Today's Passage: Philippians 3

This passage is such a humbling read.  I last read Philippians when I was on a day long hike and sabbatical at the Fort Worth Nature Reserve.  Verses 10-16 of this chapter are a great reminder to us believers of how we should view our salvation and relationship with Christ.

In verse 10 Paul says so plainly "I want to know Christ..." I want to go through everything He went through so that I may be blessed with the same gift of resurrection that He was.  How many of us are willing to stand up and say, I'll go through everything Jesus did to have eternal life?  Many people find it hard to confess their faith publicly much less go on trial for it. 

Then Paul sets his readers back on track with his statement "Not that I have already obtained all this (eternal life)..."  This is a hard fact to grasp but we have not obtained the gift of eternal life.  That only happens when our worldly bodies cease to go on.  Then we are granted life beyond this world.  Jesus has revealed this gift to us and promised it to those who follow Him.  So Paul says I can't lay hold of it yet but what I can do is "Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead..." 

Finally Paul challenges us with these words "All of us, then, who are mature should take such a view of things." It is not in our power to control or even earn God's gift of eternal life.  Our flesh makes it impossible to be who God desires us to be.  So we must accept that we will be flawed until the day we gain eternal life.  Then we will be made perfect through our Lord Jesus Christ.

By understanding the severity of our imperfection and living in obedience to God as a response to that imperfection.  We begin to live a more spiritually balances life.