Philippians 3:11Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you, to me indeed is not grievous, but for you it is safe. (Philippians 3:1). "For the rest, rejoice, my brethren, in the Lord!" This is the great thing. Many things were already beginning to show themselves, to draw away the heart from Him who is always the object of God's delight. But the great design of God in regard to us is to have us delight in the Lord Jesus, too. Hence Satan would dim and diminish that, and lessen our joy by having us be self-occupied as to our piety or attainments as well as to our own things, as in chapter 2 (Philippians 2). Here it is religion; there it was our pleasure or convenience, that is, selfishness. There Christ was held out as an example; here as the sole absorbing object for the heart. Rejoice in Him! And this would defeat the enemy as to religious occupation, taking us outside of self wholly. It is not rejoicing in mercies, gifts, blessings, or salvation; not simply in His work, blessed and satisfying to God and the heart as that is; nor in His coming, though that would consummate all our hopes; but in Himself. All other objects, even though true and blessed, treated as the one occupation of mind and heart, as specialties, would constitute heresies, would tend to lead away from the truth, true as they may be, and away from Christ though about Him, and away from one another, for what we are is as being in Him. As God presents Christ as the answer to all our questions, the solution of every difficulty, so does He bring Him before the heart as the preventive against every evil, doctrinally and practically. It is the Lord, as seated on the throne of God in heaven, above all things and all beings. And He is a worthy Object, indeed the One in whom all fullness dwells, in whom is vested every promise and prophecy, everything that God proposes for the earth and the heavens; whose excellence spans the entire range of God's actions and the whole history of creation, being sufficient cause for all that was projected, and sufficient answer to all the patience and pains; the One who shall gather up all God's designs and fill them with glory; the sum and substance of all the revelations of God, all the types and shadows and sacrifices; the unifier of history from the beginning; the Man of the future; the Son of God; the beginning of the creation of God; the end of all the thoughts of God. Such an One is presented as the center for our joys and delights. This is fellowship with God, a partnership in Him whose name is as ointment poured forth, our Lover, the Beloved of God. Here is a life-companion. This is beginning on the employment of heaven.
It was not burdensome to the apostle to tell these things, and bring Him so before them as to prevent the aberration of the mind from the truth. And for them it was safe though he might write the same things. He was thus putting them on their guard against that which had threatened the foundation truth of God. It was the introduction of Judaism concerning the crucified and risen Christ. It bore the same relation to the truth as a mere mutilation or hacking for mere religiousness and without meaning, did to circumcision. It would bring in a false and discordant element of man's doings and man's religion, and displace thereby Christ; for there is no amalgamation allowed by God, no mixture of woolen and linen, no ass and ox plowing together, no unclean and clean in things of God. They were the dogs who did this, betraying their uncleanness, and thus were mischievous workers. And the short, curt word is, Beware of them, beware of the dogs; without are dogs. Beware of the concision. It is like men, it falls short of God's thought, and substitutes something like what God demands. It is concision, not circumcision. It works havoc and disaster in the name of service to God, while really serving self and feeding pride. There is the broad difference between hacking and hallowing, between a total separation by death from evil and from the former man, and a poor imitation, which is but reprieving the old man and then adorning him and urging him still to live and go on. Beware of all religion of the flesh, all sanctification of man's nature, all garnishing the old man.
Philippians 3:33For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. (Philippians 3:3). "For we are the circumcision." There is a real one separated unto God, separated from man, from self, from improved self, separated by the circumcision of Christ, the cross. This separates us by the same, infinitely, radically, finally; and this is our circumcision, too. As circumcision marked Israel for God and the land in the midst of the heathen and idolatrous world, so the cross and the resurrection place us apart as the people of God. Whoever, at any time, in any dispensation, are separated unto God according to His mind, are the circumcision. They are characterized practically in this dispensation, as those who worship God in spirit, in opposition to the letter of ordinances and ceremonies, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. This is perfection, the full age to which God has looked from before the foundation of the world.
