but what things were gain to me these I counted, on account of Christ, loss.
Paul had just listed the credentials that once made him one of the most respected religious men alive: his birth, his tribe, his training, his zeal, and a blameless record under the law. In one line he moves the whole list into the loss column. What could be worth such a trade?
The items Paul crossed out were not vices. They were advantages any devout person would have envied. One writer explains what changed their value.
All these things were gain to him as a natural man. They would have given him a great place among men. But the moment he saw Christ in glory, he discovered something else. Despite all his religious advantages, he was the chief of sinners, and had come short of the glory of God. He also saw that all blessing depended on Christ and His work. So from then on he counted the things that were gain to him as a natural man as loss for Christ. He was a Hebrew of the Hebrews, and as to the righteousness that is in the law he was blameless. To trust in that any longer would have been to set aside Christ's work by his own works, and to rejoice in himself rather than in Christ.
Christ deals with sins by His sacrifice. What Paul throws away here is something else.
One thing alone had changed it all — he had seen a glorified Christ. Everything he had in the flesh was loss to him from then on. It would place something between him and the Christ of his faith and his desire — the Christ whom he knew. And notice: what he rejects here is not the sins of the flesh, which Christ atones for and abolishes. It is the righteousness of the flesh... The surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus his Lord had eclipsed everything, and turned everything that was not Christ into loss. The stars, as well as the darkness of night, disappear before the sun.
One writer works from an older translation, where Paul's word for gain is plural. His assets are many; what they add up to is one thing.
Notice that "gains" is plural, but "loss" is singular: just one loss, one deprivation — not merely a worthless thing, but a ruinous one. So Paul came to view all these great assets of his. These "gains" were not simply one great loss; they were ruinous. If he held on to them, he would lose his own soul.
Someone might dismiss this as the enthusiasm of a new convert. Paul was still counting the same way at the moment he wrote this letter.
So what did the apostle do with this whole list of advantages in the flesh? It was laid in the grave of Christ. "But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ." Was this what the apostle felt, did, and suffered when he first came to know Christ? It was also what he carried right up to the moment of writing to the Philippians, as strongly as ever. "Indeed," he said, "I count everything as loss."
Deciding something is worthless is one thing. Watching it go is another. Paul did both, and the first made the second bearable.
This counting of all things as loss was not just an attitude of his mind. He adds, "For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things." It is one thing to count all things as loss. It is quite another to really suffer the loss of it all. The apostle knew both. He was not shaken when he lost everything, because he had already counted everything as loss. And in Christ he had infinite gain, compared with whom all else is rubbish.
This is not self-denial done to earn something. The order matters.
When the heart has found its rest in Christ and is satisfied, it finds it easy to turn down what does not suit Him. We do not refuse in order to gain something; we refuse because we already have Christ. This is the lesson of Philippians 3:7-8.
- Sight — one sight of Christ in glory changed the whole valuation. Everything that was not Christ became loss, the way stars vanish before the sun.
- Sum — many gains, but one loss. His assets added up to a single ruinous deprivation, and holding them would have cost him his soul.
- Substitution — Paul throws away his righteousness here, not his sins. Trusting his own record would set aside Christ's work by his own works.
- Sustained — this was no first flush of enthusiasm. As he wrote this letter he was still counting the same way, with the whole list laid in Christ's grave.
- Satisfied — he could refuse the rest because he already had Christ. When he truly lost it all, he was not shaken. He had written it off long before.
But surely I count also all things to be loss on account of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, on account of whom I have suffered the loss of all, and count them to be filth, that I may gain Christ;
Paul lists every credential that once made him somebody — his birth, his tribe, his religion. He writes the whole list off as loss, and the verse asks two questions: what is Christ worth to me, and does that verdict still hold years later?
Verse 7 looked back: "I counted." Verse 8 changes both the tense and the scope.
It was not enough to say, "I counted these things loss long ago" — the national and religious privileges we have been speaking of. Not only did I count them loss when I was first converted; I still count them so. And not only these things — I count all things loss. My social standing, my family, my wealth, my all: all loss, for the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.
That present tense is the hard part, because a first decision is easier than a lasting one.
Suppose a man has just been saved. What does he think about the world? That it has deceived him. Leave him for a while, and his family twines around him, and soon he begins to seek the things of the world. Paul saw Christ on the way to Damascus. He gives up his importance, his standing as a Pharisee, his teaching, everything else, and counts it all as loss that he may win Him. He says "count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ" — present tense, not "counted," which would be far easier.
The phrase is not a compliment about a superior grade of knowledge.
He does not count all things loss because this knowledge ranks higher than other knowledge. He counts them loss because this knowledge surpasses everything else. And the more of that knowledge he gained, the more he longed for more of it; so when we get to verse 10, we hear him cry: "That I may know Him!"
One writer draws the line between knowing what Christ has done and knowing Christ Himself.
It is one thing to know the value of His work, and another to know Himself... I mean a heart acquaintance, a deep, personal intimacy with the Lord; that you should get to know Him as your own. Near the end of his life Paul could say, "I know whom I have believed." That was no shallow or second-hand knowledge, picked up from reports or writings. It came from years of companionship, in summer or winter, when people praised him and when they did not.
The wording here is personal.
Notice that Paul does not say "our Lord." No, it is "my Lord." Outside this letter Paul does not often speak this way, but in this short letter we find it three times: 1:3; 3:8; and 4:19. There is a warmth, a passion here, that we perhaps see nowhere else... I wonder, can we truthfully say, as shown in our daily walk: "my Lord"?
"All things" was not an abstraction. Paul had a long list of things to lose.
As to his associations he was "of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee." He was a citizen of "no obscure city." He was born free — a position many wanted. He had studied under Gamaliel, "a teacher of the law held in honor by all the people." Truly a record the flesh could be proud of! Yet it was all this, and more — "all things" — which he had counted and still counted as loss.
The word translated "rubbish" is blunt. One writer traces it to words meaning "to cast to the dogs," and to an old papyrus describing bones thrown out to the dogs (G C Willis). If that is what Paul's past is worth, talk of heroic self-denial misses the point.
When Paul viewed his old advantages in the light of Christ and of the glory he was heading for, he counted them as rubbish. Who would ever think the earth at its best worth looking back on, when they have the glory before their eyes? Who would call taking out the rubbish a great sacrifice?
Paul already belonged to Christ, so the phrase needs care. One writer says it looks forward, not to a second-stage experience.
