A NOTE FROM PASTOR MARGE
For seven weeks this summer, we have studied some amazing heroes in the Bible, both men and women. We have looked at Elijah, Noah, Deborah, Esther, Daniel, Joshua, and the final hero we will look at is the man who wrote half of the New Testament, the apostle Paul. We first meet Paul as Saul of Tarsus and Saul looked more like a religious terrorist than a devout follower of Jesus Christ. For over three decades, Saul tried to systematically wipe out all of Christianity. But then Saul met Jesus Christ for the very first time on the road to Damascus and he was never the same again. After Paul’s conversion, the same zeal and single-minded dedication Paul had against Christianity transformed into a hyperactive quest to spread the Gospel worldwide. Paul embarked on five missionary journeys, he spread the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and he wrote half of the New Testament.
In A.D. 62, thirty years after the death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ, Paul writes a letter to the church in Philippi while he is in prison in Rome. Paul writes this letter for two reasons. One, he wants to encourage the Philippians in their faith and two, Paul is concerned about the Philippians’ continued progress in their faith. The Philippians are a people who are stuck on their list of accomplishments and achievements. They are stuck on their religious resumes. They were theologically confused because they were adding legalism on top of the Gospel. In other words, they believed that their own good works PLUS the finished work of Christ on the cross earned them salvation. So, the apostle Paul, who knows a thing or two about legalism (remember he was a Pharisee himself), wants to remind the Philippians of something about their resumes in regards to being a Christian.
Paul explains that our activity, our religious resumes, do not earn us a right standing with God but rather a right standing with God is given to us as a gift through faith in Jesus Christ. Unfortunately, the apostle Paul had to learn this the hard way because he had the perfect resume. Paul had political power (He was a part of the Sanhedrin), he had social power (He was a Roman citizen), he had religious power (he was a Pharisee), he had financial power (he was wealthy), he had educational power (he got a degree from Tarsus), and he had family power (he was of the tribe of Benjamin). Yet, Paul was willing to lay it all down to follow Jesus.
Paul teaches us that the call to follow Christ is the call to come and die; to not only surrender your sin but to surrender your resume as well. It is the call to take up your cross and follow Him because you think He is worth it, not because He is going to make your life better, but because He is better than life.
The good news for us is this: if God can take a Jesus hater, Christian killer, self-righteous Pharisee and transform him into one of the greatest disciples this world has
ever seen, then surely you are not too far gone from the outstretched arms of Christ. The call to follow Jesus is the call to come and die to yourself and to surrender to the cross of Christ so that you could be able to say, "I am crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me" (Galatians 2:20).
— Pastor Marge
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