He has always sought worshipers; has always had to seek them, for none seek after God. Now, placing man in Christ Jesus, making him a new creation through faith in Christ, and imparting the Holy Spirit, who was in Christ, to dwell him to the end, He has made the believer of this time a perfect, purged worshiper, and his worship is in spirit and in truth, for the oldness of the letter and physical form have passed away. We worship God in the Spirit, brought into His presence to abide, brought into the relationship of sons. Worship is first mentioned because it is the first thing. We must be worshipers first, and all service must proceed from our position and spirit as worshipers. Service is temporary and according as we may be sent, but service to God in His presence; that is, worship is the perpetual thing and that for which we are sought. It is disorder to place labor before worship, and is associated with a legal state, which would soon reduce worship to mere bodily exercises or forms, in which the Spirit has no place. Worship is the most thorough reality, and they that worship must worship in spirit and in truth, for God seeks such to worship Him. Everything that has been done for us calls for it, and our joyful adoration rises to the face of God for what He is in Himself, for we know Him and are before Him, and for what He has done, for we are His redeemed ones.
“And rejoice in Christ Jesus." He has utterly displaced man and his doings and ability, in the heart and mind, and then, as the New Man in heaven, becomes the Object of delight and joy. In contrast with the boasting in the law of the Jew, the concision, the entire and constant boast is in Christ Jesus. Everything turns to Him as everything flows from Him. It is life and occupation altogether apart from the man of the world. It is coupled with having no confidence in the religious flesh, for the thing cast aside in Philippians is not sin but religion. Romans and Colossians 3 dealt with sins and sins in the flesh, but this letter deals with the ceremonial or legal observances and efforts of the flesh, or the claim of birth or blood. But the cross has finished forever all these, the bad or good of the flesh is set aside as utterly corrupt and vile, and a religion that comes from it and attempts to force itself into the presence of God is wholly abominable. In the flesh is no good thing, and the unclean could not be offered to God. His soul hates it. Hence the true circumcision takes this ground with God, worshiping apart from forms or ceremonies, objects for the sense, rejoicing only in the Risen One, who was slain, and by His death condemned forever the flesh. This is liberty, entire freedom from all that springs from man. What has not death done for us?
In Genesis 17, we have a beautiful type of all this when God revealed Himself to Abram as the Almighty God, God in resurrection. We see him first on his face as a worshiper, and then listening to the wonderful announcement of the birth of Isaac, then in figure rejoicing in Christ Jesus; and so letting go Ishmael, the child of the flesh, thus having no confidence in the flesh.
This, then, is perfection as referred to in Philippians 3:1515Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. (Philippians 3:15), "as many as are perfect," and between this verse and verse 20 (Philippians 3:15-2015Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. 16Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing. 17Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an ensample. 18(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: 19Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.) 20For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: (Philippians 3:15‑20)) seems to be a parenthesis, illustrating what confidence in the flesh is, and what having no confidence in the flesh means. It is not precisely a parenthesis, because it is needed to enforce what comes after, but it can be taken by itself as explanatory of the religious flesh and its entire rejection. Surely if any man had room for confidence in the flesh, the apostle had, above all. Every element of boasting in the flesh was his. Clear as to lineage, of a tribe well preserved, whose parents had been exact in their observances, not neglecting his circumcision on the eighth day of his life; in his own choice and profession a Pharisee, the most orthodox of those who devoted themselves to piety as a profession; thoroughly zealous according to the letter, putting down all that was not Jewish as idolatry, in persecuting the assembly; and then above all in his conduct, exemplary according to the law. Many would make the possession of one of those seven things to offset the lack of others. But he had them all. Many would insist, in doctrine and efforts in this day, that these things are of avail and constitute life according to God, leaving out the literal stock of Israel and substituting an orthodox birth and training. Truly, among men they were gain. And one may be glad to throw away his sins, cast aside his vices; but here are things that had a value in the Old Testament times, and God has sanctioned them. But they had never brought one near to God; they had never given peace; they had availed nothing for the salvation of the soul, to say nothing of sonship and fellowship with God. Like the sacrifices under the law, which had the shadow of good things to come, that could never make the corners thereunto perfect, these utterly failed, and were rather hindrances as giving occasion to the flesh to live and boast. "But what things were gain for me those have I counted loss for Christ." When Christ was once seen in the glory of God, all other things were nothing. His cross, which He had left for the throne and the new creation, was the end of all these things.
Paul had been found with all these religious possessions, fighting against the Man of God's anointing, the One in whom His soul delighted. It was an awful moment when this revelation was made to him, and he was, with them all, the chief of sinners. Then their value in that light was determined; they were loss; a dead weight, an encumbrance, a hideous incentive to blasphemy and reviling and injury to Christ the Lord through His saints. Even so is all religiousness to-day, worse than nothing, more offensive than the immorality over which it boasts, or the standing of the publican and sinner from which it holds aloof.