Did he not have Christ already? He did. He was in Him. The apostle does not mean that he reaches out, as some teach, for a "deeper life" experience or something like it. He had perfect assurance of his standing before God in Christ. His wish to win Christ, to gain Christ, is his longing to have Christ in glory in actual fact. Like a runner who has no eyes for his surroundings but keeps his eye on the goal, the believer looks to the glorified Christ and presses forward.
- Then — at conversion Paul counted his privileges loss. Verse 8 calls that reckoning too small and widens it to "all things."
- Now — the tense is present. Paul still counts, years later. A good start is common; a lasting verdict is rare.
- Why — not a higher grade of knowledge, but knowledge that surpasses everything. It grows into one cry: "That I may know Him!"
- Whose — "my Lord," not "our Lord": personal possession, the warmth found three times in this short letter.
- Worth — he calls what he dropped rubbish, fit for the dogs. No one calls taking out the rubbish a sacrifice. Ahead lies Christ Himself in glory.
and that I may be found in him, not having my righteousness, which [would be] on the principle of law, but that which is by faith of Christ, the righteousness which [is] of God through faith,
Paul has just thrown away every religious advantage he once counted as gain. Verse 9 says what he wants instead: a place in Christ, and a righteousness that is not his own but God's.
Each phrase of the verse marks off one side of the contrast from the other.
The contrast in this ninth verse is striking: "my own righteousness" set against "the righteousness which is of God." The first, if anyone could reach it, would be "of the law." It would be something purely human, measured by the standard the law demands. The other is the righteousness in which we stand as the fruit of the gospel. It is "of God" — that is, divine, in contrast to human. It is "through the faith of Christ" — that is, it is available to us because of His intervention and His work, which the gospel presents to faith. And it is "by faith" — that is, we receive it on the principle of faith and not on the principle of works of law.
Notice what Paul refuses. It is not his failures he sets aside here.
He does not say "not having his sins," but his righteousness. Christ has obtained the glory. The law would have been his righteousness down here. But doing what I ought to do would never give me a title to be in the same glory as the Son of God. Why should it?
Paul had a blameless record under the law. Seeing Christ in glory did something more than cancel his sins.
He possessed the righteousness which was of God by faith. What was that righteousness worth for which he had laboured, now that he possessed the all-perfect righteousness which God gave by faith? Not sins alone were put away: human righteousness was made worthless by it.
The words "of God" mean more than God approving this righteousness or handing it out. It is His own, and that is why it stands far above anything the law could produce.
Legal righteousness is what everyone under law is bound to render to God. The righteousness which is God's, and of God on the ground of faith, is of pure grace — as much higher and better as God is above man, yes, above what man ought to be. That was human; this is divine righteousness. The law never called a righteous man to die for sinners, still less a divine person. It never claimed His resurrection. Still less did it claim to raise Him again for their justification. … In short, the law sought righteousness from man. It made God only the receiver, and so far passive, with man seen as the active party. In the gospel it is the opposite: God has His rightful and better place, active in grace through righteousness to eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. The gospel reveals His righteousness.
Some argue that God's righteousness means Christ kept the law in our place. Darby answers that Paul sets faith against law, not law-keeping done by someone else.
So I find an opposite principle to law brought in. The thing that justifies us stands in careful contrast with law: God's righteousness by faith, set against man's — our own by law. Christ's keeping it for others is never hinted at, nor supposed to be possible. Righteousness by law is always treated as our own, and rejected, as in Philippians 3:9.
"Be found" points forward to a coming day.
Only in that day will this be "found" fully and perfectly true of the apostle, as of every child of God. Then its perfection will appear as never before.
Yet that day shapes the journey now.
The true bearing of the passage is that from the first, faith fixes its eye steadily on the end of the journey. "That I may win Christ, and be found in him" — where not a trace of self remains, but all will be Christ, and nothing but Christ. This is the righteousness whose source is in God. It comes by faith of Christ, not through the law — which of course would have man's righteousness if it could.
Paul once took pride in his record. Now he sees what it was worth.
How proud Saul had been of his legal righteousness! As far as the righteousness of the law went, he was blameless. No one could point a finger at him. Now he seeks the righteousness of God in Christ. In the light of Christ's glory his garment of legal righteousness looks like nothing but filthy rags, something to be rid of. Instead he has the best robe, the one God provides. He is found in Christ before God, where no charge of guilt can be brought against him.
- Righteousness, not sins. What Paul gives up here is his righteousness, not his sins — his best record, not his worst.
- Two standards. One righteousness is human, measured by the law. The other is divine: God gives it through Christ, and faith receives it.
- God's own. It is not just righteousness God approves or supplies. It is His own — as far above what man owes as God is above man.
- Not by proxy. Paul calls righteousness by law "my own" and refuses it. Faith stands against law; it does not lean on someone else's law-keeping.
- Found in Him. The end is a place where no trace of self remains and no charge can stand. That day will show it in full; faith fixes on it from the first step.
to know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death,
Paul has just called everything he once counted as gain a loss. Verse 10 says what he wants instead. The surprise is that a man who already knew Christ still speaks of knowing Him as something ahead of him.
One writer traces the opening words back to an earlier phrase. The verse, he says, is about the road Paul walks, not the goal at the end of it.
The beginning of verse 10 connects back to "Christ Jesus my Lord" in verse 8. The words in between are a parenthesis. The apostle says, "Indeed, I count" — not only counted in the past, but still count — "everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord." … Verse 9 goes on to the future … whereas verse 10 gives us the apostle's desires in view of his path through this world.
Everything in the verse hangs on one small word.
He says "that I may know HIM". Not only to know about Him, but to know HIM; the pronoun is what gives these statements their point. "The power of His resurrection", "share His sufferings", "becoming like Him in His death". Not only death, but "His death".
One writer meets the obvious objection. Paul already knew Christ, so why ask to know Him?
Of course he already knew Him. But the knowledge of Christ has no end. Every bit of closeness He gives us only sharpens the desire to know Him more fully. We shall grow in the knowledge of Himself throughout eternity. But why does "the power of His resurrection" follow? Because it detaches us from this scene and brings us to His side, where He now is. That is the only place we can know Him now.
The order of the clauses matters. Paul does not ask for resurrection power to make life easier. He asks for it so he can go further into Christ's rejection.
