Toward the Goal
4though I myself might have confidence even in the flesh. If any other man thinks that he has confidence in the flesh, I yet more: 5circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee; 6concerning zeal, persecuting the assembly; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, found blameless. 7However, I consider those things that were gain to me as a loss for Christ. 8Yes most certainly, and I count all things to be a loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I suffered the loss of all things, and count them nothing but refuse, that I may gain Christ 9and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own, that which is of the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; 10that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, becoming conformed to his death; 11if by any means I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. 12Not that I have already obtained, or am already made perfect; but I press on, that I may take hold of that for which also I was taken hold of by Christ Jesus. 13Brothers, I don’t regard myself as yet having taken hold, but one thing I do. Forgetting the things which are behind, and stretching forward to the things which are before, 14I press on toward the goal for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. 15Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, think this way. If in anything you think otherwise, God will also reveal that to you. 16Nevertheless, to the extent that we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule. Let us be of the same mind.
I hope you will take courage from the faith of the apostle Paul. Paul told the Philippians that we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. Confidence in the flesh means the faith of the Pharisees, who held that salvation comes through the works of the law. They believed they were a chosen people, and they took pride in thinking that keeping the law Moses received was what it meant to believe in God. Paul stressed that salvation comes by the grace of Christ, so that the Philippians would not be deceived by Pharisees of that kind. For religious deeds done without knowing the truth have nothing to do with Christ.
Let us understand clearly what the apostle Paul preached, and what James meant when he said that faith without works is dead in itself. For the way of salvation has not changed from grace to works: when Paul says we are saved by grace and James says faith must be shown in works, they mean the same thing.
Faith with works — think of it as believers painting their daily lives with the precious blood of Christ. The life of a believer full of faith is a beautiful painting, one God is pleased to receive, and this is what we call the deeds of faith. If a believer has no such painting in the blood, that is evidence they do not believe in Christ, and their faith can rightly be called dead. When the apostle Paul says we are saved by grace, it is because Jesus Christ gave his blood so that we could paint the picture of faith. In other words, when we receive the gospel we receive the grace of his blood, and those who have that blood cannot help but show the love of Jesus Christ.
When Israel entered Jericho, Rahab hung a scarlet cord in the window of her house, just as she had promised the spies. Joshua and the soldiers of Israel saw the scarlet cord hanging from her window and spared everyone in her house. In the same way, God has promised to give eternal life to anyone who is simply in Christ. This is what it means to be saved by grace, and Rahab letting down the scarlet cord is the very deed of faith.
Philippians 3:5-6
5circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee; 6concerning zeal, persecuting the assembly; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, found blameless.
Until now the apostle Paul had never once spoken of his private life. But when the Jews scorned him and hindered the gospel, he let them know that his education, family, and wealth far surpassed theirs. Paul said he was of the stock of Israel, circumcised the eighth day, a true Jew. He was of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; he had been thoroughly taught the law under Gamaliel and had given his life zealously to keeping it. Judging from this much, Paul was a model son who honored his parents, and his parents were people of considerable power and wealth.
Thoroughly schooled in the law, Paul led the way in persecuting the church. But as he traveled the road to Damascus to arrest Christians, a light suddenly shone from heaven, and he heard the voice of Jesus asking Saul why he was persecuting him. So intense was the light from heaven that he was blinded, and he was healed through the prayer of the prophet Ananias, whom God had sent. The moment Paul met Christ, he became the apostle to the Gentiles in order to preach the very Jesus Christ he had persecuted.
Once he had received Christ, he counted the worldly possessions that had been his pride as loss for the sake of the gospel. He set out on the road of mission to escape the persecution of his family, who thought the law was the whole of faith, and he laid aside all the learning and power the world admires. Rome ruled the world in those days, so Roman citizenship was a kind of power in itself. People bought citizenship with money, but because Paul’s parents were Roman citizens, he held Roman citizenship from birth. Yet once he knew that Jesus, who died on the cross, was the Christ, he gladly renounced it all. People of the world are not afraid to sin to gain the very power Paul gave up; but Paul, having realized it was vanity of vanities, threw it away without regret.
In a family that kept the law, believing in Christ was an unforgivable sin, so he had to choose to leave the family he loved. The Pharisees listening to Paul must have found him all the harder to understand: why would he throw away such a fine family and education only to suffer like this?
Paul knew what was in their hearts, and he declared to them forcefully that he had been able to renounce the world because he was certain that Jesus Christ is the Messiah, and certain that the gospel is the truth. If you had the lineage, wealth, and education the world envies, could you give them all up for Jesus as the apostle Paul did? You must choose the blood of Christ in order to paint a good picture.
