Paul sought Christ in order to please God, not in order to go to Heaven. Paul wanted to partake of the righteousness that comes to every person who lays aside his own efforts to please God and trusts his righteousness into the Lord's hands.

The goal and hope of the Orthodox Jew is as follows:

That he would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear, In holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life. (Luke 1:74,75)

Paul was not groaning for the redemption of his body in order that he might escape the great tribulation, or Antichrist, or even the discomfort of the Roman prisons. Paul was groaning for the redemption of His body so he might be set free from the body of sin and death he was dragging around; that he was beating into compliance so it would not cause him to betray his faithfulness to the Lord Jesus.

The Gentile Christians are seeking to go to Heaven when they die. Therefore much of what Paul says does not become a genuine part of their Christian walk. No Gentile will ever understand Paul, or the glory and liberty of the resurrection from among the dead, until he is seeking to be righteous in personality and behavior in order to please God.

Death and Resurrection

The path to righteousness is through death and resurrection.

Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. (Romans 6:4)

The above verse describes the victorious Christian life. We are to count ourselves as dead with Christ on the cross. We also are to count ourselves as risen with Christ and walking in a new life of righteous behavior.

For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: (Romans 6:5)

The verse above parallels Philippians 3:11. If we are willing to be conformed to the death of Christ, then, when the Lord comes, we will be raised into a body like His resurrected and glorified body. It is our willingness to be conformed to the death of Christ that makes a place for us in the royal priesthood, among those who are to be raised when the Lord appears.

Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. (Romans 6:6)

We experience death and resurrection so we no longer will behave in a sinful manner. We pursue death and resurrection in Christ so we may behave righteously and thus be eligible and competent to fulfill all God has spoken concerning man.

Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 6:11)

To be continued.