"That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection" — that is, the power of the place where He has joined us to Himself. He seeks this not so that peace may be more perfect, or any blessing better enjoyed, but so that we may go further down the path of rejection with Him here, and "share His sufferings." We shall never know such fellowship in the eternal glory. If we miss it now, we miss it for ever. … There is a fellowship of His sufferings sweeter even than the fellowship of His glory. David's mighty men were never so close to him in the glories of the kingdom as when he was a hunted man in the hills.
Not every part of what Christ endured can be shared.
One side of Christ's death was His alone: He suffered for sins, and no one could follow Him there. But many devoted believers have followed their Master into a martyr's death, so that they will come out like Him in resurrection from among the dead.
The last clause is not a single event but something under way. The grammar itself carries the point.
The word translated "being conformed" is passive and present in tense. It tells of something being done to us, a process going on all the time. As we gaze on our suffering Saviour, we are conformed to His death little by little. It is the same as when we gaze on the glory of the Lord and are changed into the same image.
The same writer shows what that looks like day to day:
Anyone who truly shares Christ's sufferings cannot enjoy the world's pleasures. He cannot settle down to a life of ease and luxury in it.
Commentators also differ over one phrase. Is "the power of His resurrection" something known now, or something reached later? One reads it as inward and present, with the suffering side as the practical part:
Until the Lord comes, we can know the power of His resurrection only in an inward, spiritual way. But sharing His sufferings and being made like Him in His death are very practical things.
Another says Paul already had that inward power, and was reaching past it:
He wanted to know the power of His resurrection. Many think he meant a present power of resurrection in his soul, but he already knew that. He was risen with Christ and knew it. He was not thinking of a state to be reached down here. He meant the thing that will put him in the place where he longs to be.
- Him — The request is for a Person, not information. The pronoun, not the doctrine, carries the weight.
- More — Paul already knew Christ. Every step closer only deepens the hunger, and that growth runs on into eternity.
- Power — Paul asks for resurrection power first. It pulls the heart away from this scene and sets it beside Christ where He is.
- Fellowship — That power is not spent on comfort but on going down into His rejection. His atoning suffering is His alone; His rejection is shareable — and only shareable now.
- Conformed — The last clause is a slow work, done in us as we gaze at a suffering Saviour. It shows in what we will and will not settle for here.
if any way I arrive at the resurrection from among [the] dead.
Paul has just said he wants to know Christ, share His sufferings, and become like Him in His death. This verse names where that road ends, and it raises two questions: why from the dead rather than of the dead, and why does Paul sound unsure?
Commentators say the older English wording blurs something important. This verse is not about a rising shared by everyone.
In common Bibles it reads "the resurrection of the dead," but I have no hesitation in saying that this is a complete mistake. According to the best authorities, the true and only meaning is, "if by any means I might attain to the resurrection out of (or from among) the dead." It may seem to some only a slight change. But if we want to know the mind of God, it makes a weighty difference. "Resurrection from the dead" implies that the rest of the dead remain in their graves. It points to a resurrection not common to all mankind, bad and good, but belonging only to those who are dear to God.
The word Paul uses here is unusual. It points to God's own pleasure in the one He raises.
The word for resurrection here in Philippians 3:11 is a special one in the Greek. It is found nowhere else in the New Testament… What was Christ's resurrection? God raised Him from the dead because His delight was in Him, because of His perfect righteousness, and because He glorified Him. And it is the same with us. Resurrection is the expression of God's satisfaction in those raised; it is His seal on Christ's work.
Many readers hear hesitation in these words. Commentators say they leave the route open, not the outcome.
It is a resurrection from among the dead, a resurrection after the pattern and example of Christ's resurrection. As for the expression "if by any means," it does not imply any doubt. It simply declares that the apostle was quite ready to reach that glorious goal by any route his Lord and Master might choose.
Paul names the goal he was ready to lose everything to reach.
The apostle's great desire was to reach Christ in the glory. With this in view he was ready to be conformed to Christ's death — to die to all that Christ had died to. He would accept even a martyr's death, if that was the way to reach the blessed condition of "the resurrection from among the dead."
Some read the verse as though only outstanding Christians reach this resurrection. Commentators reject that, and point to the word behind "attain," which means simply to arrive.
There is no such thing as a special or select resurrection of a certain company of believers. Scripture speaks of only two resurrections: first, that of the just when the Lord comes; then, when time itself is over, the resurrection of the unjust to judgment… It is for them as for Him a resurrection from among the dead, which is simply what Paul refers to in Philippians 3:11. It belongs to all who are His, and depends altogether on Christ, and in no way on the condition of the believer… "If by any means I may arrive at" — the word is not the one for attainment — "resurrection from among the dead."
Commentators differ on what "attain" adds here. One reading takes it as pointing to how Paul would rise, not when.
Paul is not saying that God would raise him before the rest of the saints. That is not in view. He would rise with all the rest of the saints at the coming of the Lord, but he would rise as one who had given his life for the testimony… We know that all saints will rise at the coming of the Lord. Paul, though, is looking at it as a prize to be won.
Certainty about the end did not slow Paul down. It made him run.
He was like a well-trained athlete running in an obstacle race with a mighty enthusiasm for reaching the goal. The earlier verses have told us how he had flung away seeming advantages as hindrances to his course. These verses tell us that no obstacle would hold him back. He would tear his way through the barbed wire of suffering and plunge into the watercourse of death, if that was the way to reach his goal.
- Out from among. The verse speaks of resurrection from among the dead — one that leaves the rest in their graves.
- God's delight. God raised Christ because He delighted in Him. That same resurrection is His seal of satisfaction on all who are Christ's.
- No doubt. "If by any means" is not doubt about arriving. It is willingness to come by whatever road the Lord appoints.
- No elite. This resurrection belongs to all who are Christ's. It rests on Him, not on how well a believer has done.
- Full speed. Paul's settled hope did not relax him. It turned him into a runner who would push through suffering and death to reach the goal.
Not that I have already obtained [the prize], or am already perfected; but I pursue, if also I may get possession [of it], seeing that also I have been taken possession of by Christ [Jesus].
Paul had just listed everything he once counted as gain and written it off as loss. Now he stops any reader from thinking he had arrived. The verse holds two things together. Paul admits something is still missing. He is also sure that Christ took hold of him for a definite purpose. So what is that purpose, and what is left to reach?