Philippians 3:8-98Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, 9And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: (Philippians 3:8‑9). "But truly I count all things but loss, because of the supereminence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, because of whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as dung, that I may win Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness which is by the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith." This is the marvelous estimate of one who had all advantages in the world; and then had known all sufferings from it in behalf of Christ, looking upon the former as worse than nothing, as a detriment, something to be rid of and escape from eagerly; and the latter to be nothing, because the knowledge he had already gained of Christ outweighed all. It was not the enthusiastic expression of a novice and idealist, borne along by the excitement of new discoveries and thoughts, or by the desire to be something different from others, even to the verge of martyrdom. It was the quiet, cool decision of an expert in all of which he spoke. The loss of all things had been already suffered with no regret, -things needful in the way of life, incurring hunger, nakedness, stripes, prisons, social neglect and aversion. That was nothing. The cross is the end of sin and guilt, of lusts and their gains, but here it is the end of all that gave importance and reputation and dignity to man, of all advantages. These were the refuse, thrust aside, shaken off, as one shakes off a vile thing. Nothing was anything since he had seen Christ. And as we apprehend the truth concerning. Him, the glorified Man at God's right hand, we too will understand how everything here that occupies man and exalts him is loathsome, compared with that One up there. But the knowledge of Him begets the desire to know Him still more, to win, to gain Him, to be thoroughly absorbed in Him and to be with Him, to know practically the power of what He passed through, death and resurrection; if need be, to go to death, to pass through sufferings, as Paul was doing already, with the prospect of death by violence before him. But whether this or not, why should we not see everything crucified, ourselves included, in His cross, and everything passed on to the other side of death in resurrection; the new displacing thoroughly the old man, life, world, creation? Taking up the cross is a practical negativing of all things here by an ignominious death, a death deserved as a judgment upon sin and man. It is no holiday act of enlisting under a banner and carrying a badge which may adorn; it is a shame, a reproach, a repudiation as filthy. Christ was never seen by the world after they had crucified Him. Should we be? Their first knowledge of Him as risen will be when He appears in the glory which His Father shall give Him. Should it not be so with us? Does not this tear away as tinsel all insignia of ecclesiastical or political or social honors, and put on the dunghill all pride in natural or acquired excellence? Are they not clogs, weights, hindrances, dead useless burdens, unnatural to the new man, and therefore to be repudiated with haste and forever? The life and living of the new man are as real as that of the old man, and entirely antagonistic; old things have passed away, and all things have become new, and all are of God. Grand deliverance, indeed, was it from the condemnation, the place of the sinner! Let it be so from the wealth of righteous man, the boast of the flesh, the struggle of the man of the world. In Christ Jesus is not only a standing but a place to be found. It is easier to look to Christ to get rid of our sins than of our righteousness often, unless we have learned the practical value of the cross and the resurrection. And this epistle takes the heavenly, rich, precious truth of Paul as to our standing, and says to us, "Now live it. You are seated, established in heavenly places in Christ. Get there in your mind; grasp the place at any cost, -the loss of all that belonged to you of worth and import in the scenes of your former living." "Buy the truth," for it costs; "and sell it not.”
When Job saw Jehovah and heard Him speak, his mouth was in the dust with the confession, "I am vile," although he had, when talking with his friends, maintained his righteousness. It is much to know that all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags of the most offensive kind, such as are cast away with disgust. A sight of God's righteousness, of His righteous One, of the pure glory of the scene where all is of God, settles this forever.
In Philippians 3:99And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: (Philippians 3:9), the phrase, "the faith of Christ," refers to the principle, the ground of our standing, faith only as connected with Christ, while the way by which we come into this is by faith in Christ. The former is the objective, faith as a principle, as the matter talked of; the latter subjective, the exercise of our own heart, our faith. Both are mentioned in Philippians 3:99And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: (Philippians 3:9)
Philippians 3:10-1110That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; 11If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. (Philippians 3:10‑11). "That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death; if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection from the dead." The death of Christ was not that we might be reprieved, and allowed to go on in life; but that we might have part in it, be partakers, partners in the death. This is fellowship in His sufferings, suffering death with Him. He for our sins as the one offering, but we identified with that death henceforth, and no more living as we were. This, then, is the one aim of life, to enter upon this in everything. This is what is meant by having no confidence in the flesh. How can we have confidence in a condemned and executed criminal?
