Philippians 3:12; Press On

“Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.”

Paul says that he has not already obtained all this…what “this” is he talking about?  In the previous passage he talked about his desire to know Christ, to share in the fellowship of his sufferings and to attain to the resurrection from the dead.  That is Paul’s goal and when he wrote this letter, it had yet to be attained.

Paul shouldn’t be too hard on himself because I don’t know if anyone could ever fully obtain that goal, at least on this side of heaven.  The gospel is boundless, we can never comprehend it in its all-encompassing complexity.  But isn’t that the type of goals we should set?  Grand, sweeping goals that are worthy of our time and our effort?  As followers of Christ, I think we forget that we have the Spirit of God residing within us to empower and enable us so that we are able to do all things through Christ.

We should dream big dreams.  We should reach for things that far exceed our abilities.  We should step into life boldly knowing that the Creator of the Universe is on our side.  If God is for us, who can be against us?  We should love extravagantly, serve ridiculously, and give hilariously!  Isn’t that what God has done for us?

At Christmas we celebrate the birth of a child in a manger who would grow up to live the perfect life we could not live, die to pay the penalty for our sins, and rise again to defeat death so we can have a relationship with God for now and evermore.  And that same Jesus says these astounding words,

“Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.” – John 14:12

Um, what?  We were created to do good works which God has planned in advance for us to do. (Eph. 2:10)  Those works will be along the lines of what Christ did and some will be even greater.  Not because we are so awesome, but because the Holy Spirit resides within us doing the work of Christ through us.  Astonishing! 

Paul knows that he has not arrived, but instead of lowering his expectations or giving up, he pressed on.  He spent his time and energy taking hold of the gospel of Christ that had taken a hold of him.  Are you spending your time doing the same?  Or are you distracted by the thousands of things that divert our attention away from Christ? 

This Christmas I challenge you to pray one prayer over and over until you get answer.  “How can I be used to spread your word and bring glory to your Name?  What good works do you have for me?”  And if you are really bold, a second one, “What am I doing that is distracting me from that?” 

Pray bold prayers and see how the Lord comes through.  Have a very Merry Christmas!

“My hope and prayer is that the body of Christ in America will awake with holy boldness, a boldness content neither with silence nor mere words but that backs up those words with action and results.” – Frank R. Wolf

Philippians 3:10-11; To Know Christ

“I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, ¹¹ and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.”

“I want to know Christ.”  If you are looking for a good New Year’s Resolution, there it is.  The older I get, the more I realize that knowing Christ is not my primary desire.  I want to do things for Christ.  I want to learn more about Christ.  I want blessings from Christ.  I want to become more like Christ, or at least less sinful.  I even want to be obedient to Christ. 

While there is nothing wrong with that list, they put other things – good things – ahead of a growing, intimate relationship with Christ.  I am beginning to realize that part of me would rather have religion than a relationship.  Religion is so much easier: do that, don’t do this, make sure you are on the right side of the bell curve and you are good to go.  Relationship is a little messier and much less defined.

This is a truth that has challenged me for years: you can do all sorts of things for Jesus without ever knowing Him.  Matthew 7:21-23 speaks clearly to that:

“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. ²² Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ ²³ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’

Religion leads to self-righteousness, judgment, bitterness and ultimately death.  But relationship is where you find love, joy, peace, and intimacy – it is well worth the work! 

Perhaps, like me, you need to reorder your priorities.  As we get closer to Christmas, spend more energy getting to know Jesus through quiet times in prayer, worship, and studying His word.  You may need to step back from a commitment or two to do that – and that is okay. 

We let the urgent overshadow the important; it is time to make the import urgent.  Start today!

“It is the things that are right and noble and good from the natural standpoint that keep us back from God’s best.” – Oswald Chambers

Philippians 3:10-11; Dying to Self

“I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, ¹¹ and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.”

“Everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die.”  You may remember that line from a David Crowder song a few years ago.  I believe it is a pretty accurate statement.  We want the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow but we don’t necessarily want to chase the leprechaun to find it. 

This plays out in our lives in lots of different ways:

• I want to learn to play the piano…but I won’t commit to practice or pay for lessons. 
• I really need a new car…but I won’t cut back on my spending to save money. 
• I desperately want to get in shape…but I don’t want to change my eating habits or work out.

This plays out in our spiritual lives as well:

• My heart’s desire is to have an intimate relationship with Jesus…but I won’t discipline myself to spend quality time with Him.
• I want my friend to know Christ…but I don’t want to risk offending her to bring up spiritual things.
• I need to break a certain sin that has a hold on me…but I don’t want to share it so others can pray for me or sacrifice the time to pray and fast.

