Not there yet

"According to my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death."


"Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me."

One thing that I have not understood, and now only barely understand, is why Paul always said that he had not yet attained it. Faith takes the hope and we walk as though we are there, as if we have attained it. But if we think we are already pure and in heaven we would be living in a false reality. We are still on earth. We live earnestly expecting what is to come. He desired and expected that he would not be ashamed in anything. Nothing. But on the contrary, with boldness that Christ would be made manifest through him, his life, whether he lived or died. Paul's deepest desire was Christ and heaven. He clung to these. He set his heart, everything he did, on winning Christ and being found in Him. He knew that his home was heaven.
He did not strive for righteousness, for Christ is our righteousness. He strove to know Christ. To know his righteousness. This does not remove us from reality, it only enables us to live in it with a sense of eternity. Our lives manifesting Christ, because He is all and is in all.