Paul's last words used as the measure of a finished life. Neville sets them beside the one thing no one can tell him - the time of his own departure - so the sentence works as a test applied in advance rather than as a boast made at the end. The race is the series of events; the faith kept is the faith of Abraham, not a doctrine; and the fight is the telling of a vision to people unwilling to receive it. That is where the instruction attached to the verse comes in: you cannot share your vision with someone who will not share it with you, but you tell it anyway, and you go on telling it to the end of your earthly days, because you are making your departure.