One writer says the word translated "perfect" here should be read as "perfected." That one change removes the clash with verse 15:
"Perfect" in verse 12 should be "perfected"; and this means, as the context shows, conformity to Christ, in body as well as morally, at the resurrection from among the dead. Then the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, will change the body of our humiliation to be like the body of His glory... and we will be in our "perfected" condition. But when he says in verse 15, "Let those of us who are mature think this way," the meaning is quite different. The word used there is the one Hebrews 5:14 renders as "full age"... In other words, it means mature Christians.
The older translation this writer used has "perfect" in both verses, which is where the apparent contradiction starts. The ESV keeps "perfect" in verse 12 and says "mature" in verse 15. So Paul is not denying maturity here. He is still waiting for the changed body of the resurrection.
Older translations say Christ "apprehended" Paul. One writer explains what that word means:
He is not speaking here of any mental apprehension of things. As far as I know, the only place this word survives in modern English is the language of the police court. We all know what it means when a policeman apprehends a man. It is then: If I may lay hold of that for which Christ has laid hold of me. What did He lay hold of you and me for? Nothing short of being with Himself and like Him in the glory of God forever.
The verse describes a grip in two directions: Christ's grip on Paul, and Paul's reach for the same thing. One writer notes how completely the two aims match:
As the simplest reader will see, the apostle's mind was set with all his energy on the very end Christ had in view in "taking possession" of His servant. Every day he walked toward that goal with steady care. It was, we may say, his one business, and by grace he let nothing interfere with it.
Paul had a record of service most would be proud of. One commentator reads the verse as his refusal to treat any of it as the finish line:
Whatever he might accomplish for the Lord on earth, that was not his goal... Paul took no pride at all in any of these "attainments," as people would call them. In fact he had not yet reached what he wanted... Christ Jesus had laid hold of him for eternal glory. How could he settle down, content with some earthly attainment?
Missing something sounds like a weakness. One writer turns it around: the gap is what keeps Paul moving.
It is beautiful to realise that the very thing he is lacking now, as we look at him here, is the very thing which makes him a pilgrim and a racer. It is an Object outside himself, something he has not yet attained. Its glory draws him, and he gives all his energy to pressing on toward it... A racer does not look at the road on each side. He looks at what is before him.
Even the sentence structure carries the strain of a man in motion:
He does not say what it is he has not yet obtained. He is running a race, and has no time or breath for a word he can do without. Notice the urgency all through this passage. The sentences are short. Some seem unfinished, as the apostle strains to press on.
One writer applies Paul's confession to anyone tempted to claim they have arrived:
The people with the largest measure of sanctification — in other words, those who are most Christ-like — are the last people in the world to say so. CHRIST, and not attainments, fills the vision of their souls.
- Seized — "Apprehended" is arrest language. Christ laid hold of Paul, and He did it for one definite purpose.
- For glory — Christ seized him for one thing: a body made like His own at the resurrection. Nothing on earth is that "perfected" state.
- So he reaches — Paul chases the very thing Christ already grasped him for. Christ's purpose and Paul's aim are one.
- So nothing stops him — The goal is eternal glory. No achievement on the way is big enough to stop at.
- So he never boasts — The gap he admits is not failure but fuel. Those nearest Christ are the last to claim they have arrived.
Brethren, *I* do not count to have got possession myself; but one thing -- forgetting the things behind, and stretching out to the things before,
Paul was already a veteran servant of Christ. Even so, he says he has not yet laid hold of anything. He claims one thing only: the past dropped, the whole man straining ahead.
Older Bibles say "apprehended" here. The word means to seize, not to understand. One writer shows where it still lives in everyday speech:
He is not speaking here of any mental grasp of things. He uses a word that survives today, so far as I know, only in the language of the police court. We know what it means when a policeman apprehends a man. So it means: that I may lay hold of that for which Christ has laid hold of me. What did He lay hold of you and me for? Nothing short of being with Himself and like Him in the glory of God for ever.
Paul's refusal to count himself as having arrived says what he valued most:
He was a great apostle. But there was something greater to attain than being an apostle: the "prize of the upward call of God." There was something before his soul which he valued above his service. He desired that he, the chief of sinners, might arrive at the knowledge of Christ. "That I may know Him," he cried, "and the power of His resurrection." He could not rest satisfied short of this attainment. It was poor wretched stuff within him that he had to work with, but he was still pressing forward.
Paul's aim showed in the smallest parts of his day:
Now, Paul's one object was Christ. Whether he stayed put or travelled, Christ was his object. Whether he preached the gospel or gathered sticks, whether he planted churches or made tents, Christ was his object. By night and by day, at home or abroad, by sea or by land, alone or in company, in public or private, he could say, "One thing I do."
That single aim carries a warning for the rest of us:
This one aim goes far to explain the amazing power and fruitfulness of his life and ministry. The weakness and lack of fruit that so often marks our lives and ministry can largely be traced to the opposite in ourselves: lack of purpose and concentration. We fritter away time and energy on a hundred and one things of no particular value, instead of the one thing that commands us.
Commentators differ over what Paul is forgetting. One writer takes it as his own past progress, not his sins:
The Apostle does not mean that one ought to overlook, or that he did overlook, his past sins and failures. On the contrary, it is most evil to forget what Christ has suffered for our sakes, and also the many ways in which we have dishonoured God. A man can rejoice so much the more in the Lord if he judges his failure fully… So the Apostle speaks of "forgetting what lies behind." He does not mean his failure. He means his points of progress, the steps or stages in which he had advanced in the knowledge of Christ.
Another writer applies the forgetting to sins and sorrows alike. He also draws out the force of the word behind "straining forward":
"A RUNNING HOUND NEVER LOOKS AT ITS TAIL."… There is a volume of wisdom in it. Notice that the straining forward in the verse is the word that describes a hound at full stretch. But the Christian who keeps looking back is like a hound that has stopped running. Brooding over the past and mourning over his failure, he feeds on his own tail. Nothing spoils a man's spiritual energy like brooding on the past. Nothing hinders him in the heavenly race like this. It does not matter whether he broods over his sins or his sorrows — the brooding itself is fatal to all spiritual growth and strength.
One writer finds the secret in what Paul still does not have:
It is beautiful to realize that what he lacks now, as we look at him here, is the very thing that makes him a pilgrim and a racer. It is an Object outside himself, something he has not yet attained. Because of its glory for him, he gives his whole energy to pressing on… He leaves behind more than the world. He leaves himself behind too, whatever he might be up to the present. It is Christ before him that gives oneness of purpose and character to his present life.
