The Rat Race Risk

The Rat Race Risk
“Again I saw that under the sun the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to  the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favor to those with knowledge, but time and chance happen to them all.”  Ecclesiastes 9:11

Here we have the idea of the “rat race” mentioned in Ecclesiastes; we are told that life is not about being the fastest or the strongest or the wisest or the smartest, for in the end “time and chance” catches up with everyone. Though the author of Ecclesiastes is not suggesting that everything in the world is left to chance, for the Lord is certainly sovereign over all time (cf. 3:11), he is reminding us that no one knows what is going to happen tomorrow, and that death may come for us at any moment. And when death comes, it will not matter who was the fastest or strongest or wisest or smartest; these things will not carry over into eternity. To buy into the “rat race” is to risk losing eternity.
 
This is the exact same message Paul is attempting to convey in Philippians 3:7-16. None of the credentials or achievements that we try to use to create our own righteousness will ever be good enough to earn right standing with God. However, the good news is that righteousness is available to us, the righteousness of Christ that we receive by faith when we turn from our incomplete works to his completed work of death and resurrection on our behalf. When we turn to him we have no reason to fear death, for he has already defeated it, and upon death we will enter into the presence of the Lord for all of eternity, because when he looks at us he will see us only through the lens of Christ’s righteousness.