Philippians 3:4-114Though I might also have confidence in the flesh. If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more: 5Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee; 6Concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. 7But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. 8Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, 9And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: 10That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; 11If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. (Philippians 3:4‑11).
HERE is a personal testimony of unique interest unlike so many that we hear, it, firstly, is inspired, and profitable enduringly for successive generations of men. Secondly, while it is the testimony of the “Chief of sinners,” he was not a sinner of the godless or prodigal kind. If ever a man’s past might have prated him, it was Saul’s of Tarsus. In verse 4 to 6 he tells its advantages and merits. He was an Israelite of purest and proudest blood, duly circumcised and of most exact and exacting zeal; according to the accepted moral standards of his race (and they were divinely imposed) he was blameless.
That day, however, when Christ shined into his heart on the Damascus road, changed everything for him. As it was revealed to him that the One who spoke out of the divine glory with divine authority was Jesus Whom he persecuted, what could he have expected but that his hour of doom was come? To have been cast alive into hell would not have surprised him. Had ever another man set himself in a course so directly opposed to the most cherished plans of the Almighty, unless it were Pharaoh of Egypt in Moses’ day? To his eternal astonishment, Saul of Tarsus found he had been apprehended, not for judgment and death, but for distinguished service of God’s heavenly Anointed One, Jesus of Nazareth, and for final and everlasting glory with Him. From the very heaven of his exaltation he hated Jesus.
Yet God’s Christ had spoken. To His rebelling people in old time God had said through His prophet “Come now, and let us reason together.” (Isa. 1:1818Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. (Isaiah 1:18).) So now, Jehovah-Jesus appeals to the mind and conscience of Saul. “Why persecutest thou Me?” He deigns to reason with the rebel, directly, personally. “Thou... Me.” Once more man had striven against His Maker, and never man with less reason than Saul. What was it led the Creator, the Son of God, to parley thus with so mad a persecutor? Nothing but sovereign mercy. He was left with eyes that saw no man but himself and the glorified Jesus to learn the lesson he afterward never ceased to teach others. “The Son of God loved me and gave Himself for me.”
For this, he counted all his splendid past as loss that he might gain Christ. Not heaven, nor eternal life, but Christ. It is not a usual way of men to reckon profit in terms of a person, and in such vivid contrast to the loss of all the things that are naturally prized. Yet no other way of speaking could express the apostolic meaning. Had not his heart exclaimed in most extreme amazement, “He, dying to make me His; He, speaking from heaven to turn me from my own way because He wanted me for Himself and His service!” Added to this present experience, the sight of the divine glory of Jesus, came voices from the store of memory, voices that had never been really heard by him before, of inspired historian, prophet and poet, bearing their harmonious testimony to his heart of a suffering and rejected Messiah. Then the glory made clear to him what God’s thoughts were of the value of the sacrifice of the Lamb of God. And all combined in declaring that that valued sacrifice was available for the sinner; it was for the sinners He came to seek and save that Jesus died.
As the blind needs sight, and the leper cleansing, so the sinner needs righteousness. Righteousness, indispensable for acceptance by God, is exactly what the sinner lacks. Naked, or clothed only in filthy rags, he needs a wedding garment for the royal marriage. In debt, and unable to pay, his only escape is to be freely forgiven. Yet this could not be without a propitiation. When they came to seek Jesus and His disciples He said, “If ye seek Me let these go their way, just so, in the darkness of Calvary, out of which came His cry, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” it was as though He had said in offering Himself there, “if they owe anything, place it to My account.” “God hath made Him to be sin for us Who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor. 5:2121For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. (2 Corinthians 5:21)). To this Paul refers. For him Christ is become his righteousness; his own is renounced — his splendid record, his blamelessness. Was it not a worthless thing that brought him into conflict with His Saviour, the Son of God? Accordingly, as the Saviour’s overture of grace seemed to say to him, “What wilt thou that I should do unto thee?” Paul’s faith responded, “Lord, that I might hide myself in the skirts of Thy glory and be covered thereby — hide all that I have been and now am in Thee, that I might appear before God in Thee, in Thine acceptance, with Thee for my righteousness.” His exact words here are, “That I may win Christ and be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith.” A divine righteousness, which he who feels his nearness to perdition so richly deserved knows how to appreciate indeed; a righteousness provided in a crucified, risen and glorified Saviour and offered by His grace to the faith of any and every one in whom faith is found.
Continuing, Paul writes: “That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death, if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.” “Know Him,” not by the hearing of the ears or even the sight of his eyes, but by experience as following Him here below in the closest way, and this in communion with His exalted Lord. Then he would know Him with such an intimacy as could not otherwise be entered into. “Know... the power of His resurrection,” not yet as being himself raised from the dead, but as using this power in the world by faith in meeting the enemy that has the power of death, so as to overcome him and all the worldly attractions he offers. The most worthy Saviour, the glorious Son of God suffered here; there was no higher, holier way than that which His feet trod; therefore Paul wishes to have fellowship with His sufferings being conformed to His death. He himself would be cast in that mold. He would share with his Lord the consequences of walking as He walked, and partake in His rejection. Unafraid to die, he yet wanted to go through all in faithfulness and obedience to God while suffering at men’s hands even as Christ did. Then, as Christ was raised from among the dead, signifying His glory, holiness and favor with God, so Paul would be; yet not as being in himself anything but as belonging to Christ, as having gained Him and, as being accepted in Him, an object of the eternal favor of God. How he should arrive at this goal, through what afflictions was matter less, so long as all were shared with Christ.
There are two worlds; how clearly they were defined for the apostle. This world-system abandoning itself in the rejection of Christ to the rule of the prince of the power of the air, and that world unseen where Jesus is acknowledged and bears the Name that is above every Name. Into your mind, dear reader, thoughts must come in the closing days of this year of the rapid flight of time, and of the wasting and death which its flight brings. “The things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.” (2 Cor. 4:1818While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:18).) The Lord Jesus had these two worlds in mind when He said, “For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of man shall come in the glory of His Father with His angels; and then shall He reward every man according to his works” (Matt. 16:26, 2726For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? 27For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works. (Matthew 16:26‑27)). The apostle Paul seems in his testimony to supplement this and say, “What shall it damage a man if he lose the whole world and his own life, and gain Christ?”
T. D.
“TO us Thy Cross with all its shame,
With all its grace be given;
Though earth disowns Thy lowly Name,
God honors it in heaven.”