I have been sharing some of my own story in this study, not as an example of a great Christian life, but from what I have learned being in pursuit of it. What we are addressing as “The Greatest Christian Life” is the life in pursuit of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus as the Apostle Paul described it. This is available to all who love the Lord more than anything else in this life and who esteem doing His will above anything they could possibly acquire for themselves.
As Paul wrote to the Philippians near the end of his life, he did not think he had yet attained this crown, but “this one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind, I press on toward the mark of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13-14). This was the focus of his life. As I have shared, I have at times been distracted from this focus, as many others likely have. But the greatest Christian life will be found in pursuit of this calling. If you have been distracted from it and are now drawn again into the greatest race of all, do not hesitate.
Two of the biggest traps for those who run the race for the high calling are pride and delusion. These will trip us up if we start to esteem ourselves better than others because we are doing more for the Lord, or if we begin to think we have attained to all we have been called to.
If the Apostle Paul, near the end of such an extraordinary and monumental life, did not consider that he had yet attained to this high calling, it is likely we cannot know if we have attained in this life. Those who do attain will be so lost in Christ that they are no longer focused on themselves and what they may be attaining. The higher we go in the pursuit of Him, the more we will forget about what we get and be devoted to seeing the Lord receive the reward of His sacrifice. This is the true Galatians 2:20 life, when, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.”
How would we live if every day our main pursuit was not what we could get out of it, but what could we do for Him?
