The Gospel in Philippians 3:12

Paul was no slacker. The apostle who wrote the vast majority of the books within the New Testomony appears by no means to have performed something midway. We see that profoundly in Philippians 3, the place he describes the worth he paid to observe Christ: “I rely all the pieces as loss due to the surpassing value of figuring out Christ Jesus my Lord … that by any means potential I’ll attain the resurrection from the useless” (Phil. 3:8, 11). In his discipleship, he made an unmitigated dedication—and he caught to it.

Paul’s instance sure units a excessive bar. What a aid we really feel, then, once we come to the subsequent verse: “Not that I’ve already obtained this or am already good” (Phil. 3:12)! If we cease at verse 11, we is perhaps tempted to assume our hope rests on having a zeal like Paul’s. Some hope that might be! However the apostle gently reminds us that even all his zeal is just not sufficient. As an alternative, he rejoices in the one certain hope: “I press on to make it my very own, as a result of Christ Jesus has made me his personal” (v. 12). Or, because the NIV places it, “I press on to clutch that for which Christ Jesus took maintain of me.”

Finally, Christian religion is just not a query of women and men reaching out and taking maintain of God. The Gospel is sweet information a couple of God who reaches out and takes maintain of us. Like infants, we might eagerly grasp Him again, however it’s His power and His initiative—not ours—that attracts us shut.

Jesus Takes Maintain of Us Personally

In his life-changing encounter on highway to Damascus, Paul himself, who had been an enemy of the Gospel, heard a voice from heaven calling him by his Hebrew identify: “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” (Acts 9:4; 22.7; 26:14). He was not looking for Jesus—however in His mercy, Jesus reached out and grasped him within the midst of his insurrection. That’s what He does for us as properly! With out His laying maintain of us, we might stay strangers to Him, “having no hope and with out God on the earth” (Eph. 2:12).

The angle of women and men in faith so typically is “I can deal with this. I’m self-sufficient. I’ll discover phrases of empowerment from someplace, and I can cope with this.” Previous to his conversion, that was actually Paul’s angle, and he had all of the marks on his spiritual report card to go together with it: “circumcised on the eighth day, of the folks of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the legislation, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness underneath the legislation, innocent” (Phil. 3:5–6). He didn’t but notice his labors to earn favor with God have been really in useless.

Christianity is just not a do-it-yourself venture. The very best of our efforts depart us nonetheless separated from God. As Isaiah 64:6 says, “All our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.” If we might “do it ourselves,” there would have been no motive for the incarnation and no goal in Jesus’ dying, resurrection, and ascension. God the Son got here to do for us what we couldn’t do ourselves, residing an ideal life and dying to take the penalty of sin in order that we may very well be His forgiven folks. To imagine in Christ is to imagine this: Once we might do nothing to avoid wasting ourselves, He took maintain of us.

Jesus Takes Maintain of Us Completely

Real religion doesn’t start with our efforts—and, after all, it doesn’t go on by them both. Paul has mentioned earlier, in Philippians 1:6, “He who started a very good work in you’ll carry it to completion on the day of Jesus Christ.”

In Christ, we don’t dwell questioning if the misdeeds of immediately have snatched us from God’s hand (John 10:28–29). The one who took maintain of us additionally carries us on, with all the identical energy and goal with which He took maintain of us within the first place. The energizing energy of God that redeems us from corruption and fills us with His Spirit is just not there in matches and begins however sustains us throughout life’s journey. 

Christianity is just not a do-it-yourself venture. The very best of our efforts depart us nonetheless separated from God. .

In theological phrases, this actuality is usually known as the perseverance of the saints, however one other time period could also be extra useful: the preservation of the saints. It’s God’s faithfulness, not ours, that lays the muse upon which our ongoing faithfulness exists. We persevere as a result of He preserves us. He’s constant amidst all our inconsistency. This doctrine leaves no room for a believer’s smugness. He took maintain of us.

Jesus Takes Maintain of Us Purposefully

Regardless of these realities, Paul nonetheless believed there was an element for him to play. God took maintain of Paul, and subsequently, Paul strove to clutch Him: “Forgetting what lies behind and straining ahead to what lies forward, I press on towards the objective for the prize of the upward name of God in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 3:13–14).

God’s plan to redeem us is just not static. It’s not merely to carry us right into a place of forgiveness whereby we will sit down and say, “What a aid! Now I feel I’ll go discover a hill someplace to dwell on, away from all these depraved folks and away from all of the foolish nonsense that surrounds me.”

If we’re going to take pleasure in all the advantages and blessings that God intends for us in Christ, then we’re going to wish to do not forget that we have been saved for a goal.

When God took maintain of Paul, He despatched Ananias to evangelise the Gospel to him. God informed Ananias about Paul, “He’s a selected instrument of mine to hold my identify earlier than the Gentiles and kings and the kids of Israel” (Acts 9:15). Paul tells us that when God takes maintain of us by grace, He does so as a result of “we’re his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God ready beforehand, that we must always stroll in them” (Eph. 2:10).

If we’re going to take pleasure in all the advantages and blessings that God intends for us in Christ, then we’re going to wish to do not forget that we have been saved for a goal: that we’d turn into like Christ—the very factor Paul was striving to do (Phil. 3:10–11).

The Christian life is just not one among resting on our laurels as a result of “Christ Jesus took maintain of me.” No, Christ Jesus took maintain of us in order that we’d dwell for Him in newness of life. With Paul we will say, “I press on to clutch that for which Christ Jesus took maintain of me.” Religion zealously reaches out to clutch Christ—but it all the time rests securely within the robust hand of our Lord.

This text was tailored from the sermon “‘Christ Jesus Took Maintain of Me’” by Alistair Begg.