lose its glamour and be discarded—it is of no permanent value. In considering your own Easter aspiration, it would be profitable for you to turn to that of the Apostle Paul as found in the third chapter of Philippians and give God a chance to speak from the printed page to your soul. Here Paul is talking about the religious life as he says, “ Though I might also have confidence in the flesh. If any man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more.” Paul understood perfectly the viewpoint of the worldly wise—he had once shared that viewpoint. He was a man who had a rich heritage; he possessed position and attained a brilliancy of scholar ship. Of himself he wrote, “ Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee.” We read on in the sixth verse, “ Concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.” Paul could boast of all these things. Just here let us ask ourselves the question, “ In what do we boast?” Paul counted these possessions with pride until he experienced an intellectual and spiritual revelation. As a result he could say, “ But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ” (vs. 7). The picture has changed—he counts things now for Christ’s sake. This becomes his new standard of value; the new reason for fife. Christ has stepped between Paul and his old ideals. It is far. better to discover our mis takes and correct them now than later. Look at Paul as he changes his ledger heading from “profit” to “ loss”— are you sure that you have the right word at the top of the ledger of your life? Thus, then, has Paul taken his stand and he continues on solid ground as he says, “ Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ” (vs. 8). Paul has chosen his life! Having weighed carefully the “ all things” beside Christ, he has come to the same conclusion as expressed by Christ when He said, “What shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?” Let us not forget that humanly and materially Paul had lost the “ all things.” He said he was not sorry at that for he had gained Christ. Instantly the world asks, “What is it to gain Christ?” Here Paul’s Easter aspiration bursts forth in all its beauty as the question is answered. He says, “And be found in him, not having mine own right eousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith” (vs. 9). There are three kinds of righteousness, and only three. There is legal righteousness, self-righteousness, and God’s holy righteousness. God holds no part with the first two which form the thinking of the average man and woman on the street; they are moralists. They will tell you, “ as long as I do the best I know how, pay my bills . . . I am sure such righteousness will be acceptable to God.” Paul sums it up for us in Romans 10:3 when he says, “ For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.” Does that perchance describe you? Paul continues in the tenth verse, “ That I may know APRIL, 1961
him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellow ship of his sufferings. In all honesty, do you know Him through a distinct Easter knowledge and an appropriate Easter experience? There are three specific ways in which Paul aspires to know Him. First, ‘in the power of his resurrection.” If he could realize, to the fullest extent of the term, the meaning of the empty tomb, then he would have an understanding of the unlimited power of Almighty God. Understanding the power of the resurrected Lord, he would understand the power of Calvary’s Cross. The second phase Paul wishes to possess is “ the fellow ship of his sufferings.” Paul aspires to the fellowship of, or participation in, His sufferings at all points. Then Paul adds one more portion to his desire; he says, “ Being made conformable unto his death” or being con formed to His death. Let us turn to Paul’s statement in Galatians 2:20, “ I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me, and gave himself for me.” He suffered when Christ suffered; he died when Christ died; he lives when Christ lives. Those were Paul’s Easter aspirations— do they lie in the depths of your soul? Are you exercising the faith which He put into your breast? Has your life of fear given place to the victory of certainty? How pathetic that the true significance of Easter should be lost under the debris of the superficial, thus robbing the soul of that which Easter really brings in the risen Saviour. Could it be possible that you are finding yourself some what in the position of those dear ones of long ago on that first Easter as they met the risen Christ? Let us glance back at Mary Magdalene. She is weep ing at the tomb, sobbing out the words, “ They have taken away my Lord and I know not where they have laid him.” Many a poor woman, rescued from the depths of iniquity might look into the empty tomb and never see the Christ until, by faith, she would meet Him in the garden. There He would call her by name as He called Mary. Then there were the women who went to the tomb, weary because of their failure in searching for Him. Suddenly their spirits were quickened when they heard Him say, “ All hail.” Are you, too, worshipping Him? Impetuous Peter looms large in the picture—Peter who denied his Lord! The Lord said, “ Go tell my disciples and Peter.” He did not forget then—He has remembered and forgiven you now. You are still one of His own. Two disciples were walking on the road to Emmaus; their hearts burning within them as He expounded the Gospel to them. W ill you, as did they, do something about the Gospel that you have heard? Doubting Thomas of the intellectual world could not believe without proof. Christ has slipped into the room and calling you by name has said, in effect, “ Come, you have been doubting long enough, reach hither your hand and be not faithless but believe.” How patient is Almighty God. We know the Easter garments will fade, they will grow old and be discarded —Oh, that we might be clothed in the righteousness which comes only from our God! 11
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