The epistle to the Philippians gives us very little doctrine (doctrine being just alluded to in chapter 3); but it does give us in a remarkable manner the experience of Christian life in the power of the Holy Ghost.
It is full of blessing in that character—the life above seen down here in a man through the power of the Spirit of God. So much is this the case that the very word "sin" is not found in it.
When justification and righteousness are spoken of, it is not in contrast with sin, but in contrast with human and legal righteousness. The flesh was there. At the very time Paul wrote the epistle he had got the thorn in the flesh to prevent its acting, but it shows us one rising above the flesh and all hindrances, that Christ might be magnified in him. Whether to live or die, he did not know; he would have liked to be gone but in love to the Church he says, Better for you if I remain; and so, counting on Christ and knowing that it is better, he knows he will remain. He knows how to abound and how to suffer need; he is pressing toward the mark for the prize—it is the only thing he has to do.
The graciousness of a Christian is in chapter 2, the energy in chapter 3, the absence of care in chapter 4, but it is all by the power of the Spirit of God. It is well for us to lay it to heart; we are the epistle of Christ known and read of all men—an epistle written not in stone but in the fleshy tables of the heart. We are set as Christians to be letters of recommendation of Christ before the world. Yet it gives us the fullest and most blessed confidence toward God if we take that ground, for if we are in the presence of the world for God, Christ is in the presence of God for us. His work has perfectly settled that question, and He is every moment appearing in the presence of God for us.
We are loved as He is loved; in every way in which we can look at it, all is a fixed settled thing according to the counsels of God in grace; it is in a poor earthen vessel, but our relationship is settled. All that belonged to the old man is cleared away, and all that belongs to Christ, the new Man, is our positive portion. Not only are our debts paid, but we are to be conformed to the image of His Son, and He has obtained for us the glory which is His own. "The glory which Thou gavest Me I have given them." He has given Himself on the cross to meet what we were, and He has obtained for us all that He has. This is the way Christ gives—not as the world. If the world gives, they have it not any longer, but Christ never gives in that way—never gives away, but brings us into all He has. If I light up one candle by another, I lose nothing of the first; and such is the way He gives. I speak of blessed principles. "That the love wherewith Thou halt loved Me may be in them." He became a man on purpose to bring us as men into the same glory as Himself. That relationship we are brought into already. "I ascend unto My Father, and your Father; and to My God, and your God." If I look at righteousness and holiness, I am as He is; if at the Son, I am before the Father as a son; and as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall bear the image of the heavenly.
The work that entitles us to that is absolutely and totally finished. The Spirit makes us first feel our need in order to our possessing it, but the work is finished.
In order to get our path clear, we must see where He has brought us. I cannot expect anyone to behave as my child if he is not my child; you must be in a place before you can have the conduct suited to that place, or be under the obligations which belong to it; and it is this last part I desire to look at a little. "You... hath He reconciled," not brought halfway—as to relationship, brought into Christ. Through the work of the cross He put away our sins and, when He had done it, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. He finished the work which His Father gave Him to do; and in Hebrews the Spirit contrasts Christ's work with the work of the priests which was never finished, so that they never sat down.
We are perfect as pertaining to the conscience. A blunder often made is confounding perfection as to our state with perfection as to our conscience. When once we have understood the work of Christ, we are perfect as regards the conscience. If I look up to God, I can have no thought of His ever imputing sin to me again, or I could not have peace with God; and this is so true that it is said if this work was not perfectly done, Christ must suffer again. But He cannot drink that dreadful cup again, the very thought of which made Him sweat great drops of blood. If there is any sin still to be put away (I speak now of believers), Christ must suffer again, and this can never be. God has set Him at His right hand as having finished the work; "I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do. And now, O Father, glorify Thou Me." He will deal with His enemies, no doubt, when He rises up in judgment; but as to believers, He is sitting down because He has no more to do. I am not speaking now of course of the daily grace He ministers to them. It is settled, and settled with this double aspect, that the purpose of God being to bring us into the same glory as His Son, the work of Christ not only cleared away our guilt, but obtained that glory for us.