- Seized. Christ laid hold of Paul first, and for a definite end — to have him with Himself and like Himself in glory. Everything after that is Paul reaching for what already holds him.
- Unfinished. The apostle who achieved most claimed least. He rated knowing Christ above his own service, and could not rest short of it.
- One. Preaching or tent-making, the object never changed. Scattered time and energy explain fruitless lives.
- Behind. Paul drops his own past progress, not his failures. Brooding, over sin or sorrow, stops the runner dead.
- Before. An Object ahead pulls the Christian on — Christ, who gives one purpose to the whole present life.
I pursue, [looking] towards [the] goal, for the prize of the calling on high of God in Christ Jesus.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
As many therefore as [are] perfect, let us be thus minded; and if ye are any otherwise minded, this also God shall reveal to you.
Paul has just said he has not yet arrived. Now he speaks to "those of us who are mature." Three verses earlier he refused that same word for himself. The verse holds two things at once: one settled standard for the mature, and patience with believers who see things differently.
Older translations read "perfect" here, where the ESV reads "mature." One commentator shows why this does not clash with verse 12: the word carries two senses.
He speaks of himself and others also as "perfect"; but there is no contradiction of what went before. In verse 12 he denied that he had yet received the prize or been made perfect. He meant that he was still in the conflict and not yet in a resurrection condition. But when he urges here, "as many as are perfect," he means those who are grown up in the faith. They stand firmly in the Christian position, and they enter into it by faith and spiritual understanding. He means a Christian who is not a baby, but full grown. Even now we can grow into the full knowledge of the mind of God, and this comes through having Christ in glory before us as the personal object of our souls.
So what marks a mature believer? It is the truth he has laid hold of about his own position.
The "perfect" ones in Philippians 3:15 are those who have laid hold of the truth that they are risen and glorified with Christ on high. They not only know the forgiveness of sins; they grasp the higher truth of resurrection in Christ. And it is as these we are called to walk. The only perfection the apostle has before him is to be like Christ in glory.
The call to "think this way" points back to all Paul has just described about his own race. He sets it out as ordinary Christian life, not as a rare life story.
The apostle sets it before us as normal Christian experience, not just something to admire in Paul: "let us, as many as are perfect." ... "Think this way" — have no other mind and no other aim than the one set before us in the experience of this devoted servant. "And if in anything you think otherwise" — he will not lower the standard to anyone's poor grasp of it — "God will reveal that also to you."
But room to think otherwise has a limit. One commentator draws a line between the foundation and what is built on it.
There may be many points of detail about the building above the foundation, and on these believers may not see eye to eye. Here we have to be patient with one another while we seek a clearer understanding. That is the spirit of the word, "if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you" (Phil. 3:15). But there must be no hesitation at all when the foundations are at stake.
Paul does not leave the slower believer where he is. He does not force him to agree either. He hands the matter over to God.
If some think otherwise, the apostle does not encourage them to stay that way. He does not demand that they fall in with his thoughts either. He turns their eyes to God, who will reveal the truth to those who want it. Yet whatever level our faith has reached, let us act fully on the truth God has made known to our souls. The Word of God measures my own responsibility, not what I see in others.
Until God does that, a difference in light is no reason to love less.
I can walk with one who only knows his redemption in Christ with just the same love, but I look for him to get hold of this also.
The believer who is further on has his own danger. One writer names it, and says when it is strongest.
Our natural tendency is to look down on those less advanced than we are. It shows itself in despising them, or even attacking them, because they do not fall in with what we see to be right. This tendency is strongest when the progress we pride ourselves on is more a matter of knowledge than of real spirituality.
- Full-grown, not finished — "Perfect" here means mature: a Christian who is no longer a baby. The perfection Paul denied in verse 12 is being like Christ in glory, and that waits for resurrection.
- Grown by what grips you — Maturity shows in what has laid hold of you. Not only sins forgiven, but knowing yourself risen with Christ, and walking as such.
- Standard held — Paul asks the mature to share his one mind. He will not lower that standard to fit anyone's smaller grasp of it.
- Room to differ, but not on the foundation — Be patient over details of the building. Where the foundation is at stake, there is no room for hesitation.
- God reveals, so love waits — Paul turns the slower believer toward God instead of forcing him to agree. Walk with him in the same love, and watch the pride that comes with knowing more.
But whereto we have attained, [let us] walk in the same steps.
Paul has just described his own life as a race toward Christ in glory. He has also admitted that not every believer sees things as he does. Verse 16 answers that gap. Whatever light we have reached, we are to hold to it and move on together. Older translations end the verse "let us walk in the same steps," and the writers below explain that wording.
The word Paul chooses is not a general word for living. It comes from the army.
The word we have translated in this way is a special word. It means to walk in line, in single file, and it suggests many people walking together. People used it especially of soldiers marching in file to battle, each keeping step with the other. In the Athenian military oath, a man promised never to desert the soldier he walked with — not the one at his side, but the one whose step set his own pace.
Differences of outlook are no reason to go it alone.
Someone might think I only have to think of myself, and not mind anybody else. But that would not be Christianity at all. Christianity teaches me to think of everybody but myself. In the end you may have to go on alone. But that will only come after you have tried, by every means and resource of faith, to draw the Lord's beloved ones on with you in the path of pressing on to reach Him.
Some translations add a closing line here: "let us mind the same thing." Trench holds that it cannot belong to the verse, "for the case he supposes is that we do not mind the same thing."
Believers are not all at the same stage. That difference does not have to divide them.
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.
This verse has most to say to the believer who has come further. It names a danger in knowing more.
We need to take these two verses very much to heart. They show how the more spiritual and advanced believer should treat those who have reached less than he has. Our natural tendency is to look down on those less advanced than ourselves — to despise them, or even attack them, because they do not match what we see to be right. The tendency is strongest when the advance we pride ourselves on is more a matter of intelligence than of real spirituality.
Truth is not only for the mind. It has to be walked.
"Still," he says, "whatever we have already reached, let us walk in the same steps"; that is, whatever our convictions may be at present, let us act according to those convictions. Let us have truth practical. If we want it to be what truth should be, we must walk in it to make it real.
Walking together does not mean lowering the standard. Paul refuses both extremes — cutting off the weaker and abandoning what he has gained.
