The energy with which the Christian is to run that race which ends in the glory and in complete conformity to Christ there, is brought out in a marked way in the third chapter of Philippians.
Indeed, throughout the whole epistle, we see this complete superiority over everything the Christian has to pass through on his way to the glory. Christ is the object to be we, and this gives energy to press on after Himself. He is there in the glory as the goat of my course; as the Apostle says, “That I may win Christ and be found in him;” “that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus:” Thus I know what I shall get at the end of the race. I shall have Him in glory, and be fashioned like unto Him as a heavenly man. Well, and what is the road I must take to win Him? We find that in the second chapter. It is to walk through the world as He did, in every respect having the “mind” which Was in Him; always willing to go down, doing the will of God in all lowliness and meekness and dependence upon Him. It is the graciousness and lowliness of Christ we get here; and then, whatever be the testing of circumstances, able to say, as in the 4th chapter, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.”
Christ has run the race, and is set down to skew where it ends, that we may have the eye and heart where He is, on the end. That is what we are called to. “For their sakes I sanctify myself, that they all might be sanctified through the truth.” Christ has set Himself apart in the glory, and the Spirit of God takes and unfolds Him to us, that we may be like Him, and express the same mind which was in Him, in His pathway to the glory.
There is a positive progress, a growing up into Him which is the head in all things; but there is no such thing as growing in meetness for heaven. When souls are not clear as are their place in Christ, they mix up meetness and growth. But there is not such a thought in scripture. There is growing in grace; but when the apostle speaks of meetness, it is “giving thanks unto the Father which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light.” (Col. 1:1212Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: (Colossians 1:12).). There is no growth in that. The dying thief was as meet for heaven as Paul was. We are in Christ.” Is not that being meet for heaven? Not that God would overlook Paul’s labors, all true in its place, but we have to get the perception that we are taken clean out of the place we were in, and now we are in Christ, who is our righteousness and our life, and then the path in which we are cased to walk with Him, is to have every thought under the control of the Spirit of God.
In the sixth verse of the first chapter of Philippians, the apostle speaks of the good work begun in them; “Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you, will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ” Salvation here is a future thing. It is that He has begun a good work in them. Now though not seeing this, people often speak of the work begun in them, and mix it with fitness for heaven.
There is another remark I would make. Just as salvation is looked at in the future when We are running here below, as in this epistle, so you will not find the “coming of Christ” spoken of. It is the “day of Christ “when we are to be manifested before Him. The coming is our being caught up to meet Him. That is always connected with sovereign grace—the day of Christ is connected with our responsibility. So here it is, “He that hath begun a good work in you.” This is never said of our standing in Christ. There all is perfect and finished. All is divine certainty, but the moment Scripture takes up the race of the Christian, he speaks of our responsibility, and then you will find “ifs” and warnings; but mark, no “ifs” about God’s faithfulness. “Being confident that He which hath begun a good work in you, will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.” Even when he is running the race (in chapter 4 he adds, “If by any reason I may attain,” &c.
If I want to know how a sinner can be justified, I turn to Romans. There the question is fully answered, both as to sins, and in condemning the nature that committed the sins and the soul is set free in Christ, so that there is no more any condemnation. The sins are atoned for, the standing in the flesh is gone. There is a complete justification from it all, and the believer is no longer in the flesh but in Christ. In the Ephesians you didn’t get justification. For man is looked upon as already dead in sins, and then a new creation is brought in which is entirely of God, so that justification is not needed for that. I Cannot only say as a sinner I have been justified through Christ, but I am of God, as it says, “Of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness, and sanctification and redemption.” Oh, it is an immense blessing to be able to say, “I am of God’s new creation.” “His workmanship.” It is more than justification. God justifies the sinner—He does not need to justify His own workmanship. Everything now is of God in the new creation; who “hath reconciled us to himself.” What a blessed thing to know that God has a new creation, and that I am of it. Not because we were created by Him, for in that sense we are all of God’s creation, but I speak of God’s new creation in Christ.
We don’t find this justification, &c., doctrinally set forth in the Philippians, but rather the Christian’s experience flowing from the new position. So in the sixth verse, it is not our perfect standing in Christ, but a work begun in us; and the moment Scripture speaks of the race or path to the glory there are “ifs” of every kind. I may have to say to you, He will “present you holy and unblameable, and unreproveable, in His sight, if ye continue in the faith grounded and settled.” For unless the work is divine in you of course it will all die away. Like the foolish virgins whose lamps went out because they had no oil, and then it would turn out to be only a new profession.
Thus Scripture speaks of “ifs” when taking up the side of our responsibility and running the race; but then in this the heart is cast upon the faithfulness of God, and there is no “if” there! In the wilderness course we get the wanderings, the failures, the murmurings, but with these you get the faithfulness of God. In the land you find conflict, but the armor is there for us, the strength is there too to give us power to overcome. We are in both, though not consciously at the same moment. He points out the danger, and yet the consciousness of being in Christ is always ours. God says, as it were, “You must be dependent on me, you will need to be kept,” but do not mix the two things up and say, because you have to run the race in the wilderness, and to fight in the conflict in Canaan, you are still in Egypt.