Ah, there is One to rejoice in, who has risen out of death to the glory, Christ Jesus. In such an One we may glory. The resurrection out from among the dead will bring us into the glory, but we anticipate its power now, advancing ("attaining") to it now. It is peculiar that rejoicing in Christ Jesus now, here, is not as our Savior, who has delivered us from our sins, but as the One who has displaced and discrowned, all our goodness; who, making himself of no reputation, has blotted out ours; who, emptying Himself and humbling Himself, has thoroughly humbled and emptied us of aught that we call our own. This is wonderful truth for us, and we may say, "if by any means we may attain." And yet it all belongs to us; we are risen in and with Christ. We are to take it in its potency now, and so go on rejoicing in our Conqueror.
Philippians 3:1212Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:12). "Not that I have already won, or already have reached perfection; but I am pressing on, if I may also lay hold upon that for which Christ laid hold upon me." Standing is perfect, for this is by the work of Christ; but there is always something before us, practically, as long as we are not with Christ in the glory. That is the perfection to which we are to press onward, even now taking it in by faith; knowing that we were taken up by Christ for that, and for that fittingly and becomingly.
Philippians 3:1313Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, (Philippians 3:13). "Brethren, I count not myself to have laid hold; but one thing: forgetting that which is behind, and reaching forth to that which is before, I press onwards towards the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." Such should have been the spirit of an earnest Israelite in the wilderness, with reference to the land, or when in the land, with reference to its quiet settlement and possession, the enemy completely driven out. Such was Caleb's heart, forgetting and leaving the thing behind, and still pressing forward and onward to the complete conquest and occupation of that to which they were called out and redeemed. We are not yet in heaven actually, though that is our calling, that for which we have been laid hold of by Christ. There must be no lingering, no dalliance with the things here, even the results of grace or the present conquests. We are to assert and act upon our heavenly standing, with all that it involves of overcoming principalities and powers, the wicked spirits who would have us of the world. We are to enter upon the glory as perfected, perpetual worshipers, reaching out of the world in all thoughts, all purposes, all principles of life and action; reaching into the glory actively, positively, into association with all its heights, triumphs, joys. In other days eye had not seen, nor ear heard, nor had the heart of man conceived; but now the door is open into all these; and we enter and see it closed on all that was behind, out of which we have passed. God has called out a people to enjoy with Him the glory and Christ. Just now all is delivered to us by the Holy Spirit. He has come out from that land of glory, since Christ went into it, to show us Him as He is there, all the depth and meaning of His infinite work, the inimitable grandeur of His Person, the complete satisfaction of God in Him and His work. He has come to bring heaven now as a reality. But we are here; we walk here with everything inimical to that and to us if we care for that; everything pleading for a staying out of that, or entering the struggle for it.
This man, Paul, to whom the revelation was made, had all the advantages of a religious life, such as Satan would have been satisfied with and would have encouraged. But having seen the Lord in the glory, and himself not actually there with Him, all estimates of things here, things done, progress made, labor, struggles, victories, delights, are formed according to that. To be there actually being the object and end, to be wholly there in the spirit of his mind, untrammeled by any personal thing, unhindered by any solicitation now, is the purpose. The thing that could be solicited, must be cut off and ended; the weight that would clog, cast away. It might once have been an ornament, an attraction, a gain; but it is all, now, the corrupt body in the grave, abandoned forever as loathsome. The cross is not an embellishment, but a knife, that cuts off; not something that takes up and uses all that man has accomplished and attained to morally, and adds to it; but something that negatives and ends all that was best as well as worst. They are left behind, then, while pressing toward the mark for the calling on high. The opening of heaven was no mere exhibition to cheer or astonish, but an invitation to it and an assurance of our eternal interest in it. It is ours. And our going toward it is to be eager and rapid, taken up wholly with it; for the figure is of a runner actually in a fast race, whose body is bent forwards in the direction toward which he runs. Faith has wondrous activities; hope absorbing reaches; for the glory of Christ and of God is before it. Living is thus an infinite exploit, intensely energetic and unsleeping! It is not to get saved as to soul, but to obtain the salvation in its meaning and scope. Conscience is at perfect peace and the heart at rest in Christ, and therefore the mind presses on and on, grasping more and more, and utilizing everything gained for more acquirement, using more of the revelation of Christ, and eagerly entering into fellowship with Him and with God in His purposes, and delighting in a fresher, richer Christ each step we take, as the view broadens and the light brightens. The steps taken are never to be taken again, all is to be going toward the mark for the prize, Christ in the glory. Oh, to live that!
