When Paul speaks about running the race to obtain the Prize, is he talking about the Prize of Salvation, or a prize which is a reward for deeds?
See 1 Cor. 9:24-27. "The prize" being here identified Is a "crown" and is not Salvation. A crown is a reward.
See Phil. 3:12-13 where Paul says he has "not obtained the prize." Is that supposed to mean he has not obtained Salvation? No. It means he has not obtained the reward for Godly service.
People constantly in error confuse Salvation with Discipleship. These people are known as Lordship preachers and Calvinists. We can pray for and help them.
Here’s one you and some others missed, by Paul:
Paul says he has to subjugate his flesh daily, lest after preaching salvation to others, he end up a castaway.
1Co 9:27 But I keep under my body, and bring itinto subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a CASTAWAY.
The word castaway is ADOKIMOS in the Greek - reprobate - castaway and rejected by God.
G96 (Strong)
ἀδόκιμος
adokimos
ad-ok'-ee-mos
From G1 (as a negative particle) and G1384;
unapproved, that is, rejected; by implication worthless(literally or morally): - castaway, rejected, reprobate.
Total KJV occurrences: 8
Paul said he could end up a reprobate if he didn’t subjugate his flesh with its sinful desires, daily.
Albert Barnes exegetes the verse:
“The simple idea of Paul is, that he was afraid that he should be disapproved, rejected, cast off; that it would appear, after all, that he had no religion,
and would then be cast away as unfit to enter into heaven”.
John Wesley also exegetes 1 Corinthians 9:27:
This single text may give us a just notion of the scriptural doctrine of election and reprobation; and clearly shows us,
that particular persons are not in holy writ represented as elected absolutely and unconditionally to eternal life, or predestinated absolutely and unconditionally to eternal death; but that believers in general are elected to enjoy the Christian privileges on earth; which if they abuse, those very elect persons will become reprobate. St. Paul was certainly an elect person, if ever there was one; and yet he declares it was possible he himself might become a reprobate. Nay, he actually would have become such, if he had not thus kept his body under, even though he had been so long an elect person, a Christian, and an apostle.
Paul said he could end up a reprobate if he didn’t subjugate his flesh with its sinful desires, daily.
By subjugation of his body, Paul refers to the flesh, the fleshly desire to sin, i e, commit works of the flesh, as seen in another of Paul’s warnings to the saints, to the brethren against being DECEIVED:
Gal 5:16 This - I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.
Gal 5:17 For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.
Gal 5:18 But IF ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.
Gal 5:19 Now the WORKS OF THE FLESH are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
Gal 5:20 Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,
Gal 5:21 Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell YOU again, as I have also told YOU in time past, that they which DO such things shall NOT inherit the kingdom of God.
Then there’s one more text from Paul that ties in with the 1 Corinthians 9:7 text about being a castaway/reprobate:
In
1 Corinthians 15, Paul says they had heard him preach the gospel, had received it, and stand in it, and they are saved:
1Co 15:1 Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand;
1Co 15:2 By which also
ye are saved,
EXCEPT.
Paul’s words make their salvation conditional, by warning them that though they’d heard the gospel, received it, stand in it, and ARE SAVED, that they can end up believing IN VAIN, ifthey don’t keep in mind all that he taught them:
1Co 15:1 Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand;
1Co 15:2 By which also ye are saved, IFye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have BELIEVED IN VAIN.
What was it that Paul taught them that they had to keep in memory that he had preached to them, that can affect their salvation, and cause their receiving the gospel, standing in it, and being saved, to be IN VAIN?
He taught them that he has to control and subjugate his flesh daily, lest after preaching to others, he himself would end up a CASTAWAY - adokimos in the Greek. - a reprobate (rejected by God as one that failed the test), as was just covered in this comment.
And Paul warned the church to examine themselves, whether they remain in the faith, or are reprobates:
2Co 13:5 Examine yourselves,
whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you,
except ye be reprobates?
