If you look without, you are distracted.  If you look within, you are depressed.  If you look at Jesus Christ, you are at rest.

Galatians 3:1-9

O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? Did you suffer so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain? Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith—just as Abraham “believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”? Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.” So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.

 

 

"Justification is the act of God removing from the sinner his guilt and the penalty incurred by that guilt, and bestowing a positive righteousness, Christ Jesus Himself in whom the believer stands, not only innocent and uncondemned, but actually righteous in point of law for time and for eternity. This is what God did for Abraham when he believed Him.  This is what the Judaizers were attempting to merit for themselves by their own good works."

 

"This is a definite statement of the proposition which Paul wishes to prove.  The emphasis is upon the fact that the believing ones are blessed with salvation, rather than those who depend upon good works as the Judaizers did.  The word faithful is added as a descriptive word in order to impress upon the reader that the important thing about Abraham was the fact that he chose the faith way of salvation rather than depend upon personal merit and good works.  The word here does not speak of faithfulness of life in the sense of fidelity, but of the fact that Abraham believed God.  And well might Abraham have depended upon good works, from a purely human standpoint.  Excavations in the city of Ur where Abraham lived, reveal the fact that Abraham was not a wild desert sheik, but an educated, wealthy, sophisticated citizen of the world, a man living in and ostensibly partaking of a state of culture and opulence little dreamed of by the person who is unfamiliar with the ancient civilizations of the past.  Abraham was no ignoramus with a gullible faith.  With all his cultural back ground, and in spite of it, he saw that much of that with which we have to do, is taken upon faith, including the way of salvation.  Those who exercise a like faith to Abraham, share with him in the same salvation which he received from God."

Philippines 3:12-16 - Pressing toward the goal

Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, have this attitude; and if in anything you have a different attitude, God will reveal that also to you; however, let us keep living by that same standard to which we have attained.


Scroll down to Brother Paul Stewart - Sunday School - July 14, 2013 here:

http://faithbiblechurch.weebly.com/audio-messages.html

Excellent on how to live "by that same standard to which we have attained."