I believe it is human nature to want a shortcut, to get a result without going through the process.  The majority of us are lazy and undisciplined by nature.  Why is it so hard to wake up early to spend time with the Lord?  Because we would rather sleep.  Why is it next to impossible to eat a healthy diet?  Because we like to eat junk.  As I write this I am eating handfuls of Puppy Chow, aka, Muddy Buddies; Chex cereal dipped in peanut butter and dunked in powdered sugar.  It’s one of my favorites, but definitely not conducive to a healthy lifestyle.
We’ll continue with this next week, but until then, Paul was not afraid of the process to become like Christ.  His desire was to know Christ, to be acquainted with his suffering and death so that He might also experience the resurrection as well. 

Paul knew that to get the result you HAVE to go through the process.  You cannot have resurrection until death has occurred; both physically and spiritually.  Instead of dodging that truth, Paul embraced it.  Have you embraced it as well?

“Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” – John 12:24

Philippians 3:7-9 III; In Jesus

“But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith.”

There is so much in this passage that I can’t leave it just yet!  Today I want to talk about the phrase, “that I may gain Christ and be found in him”.  The phrase “to gain Christ” is in contrast to “consider everything a loss” – a well-worded phrase.  Christ is not “gained” by giving everything away – He is gained through grace by faith alone.  But once we have Christ we discover that Christ IS gain and everything else is loss. 

“To be found in him,” or “in Christ” has become church-speak at its finest.  We kind of know what it means, but not really.  Being “in Christ” implies a complete reliance and dependency on Him.  Think of Wren before she was born, Wren was literally “in Lynda” and completely dependent upon Lynda for sustenance, protection, housing and everything else. 

Do you realize that you are dependent on Jesus for absolutely everything?  In the physical realm: the next breath you take, your next heartbeat, your next thought, the earth’s next rotation, that photosynthesis is occurring – all of that is dependent upon Jesus.  In the spiritual realm: grace, mercy, forgiveness, sanctification, justification, glorification, righteousness, prayers on our behalf, advocating for us before the Father – everything!

We are righteous in the eyes of the Father not because we worked really hard and were super disciplined, but because Christ gave us His righteousness.  This is called imputed righteousness, we don’t earn it or grow into it; it is His righteousness that becomes ours at salvation.  We wear His righteousness like a cloak that completely covers us – we are in Him.

One last picture, when God flooded the earth, the only people to survive were the people who were in the ark.  Only those IN the ark survived God’s judgment.  Which is a perfect illustration of Christ; only those IN Christ will survive God’s judgment.  “In the ark” really helps me picture “in Christ”. You are either floating along, safe in the ark or not; just as you are either in Christ or not.

How about you?  Is Jesus your only hope for…everything?  Or as we talked last week, are you still trying to earn your forgiveness, to pay your own way, or to put God in your debt?  Are your decisions today placing you more firmly in Christ, or are they drawing you out of Christ?  Good questions to ponder…

“Christ is not valued at all unless He is valued above all.” – Augustine

Philippians 3:7-9; Balance Sheet

“But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith.”

Paul was an achiever, maybe even an over-achiever.  He was probably president of his senior class, member of every club and committee, and voted most likely to become High Priest.  He spent his life climbing the religious ladder, reached the top, and realized that the religious ladder didn’t reach God.  Actually, Paul didn’t realize that – Jesus had to get his attention.  Paul remained blind to the truth until Christ blinded him.

At some level, we all need to be knocked in the dirt by Jesus to break us from our performance-based faith.  That term is a bit oxymoronic – if it is “performance-based”, it isn’t much of a faith – but I think you know what I mean.  When Paul emerged from his hotel room after Ananias laid hands on him to restore his sight; Paul was a new man.  I often wonder what conversations Christ had with Paul during those sightless, but insightful days.

Whatever else happened, we know that the direction of Paul’s life changed.  He went from persecuting Jesus to preaching Jesus.  Paul looked at all of his hard-earned accomplishments that had allowed him to rise through the ranks of Judaism and he tossed them in the trash.  All his gain he now considered loss – a waste of time.  He lost all things to gain the one thing that mattered: Jesus.

Does that sound familiar?  Jesus told a story about a man who found a treasure in a field.  He went home, sold all he had, returned and purchased the field.  Ditto for the pearl of great price.  When you find the only thing that matters, the only logical thing is to give up whatever it takes, even everything you have, to acquire it.

Have you realized that Jesus is the ONLY thing that matters?  Or are you still chasing after things that you think will bring you happiness or peace or approval or whatever it is that your soul desperately needs?  By the way, what you are chasing is probably the very thing that is getting in the way of your relationship with Jesus.

