Pressing On Toward the Goal (Part 1)

In my posts of June 30 and July 1 -- "The Magnificent Goal" and "Greater Is He", I quoted from Philippians 3:8-9 and 3:12-14, which say this:

• Philippians 3:8-9 - "What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ - the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith."

• Philippians 3:12-14 - "Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus."

If you've been following my blog for the last few days, you'll know that in my "daily conversation" with the Lord (see "Entering Into a Daily Conversation with God"), I've been focusing on personal transformation. And for this reason, I've been meditating on the whole chapter of Philippians 3 since Friday, and want to share with you a little of what I got out of that chapter. For me, this has a strong bearing not just on my healing process, but on the whole process of spiritual growth itself.

Let's start with verse 7:

"But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ."

Paul is speaking here of exchanging everything for something of higher worth. In fact, the "everything" that he is willing to "consider loss" is nothing less than what he would have earlier in his life considered for his profit -- all the credentials he had accumulated which had earned him spiritual accolades before his peers. In other words, all that this world might consider to be of value, Paul suddenly counted not just as worthless, but actually a liability -- a "loss" on his spiritual balance sheet. As The Message puts it:

"The very credentials these people are waving around as something special, I'm tearing up and throwing out with the trash -- along with everything else I used to take credit for."

As I read this, and was speaking to the Lord about it, I realised that personal transformation must first begin with a transformation in my way of thinking. Romans 12:2 then immediately came to mind:

"Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is -- his good, pleasing and perfect will."

Two other passages of scripture also came to mind as I was looking up Romans 12:2 (both of which are almost mirror-like in similarity):

• Ephesians 4:22-24 - "You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness."

• Colossians 3:9-10 - "Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator."

Paul then goes on in verses 8-9 to explain what he means by the expression "I now consider [everything] loss for the sake of Christ." He writes:

"What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ -- the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith."

Paul is willing to take what the world calls "gain" on its spiritual balance sheet and call it "loss", because he had discovered something worth far more than anything he himself could accumulate by his own efforts. It was because of the "surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord" that he was willing to lose everything else and even consider it all "rubbish" so that "I may gain Christ"!

The word translated "rubbish" literally means "refuse, excrement, dregs, what is cast to the dogs." In other words, it doesn't just have zero value...it has negative value! As far as Paul was concerned, his own accumulated credentials of self-righteousness is something to throw away as quickly as he can, lest it fester, contaminate and begin to develop a stench. Quite extreme language, yet it conveys the dramatic nature of Paul's turnaround in thinking.

The Amplified Bible translates Philippians 3:8-10 in superbly exquisite and nuanced language:

"Yes, furthermore, I count everything as loss compared to the possession of the priceless privilege (the overwhelming preciousness, the surpassing worth, and supreme advantage) of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord and of progressively becoming more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him [of perceiving and recognizing and understanding Him more fully and clearly]. For His sake I have lost everything and consider it all to be mere rubbish (refuse, dregs), in order that I may win (gain) Christ..."

It was "the possession of the priceless privilege" or what The Amplified Bible connotes as "the overwhelming preciousness, the surpassing worth, and supreme advantage of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord and of progressively becoming more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him" that drove this value change in Paul's life. You see, you can be begged, cajoled or even pestered, but you won't willingly give up something you consider to be of value unless something you consider to be of even greater value is given in exchange. This is what I call Collins' First Law of Spiritual Economics: "Relinquishing something of perceived value must be preceded by a change of values." (Sometime later I might share my Three Laws of Spiritual Economics with you).

And Philippians 3 is all about a massive change in values, which drove Paul to give up everything this world considers valuable in order to gain something of far greater worth. And the crux of this value change -- and the accompanying "renewing of the mind" (Romans 12:2) -- centres on a new understanding of how to attain a righteousness that is acceptable to God. Whereas before, Paul had seen righteousness as something that was to be gained through self-effort, Paul now realised that righteousness is a gift from God (see Romans 1:17; Galatians 2:21). This is why Paul emphasises so strongly, in Philippians 3:9, that his goal is to be "be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ -- the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith." This same concept is clearly spelled out in Romans 1:17, which says:

"For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: 'The righteous will live by faith.'"

So important is this concept that I want to underline it clearly before I move on. The two elements of this new kind of righteousness that Paul had discovered are summarised, in both Philippians 3:9 and Romans 1:17, by two phrases:

1. "From God" -- this describes the direction flow of this righteousness -- i.e. from God to me, not the other way around (note 2 Corinthians 4:7).

2. "By faith" -- this describes the method by which this righteousness is acquired -- i.e. by faith, not my own good works (note Ephesians 1:8-9; Romans 4:1-5).

No wonder Paul uses such emphatic language in Galatians 2:21, when he says:

"I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!"

In The Message, Paul's meaning comes across very clearly:

"Is it not clear to you that to go back to that old rule-keeping, peer-pleasing religion would be an abandonment of everything personal and free in my relationship with God? I refuse to do that, to repudiate God's grace. If a living relationship with God could come by rule-keeping, then Christ died unnecessarily."

So now that we've established this value change, together with an inner transformation through "the renewing of your mind" -- a total reorientation of one's thinking and a complete shift in one's worldview -- we're ready to look at the next part of Philippians 3, which I'll examine tomorrow. For once there has been a transformation in thinking, the next step is a transformation in behaviour.