When we look at how God calls people, we are struck by how extraordinary it is. To call Paul as the apostle to the Gentiles out of a family where receiving Christ could cost a person their life — only God could do that. God called Rahab out of Jericho, the city Israel had to conquer, saved the spies through her, and saved her and the family in her house. His work there unfolds like a splendid drama.
You too, I expect, were called by God in a very special way, because to call out you alone, one person, from a world held by Satan, God fought a great war against Satan. Unless he overcame Satan he could never accomplish the work of salvation, so God would have commanded his angels and rescued your soul from darkness. You are God’s children, precious in this way, and so you must live holy lives.
No one would have tried to bring the gospel to Paul while he was hunting down and persecuting Christians. Who could have imagined that he would one day be martyred for Christ? That was something only God, who loves souls, could do. Those who truly meet Christ gain the wisdom of God, and just as darkness cannot overcome the light, they can excel in body and in spirit. That is why Paul, after meeting Jesus, grasped the mystery of God and chose the knowledge of God over worldly power and learning.
News of Paul’s conversion came as a great shock to the Pharisees and the Jews. Abandoning the law, they thought, was a betrayal of the chosen people and a challenge to God, and they resolved to kill him. Paul knew all of this, yet he did not stop preaching.
Paul became a new man the moment he met Jesus Christ. Yet even hearing the truth from such a man, people would not open their hearts. Because they did not receive Jesus Christ as their Savior, they did not enter heaven, though they had been given the chance of salvation. It was not that they failed to be saved for lack of hearing; they did not receive eternal life because they would not accept God’s righteousness by faith.
And we believers, as members of Christ, must also be ready to suffer as Paul did. Believing in Jesus Christ is not merely confessing him with our lips. Because we must travel toward the eternal kingdom all our lives, suffering is bound to come with it. In 2 Corinthians 11, Paul tells how much he suffered on his missionary journeys: he was imprisoned, beaten more times than he could count, met robbers, and was shipwrecked, coming close to death many times. Being beaten for preaching the gospel was nothing like preaching in comfort, as we do now, or handing out tracts. Paul suffered because he preached to people who were gnashing their teeth at him, with a faith ready to die in the preaching of the gospel.
Beside the Roman magistrate who examined Paul stood an attendant carrying an axe with a keen double edge. He was called a lictor, a specialist in flogging who tortured people. When the magistrate gave the order to strike, the lictor chose the strongest rod from his bundle and struck Paul’s back thirty-nine times. It is said that when a strong lictor did the beating, people nearly fainted. The persecution was so fierce that when Paul collapsed under the blows, they took him for dead and dragged him outside the city. Yet even while enduring such pain, Paul had a faith that would gladly die preaching the gospel, if only people could be saved.
When Jesus gave Paul the mission of becoming the apostle to the Gentiles, Paul threw himself without hesitation onto the road of suffering. When his ship was wrecked and he was plunged into sea water as cold as ice, he knew that hell is more agonizing still, and he could not let people go to such a hell. Though he met robbers on the road and nearly died many times, he had to preach the gospel to keep people out of hell, because Satan waiting in hell is more terrifying than any robber. Though he knew many days of hunger, cold, and nakedness, he could bear them when he thought of the grace of Christ. Knowing that his mission was to preach the gospel to poor lost souls, he endured with every ounce of strength he had.
What did you think when you heard how Paul gave up his life and his comfort for the gospel? I hope you will not think the people of faith in the Bible are different from us. The apostle Paul said that he saw a different law in his members, warring against the law of his mind and bringing him into captivity under the law of sin in his members. And he confessed to God, almost crying out, that he was a wretched man.
When we hear him say that two hearts are at war within him, we can see how hard he too was striving to walk the way of the gospel. There is no one who does not know what an easy life is, no one who does not know pleasure. Even so, Paul held out to the very end in order to live within the word.
Philippians 3:9
9and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own, that which is of the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith;
If Paul had preached the gospel on the strength of worldly power, family, and education, people would have accepted the gospel if only to get close to a man of such influence. But the apostle Paul knew Christ’s sacrifice, his plan, and his will, so he did not make the world his strength. Having become a new body in Christ, he could not go on with the sins of the world hanging all over him, and he cast them off decisively. Paul simply lived by faith as best he could, out of gratitude for Christ’s sacrifice, and God looked on that faith and commended him as righteous. No one is asking you to die as Jesus did, or to keep the law with all your devotion. You are asked to live with a heart grateful to Christ, who died for you, because only then can you receive the full help of the Holy Spirit.
Satan is an evil spirit you cannot take on, so you must rely on the Holy Spirit. I hope you will not make the worthless choice of defying God’s word because of this world, where we stay only a little while on the way home, or because of its laws and its people.
