“Paul’s confidence that only the righteousness of Jesus will survive the judgment that’s coming.
Before Christ, Paul had hoped to stand before God good enough on his own two feet, wrapped in a righteousness all his own, unique to him.
Now he wants to stand there good enough in Christ. Now he wants the righteousness that comes from God and depends on faith. And the reason he made this trade is crystal clear.
“By any means possible”—by the only means possible—he wants resurrection from the dead. (See Philippians 3:7-11)
Paul knows that the wages of sin is death. Death is what he has earned through his own best attempt to be good enough.
But eternal life is a free gift of God to all who believe, based on who Jesus is and not who they are. In Jesus, Paul will survive the day of judgment. On his own, he won’t.
Whether the day of judgment is good news or bad news comes down to what you will be wearing.
When God gave His only Son so that those who believe in Him would not perish, He sent into the world a righteousness from God that depends on faith.
He said, in effect, “Here, wear this and live.” Jesus’s righteousness is spotless.
This Son was such a delight to his Father that on more than one occasion a voice spilled over from heaven, with uncontainable passion, to shout to all the world, “This is my Son! He pleases me!” (see Matt. 3:17; 17:5).
All over the Gospels, you can see why. Jesus said it was His food to do His Father’s will (John 4:34). He lived on joyful obedience.
He prayed to his Father in secret, not to draw attention to himself but because He couldn’t live without him.
He loved Him with all his heart, soul, and mind. He treated people with dignity and kindness and compassion even when they had nothing to offer Him in return.
He was faithful to his friends no matter how many times they let him down. And even those who crucified Him had to admit that He did not deserve to die like this.
He didn’t die because he deserved it. He died willingly because we do.
On the only standard that matters, Jesus’s righteousness is spotless.
When you’re found in Him by faith, you are spotless too.
Paul lived his life free from our exhausting search for justification but not because justification didn’t matter to him. He was free because he looked for it from the right source at the right time.
What does all this have to do with longing for heaven?
When we place our faith in Christ, God sees us as He sees Jesus. Once and for all.
‘There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus… It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn?’” (Rom. 8:1, 33–34).”
–Matt McCullough, Remember Heaven: Meditations on the World to Come for Life in the Meantime (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2025), 48-51.
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