Readings for today: Philippians 1-4
“I press on to make (the righteousness that comes by faith) my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.” - Phil. 3:12
Years ago, some Mormon missionaries happened to come to my door. They wanted to talk about faith which I happily obliged. I let them know right up front that I was a Christian. I let them know I was headed into ministry. I wanted to make sure I didn’t waste their time. They told me they still wanted to talk so we sat down and began to compare notes on the differences between Christianity and Mormonism. We talked about what happens after we die. We talked about the Person of Jesus Christ. We talked about forgiveness of sin. Most of all, we talked about grace. I never will forget how they described it. “Grace”, they said, “is what God gives you after you’ve done all you can to live a good life. It’s what closes the gap between us and God after we’ve made every effort to obey His commands.” “That right there is the difference between our faiths”, I replied. “Grace for the Christian covers it all. We can do nothing to get any closer to God or move any farther away. God’s grace is what covers our lives from beginning to end and out of gratitude for God’s grace, we seek to obey Him.”
So many Christians today fall into one of two traps. Either they fall into the “works” trap, like my Mormon friends, thinking they can somehow earn their way to God or they fall into the “cheap grace” trap thinking nothing they do matters so why even try. The Apostle Paul shows us the better way. We “press on” towards righteousness, meaning we work as hard as we can to obey Christ and serve Christ and honor Christ with our lives. We take every thought captive to Christ. We run every feeling through the grid of our love for Christ. We evaluate every decision and every action through the lens of Christ. All that we say or do or feel or think must be submitted to His Lordship. At the same time, we acknowledge that the only reason we are able to “press on” is because Christ has already made us His own. Christ has already performed the work of righteousness for us. Christ has already done all that is necessary to fulfill the law of God. Therefore, our “pressing on” is not an attempt to win God’s already won favor but an act of gratitude for what He has already done on our behalf. We also recognize to not “press on” is to make a mockery of Christ’s sacrifice and we never want to cheapen His grace.
I love how the great Russian novelist and Christian believer, Leo Tolstoy, once described the Christian life. He wrote, “If I know the way home and am walking along it drunkenly, is it any less the right way because I am staggering from side to side?” In my experience, most Christians (including myself) seem to stagger from the side of works to the side of cheap grace and vice versa. Thankfully, it is Christ who keeps us on the road! It is Christ who keeps us on the way! It is Christ who promises to bring us home!
Readings for tomorrow: Philemon 1, Colossians 1-4