Objection 20

From Sovereign Grace and the Scope of Election: A Comparative Examination of Attainment Theology and Grace Theology, with Particular Attention to the Question of Whether God's Elect Are Found Among All Nations and Religions

1 Corinthians 9:27, even Paul feared becoming "a castaway.

The word is adokimos, disapproved, disqualified, and the metaphor Paul is running (literally) is the Isthmian games: a crown, a race, a prize for service. A disqualified runner is not executed; he loses the wreath. Paul disciplines his body lest, having preached to others, he be disqualified from the reward and usefulness of his ministry. Verses 24-25 are explicitly about prizes and crowns, never about the gift of eternal life, which is "not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth" (Romans 9:16). Rewards for service differ; the inheritance does not (Colossians 3:24; 1 Corinthians 3:14-15, a man's work may burn, "but he himself shall be saved").