Let that sink in. Does this not typify the picture of the Christian life?
As I think about my Christian walk, I often feel
like a salmon swimming upstream or trying to walk up the down escalator. It is
an all-out effort in pursuit of a virtually impossible goal, and it takes every
ounce of strength.
The Christian life is all about pursuing a goal. You
can describe the goal in different terms: heaven, glory, holiness,
righteousness, etc.
Paul described it in Romans; God’s goal is for us to be conformed
to the likeness of His Son.
Romans
8:29-30 (MSG)
0 God knew what he was doing from the very beginning. He decided from the
outset to shape the lives of those who love him along the same lines as the
life of his Son. The Son stands first in the line of humanity he restored. We
see the original and intended shape of our lives there in him. After God made
that decision of what his children should be like, he followed it up by calling
people by name. After he called them by name, he set them on a solid basis with
himself. And then, after getting them established, he stayed with them to the
end, gloriously completing what he had begun.
Paul puts it in more practical terms in his letter
to the Ephesians: “For he chose us in him
before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight” (Ephesians 1:4 NIV).
God’s goal—and our goal—IS to become like Jesus Christ. The problem is everything in our
world contradicts that goal.
Paul is not saying to reject all the beauty and
goodness that we see around us. He’s not talking about physical things, such as
the beauty of a sunset, the grandeur of Lake Tahoe, the intricate design of a
single human cell, or the vastness of the universe. Nor is he calling us to
move away from the troubles of this world, hole up in a compound, build a
fence, buy a shotgun, and dare anyone to bother us.
What this is referring to is the organized system of
life that leaves God out. True worldliness means to buy into the notion that
this world is the only world there is or ever will be and it’s living as if
tomorrow will never come. Or to be more like the slogan; what happens in Vegas
stays in Vegas.
Romans
12:2 (NLT)
Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you
into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know
God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.
Here’s the quote from Alice Cooper:
Drinking
beer is easy. Trashing your hotel room is easy. But being a Christian, that’s a
tough call. That’s rebellion.
You want to be a true rebel against the status quo?
Become a disciple of Christ. Make him the Lord of your life. You’ll be going
against the flow every single day.
To pursue Christ-likeness while living in this world
is like swimming upstream against roaring rapids, jumping over waterfalls, and
fighting a constant, unending battle against a current that would inevitably
take us in the opposite direction. What is worse, not only do we have to
struggle against the current of the world; we also have to resist our natural
inclination toward sin.
Yes, this is a nearly perfect picture of the
Christian life. Unlike the salmon that must pursue and reach their goal, driven
only by instinct and gritty determination, we have One who lives in us and
empowers us daily. He has promised to complete the work He began in us.
I often find myself discouraged in my daily battle
against my own sin, against my own tendency to allow the stream to carry me
away from God. But God has begun a good work in me through His Son, Jesus Christ,
and He has promised to carry it on to completion. I continue to pursue Him out
of fear of disappointing Him, but mostly a fear of living in a world without
God. I was there and I do not want to go back.
When I finally reach the goal of Christ-likeness it
will not be because of my own will and determination, but because of His
faithfulness and grace.
“Being
confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to
completion until the day of Christ Jesus” Philippians
1:6 NIV.
Life is not a dress rehearsal. You will not get a second
chance or a “re-do” if you mess up your short time here on earth.
Two
decisions.
One
choice.
Where
will you spend eternity?
The
countdown to life.
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