Philippians 3:1515Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. (Philippians 3:15). "As many therefore as are of full growth be ye thus minded," or, have this resolve. What is a natural life here worth without aspirations? What is the spiritual? And here is the ambition worthy of all enthusiasm. To share with Christ in the full apprehension of its splendors, the glory of God. This shall be forever the object, ever growing, ever fruitful in returns. The fact that to this end were we born anew, to be the companions in everything, should stir our minds to take hold more firmly now of the hope, to live in it, be under its power continually, go forward in the attractiveness of it, let go all things for it; and thus make all the time here a period of conquests, wherein all thinks are brought into subjection to the one purpose, assimilating the life of that One who ever glows before us ever becomes grander and dearer. Let go all dishonoring doubts, all efforts to build up a righteousness of our own, all tendencies to listen to the voices of philosophy or wisdom or religiousness and perfection of the flesh, as well as of the world and lust. As Paul speaks of himself thus, it would seem that this is the wondrous purpose and end of his truth, and thus giving the instruction, he shows the result of that teaching, to make a truly heavenly man even down here in the world. If, however, any were of a different mind by not so apprehending the character of the truth, God would add even this, for it is His will that there be unity of result, and that we all come to the perfect man, the full stature of Christ. But whatever be the attainment in knowledge, the rule of living should be the same; forgetting those things which are behind, casting off all that is of the flesh that would be otherwise gain, and having but the one object before the heart, one purpose in the mind, to go on with Christ, the Living One of God's delight, and to prove more and more continually the glory and excellence of that into which we are called through grace.
Cross of my Lord! O ever stay
Before my eye,
The argument to me, each day,
The reason to all others, why I must away!
Keep fresh Thine awful fact to meet man's lie,
For I am weak, the world is strong,
And still unseen
Is heaven; and the way seems long
And rough; an enemy's within;
And outside throng
The hosts of Satan; easy 'tis to sin.
And I've no power for conflict; nor
Have I returned
From battle scatheless, conqueror;
But thanks to Him, in Him I've learned
How great the store
I have in Him and all that He has earned.
Philippians 3:1717Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an ensample. (Philippians 3:17). Brethren, be ye imitators of me with one consent, and mark those who walk as ye have us for an example; for many walk of whom I was often telling you, and now tell you even weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose God is the belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.
This seems to link with Philippians 3:33For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. (Philippians 3:3), the intervening verses being in a certain way parenthetical and explanatory, and illustrative of the "having no confidence in the flesh," of Philippians 3:33For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. (Philippians 3:3), and of what rejoicing in Christ Jesus is, in a negativing of self. And now those who walk thus are to be noted and imitated, and the whole principle of the apostle's casting off of all that was gain religiously, in which flesh might glory, is to be closely followed. There seem to have been those who had not yet understood and practically apprehended this mode of life, as what the cross involves negatively, and the resurrection positively. These were to walk by this rule, assured of further light. But those of the other class, who walked according to the flesh, minding earthly things instead of the heavenly, the heavens being the proper and only sphere of life, demonstrated that they knew nothing of the matter as to the heart, and for the truth of resurrection and life in a risen Christ, were walking according to their own religious feelings, making this their god. And surely there is enough of this everywhere, a bringing down revelation of the truth to the standard of human feelings and experiences, making these the umpire instead of God. It is a religious appetite ruling and hungry, and satisfied with its own sensations when filled. Israel was charged to take heed lest when they had eaten and were full, they should forget Jehovah, Deuteronomy 8:1414Then thine heart be lifted up, and thou forget the Lord thy God, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage; (Deuteronomy 8:14); and the prayer of Agur in Proverbs 30:99Lest I be full, and deny thee, and say, Who is the Lord? or lest I be poor, and steal, and take the name of my God in vain. (Proverbs 30:9) is, "lest I be full and deny Thee." The Grand Object, Christ Himself, is ignored, and religious excitement, like any other intoxication, displaces Him and occupies the soul to its damage and peril. It is the belly, not Christ. It is religious emotions, it is not Christ. It is perfection in and of the flesh; it is not having no confidence in the flesh. The flesh may find its satisfaction and growth as much in religion as in the lower passions and the more secular world. The cross came in to put all this to death. Hence these are enemies to the cross of Christ, even though much mention may be made of the cross, and even continual prostrations before it practiced.
