PAUL had but one single thing to do down here: it was that Christ might be magnified in that poor perishing body of his, which was chained to a Roman soldier in the house of Caesar. You say, what a wonderful power Paul must have had! True; but do you not sec that it came from knowing that the whole heart of Christ was set upon him, and what could he do then but be to Christ what Christ was to God, when he came in the spirit of " Lo, I come to do thy will, O God." There is power in the sense that the heart of Christ is set upon me.
In Phil. 2, we get the perfection of the service of Christ-the perfect way in which He did the work that would set God free to bless. That work must be estimated by the will of God. Christ did God's will, and therefore I get the strength of God Himself as to the salvation that He wrought. Then in chap. iii., Paul shows where his own heart found its springs.
We are so horridly selfish that the first thought always is, " What can I reap from this? " If you saw yourself fully in the light of that love of Christ you would be glad to have nothing more to say to that " I." Christ, the center of all God's plans now becomes the center of mine-I, a poor nothing, picked up by Christ to be worn by Him in glory! What is all that man can gather to himself compared with this? And what can a creature made by God be if he have not God Himself? Saul of Tarsus thought he could do something for himself till this thought broke in upon him, that the Son of God who had died, risen, and gone back again into heaven could open His heart and care for him. Christ, a living person in heaven, shows Himself to the hearts of disciples down here. Do you know Him thus, believer? Is it Christ, God's center, or is it a Christ the fruit of your own intellect? God's Christ is such an one as is suited to your heart 'to twine itself round. But in these days the gospel is cramped down to infinitesimal dimensions, and we ought to consider if we present the Christ of God fully; not merely the bit of truth that can meet some particular need of a soul, but Christ the One who meets everything, the center of God's heart and thoughts.
" Yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss, for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord." What force in these words " my Lord." Our stupidity and waywardness are so great that we often know not what we would be after, and at such times how good is that name " my Lord." The wide universe must yet bow down before Him, and shall not I? Paul had suffered the loss of all things, but what was that? An intelligent person might draw to himself. the picture of what he might have become in this world, hut, after all, what was it to give up? What was it all worth? Only "loss." Into a cup full of water pour anything weightier than water and the water will be displaced. Here is a human heart into which God has poured His own gold, that precious Christ, and may He not well displace all the rest? I do not count what I have laid down to make room for the precious gold God has given me. Can you spare Christ? Is it not rather: Oh I have looked at Him, and thought I knew a little about Him, but I must be satisfied with knowing that thou knowest it all, Father, whilst I go on only learning a little more. My Father knows all about this precious One who is my rest.
Paul's heart was caught by the life and glory of the Lord Jesus Christ long before he knew all the depths of his own sinfulness. Sometimes God meets those who have unsatisfied wants; at others He meets a soul, as He did Saul, and creates wants in it. Saul had never known God, and God introduces Himself to him, showing him that Jesus Christ as Son of God in heaven whom he had judged as an imposter upon earth. Eternal life thus came to him with the light of the glory of Jesus Christ; but he had not yet learned the ruin of the creature. Sin is putting self in the place of God-putting God into the second place and self into the first, and there pleasing self. When Christ was revealed to Paul the beauty of His unselfishness shone out before him, and the thought came, Oh, that I could be like Him! His thought was, Christ has a certain character that I want to bear; He went through suffering which I wish to share. I like to share my Master's portion down here.
What is the value to me of my taking this position? Why this; that you will not get a single word from Christ if you walk in selfishness and high places here. That is all. Lot in Sodom had no communication from God; and he who is walking with a carnal stop, with flesh unjudged as if there were some-, thing good in it, hears no whispers of Christ. If Christ speak to him it is but to say, You are very unlike me.
Oh, to be walking, though at an infinite distance from the Lord Jesus Christ, hardly able perhaps to catch sight of the skirts of a man like the apostle Paul, yet in our little way on the same principle as the Christ of God; " Not my will, but thine be done," giving thanks in all things. The Lord Jesus Christ found perfect rest to His soul because He was subject. Is your spirit like a caged bird beating itself against the bars Better take quietly the will of Him who put you there.
There are a number of things, which, if we were to spend a fortnight with the apostle Paul, would be found very unlike Christ, and all those things must come under judgment. We want present association with Christ. What is there in your life that you would not like to do before Him? Whatever the presence of Christ my Savior would make me feel to be unsuitable, that I have to judge. He never leaves me, is ever in me as the channel of the life eternal down here, and He can be no party to what is not the expression of His own life. I commit Christ to all that I do.
" I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. For our conversation is in heaven, from whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ." Has Christ occupied Himself for years with you, and have you no desire to see His face? Christ has a right to take us into His Father's house, and He will do it in spite of all our foolish ways; but what manner of men ought we to be What more can God do for you than to give Christ, and to make all that He is efficacious to you, and to promise you a body in which the eternal life will fill all up. Such a large Giver, what may He not expect from us? (G. V. W.)