So he would not despise any true saint, or withdraw from him, because that one had not reached all that he had. Still, he would not be content to let them rest where they were. Nor, on the other hand, would he give up one bit of what he had reached himself.
Trench adds the practical boundary to the same thought: seek out what we have in common and keep step "as long as it is possible without compromise of the truth."
- Step — the word means marching in file. Each soldier keeps time with the man ahead. The call is for a shared pace, not just shared opinions.
- Together — thinking only of yourself is not Christianity. Use every resource of faith to draw others along before you ever go on alone.
- Distance — one believer may see further down the road than another. Both can still walk the same path in the same direction.
- Danger — the warning falls hardest on those who see further. Their instinct is to despise the slower, most of all when their advance is knowledge rather than real spirituality.
- Practice — truth becomes real when you walk in it. Act on the convictions you already hold, and give up nothing of what you have reached.
Be imitators [all] together of me, brethren, and fix your eyes on those walking thus as you have us for a model;
Paul has just described his own race toward the prize. Now he asks the Philippians to run the same way — which raises a question: how can a man hold himself up as the model without making himself the goal?
The word Paul uses for "imitate" is unusual, and it binds the believers to each other as well as to him.
I think Paul is telling the Philippians (and us) that each one of us should copy him. In 1 Corinthians 11:1 he writes, "Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ." That is the secret. Paul follows Christ and copies Him — 'mimics' Him, if we may say it with reverence. And we are all to be 'joint-imitators' of Paul. This is the only place in the New Testament where we find this word, 'joint-imitator,' and it takes in all the saints. It tells us we are not only to "keep step," but also to "keep rank."
Paul calls them "brothers" as he makes the appeal. He also knew what people should not copy in him:
Paul had no wish to stand before them as the one example of Christian character. Yet he would always remind them of his ways in Christ. Those ways were 'in Christ,' so no one should confuse them with Paul's personal quirks.
Paul is a model, but he is not the goal. He was worth copying because his whole attention rested on Someone else.
When Paul pointed to himself as a man to follow, he had no desire to put himself in the place of Jesus. He showed the example of a man who had no object but this blessed Person. He had set out to follow Him, pressing forward to win Him in glory. So Paul's individuality did not hide the Lord from his brothers. On the contrary, it showed Him as the only object worth following and gaining.
The order of the chapter guards this. Paul sets Christ in glory before them first. Only then does he point them to people on earth.
Notice the order. Paul urges them to fix their eyes on himself and others as models, but he has already set the true goal before them. Paul and the others were not the goal. They were moving towards it. That is why the saints were to fix their eyes on them.
Following a person is dangerous without a boundary. The writers name that boundary.
We have to examine the walk so that we follow it in the right way. No man is altogether a model. So Paul must say of himself, giving us the limit in this: "as I follow Christ." This must bring us to Christ Himself after all, as the one perfect Example for us. At the same time we can see the example of those who are following Him, and take courage from it.
The test is not the leader's reputation but the Word he walks by:
There will always be leaders, and that is right when it is their faith that carries them ahead of others. But faith must be in the Word of God, and have this to justify itself to others. True guidance is always by the Word, and that is what keeps following from being a mere following of men. Apart from this we may easily go astray in the path of very good men.
The second half of the verse asks for a deliberate look. Paul has used that word earlier in the letter.
"Fix your eyes on" is the same word we found in chapter 2:4. There he told them not to fix their eyes each on his own interests, but each on the interests of others also. The word translated 'goal' in verse 14 comes from the same word, since the goal is the spot the runner keeps his eye on. Notice that Paul does not tell them to fix their eyes on "us." The ones they were to watch were believers in the church at Philippi who were walking as they had these dear servants of the Lord for a pattern.
Paul's appeal carries urgency. Other patterns were in front of the same believers.
He was to be an "example," that is, a type or model for them. This was all the more necessary because even in those early days many were walking in a way that denied what is proper to Christianity. Yet they still claimed to be Christians.
- Object first. Paul sets Christ in glory before their eyes. Only then does he offer a human model — never as a replacement.
- Pattern second. Paul was worth copying because he pointed past himself. His individuality did not hide the Lord; it displayed Him.
- Limit always. "No man is altogether a model." Follow anyone only as far as they follow Christ. Test that by the Word, not by the leader's standing.
- Together, not alone. The rare word "joint-imitator" takes in all the saints: keep step, and keep rank.
- Eyes fixed. The same word that marks the runner's goal now marks the believers near you who walk that way. Watch them on purpose, because many walk otherwise.
(for many walk of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they [are] the enemies of the cross of Christ
Paul has just told the Philippians to watch him and others like him as a pattern to copy (v. 17). Here he turns to the opposite picture: many walk another way, and he cannot speak of them without tears.
Paul aims his charge with care.
He does not say they are the enemies of Christ; they profess to be His friends. But they hate the cross. The cross is the point and the power of separation from everything that belongs to man and the world — and they would not have it.
The cross shows what the world thought of Christ. That settles where a believer looks for righteousness.
These were enemies to the cross of Christ. They carry the name of Christian and go on with the world. Of course, a true Christian may get drawn into the world and trapped there; but that is not the case here. The enemy of the cross of Christ put Christ there. So if I look for righteousness now, I will not find it in the world that did that. I must look for it in Christ up there, for righteousness has done with the world.
Paul says he had told them this before, and now says it again while weeping. Those tears are not a passing mood in this one letter.
As far as I know, there is no ground to think that any of these people were living in Philippi. It looks like the opposite: the believers there seem not to have known of them, apart from what Paul had told them when he was with them, and again in this letter. But the true saints needed to be warned against them. Their conduct made Paul weep, as he wrote of them. He wrote his first letter to the Corinthians with "many tears." He often wept as he brought the Gospel to the Ephesians. And now he weeps even as he writes to his beloved friends in Philippi. (2 Cor. 2:4; Acts 20:31).
There is grief in these words, but no fury.
The apostle nevertheless spoke gently of those persons. They were not like the false teachers who corrupted the sources of life, and blocked the path of communion with God in love. They had lost this life of communion, or had never had more than the appearance of it. He wept for them.
Paul is describing conduct, a way of life on public display. That is what makes it painful: the outward claim stands, while the life contradicts it.
Professing the truth, if it is not joined with self-denial, will be joined with open self-indulgence. So today we can see a settled spirit of worldliness joined to the very highest profession of truth. This is a grievous evil... Observe, they are the enemies of the Cross of Christ. They do not drop the appearance of Christianity at all; far from it. "Many walk." This expression shows a measure of profession.