Naught can be allowed but the Person of Christ, the risen and exalted Christ at the right hand of God. All truth is His, all living is by and in and for Him alone. Here, then, was cause for weeping, a profession of the name of Christ taken to glorify the flesh, the natural feelings in man, and to gratify them still more. This was to destroy the doctrine of Christ and reinstate the flesh, the first man, and then foster and glorify him. How totally subversive of all truth, all that God is now doing by Christ Jesus. It is not in the shape of sins, what are usually called lusts, that the flesh appears in this epistle. It may be, therefore, that the very boast of those who mind earthly things, is that they do not sin at all; and to keep themselves from sinning they would occupy themselves with pious emotions and an attendance upon religious meetings and appointments and ordinances, feeding and overfeeding, and adding "drunkenness to thirst." (Deuteronomy 29:1919And it come to pass, when he heareth the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of mine heart, to add drunkenness to thirst: (Deuteronomy 29:19).) Such things are linked with turning away from Jehovah their God, in the admonition to Israel in Deuteronomy 29, and they are in reality but building up of self, improving self, and thus making a god of the feelings. Enemies to the cross, which put aside in ignominious death the flesh, they would adorn and sanctify that which God would crucify.
How ineffably low all this makes Christianity, and it is the Christianity of these times that would use the cross to adorn the natural man, instead of seeing every excellent thing and thing of boasting crucified upon it as loathsome and a hindrance. They that are spoken of were among the saints, though not themselves saints, while they may have boasted of sanctification. Things are now worse, and every evil has become fully grown. Such is the uniform height of all departure from the truth that the unwary and untaught of this day scarcely discern it, themselves brought up among all in this full grown character. But the cross of Christ seen in its true character and results would end all of these, and all earthly things. We see to what ripeness all these have grown in our day. Legality for walk; ceremonial for worship; religiousness in the flesh for peace with God and a purged conscience; occupation with the earth, and adorning the world, and building up reputation, for real separation unto God; making the world better and more desirable, for being dead to it and looking alone to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Their glory is their shame.
Philippians 3:2020For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: (Philippians 3:20).For our citizenship or enrollment (commonwealth) is in the heavens, out of which we are ardently expecting a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will change our bodies of humiliation into the likeness of His own body of glory, according to the power whereby He is able to subdue even all things unto Himself. This sets the whole matter before us. We belong up in heaven, and are looking every moment for the Lord Jesus to change this body. All is rejected here, all is condemned. The real home is there. Christ is all; life with Him is involved in our having here life in Him. Now is the judgment of this world, not the encompassing of it in the arms of a profession of Christ's name, and beautifying its things, and covering its inimical ways, and making Christ to go on with all; the thing which He refused when the religious people of the day, when He was upon the earth, would have offered it, meaning to make Him King of all. (John 6) No, the cross is a reality, and the glory with Christ is a reality. It is according to God and such as will suit Him for eternity. Thanks be to God for the cross which means so much; not bringing us back to try again, to seek nourishment for conscience and heart from the things of the flesh which failed us when that was our only resource; but offering real food, real substance, for a real life altogether of another kind, -in Christ up there at the right hand of God.
Having died in Christ in the cross, our life is elsewhere, where He is; our citizenship, our commonwealth, the range of our action, is above, and we are really foreigners here, directly to be called away home. Nay, better than that, we look for Him, according to His promise, to come and take us to Himself. A value has been put upon us and a place assigned and prepared by Himself in the glory with Him, and that is our commonwealth. Little would they do who apprehend this to help the so-named progress of any commonwealth or body politic here. Offices could not be accepted, or sought, under the governments, nor the elective franchise used; for how could one be a citizen of two countries antagonistic of each other? The work of the Holy Spirit is to testify for the heavenly and against the earthly home. The testimony of the Holy Spirit is that the whole system here is under condemnation; and that there is no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus, -that we are not of the world. Nothing is clearer than this, and yet nothing is pled for more than citizenship here.
But we look towards the heavens for our Lord Jesus Christ at any moment to take us to Himself, where we belong. In a moment, the twinkling of an eye, it may all take place. What a fitting ending for such a mode of living! How natural such a life in expectation of such an end! The Scripture is exceedingly rich in matter as to this: "We shall be changed;" "this mortal shall clothe itself in immortality;" "we shall see Him as He is, for we shall be like Him;" "caught up to meet the Lord in the clouds;" "in the air, and so shall we be forever with the Lord!" What an expression of grace and power and salvation is begun on the cross and ended in the glory with the Lord! The very power by which He is able to subdue all things unto Himself is for us, and this is its necessary consummation. Blessed be God for such an hope on such an object!