The Joy of Being Found in Jesus

“And be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death; If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.”  Philippians 3:9-11

Considering his former life a waste, Paul was so grateful that Jesus came into his life, rem0ving all the sin, and gave him His righteousness.  Had Paul never met Christ, he would have been depending on his own righteousness by his “good” works to make him in right standing before God, but he now knew that good works could never satisfy the just demands of God.  He knew that it was only the righteousness of Christ which God would accept to make one holy before Him, and that righteousness could only come by faith in Christ.

The only way to know Christ is to believe in Him for one’s salvation, justification, and sanctification.  Trying to achieve these by one’s own righteousness is futile.  To really know something is to experience it for oneself.  Paul experienced the power of Christ’s resurrection by experiencing his own resurrection from a life live by good works to try and please God to allowing Christ to live through Paul filling him with Christ’s own righteousness, hope, and love for others.  He knew what it meant to suffer with and for Christ.  His life as an evangelist was wrought with persecution because he carried the name of Christ.  He understood why Jesus had to suffer and die for sin because sin is so egregious to God that no other way except the cross could pay the penalty.  Paul understood that Christ suffered and died for him.  When one’s eyes are opened to the truth that Christ died for him or her, there is nothing else to do but to repent of sin and place one’s faith in Jesus Christ.

We are made conformable, that is, brought into agreement or into harmony, by the death of Christ when we die to sin as Christ died for those sins.  When His body was crucified, His sacrifice made it possible for us to crucify the flesh of sin and corruption and receive a new life of righteousness and peace.  Paul considered his relationship with Christ and the promise of resurrection into heaven worth whatever suffering that he had to endure.  He was not meaning that his suffering would make him a citizen of heaven, but he rather meant that the promise of heaven because he had given his life to Christ was worth doing whatever Christ asked of him.  All of Paul’s work, travels, and hardships were in gratitude for his salvation, not an attempt to earn the blessings of God.

Paul understood that he was not perfect nor even had he become all that the Lord desired for him to be, but he determined to continue on in his desire to please the Lord in obedience, loyalty, and perseverance.  Even his time in prison could not deter him from his goal to complete all that he desired to do to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Jesus saved Paul for a purpose, and Paul was willing to complete his mission before the day when Jesus called him home.  He knew that his mission was not yet finished, and he knew that his life had not yet come full circle, from birth to death and eternity.  The goal of perfection in Christ would not be achieved until he crossed over into heaven, but, in the meantime, he would not give up his quest to accomplish all that he could while he still had breath.  He didn’t dwell on the past, on his life before conversion, on his sufferings as a believer and evangelist, nor on past achievements, but rather looked ahead to receiving more grace to continue winning souls and obeying Christ.

Paul wrote that he was pressing “toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus”.  Paul was a man of passion.  His work was not work because he loved his job and strove for excellence in it.  His ultimate goal was to reach heaven and receive the prize of being with Christ forever.  The goal of every believer is to reach heaven and bring as many along with us as we can.  Paul certainly met that goal.  There is no higher calling than of being called to be one of God’s children.  All the accolades and achievements in this life are nothing compared to receiving Christ as Lord and Savior.

If anyone ever wonders why most of my blogs include the fact that good works can never save one, but only repentance of sin and faith in Christ, it is first of all the truth, and secondly, I fear that the majority of people today believe that God will accept their good works as a substitute for receiving Christ as Lord and Savior.  Think about this for a moment:  how could even the best of good works ever take the place of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.  There is no comparison at all.  Sin is a horrendous insult to our holy God.  To be able to be forgiven of our sin resulted in Jesus shedding His blood on the cross to pay God’s required penalty for sin.  To repent and believe in Christ gives one the covering over of his or her sin by the blood of Christ thereby shielding believers from God’s wrath.  The person who presents his or her good works to God does not have Christ’s blood as a shield, thus his or her sins are still exposed and his or her offering of good works cannot be accepted by God.  As the gospel song says, “Nothing but the blood of Jesus”.