What are we striving for?

"More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ..."
Philippians 3:8

Do you realize that within 60 years you will be in heaven? I believe often when we think about being in heaven we sort of imagine it as this nice place we'll get to some time in the distant future. However, when you think that it will be just a few short decades before we stand there before our Maker it really puts things in perspective. Suddenly, life seems a lot shorter, the days more important. We were put here for a purpose, and it was not to simply coast through life and at the end of the ride we get a fun place to hang out for all eternity. Paul described himself as a slave of Christ (Phil. 1:1). We are "not [our] own" (1 Cor. 6:19). We belong to another.

But what really should motivate us? Is it a legalistic sense of duty to a distant and impersonal master? Not at all. Paul said it so perfectly in Philippians 3:8. He counted all that he had lost as worthless things in order that he could gain Christ. What was he striving for? Was it streets of gold or gates of pearl? Hardly. He wanted Christ. That was the reward at the end of the race that he was running towards. David would have agreed. "The Lord is the portion of my inheritance and my cup..." (Psalm 16:5) The author of Hebrews encouraged his readers to "fix [their] eyes on Jesus..." (Heb. 12:2) Heaven will be wonderful because of He who is there.

It seems so simple. After all, "Jesus" is the Sunday school answer. But why? Have you ever considered why Jesus is the end goal? Of course Jesus is wonderful, but why is it enough to say that He is our reward? Even though the question sounds wrong to utter, it needs to be asked: What's so great about being with Jesus?

Our Lord Himself gave the answer when He was on the way to the Mount of Olives just before His arrest. Chapters 15 and 16 of the gospel of John form one of my favorite passages in the Bible. Jesus in a short while will be arrested, abandoned, mocked, tortured, crucified, and ultimately forsaken by His Father as He bore the sins of His people. Yet He spends this time lovingly encouraging His friends, because their life is about to get a lot harder. Up until this point, God had been restraining the evil intentions of those who opposed Christ. There had been no murder attempts made on the apostles' lives. They hadn't been brought before the Sanhedrin yet and been beaten. However, all this was going to change. Jesus was going away and the enemies of God would rain all their hatred down upon His followers. Jesus doesn't sugarcoat the situation. He told them plainly, "Truly, truly, I say to you, that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice..." (John 16:20) But our Lord didn't leave them without encouragement. In verse 22 He said, "Therefore you too have grief now; but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you."

Did you see that? This suffering that Christ promised isn't a mild annoyance. It isn't "a rough patch". He predicted weeping and utter sorrow. John of the Cross described it aptly as "the long dark night of the soul", the times in your life when things seem the most hopeless and God feels the most far away. So what did He give His disciples in order to encourage them? He gave them the promise of Himself. We suffer in this life, but our hearts will rejoice when we see Christ. We won't rejoice when our wounds are healed. We won't rejoice when we are reunited with our deceased love ones. We will rejoice at the sight of our Savior.

Verse 23 I believe puts the finishing touch on this wonderful promise of Jesus. He said, "In that day you will not question Me about anything." Now wait a minute. This life is too hard. There are things that happen to us that we don't understand. Children die. Friends fail us. Professing Christians of long years suddenly turn their back on their faith, causing us to doubt the authenticity of our own. If that weren't bad enough, often when the pain gets the most real God seems to leave. Our prayers become dead, our devotions become fruitless, and we can't seem to muster up the slightest joy about anything. We know that God has a plan, but we just want to walk up to God's throne and scream out, "Why? Why did You do this? Wasn't there a better way?" But Jesus said that we won't ask Him these things when we see Him. We have all these questions now but we won't then. We will be satisfied with the infinite glories and beauty of Christ. We will look into His face and know that our Redeemer reigns and that He has done all things perfectly. Although this is not Scripture, C.S. Lewis got it right in his masterpiece, "Till We Have Faces", when he said, "I know now, Lord, why You utter no answer. You are Yourself the answer. Before Your face questions die away. What other answer would suffice?"

What is our reward? What are we persevering for? Christ. And that is enough.

For Christ,
Daniel