The philosopher, Blaise Pascal, spoke of a God-shaped vacuum in every human heart that could only be filled by knowing Christ. The message for Sunday, March 21st is based on Philippians 3:8-14, in which we gain perspective on the Apostle Paul’s life focus, i.e. knowing Christ Jesus intimately and personally. From this passage we learn from Paul’s example how to cultivate our relationship with Christ by 1) prioritizing the present, not allowing the competing demands of our daily routine to take precedence over abiding in Christ’s presence; 2) refusing to be bound by our past, neither wallowing in past defeat, nor resting on our past laurels; and 3) envisioning a victorious future, living for Christ today with our ultimate heavenly reward in view.
As we cultivate this personal relationship with Christ, we do so from the perspective that we are already completely loved and fully accepted by God, “not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ….” This is good news for us since right standing with God is nothing that we can earn by our own good works, nor is it anything we deserve, having been born with a sin nature inherited from our first parents, Adam and Eve. God bestows right standing on us as a free gift, based on Jesus’ sacrificial death on the cross, through which His precious blood paid for the sins of all humanity once and for all; and His subsequent resurrection from the dead on Easter Sunday, through which Jesus won a decisive victory over sin, death, and the powers of evil. For more about the implications of this life vision, listen to the audio file of this message.