One Race
I have finished the race…2 Timothy 4:7
DNA research has compiled compelling evidence humanity is one race—the human race. Regardless of our many differences, we are more similar than we appear. We are more closely related than we may think. Even our languages can be traced back to just a few family groups. Which could explain why different cultures can share common histories.
DNA is passed from person to person by parents. Both the father and the mother contribute to their child’s individual DNA. The Y chromosome comes only from the father. Of the four men aboard the Ark, three received their Y chromosome from the same male—Noah. This implies that every male born since then can trace their Y chromosome back to Noah or one of his three sons: Shem, Ham or Japheth, Genesis 6:10. Similarly, all humans can trace their DNA back to the eight humans aboard the Ark. This makes us more related than most people think.
These similarities (and differences) allow DNA scientists to exclude other people as being related. And include those who are related. At the same time, DNA can identify a single person to the exclusion of millions, if not billions of other people. Even so, there remains a link back to only a few original contributors—only two; Adam and Eve. Therefore, there is only one human race.
There is another single race. The race of which Paul speaks in Acts 20:24 and 1 Corinthians 9:24 and Hebrews 12:1 and 2 Timothy 4:7: I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Could it be that Paul’s race is as different and as similar as his DNA is from Timothy or even you or I? Could the link be the faith?
Like DNA, we all who believe share the same faith. In this regard, our race is similar, but not identical. Though our race is different for each, faith is the tie that binds us together. Therefore, Paul’s counsel is profitable: But none of these things move me; nor do I count my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my race with joy…Acts 20:24. Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run is such a way that you may obtain it…1 Corinthians 9:24. Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us…Hebrews 12:1
Like our DNA, our ability to run with endurance the race set before each of us is a gift from God.
