(Chapter 3:1-21)
The second chapter presents the graciousness of the Christian life, that forgets self in consideration for others, and walks according to the lowly mind set forth in Christ our Pattern. In this third chapter we see the energy of the Christian life that overcomes the dangers by which we are beset, forgets the things that are behind, and presses on to Christ our Object in the glory.
We need both grace and energy, for, as it has been pointed out, “Sometimes we see a want of energy where there is loveliness of character; or a great deal of energy, where there is a want of softness and consideration for others.”
In the course of this chapter we are warned against certain dangers by which the enemy would seek to prevent believers from shining as lights in the world and holding forth the word of life, and so mar our testimony to Christ as we pass through a world that is in moral darkness and under the shadow of death.
In verses 2 and 3 we are warned against the evil works of those who were corrupting Christianity by judaizing teaching. In verses 4 to 16 we are warned against confidence in religious flesh. In verses 17 to 21 we are warned against enemies of the cross of Christ within the Christian profession. That we may have the needed energy to overcome these dangers, the Apostle presents Christ in the glory as our unfailing resource.
(Vs. 1). Before speaking of the special dangers to which we are exposed, Paul sets the Lord before us as the One in whom we can rejoice. The apostle had been in prison four years and was about to be tried for his life. But, whatever his circumstances, however great the failure amongst the people of God, whatever the dangers he warns us against, his final exhortation is, “Rejoice in the Lord.” The Lord is in the glory, the everlasting witness to God's infinite satisfaction in His work on the cross, and the One in whom all the blessing that He has secured for believers is set forth. If He is in the glory, we shall be in the glory, in spite of all that we may have to pass through on the way, whether from trying circumstances, the failure of the saints or the power of the enemy: therefore, let us “Rejoice in the Lord.”
(Vss. 2-3). Having directed our gaze to Jesus Christ as Lord to whom every knee is going to bow, the Apostle warns us against special dangers with which we are faced. We are to “Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision.” These three evils would seem to refer to judaizing teachers within the Christian circle, who sought to mingle law and grace. This meant the setting aside of the gospel that grace proclaimed, and the re-instating of the flesh that the gospel set aside. Realizing that this evil assails the foundation of all our blessing, Paul is unsparing in its condemnation. The dog is one that returns to his vomit and has no shame. To behave in a way that is manifestly evil, and refuse to acknowledge the evil, is to act without conscience or shame.
Moreover, these judaizing teachers covered up evil works with a cloak of religion. Against such the Lord warned His disciples when He said, “Do not ye after their works” (Matt. 23:33All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not. (Matthew 23:3)). Such may have professed to be the circumcision, who have refused the flesh, but, in reality, by seeking to mingle law and grace, they were indulging religious flesh rather than cutting off the flesh. The apostle exposes such in terms of contempt.
In contrast to the system of these judaizing teachers, Paul sets before us the outstanding characteristics of Christianity. In Christianity those who refuse the flesh — and thus form the true spiritual circumcision — “worship by [the] Spirit of God” (JND), and not in a round of religious ceremonies. They boast in Christ Jesus, and not in men and their works. They have no confidence in the flesh, but put their trust in the Lord.
There are indeed the lusts of the flesh which we are to judge, but here the Apostle is warning us against the religion of the flesh. This is a far more subtle danger for Christians, for religious flesh has a fair appearance, whereas the lusts of the flesh are manifestly wrong, even to the natural man. One has said, “The flesh has a religion as well as lusts, but the flesh must have a religion that will not kill the flesh.”
The Apostle's words have, surely, a special warning for us in these last days, when this judaizing teaching, which was such a danger to the primitive church, has developed into Christendom becoming a corrupt mixture of Judaism and Christianity. The result is that a vast profession has arisen in which forms and ceremonies have taken the place of worship by the Spirit; in which the works of men according to the law have set aside the work of Christ according to the gospel; and which appeals to man in the flesh, while raising no question of new birth or personal faith in Christ. Having formed itself after the Jewish pattern, Christendom has become an imitation Jewish camp, having the form of godliness but denying the power thereof. From this corruption, the Apostle, in his other epistles, warns us to “turn away”, and to go forth unto Christ “without the camp, bearing His reproach” (2 Tim. 3:55Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. (2 Timothy 3:5); Heb. 13:1313Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach. (Hebrews 13:13)).