We are not in the glory yet, but the work which is our title to it is finished though we have not yet got the glory to which it is our title. We are anointed and sealed with the Spirit, and He is the earnest of our inheritance. We are already to the praise of the glory of His grace, but not yet to the praise of His glory, which will be when He comes the second time to bring us into the glory which His work obtained for us when He came the first time. And our life stands between the two—the cross and the glory.
We are here in this world, beloved friends, in the midst of temptations, snares, and difficulties, everything around us tending to draw us away; but the power of God is in us. We know that we are sons of God, though the world knows us not: "It Both not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is. And every man that hath this hope in Him purifieth himself, even as He is pure." 1 John 3:2, 32Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. 3And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure. (1 John 3:2‑3). The practical effect of beholding the glory of God is to change us into the same image.
When Moses came down from the mountain, the people were afraid to look in his face because the law required that which they had not to give; but now I see the glory which excels, the glory in Christ, which is infinitely brighter. But the glory in the face of Jesus Christ is the witness that all my sins are put away.
In the face of Moses it required what man ought to have been as a child of Adam, but it came to man who was a sinner. It required righteousness, and pronounced a curse if it was not there. Now I see the glory in the face of Him who bore my sins in His own body on the tree. The Christian sees the Man who died for his sins now in the glory as man, a witness that the work is done, and a testimony to the place unto which He is bringing us; and meanwhile we have the testimony of the Holy Ghost that our souls may be perfectly clever as to this.
That is where the believer is set, resting in entire confidence upon the efficacy of the work of Christ and, upon the other hand, waiting for God's Son from heaven, converted for this. "Ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord," standing here in perfect liberty, for where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty.
And here we get the proper experience of a Christian as led by the Spirit of God. We see in chapter 3 a Christian as to his walk, Christ having laid hold of him for that, as in 2 Cor. 5, "He that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing," etc. He has wrought us for that, not only cleared away our sins. Paul sees Christ in glory before him (he had really seen Him there), and that was what he was going to get. "This one thing I do,... I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." What he was seeking was to win Christ. He had not yet obtained Him, or got into the glory, but it was the only thing he was doing in the world; his whole life was that.
In chapter 2, on the other hand, Christ is looked at, not as going up to glory, but as coming down to the cross; and here we get the graciousness of His character. By this we get our hearts and affections won, and are formed into the likeness of this graciousness. And thus we have the two great things that govern the Christian—the glory that is before him, and the grace that has been shown him.
One word as to verses 12 and 13, "Not as in my presence only," etc. Often this "fear and trembling" is used to cast a doubt upon our relations with God, but it is not this we have to fear about. We are in the midst of temptations, the power of Satan distracting and turning the heart from Christ; and the Apostle presses upon them that now that he is absent, they must take care. He had worked for them when he was with them; he had met the craft of the enemy in wisdom and apostolic power, but he was in prison when he wrote this. He says, in substance, "Therefore now you must fight for yourselves," but this is in contrast with his fighting for them, and they were to do it, for it was God that worked in them. The contrast is not between God and man working, but Paul and the Philippians. God it was who did work in them, were Paul there; and if they had lost Paul, God who wrought in them was still there.
But then what a solemn thing for us, beloved friends, if we have the sense of this, that we are left down here to make good our path to glory against Satan and all the difficulties of the way. It is enough to make us serious. A false step will throw me into the snares of Satan. I have to be serious; I have the promise of being kept, but I need to be serious.
I have spoken of the finished work: but there is another thing that exercises us; how far can we look at the flesh and say we have done with it? And that is where the practical difficulty comes, if you arc in earnest and desiring to walk in fellowship with the Father and the Son. I ought never to walk after the flesh. The existence of the flesh does not give me a bad conscience, but if I allow it to act it does. Whenever I let even an evil thought in, communion is interrupted. The flesh is not gone as a matter of fact, nor is there nothing in us which Satan can tempt, but there is power in us not to let it act. The flesh is not changed. The word is as plain as ever it can be as to what the flesh is. If left to itself, it becomes so bad that God had to destroy the world. Noah, saved out of the old world, gets drunk; the law is given, and the flesh is not subject to it; Christ comes in grace, and the flesh crucifies Him; the Holy Ghost is given, and the flesh lusts against Him; and we get the case of one who had been into the third heaven, and the flesh was ready to puff him up. The flesh could not be mended, but he gets a why I should ever let it act. It thorn in it. But that is no reason never ought.