Part of the grief is that nothing here would trigger formal discipline. The trouble was drift, not disgrace.
We are not even told whether the Church of God had put these men out. Paul calls them enemies of the cross of Christ, and yet they may not have stood formally outside. If so, what a deplorable state of things before the eyes of the Apostle! They were probably not guilty of open sin bad enough to need removal, and yet they caused the apostle his deepest sorrow. They were drifting on, careless and unconcerned.
Commentators differ here. Some read the verse as describing people who professed faith without possessing it.
"Who are the many whose walk made Paul weep?" They are people who profess Christ rather than real Christians — perhaps the ones mentioned at the start of the chapter. I would find it hard to say flatly of Christians that their "end is destruction."
Others point out that the passage stays silent. That silence is why the warning reaches everyone who claims Christ.
And here the question is often raised, "Is he speaking of mere professors?" But that is just where the passage is silent. It says nothing about where their souls really stood with God. Paul judges by their outward course, and what he says applies in principle to all who profess Christ.
- Cross, not Christ. They were not enemies of Christ; they claimed to be His friends. They were enemies of His cross — the one thing that separates a believer from the world.
- Walk. Paul judges by the visible course of life. "Many walk" points to an outward claim: they keep the Christian name and keep the world too.
- Tears. He had warned them often; now he warns again weeping. Grief, not contempt, is the right response to those who dishonour the Lord's name.
- No scandal required. These were not people whose sin demanded removal from fellowship. Careless drift, with nothing shocking to point at, caused the apostle his deepest sorrow.
- Left open. Commentators differ on whether the "many" were true believers. The passage says nothing about where they stood with God. That silence is why everyone who claims Christ should feel its weight.
whose end [is] destruction, whose god [is] the belly, and [their] glory in their shame, who mind earthly things)
Paul weeps as he writes this, because he is not describing outsiders but people who profess Christ. Four short phrases sketch a whole way of life: its end, its true god, its upside-down values, and the earthbound mind behind it all.
The charge in the previous verse sets the tone. These people were not against Christ; they were against His cross.
He does not say they are the enemies of Christ; they profess to be His friends. But they hate the cross. The cross is the point and power of separation from all that is of man and the world — and this they would not have.
Another writer explains what that cross has done:
They are enemies of the cross of Christ. Not perhaps of His death, but of His cross. Before God, that cross has put the sentence of death on man, on his wisdom and his glory.
Commentators differ over whether these people were true believers. Some take the word "destruction" as settling the question:
Were these real believers? The words "their end is destruction" answer this question. They could not be true children of God. They were people who had professed Christianity, holding a form of godliness while denying its power (2 Tim. 3:5).
Others hold that Paul judges only the outward course and says nothing about the state of their souls. That is why the warning reaches us too:
People often ask here, "Is he speaking only of those who profess to be Christians?" But that is just where the passage is silent. It affirms nothing of the real relations of their souls with God. Paul judges by their outward course... What have our minds been on today? Minding earthly things is the road to destruction. If the Lord's beloved ones get on that road, they will be delivered out of it before it reaches its fearful end.
One writer traces how appetite comes to rule:
Their hearts were set on earthly things. Earthly things cannot satisfy, and so their belly became their god. Their inward craving became their master, and made them slave away in its service.
It would be a mistake to limit this to food and drink. The expression is wider:
The "belly-service" mentioned here stands for more than simply satisfying the appetite. It is true that overeating and drunkenness are among the evil things the Lord has warned all His disciples against. But the phrase means self-pleasing in all its forms, physical and religious. Here and elsewhere it stands in contrast to the service of God and of Christ.
Boasting in what should shame them shows a conscience that no longer works:
They gloried in that which was their shame. They had no spiritual sensibilities at all. Everything in their minds was inverted. To them light was darkness and darkness light: glory was shame and shame was glory.
"Earthly" here is not about where a person lives but about what he wants:
Who mind earthly things. This last item gives its character to the whole description... They are the things that a man in his natural state wants and takes an interest in, as someone who lives on earth. So, under another name, they are things of the flesh as opposed to spiritual things — our own things instead of the things of Jesus Christ.
That definition turns the verse back on us:
Don't our homes, our furnishings, our cars and our way of life agree to an appalling extent with this description? And perhaps the saddest part is that we glory in them, when they are in reality our shame. If we were more truly joint-imitators of the apostle, we too would weep.
Paul does not leave the warning hanging. He sets a different belonging beside it.
This drew tears from the apostle even in the middle of his joy. But he turns it to practical profit, calling on the saints to take heed. Let us watch against the first signs of self-indulgence or of allowing earthliness. "Our citizenship is in heaven" — our real association is with Him who is there... We are not simply going there; we belong to heaven now.
- Cross refused. The quarrel is not with Christ but with His cross. That cross separates a person from all that is of man and the world.
- Appetite crowned. Earthly things never satisfy, so the craving becomes master. Self-pleasing in every form, physical or religious, takes the place of serving God.
- Values inverted. Refuse the cross and let appetite rule, and the conscience flips. What should bring shame becomes the boast.
- Mind earthbound. "Earthly things" are whatever a person in his natural state wants as someone living on earth. That phrase gives the whole description its character.
- End reached. That road ends in destruction. The contrast is a citizenship in heaven that we hold now, not one we are only heading toward.
for *our* commonwealth has its existence in [the] heavens, from which also we await the Lord Jesus Christ [as] Saviour,
Paul has just wept over people whose minds are set on earthly things (v.19). Now he names the opposite. The verse answers two questions: where a believer belongs, and who a believer is waiting for.
Older translations rendered the Greek word politeuma as "conversation," which misleads modern readers. One reference work traces the word through the Bible:
This word is not used in Scripture in the sense of familiar talk. In the Old Testament it refers to the walk... In the New Testament the word anastrophē has a similar sense of "walk, conduct, behaviour," and so it reads in every other passage except Philippians 1:27 and Philippians 3:20. There the word is politeuma, "citizenship," which for the Christian is in heaven, separating him from citizenship on earth and its politics.
