to them at Christ’s arrival over and against those who are self-seeking, disobedient, and unrighteous.
The first will be awarded “eternal life,” and the latter, “wrath and fury.”
The stakes couldn’t be any higher!
Prayer: Father! Anticipating the victor’s wreath that awaits those who follow Christ, we chase “glory, honor, and immortality.”