(Vss. 4-6). Paul proceeds to expose the worthless character of religious flesh by recalling his own life before his conversion. If there were any virtue in religious flesh, he would have had more ground for trusting the flesh than others, for he was pre-eminently, and sincerely, a religious man after the flesh. In his case the religious ordinances according to the law had been carried out — he had been circumcised on the eighth day. He was a Jew of the purest descent. As to his religious life, he belonged to the straightest sect — a Pharisee. None could question his sincerity and zeal, for, in seeking to maintain his religion, he had persecuted the church. As regards the righteousness that consisted in observing the outward law, he was blameless.
(Vs. 7). All these things were gain to him as a natural man, and would have given him a great place among men, but the moment he was brought to see Christ in glory, he discovered that, in spite of all his religious advantages, he was the chief of sinners, and had come short of the glory of God. Moreover, he saw that all blessing depended upon Christ and His work, with the result that henceforth the things that were gain to him as a natural man he counted loss for Christ. To trust any longer in the fact that he was a Hebrew of the Hebrews, and that, touching the righteousness which is in the law, he was blameless, would have been to set aside Christ's work by his own works, and to rejoice in himself rather than in Christ.
(Vss. 8-9). Moreover, it was not only at the time of his conversion that he counted his works according to religious flesh to be loss, but throughout his career he continued to count them loss; for, while he could look back and say “I counted”, he can also say in the present, “Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss”. Moreover, it was not only the things of which he had been speaking that he counted loss, but “all things” in which the flesh might boast, and which would have given him a place in this world. Paul was a wellborn man, of good social standing, a citizen of Tarsus — no mean city. He was well educated, having been trained at the feet of Gamaliel. He was well known to Jewish leaders, and, under their authority, had acted in an official way; but the knowledge of Christ Jesus, of whom he can speak as “my Lord”, threw all these things into the shade. Such is the excellency of Christ that, compared with Him, all the things in which the flesh could boast were counted by the Apostle as but “filth”. Having come to this estimate of these things, he had no difficulty in letting them go, for who would object to leaving a dung hill behind?
In this deeply searching passage the Apostle has been setting before us his own experience; but we do well to challenge our own hearts as to how far we have become followers of the Apostle, in so entering into the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, our Lord, that, compared with Him, any worldly advantages that might give us a place among men are counted but filth to be left behind. Naturally we glory in anything that would distinguish us from our neighbors and bring honor to ourselves, whether it be birth, social position, wealth or intellect. One has said, “Whatever you are decking yourself out with — it may be with a knowledge of Scripture — it is glorying in the flesh. Ever so little a thing is enough to make us pleased with ourselves; what we should not notice in another is quite enough to raise our own importance”— John Nelson Darby.
Having, through the excellency of the knowledge of Christ, discovered the vanity of religious flesh and the things that are gain to us as natural men, and having Christ in the glory as his one Object, the Apostle can freely express the desires of his heart as all being bound up with Christ, as he says:
“That I may win Christ”;
“Be found in Him”;
“That I may know Him”;
That “I may apprehend that for which I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.”
When the Apostle says, “that I may win Christ”, he is looking on to the end of the journey. He is running a race, and he sees that the goal is to be with Christ and like Christ in the glory. Christ down here is the pattern for the Christian life; Christ in the glory is our Object, the One to whom we press on.
In that great day, the Apostle can say he will “be found in Him.” It will be seen, then, that every blessing that has been secured for the believer by His work on the cross is set forth “in Him” in the glory. This will mean that our righteousness, set forth in Him, will not be the righteousness that would result from our own works, but the righteousness which is the result of what God has done through Christ. Christ was delivered by God for our offenses and was raised again for our justification. The believer comes into this blessing by faith: we are justified by faith.
