What is your mind-set as you come out of the Christmas season and head into the New Year?
Consider this: We should come out of Christmas, not exhausted and deeper in debt, but with an invigorated vison of Christ’s victory over the serpent, and more resolved to carry the fight
against the enemies of God and His people.
Why do we need this intensified resolve? Because the unstoppable advance of God’s kingdom does not come without struggle. We need to recognize this and be more zealous in our engagement in the battle as we fight the good fight. Christ has won the ultimate victory through His work at the cross and in His resurrection from the dead, and we are His soldiers in the battles that still rage until His glorious return to consummate the Kingdom. T. M. Moore writes:
“Christ has won the victory; soon He will win the last battle… This is certain. But we
must fight that battle daily in each of our lives, recalling, as Christmas leads us to do,
that the Child-King of Bethlehem has become the Almighty Emperor of the worlds who
will never fail us nor forsake us as we go forth in His name.”
“…as we go forth in His name.” Or, as Paul would say in Philippians 3:14: as we “press on
toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” What is this prize?
Well, we notice that the “prize” involves the “call of God.” What is that call?
Romans 8:28–30 tells us what the call is, and what the prize is:
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those
who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also
predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the
firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those
whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.
The call is according to God’s purpose. The prize is glorification. The prize is conformity to
the image of Christ. The prize is that we get to be like Jesus. This is the prize for which we
press on.
Can we make ourselves like Jesus? NO! Can we press on toward this “upward call”? YES! We pray, we study, we read the Bible, we fellowship with each other, we confess sin, we forgive each other, we listen to sermons, we read good theological books, we partake of the Lord’s Supper, we persevere in tribulation, we fight the good fight of faith, and all the other things that God instructs His people to do.
In other words, pressing on involves doing what we can do, and then trusting God to do what
only He can do – sanctify us and transform us into the image of His Son. This is what a disciple of Christ does. This is what one who is truly saved does. And this is where Paul Tautges’s definition of a disciple is so instructive:
“A disciple of Jesus Christ is one who is committed to a lifelong process of growing in
obedience to His Master’s commands [i.e., a lifelong process of “pressing on”] and, by
doing so, becomes like Him.”
And at the end of the road of ever-increasing sanctification, the prize of glorification awaits us. And coming with that longed-for prize are other glorious blessings: everlasting life, heavenly rewards, eternal rest, new heavens and new earth, perfect righteousness, no sin, no crying, no pain, no curse, and GOD HIMSELF!
So press on, dear church family! Unimaginable joys await you!
May God’s amazing grace abound to you in 2023!
Pressing on with you, with our eyes fixed on Jesus,
Pastor Butch
