Regardless of what you think of horse racing, gambling and the Melbourne cup, a legend of the industry is Bart Cummings. When Bart was asked what makes a winner he matter-of-factly replied, “It’s a horse that wins a race!” A winner is able to win. The person who was interviewing him at the time was able to tease out from him that breeding mattered and that two of his Melbourne Cup winners were chosen when only one year old whilst running around the paddock.
Unlike the Melbourne Cup, or any horse race for that matter, thankfully, there can be many winners in the race of life. Whilst salvation and eternal life are not based upon our ‘birth into any earthly family’, nor is it based on ‘what school we attended’, it does matter if you have Jesus as your brother and God as your Father.
It was Jesus who said that we must be born again if we are to receive the ultimate prize of eternal life. A born-again person is someone, anyone, who, recognizing their need for pardon, responds humbly to Jesus Christ by accepting Him as Saviour and enthroning Him as their Lord. Having been born again, we are to run the race by following Jesus all our days. Victory is assured because Jesus has run the race perfectly. He promises the Crown of Life to those who love and trust Him.
It really is a simple matter of ‘backing the right horse’. The reality is that there is only one person worth investing our life in. He will not let us down because He has been raised from death, never to die again. There is no gamble in placing our trust in Jesus because the events of the cross are a historical reality. In fact, not to put our money on Him is to take an enormous gamble, which is doomed to failure.
One wise man wrote, “Upon a life I did not live, upon a death I did not die, another’s life, another’s death I stake my whole eternity”. How wonderful that by sending His Son to be our Saviour, God has removed all the guesswork from life and death. He is very kind. And by the way, there are no each-way bets allowed or necessary. After all, there is no sense in backing proven losers!