The Goal of Life—2

Paul’s goal was “to attain to the resurrection.”  This does not mean just getting to heaven.  He wanted to attain the complete freedom from sin and the moral perfection in soul and body that will be ours when we are resurrected.  The apostle says that he did all things for the sake of that happiness which the resurrection will introduce us into.  He resolved to be anything, to do anything, and to suffer anything, if he might possess eternal happiness with his Lord! 

I cannot do better than again quote Manton: “Paul did rest satisfied with the hopes of eternal life, and that perfect holiness and felicity he should then enjoy, as a sufficient recompense for all his losses and labours, disgraces abd troubles.  So the state of glory is compared to the present life; here is misery, there is happiness; here is sin, there is holiness; here shame, there glory; here labour, there rest; here the cross, there the crown; here the conflict, there the full and absolute conquest; here the work, there the reward; here absence from God, there fore ever present with him; here weakness, there prefection; then all good is perfected, and all evil shall cease.”  The resurrection should be the overarching aim of the whole course of our lives.  We should count it well with us, and that we will be recompensed enough for whatever we suffer now, if we attain to the happiness of that blessed state.