Our Life-Long Battle

“Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.” (Php 3:12 AV)

 

Grow is the objective.  Change is the goal.  Being more like Christ today than one was yesterday is at the top of every to-do list.  Paul wrote this towards the end of his life and not the beginning of his ministry.  As godly as he was, he felt he still had a long way to go.  Philippians is considered a prison epistle that was written during his first house arrest.  Five years later, Paul would succumb to a martyr’s death.  Paul had been in ministry for decades.  He had faced much adversity.  He had paid a great price to do that which the LORD asked.  Given all that, he still felt as though he had a long way to go.  And he didn’t stop pursuing the goal of Christlikeness. In Paul’s passionate pursuit of Christlikeness, he ascends to the fact Christ pursued him for that express purpose.  Fellowship is not the only purpose of God’s love.  It is also that He might transform the sinner into a person of perfect righteousness; just like Christ.  Therefore, if Christ loved Paul enough to pursue him that he might be converted, if follows that for Paul to love Christ in return is to submit to and pursue that conversion process.  It became his life’s passion.  There is a paradox here.  The reality is, that we will not reach perfection until our glorification.  In this life, we will always struggle against the flesh.  Hopefully, we win more than we lose.  So, the question arises, if we cannot reach absolute perfection until our complete transformation and glorification, why try?  Aren’t we fighting a war that cannot be won?

During my High School years, I took a lot of art classes.  The first class was an art appreciation class.  That is where you learn about the different periods and styles of art and some of the most famous artists who personify them.  You learn of abstract, realism, post-modern, etc.  The realists are my favorite.  As far as I am concerned, all other styles are scribbles or messes on canvas masquerading as something sophisticated.  Norman Rockwell, perhaps the greatest artist the U.S. has ever produced is called an illustrator rather than an artist.  What an insult!  At least when you looked at his work, you didn’t have to imagine what it represented.  The detail that he was capable of producing is second to none.  Norman Rockwell was my role model.  Our teachers required us to explore different mediums and different themes.  That was a good thing.  I learned to sculpt.  I learned to construct.  I learned the difference between pencil and ink drawings.  I painted with watercolors, acrylic, and oil.  I painted on all sorts of materials.  I even won third place in a state-wide art contest held by Buffalo Art Museum.  The thing is, I knew I would never be as good as Norman Rockwell.  Not even close!  No matter how good I could have been with a pencil drawing, they would be relegated to my mother’s refrigerator.  Did that stop me from trying?  No!  The adventure wasn’t so much in arriving as it was the struggle to get there.  It wasn’t the prize of third place that was most rewarding.  It was the painstakingly long hours I spent on my drawing that were most rewarding.  I knew Mr. Rockwell had nothing to fear from the likes of me.  But that didn’t stop me from trying.

The same could be said of our striving after Christlikeness.  We should not be discouraged that we will never reach perfect Christlikeness on this side of Jordan.  Not at all.  The fact we are striving for something that cannot be attained is a pleasure to the soul and a blessing to the Father.  It is a compliment we pay to the Savior who bought us with His own blood.  Striving after Christlikeness has a reward that cannot be experienced once permanent glorification is experienced.  When the Father finishes the conversion process, we will never again feel what it is like to win a victory against ourselves.  When we are like Christ, we will never know what it feels like to surrender to something which, in our hearts, we don’t want to do.  The sacrifice and surrender will be over.  The essence of Christlikeness found in the above-mentioned epistle will be a foregone conclusion.  Yielding to the wishes of God will become automatic without any struggle against it.  Don’t get me wrong.  I want that day so badly I pray for it every night.  I want to be completely and wholly transformed into the image of Christ.  I want the flesh completely defeated and destroyed.  I want to be exactly like my Savior so there is no possibility of failure.  I also know this will never be until the LORD calls me home. Until that day, I will strive to that end.  Why?  Because the battle has its own reward.  I will never be like Norman Rockwell.  But that didn’t stop me from learning to draw better.  I will never be perfectly Christlike on this side of glory.  But that is not going to stop me from trying!