Because of Christ, we don’t have to be an achiever – in fact, we cannot be an achiever.  We cannot achieve anything when Christ has already achieved everything for us on the cross.  Compared to the work of Christ, our good works are good only for the trash.  And that is a good thing!

“(Paul’s) balance-sheet has on one side ‘all things lost,’ on the other ‘Christ gained,’ and that is profitable trading.” – Alexander MacLaren

PS - In and of themselves, things (success, finances, relationships, accomplishments, etc.) are not bad.  Things become bad when you place your value and worth in them instead of in Christ.  Our souls will never be satisfied until Christ is the most important thing in our lives.  The world is too much with us…

Philippians 3:7-9; Accomplishments

“But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith.”

Last week Paul told us about his boast-worthy accomplishments.  A very impressive list too.  In today’s vernacular it would sound something like:

“I was raised in the church, my dad was a deacon and my mom taught Sunday school and sang in the choir.  I was baptized at 9 years old, active in the youth group, went on mission trips, and was a leader in my college ministry, I helped with the poor and other charities, started bible studies in my dorm room, graduated from seminary and worked for a para-church organization after graduation.”

Like Paul’s list, these are all very good things.  You should be involved in the church and help with the poor and be a leader.  But the million dollar question is this: Deep down, do you do these things to earn God’s approval?  Do you feel you NEED to do them or God will be angry or disappointed?  Do you draw your self-worth and identity from the things you do?

You can do all the right things for all the wrong reasons.  Relationship with Christ is not about what we do for Him, it’s about what Christ has already done for us.  We are saved by grace, sustained by grace, and one day will be glorified completely because of grace.  We cannot earn it and we cannot pay it back.  We are totally, completely, utterly and absolutely dependent upon the grace of God for everything…and I mean EVERYTHING!

Paul looked at his accomplishments, his diplomas and degrees and said, “They are garbage.”  The Greek word for garbage means literally, “waste thrown to dogs, like filthy scraps of garbage (table-scraps, dung, muck, sweepings); refuse, what is good-for-nothing except to be discarded.” Our accomplishments apart from Christ are just that: waste thrown to dogs.

I challenge you to dive deep into your motivation for serving Christ.  Are you working to earn God’s approval or are you serving because God has already approved you?  Freedom, joy and peace are the byproduct of serving out of love; bitterness, fatigue and resentment are byproducts of working out of obligation.  Which of those sound more like your life?

And honestly, I operate out of both…often in the same day. I am wildly inconsistent in this area.  But that is okay – God’s grace covers that too.  We’ll dig into this passage a little more over the next couple of weeks, but a quick summary: cling to Christ, not your accomplishments.

“All outward things, unless He work in them and by them, are in vain.” – John Wesley

Philippians 3:4-6; Jumping

“…Though I myself have reasons for such confidence.  If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eight day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church, as for righteousness based on the law, faultless.”

Image you lived in Hawaii – if you are like me, you may have often imagined that.  Now imagine that one of the volcanos on your island was in danger of erupting.  Not just a little eruption with some ash and lava, but a cataclysmic eruption; think Krakatoa, Mt. St. Helens, and Pompeii rolled into one.  At that point your only hope for survival is to get off the island and to California. 

So you figure, “I’ve always been a really good jumper”, so you start working out.  Squats, lunges, box jumps, P90X in the morning and Insanity at night.  Others are practicing with you, but you can jump further than all of them.  But you are careful to share your knowledge and techniques, you want to be encouraging.

The day of the eruption arrives and all the jumpers stand on the beach facing California.  As the explosion rocks the island and plumes of smoke shoot into the sky, everyone begins running toward the water.  As they reach the water each person jumps for all they are worth – and land 3 feet, 4 feet, 5 feet into the water. 

But you are the best of the best, you can jump farther than anyone because you are dedicated and fit and talented.  You have completed every workout, watched every video, read every book and even did yoga!  You take off – a picture perfect jump, you are soaring with the birds…and land 8 feet in the water. 

Shocked, you turn around and look at those in the water with you.  Nobody says nice jump.  Nobody says that they wish they had worked as hard as you did.  They all are staring at the wall of rock, ash, and lava rapidly descending upon you and wondering why they didn’t just get on the plane that would have carried them safely to California.

A ridiculous scenario isn’t it?  Who would think they could jump from Hawaii to California?  Well, who would think they could be good enough to attain the perfect righteousness of God based on their own merit? 

That is what Paul is discussing in this passage; the utter foolishness of propping yourself up according to your works.  Do you ever do that?  Or more accurately, how often do you do that? 

Something to contemplate until next time.

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.” – Ephesians 2:8-9