When You Need It (7)

Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Therefore let us, as many as are mature, have this mind; and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you. Nevertheless, to the degree that we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us be of the same mind. Philippians 3.12-16

The end of grace
Christians are who we are, and we do what we do, because we are responding to a call. God has called us to His Kingdom and glory, and He enables us by His grace to pursue that calling as our highest priority in life, the overarching and defining priority of every aspect of our lives (1 Thess. 2.12; Matt. 6.33; Phil. 2.13).

Paul refers to this as an “upward” call (v. 14). The sound of God’s voice lifts us above this temporal sphere into eternal corridors and spiritual resources, beckoning us to feast and grow strong on eternal truths. So strong is this upward call, that it allows us to forget everything we held so dear in our former life, before hearing this call, and to move forward consistently toward the Voice that calls us from His high and holy, heavenly realm.

The end of grace is Jesus Christ. The grace that enables us to exist, that has come to us with our great salvation, and that empowers us to serve, overcome, and bear witness, will carry us all the way to the very Presence of the embodiment of God’s grace, Jesus Christ the Righteous One. One day we will see Jesus face to face, and then we will be as like Him as each of us individually can be (1 Jn. 3.1-3). We will see His face in glory. We will experience the power of His cosmos-sustaining strength. We will be warmed in the light of His radiant eyes, cauterized and healed by the power of His two-edged Sword, and received to our seat at His right hand, at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. We will be one with Jesus and with the Father and the Spirit in an existence of glory and joy that we can barely imagine at this time. But as we fix our minds on this end of God’s grace (Col. 3.1-3), we move forward toward it day by day; and our sense of the reality and beauty and inevitability of that destination grows as we do, so that we increase in confidence and consistency in our journey toward Jesus.

Paul insisted that this work of pressing on toward the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus was the “one thing” to which he was devoted. For Paul, the end of grace was never out of sight. He allowed nothing to obscure it, distract Him from it, or compete with it. He looked to Jesus, considered Him day by day, kept the Lord always before his mind and foremost in his heart, and laid aside everything that hindered him from realizing more of the upward call of God’s grace.

And it was this grace, and this gazing upon the end of grace, that strengthened Paul to persevere through much adversity, and to increase in Jesus day by day (2 Cor. 4.6, 16-18).

The road of the upward call
One of my favorite book titles is Eugene Peterson’s, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction. It is a study of the life of discipleship, explaining the goals, means, trials, and progress we may expect along the way. The direction our discipleship is taking us is into Jesus, the end of God’s grace. That end is unchanging, and it is the same end for every true believer. The road on which we journey toward that end, however, is a long one – as long as our lives on earth. It is littered with obstacles, intersected with detours, fraught with dangers, invaded by brigands and con artists; yet it is clearly marked by the twin railings of the Word of God and indwelling Spirit of holiness.

We must not depart from that road, lest we find ourselves serving some end other than the grace of God. The key to remaining on that road is obedience, obedience to the vision and Word of Jesus Christ. Daily obedience, in all the small stuff and large matters of life. We make progress toward the end of grace as we embrace this journey and devote ourselves to it anew every day.

This, Paul insists, is the way of life that characterizes mature believers (Phil. 3.15). Grounded in grace, immersed in grace, seeking grace, aimed at grace, and growing in grace, mature believers take up their journey of discipleship afresh every day, determined that by day’s end they shall be just that much closer in their being transformed into the image of Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 3.12-18). We will not be perfect, and we will not attain the fullness of this upward call in this life (Phil. 3.12). But we must press on, persevere, and strain to continually hear the voice of grace as He leads us, step by step, toward our ultimate destination.

Make up your mind for grace
Make up your mind to know and live by the grace of God, and to strive toward the upward call of the grace that is in Jesus Christ (v. 15).

It won’t be easy. Life in pursuit of the upward call in Christ Jesus requires discipline. Paul says we must walk, but that word (στοιχεῖν, stoichein) implies living in conformity to expectations, following clear guidelines, and remaining within certain prescribed parameters of soul and body. When the eye of our heart – the desires we desire most, and which we embrace by faith – are for the grace that is in Jesus, then we’ll invest our minds in the task of understanding the life of grace. We’ll set in place in our consciences those priorities that enable us to make the most of our time; and we will deploy all our words and deeds as agents of grace along the highway of grace that leads to the end of grace in Christ Jesus.

It won’t be easy. But remember that, at the end of the journey, and on every step along the way in that long obedience, the nail-scarred hands of the King of grace reach out to sustain and receive you. Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in His glorious face. If you will make this the defining orientation of every moment of your life, your heart will never fail of love for Him, your mind will seek more about Jesus than you’ve ever known, and your life would show His grace to the world. The things of earth, that seem so important to us when we divert our gaze from our beautiful Savior, will grow strangely dim and unappealing, in the light of His glorious, all-surrounding, life-giving, sin-overcoming, soul-transforming, all-things-renewing, cosmos-reconciling…

grace.

For reflection
1. Why does Paul refer to our calling as “upward”? In what sense is Jesus the end of that calling?

2. Why is life toward the upward call a difficult road? How can we look to grace to help us along it?

3. What will it require of you for you to “press toward” the goal of grace day by day?

Next Steps – Transformation: What is hindering you in your journey toward the upward call of God in Christ Jesus? What can you do to remove these hindrances, so that you make steady progress in grace and toward grace?

This study is Part 4 of a series entitled “Grace for Your Time of Need.” You can download the seven lessons in this study by clicking here.

Grace flows from our relationship with Jesus Christ. The better we know Him, the more His grace will do its work in us. Our book, To Know Him, can help you in drawing closer to Jesus and increasing in Him. Order your copy by clicking here.

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Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.