There is no conflict in Egypt. In Egypt God comes down to deliver. He is a redeemer in Egypt. First with the blood on the door post to shield from judgment, then in delivering power at the Red Sea. It is blessed to see how He suits Himself to His people. In Egypt, in their bondage, He comes as their deliverer. In the wilderness He goes with them in the pillar of fire and cloud to guide and shelter, them by night and by day, and He feeds them with manna every day. Not taking His manna away, though they lusted. after the flesh pots of Egypt. Always faithful to them if they have not faith to enter the land, but are turned back to wander for thirty-eight years, His cloud turns back with them, and He makes Himself a tabernacle and wanders with them. Then when they crossed Jordan and are to have conflict, He appears to them as a man with a drawn sword in His hand, saying to Joshua, “as captain of the Lord’s host am I now come.” Then when they are settled in peace in the land He builds Himself a great house like the palaces of the great ones of the earth.
Thus, when I think of redemption it is a settled thing, there is no question of conflict. It is a delivering God who delivers completely out of the place we were in; but He will go through the wilderness with you in running on to the glory. He means us to go through it that we may, learn ourselves and learn Him. As He says He “humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna,” &c. “Thy raiment waxed not old upon thee, neither did thy foot swell these forty years,” &c. It was all that they might learn what they were and what God was. That is a different thing from redemption. If we have passed the Red Sea we have done with Egypt, and if I don’t see this, I shall say under pressure as Israel did, “Because there were no graves in Egypt hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness?” (Ex. 14:1111And they said unto Moses, Because there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness? wherefore hast thou dealt thus with us, to carry us forth out of Egypt? (Exodus 14:11).) But God says— “I bare you on eagle’s wings and brought you unto myself.”
Have you not found the need of grace in the pathway since your soul found peace? Have you not found out the evil that is within you since then? What, in fact, your heart really is? Well, and you know He has been with you all through. There has been His manna fresh every day. He has provided the garments which wax not old. Christ’s grace ministered to you day by day, daily bread that you could not hoard up, or it would have turned to self-righteousness, like the hoarded manna which stank and bred worms. God was carrying the children of Israel through the wilderness for a double purpose, so to speak, to teach them what they were and what God was, who was always faithful.
There is with the discovery of what we are, correction, of bourse, but with it always the blessed discovery of what He is. I shall have conflict, too, in heavenly places, as they had in Canaan, and in this I must go back to Gilgal the place of the true circumcision of the flesh to learn what that is.
While running the race here we have all the infirmity of the flesh, the danger and temptation, but we have, too, the power of God. We get heaps of warnings and “ifs” when it is a question of our getting through, but never an “ if” applied to the faithfulness of God. You can’t get anything you can trust to in yourselves; but there comes in the blessed experience of the faithfulness of God in which we can trust. The only process is to take us off ourselves, to get the soul back to absolute dependence, but absolute dependence upon absolute faithfulness. And this humbles us and shows us what we are, and what the world is we may learn it slowly or quickly. If we walk with God we learn to trust Him, if we walk with self we learn ourselves and our need of Him, but we do not learn to trust Him. It is like a careless child feeling the want of his father, but not knowing him by walking with him. If I live with my friend I get to know what he is as my friend. We get every warning, and “if,” as regards the path as to ourselves, but on God’s side no “ ifs.” “He will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.” Surely what blessedness to say we are walking in the light because Christ has rent the veil, and we are now walking as children of light.
We ought to know in passing through the world, in a higher sense than Israel did, that wherever we go He is “a little sanctuary” to us. (Ezek. 11:1616Therefore say, Thus saith the Lord God; Although I have cast them far off among the heathen, and although I have scattered them among the countries, yet will I be to them as a little sanctuary in the countries where they shall come. (Ezekiel 11:16).) So that when I look out on the world instead of its being between me and God, I have God between me and the world; having the secret of the Lord with me, and going through the world with the light of his countenance. It is a comfort if we are walking with God to be leaning on One who never leaves me. It is a comfort, too, if not walking with Him that He restores the soul and leads in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.
Let us ever remember that God is faithful, so that if I am in coldness of heart, without any outward departure, but inwardly distant—not walking freely and simply with Him—(oh how easily this coldness comes upon us when all is right outwardly)—well even then He has not changed—He restores. There is with Him divine power to bring you back again into the conscious light of His countenance; and this is dependent upon the revelation of Himself to your soul, so that I can count even then upon Him to bring me back to Himself into the light and joy of His presence.
The Lord give us to run with patience (endurance) the race set before us, looking unto Him-not withdrawing our eyes from Him. Our eyes, looking straight on, and our eyelids straight before us. So to run that we may obtain—that we may “win Christ and be found in Him.” The mind of Christ in us, and able in the path to esteem others better than ourselves, for His name’s sake. Amen.