The Recovering Legalist

(Guest blog by David Welford)

My seventeen-year old daughter Beth is a football (soccer) player. Having three older brothers probably prompted Beth’s interest in football, but by the time she was ten we were being told by her coaches that she had a natural talent for the game. When the time came to leave primary school she was presented with a cup by the head-teacher, who observed that every break when he looked out of the window he would always see Beth playing football with the boys. He also commented that she was a better player than any of the boys!

Beth eventually joined a girl’s team. They became the most successful female football team of their age group in our county. The highlight for me was watching them play in three cup finals in a row at the ground of Hereford United Football Club. I can honestly say that this was some of the best football I have ever seen. The things I respect most, apart from the skill of the players, include their incredible commitment both to training and playing, and their determination to win. Girls don’t dive and claim they have been fouled like the boys. They play hard and even when injured resist advice from the coach to come off the pitch. The only problem is that as they get older some lose interest distracted by the likes of boyfriends, and worldly pleasures away from the football pitch.

Watching my daughter play a county game the other week made me think about the cost to the girls of being there. The years of regular training, occasional injuries, the travelling to matches, and the disappointment at games lost. This has to be balanced against the elation of games won, and of receiving medals as champions. There are definite parallels with the Christian life. There is always a cost to following Jesus Christ, which is far greater in some countries than it is in North America or most of Europe. Regardless of the cost commitment is vital. There may be disappointments and setbacks during the journey but there is a prize waiting for those who persevere to the end.

But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:7-14 NIV)