To the first readers this was not a dry legal term. It was the word for the thing a person built his whole life around:
It is "citizenship." To our minds that is a cold political thing. To a Greek it was everything. His citizenship came before wife, children or any other interest in life. The Spirit can take up this word to bring out a truth that matters so much to us: everything that shapes the Christian's life morally, in its deepest springs, is in heaven now. What a wonderful contrast for us who once belonged to earth! Our new relationships, interests, objects, joys and hopes are found in heaven!
Heaven is not only where believers are going. It is where they belong now.
"For our conversation (citizenship) is in heaven"; our real association is with Him who is there. Whatever we might have been as citizens of the earth, it is at an end now and forever. We belong to Christ on high. It is not merely that we are going there, but we belong to heaven now... We are now heavenly, and then we shall be declared and proved to be so.
Paul ties this verse straight back to the people he wept over:
Nothing is more important than to heed the moral association of things in the mind of God. For example, in Philippians 3:19, those "who mind earthly things" are in the position of "the enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame!" This is God's moral connection of things. The true contrast to it is to have "our conversation in heaven, from where we also look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ."
Lose sight of heaven, and the drift toward earthly things begins:
This is the great safeguard against falling away! "Where the treasure is, there the heart will be also." The servant who says in his heart, "My lord delays his coming," begins to indulge himself and oppress his fellows. It is the same here. When the Church stops realizing that HEAVEN is the place of its inheritance, its privileges and its titles, and that the coming down of the Saviour from heaven is its hope, then its own things — earthly things — become its object.
The title surprises: believers already know Christ as Saviour. So why wait for Him in that character?
When we first came to know the Lord Jesus Christ, we knew Him "as Saviour." So what does it mean that now "we eagerly await Him as Saviour"? When we first learned to know Him, we knew Him as Saviour of our souls — the Saviour who bore our sins. Now we eagerly await Him as Saviour of our bodies: "we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies" (Romans 8:23). It is the very same word we have in Philippians 3:20: "eagerly await," or "wait for patiently and persistently."
He is coming as Judge too, but that is not how believers wait for Him:
It is true that He is coming as the Judge, but we do not look for Him in that character. For us it is written, "We look for the Saviour… who will transform our lowly body to be like His glorious body" (Phil. 3:20-21).
The verse answers people who insist a Christian's business is fixing this world:
If our commonwealth exists in the heavens, then it is "from where we also look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ." People may tell us we ought to spend our time improving things down here. But we are simply waiting for Christ to come and take us away from the things down here.
- Citizens. Politeuma means citizenship, not talk. It names where you belong, and for the Christian that place is heaven.
- Already. The verse is present tense. Believers do not just travel toward heaven; they belong to it now, and one day that will be plain.
- Rival. Paul sets this against minding earthly things. Forget where you belong, and the heart slides back to earthly objects.
- Awaited. The One we wait for comes as Saviour, not as Judge. The waiting is eager, patient and persistent.
- Finished. What remains for Him to save is the body; then the salvation begun in the soul is complete.
who shall transform our body of humiliation into conformity to his body of glory, according to the working of [the] power which he has even to subdue all things to himself.
Paul ends this chapter looking to a Saviour who is coming from heaven, and the last thing he promises is not a better soul but a changed body. So what is wrong with the body we carry now, and what power could make it like Christ's?
Older translations read "our vile body." That word sounds harsher than it is:
There is one more point to notice here. Christ is coming to change our vile bodies. "Vile" here does not mean morally vile; it is not an insulting word. It really means "body of humiliation."
Still, the humbling is real, and we feel it all through life:
He cannot look on this body of humiliation without making it a body of glory. Your body carries in it all the seeds of decay, and all through life it is a dying body. The more you think of Christ, the more you feel the contrast between your body and His. Everything in ours humbles us: pain and weariness, and struggles of mind, all sorts of thoughts rising up. We have to put them down, but there they are.
The change has a pattern — a real body that a real Man still wears:
When He rose, He did not lay aside the Manhood He took when He became man, as some think. His holy body, which never saw decay, came out in new and spiritual conditions. That body is now completely beyond the reach of death. As Philippians 3:21 says, it is the glorious pattern our risen bodies will be made like. So it is a body in which He lives for ever.
The word for that likeness is worth a closer look:
The word translated "conformity" is the very same word Scripture uses when it tells us He was "in the form of God." It means the "specific character, the inward and essential."
The verse never says "resurrection," yet the promise covers the dead as well as the living:
Here is a phrase describing our mortal body that is just as true of the living as of the dead. Being mortal — what people usually call "life" — is the state of humiliation we are born into because of sin, and decay completes it. The transforming power of the Saviour... will then work on the living and the dead alike.
In this letter, salvation is still spoken of as something future:
We do not look at Him only as Saviour on the cross. When He comes for us, there will be "salvation" in the final sense, as always in this letter. So he expects the last trace of the first Adam to be removed. He looks for us to be brought fully, even in body, into the likeness of the Second Man, the last Adam... It does not matter what vessels of shame and misery they may have been now: "He is able to subdue all things to himself."
This power belongs to God, yet the verse gives it to a Man:
All power belongs to God. What makes this passage so striking is that it plainly gives divine will and power to the Man Christ Jesus... Death is of God — His sentence on sin. In human form, God has set that sentence aside by submitting to it. His saints will see and know Him for ever in the very form in which He did that mighty act. His power is hidden now in human hands. Its next great display will be the change and resurrection of the righteous.
The same power has a use today:
The power of the glory is able to subdue all things to Himself, as Philippians 3:21 shows. So it can subdue and strengthen us now.
So why would God do this for sinners like us?
Why are poor sinners like us going to have these bodies of humiliation made like His own glorious body? We know the answer: we are going to be like Him, so that we may be the everlasting witness to the worth of His Person and the effectiveness of His work. Think of that poor degraded thief on the cross. Think of the proud, Christ-hating Pharisee Saul of Tarsus. Then look ahead to heaven. When we gaze on these men as glorified saints, will we not see the amazing effectiveness of the work of Christ, which removes every trace of sin?
- Humiliation — the body is not called evil, only lowly. Its weakness, pain and decay are the humbling state sin brought in.
- Saviour — the One we wait for finishes what He began at the cross. The last trace of the first Adam goes.
- Conformity — the goal is not just a better body. It is one shaped like the risen Christ, who keeps His Manhood for ever.
- Power — the strength that subdues everything to Him does the work. Nothing in your case is too far gone, and that same power steadies you now.
- Witness — a dying thief and a Christ-hating Pharisee will stand in glory as lasting proof of the worth of Christ and His work.