Jeremiah 7:3-4
3Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel says, “Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place. 4Don’t trust in lying words, saying, ‘Yahweh’s temple, Yahweh’s temple, Yahweh’s temple, are these.’
The people of Judah came to the temple to worship Yahweh. Yahweh told them that if they amended their ways and their doings, he would help them whatever trouble came. But outside the temple they were living wicked lives, offering their children to the queen of heaven. He said it was revolting that such people should look at his house and call it the temple of Yahweh, and in his anger he told them they were speaking lies that could not profit. Seeing how detestably they lived in wickedness and yet came into God’s house to declare that they were delivered, he said he would cut off that generation. They would call on God’s name to be blessed, but God would never answer them. The human heart is deceitful above all things and exceedingly corrupt. Yet Yahweh searches the mind and tries the heart, and repays each person according to their ways and the fruit of their doings, so he knew every one of those filthy and ugly hearts.
You who believe must always live honest and godly lives before God. If you have met Christ, you must strive like Paul to live by faith; only then can you be saved on the last day.
Friends, salvation cannot be bought with anything in the world. No one can ever gain God’s righteousness by the law or by human effort. Since we can be saved only through faith in Christ, we must not cast aside Jeremiah’s earnest plea; we must set the deeds of our faith right. Then God, seeing it, will give us peace and rest.
When life comes to its end, spirit, soul, and body are separated, and every chance to believe in Jesus is gone. Whether or not a person believes in heaven and hell, at death the soul will go to one of the two, and the body will return to the dust. That is why we must boldly share the gospel with our families and the people we love, and show them love so that they can receive Jesus Christ.
Philippians 3:10-11
10that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, becoming conformed to his death; 11if by any means I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.
We believers have faith in Christ. It is a faith that holds as fact that Christ became flesh, bore the cross, and rose again.
Through our lives we will have experienced the Holy Spirit at work, and through spiritual growth we will have known union with Christ. When we say we believe we will be raised, we mean bodily resurrection at Christ’s return. But as we grow spiritually, we become certain that the kingdom of God truly exists and that there is life after death, and we begin to live a life of faith that rises above the world. Such complete faith makes Christians live a new life, so we can experience the joy of the resurrection in concrete ways here on earth.
Romans 6:4 says that if we were baptized into the death of Jesus, we were buried with him, so we have died with Christ. It goes on to say that God, who raised Jesus, has given new life to us who died in this way and has made us live as those who have received new life. It is like throwing away the old wineskin and taking up a new one.
Romans 6:5 says that if we have faith that we died with Jesus on the cross, then because we also believe as fact that Jesus rose again, we become holy believers who live in this world as those raised from the dead. The old self that served sin until now, the old self that lived by its own nature, has been nailed to the cross with Jesus, so the body that could sin is no more. While we had a body full of greed and lust, we were slaves of sin; but now that we have become a new body clothed in God’s righteousness, we have been set free from sin.
Just as Christ rose from the dead, we who have received new life need only live in Christ as those who have been raised. Whatever becomes of the body in death, we have become the living, who have received eternal life. Just as God is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who are living, he will treat you as the living as you strive to live holy lives. We who live in the world as those raised can show the deeds of faith according to the will of the living God.
But stepping outside this will of God is sin. When believers sin, it is because they have chosen sin by their own will. Having stepped out of Christ by a will set on sinning, they have entered Satan’s territory, and it will be hard for them to receive the leading of the Holy Spirit.
Philippians 3:14
14I press on toward the goal for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
“Toward the goal” means to look straight at the goal. A runner looks at nothing but the finish line. Just as no one runs a marathon looking back over their shoulder, believers running toward the goal of salvation must keep their eyes ahead as they run.
Though he was imprisoned and beaten, Paul said that because he still had much to do, he had forgotten all the pain he had endured. The road he had run for the gospel alone was a road of suffering, yet he put it all behind him and ran looking only ahead. That is far from easy. Having died with Christ on the cross and risen with Christ, Paul ran with his eyes on heaven alone, so as never to take up the burden of sin again. Salvation, the masterpiece Jesus Christ had made, was so flawless that the apostle Paul ran asking himself how he could bring this good thing to more people.
Friends, the world will not change unless we who believe hold the lamp high. Darkness may long to change, but darkness cannot change itself by darkness. Only when we shine the light of Christ into that darkness can it find life. If you have been saved by the blood of Jesus Christ, I hope you will shine the light toward the dear souls who have lost their way in the dark.
God called Paul and Rahab out of places they could never have left on their own. In the same way, if you lead the people of the world by the light of Christ, they too can receive new life and go to heaven. If you run toward the goal for salvation without stopping, the Holy Spirit will give you wisdom and understanding and will commend you for running well.