Already but Not Yet
Phil 3:12-16
This letter was written 3 years before Paul’s death, about 25
years into his service to Christ. This man, who wrote so much of the New
Testament, reveals much to us in this passage – of his own continued need of
grace for each day.
Phil 3:12-16 (HCSB) Not that I have already reached the
goal or am already fully mature, but I make every effort to take hold of it
because I also have been taken hold of by Christ Jesus. Brothers, I do not
consider myself to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what
is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead, I pursue as my goal the prize
promised by God’s heavenly call in Christ Jesus. Therefore, all who are mature
should think this way. And if you think differently about anything, God will
reveal this also to you. In any case, we should live up to whatever truth we
have attained.
He opened this chapter by describing the nature and
character and behavior of saints (verse 3): For we are the circumcision, the
ones who serve by the Spirit of God, boast in Christ Jesus, and do not put
confidence in the flesh. Paul had not reached the goal, was not fully
mature. His focus was the heavenly calling – he had been taken hold of by
Christ. Paul impresses that those who have reason to worship God rightly, to
rejoice in our Savior are those who have been circumcised in heart, who put no
trust in our own being.
And yet, Paul has not reached the goal, Paul had found rest
from his prior work as a pharisee but he cannot relax in his pursuit of the One
Who had apprehended him. We can only pursue Christ if we have found rest in
Him.
There is ONE THING he does: forgetting what is behind and
reaching, straining forward to what is ahead – the upward call of God in Christ
Jesus. One commentator said, “every stage in the upward and onward course of
faith runs straight in the line of His will whose mighty, gracious grasp is on
me as I go.”
This is what I believe Paul wants us to grasp – all we have,
even the desire for godliness – is because we are united with Christ. We are
maturing in our faith, a process that will end only at the end of this age –
when our Lord returns to judge the nations, gather His own, and make all things
new. He exhorts the mature to have this mindset; he tells the less mature that
God Himself will reveal it to them.
And his final encouragement in this paragraph is that we all
– to the degree we have attained – all walk by the same rule and be of the same
mind. About that rule, Gal 6:14-16 (HCSB) But as for me, I will never boast
about anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. The world has been
crucified to me through the cross, and I to the world. For both circumcision
and uncircumcision mean nothing; what matters instead is a new creation. May
peace come to all those who follow this standard (or rule), and mercy to
the Israel of God!
About the same mind, Phil 2:5-8 (HCSB) Make your own
attitude that of Christ Jesus, who, existing in the form of God, did not
consider equality with God as something to be used for His own advantage.
Instead He emptied Himself by assuming the form of a slave, taking on the
likeness of men. And when He had come as a man in His external form, He humbled
Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death — even to death on a cross.
Self-focus in any form is incompatible with Paul’s
instruction.
Phil 3:17-21 (HCSB) Join in imitating me,
brothers, and observe those who live according to the example you have in us.
For I have often told you, and now say again with tears, that many live as
enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction; their god is their stomach;
their glory is in their shame. They are focused on earthly things, but our
citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for a Savior, the
Lord Jesus Christ. He will transform the body of our humble condition into the
likeness of His glorious body, by the power that enables Him to subject
everything to Himself.
Paul bids us follow him (and the other apostles) as they
were called to serve as examples – as are elders. There is a pattern of walking
in the light we can follow if we have eyes to see. Some do not – Paul weeps
about these souls who are doomed for damnation. They are set on earthly things.
This is the contrast, emphasizing why it’s important for us to have the right
focus. This is we have this warning in Hebrews 2: We must, therefore, pay
even more attention to what we have heard, so that we will not drift away.
We have this tendency to drift away from our Lord and His ways when our focus
is on earthly things.
Our citizenships is in heaven, not in Texas. Jesus said His
kingdom was not of this world – it’s of the world to come!
We know it’s not sinful to take care how we live – eat
right, live right, be wise in the ways of the world. For everything created
by God is good, and nothing should be rejected if it is received with
thanksgiving, since it is sanctified by the word of God and by prayer. 1Tim
4:4-5 (HCSB) We cross the line when how we live – what we eat, wear, etc. –
becomes the focus of our lives.
The point of our citizenship being in heaven is that is
where the Lord is; heaven is not a place of peace and joy if Christ be not
there. At the end if this age, He will return from heaven to gather His own –
we who are eagerly looking for Him. As we read in Hebrews 9:27-28 (HCSB) And
just as it is appointed for people to die once — and after this, judgment — so
also the Messiah, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will
appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are
waiting for Him.
When He returns, He will transform us to be perfectly
conformed to His glorious body – having subdued all things, making His enemies
His footstool. There can be no greater source of peace and joy than being
united and conformed to the glorious Christ! The Lamb of God has taken away our
sin and secured for an eternal glory that no man and no thing can take away.
Commentary (H. C. G. Moule) observes:
The whole passage now before us is strongly characteristic
of the New Testament way of dealing with sin. In the first place, there is no
lack of urgent and explicit warning. The moral and spiritual evil is labelled
unmistakably. It is pointed out as a danger not hypothetical but actual; not
floating in the air, but embodied in lives and influences. Yet this passage,
this heart-searching appeal, while it deals with warning, does not end with it.
Its strongest and chosen argument is not fear but hope; not perdition but
"the coming again of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our gathering together
unto Him."
Phil 4:1 sums up what we have read: So then, my
brothers, you are dearly loved and longed for — my joy and crown. In this
manner stand firm in the Lord, dear friends.
"We
are waiting, we are yearning for Thy voice
Through
the long, long summer day and winter night;
We
are mourning till Thou bid'st our souls rejoice,
Till
Thy coming turns our darkness into light:
Come,
Lord Jesus, come again;
We
shall see Thee as Thou art,
Then,
and not till then,
In
Thy glory bear a part;
Then,
and not till then,
Thou
wilt satisfy each heart."
J. DENHAM SMITH.