(Vss. 10-11). In the meantime, while pressing on to reach Christ, the Apostle's desire is expressed by his words, “That I may know Him”. We want to know Him in all His loveliness as set forth in His lowly grace and obedience even unto death; we want to know Him in the mighty power that is for us, as set forth in His resurrection; we want to know Him in glory as the One to whom we are going to be conformed, and with whom we shall be forever. To know Him in His lowly grace as our Pattern will teach us how to live for Him; to know Him in the power of His resurrection will enable us to face death, if, like Paul, we are called to suffer death for His name's sake; and to know Him in the glory will keep us pressing on in spite of all opposition. The apostle's great desire was to reach Christ in the glory, and with this end in view he was prepared to be conformed to Christ's death — to die to all that to which Christ had died, even if it meant for him a martyr's death in order to reach the blessed condition of “the resurrection from among the dead” (JND).
(Vs. 12). Paul was still in the body, so he did not, and could not, claim that he had already obtained the prize of being with Christ and like Christ in the glory. Nevertheless, it was the end he had in view, and as he passed along his way he was seeking to grow in the apprehension of the glorious end for which he had been destined by the grace of Christ.
(Vss. 13-14). If he had not yet attained the prize, neither did he claim to have apprehended in all its fullness the blessedness of the prize. But he could say, “One thing—forgetting the things behind, and stretching out to the things before, I pursue, [looking] towards [the] goal, for the prize of the calling on high of God in Christ Jesus.” Good for us, if we too could have such a vision of Christ in the glory and the reality of “those things which are before”, that we should be led to forget the things that are behind. Paul not only counted them loss but he had forgotten them. We could not boast in something we had forgotten. As with every other spiritual blessing, our calling on high is set forth in Christ.
(Vss. 15-17). Having set before us the path he was pursuing through this world, the spirit in which he trod the path, and the glorious end to which it leads, he now exhorts as many as enjoy this full — or “perfect” — Christian experience to have the same mind. There may indeed be some who have as yet but little entered into this ripe Christian experience, but, even so, God can lead us on and reveal to us the blessedness of the mind that forgets the things that are behind and presses on to Christ in the glory. If, however, there are differences in spiritual attainment, there is no reason that we should not walk in the same steps. One may see further along the road than another, but this would not hinder such treading the same path and looking in the same direction.
We are exhorted, then, to be followers of the Apostle in the path that he was treading, and, not only followers, but “followers together”, having one mind and one object. With the lowly mind that forgets self, and with our eyes upon Christ in the glory, we shall be drawn together by one object.
We are to mark them which walk thus. It is not merely the profession we make, or the fair words we may utter, but the walk, which speaks of the life we live, that is of such value in the sight of God. Paul could say, “For me to live is Christ”.
(Vss. 18-19). We are then warned that, even in that early day, there were “many” professors amongst the people of God, whose walk was such that it proved them to be the enemies of the cross of Christ, and whose end would be destruction. So far from having the lowly mind that forgets the things that are behind and presses on to Christ in glory, they were wholly occupied with earthly things. If the Apostle has to warn of such, it is with weeping. Already he has warned us against judaizing teachers who appealed to religious flesh. Now he warns us against those who were seeking to turn Christianity into a merely civilizing system in the effort to make a better and brighter world. Such were minding earthly things. Thus we are warned against the two evils that are rampant in these last days, one that uses Christianity to appeal to religious flesh, the other that would use it to improve the flesh. Both set aside Christ, His work, and the heavenly character of Christianity.
(Vss. 20-21). In contrast to such, the Apostle can say of believers that our associations are in heaven, “from whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.” At His coming these bodies of humiliation will be changed, and fashioned like unto His glorious body. This change will be effected by the power whereby Christ is able “to subdue all things unto Himself.” Every power that is against us —whether the flesh within, the devil without, the world around, or even death itself — He is able to subdue. Thus the beginning of the journey was that we were brought to know something of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord, and the end will be that, in spite of every opposing power, we shall be with Him on high, and like Him, having a body of glory.
With this glorious hope before us, we may well challenge our hearts by asking the question of another, “Is CHRIST so simply, so singly the object of our souls, as to be the power of the displacement of all that we have clung to in the past; all that would entangle us, and make us turn our backs on the cross in the present; and all the schemes and expectations, the fears or anticipations of the future?”