The Secret to Success
Philippians 3:10-16
10 I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.
12 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. 13 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, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
15 All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. 16 Only let us live up to what we have already attained.
The vision question is a good way to get your brain in gear and start dreaming about the future
The vision question reads as follows—if you could do anything you wanted and be guaranteed success, what would you do? This question is intended to remove barriers to thinking about your future, and precisely which barrier does it remove? The question removes the barrier of failure, right? If you are guaranteed success then it is impossible to fail in your endeavor. Given these parameters, how would you answer that question? Some people would go back to school so they can prepare for a different career. Some might decide to enter into full-time ministry. Others would put on their entrepreneurial hats and start their own business. Many would turn their favorite hobby into a business. What if you could make a good living hunting and fishing—how many would choose that path? How many ladies would like to scrapbook one to two hours a day and get paid big bucks for it?
The vision question helps to uncover a person’s fear and perhaps uncover a calling from God. But the part of the question that is intended to remove barriers in your dreaming is the very place where we tend to crash into the wall of reality. In this question you are guaranteed success, but how often does that happen in real life? If someone pushes something on you that is guaranteed to succeed, it is probably an ponzi scheme or swampland in Florida. I like to dream as big as the next person, but there is no such thing as a guarantee success. Or is there?
In this passage in Philippians, Paul makes a startling claim—Christians are guaranteed success. Let me say it again so I make sure you catch it. Christians are guaranteed success. I have to say that I am a little disappointed in your reaction to this statement. I didn’t expect you to believe it and rejoice, but just the opposite. The phrase sounds like a classic statement from prosperity theology, does it not? I am disappointed, because I thought I had trained you well enough to sufficiently hate prosperity theology that you should have a negative reaction when you hear it. I am disappointed because you should have called me a heretic or an apostate. You should have started looking for a stone to throw.
You are probably guessing that this is not prosperity theology, but I am serious. Christians are guaranteed success. If it’s not heresy, maybe you think I am changing the definitions of these words, so let’s go through each of them.
Christians—this should be simple, but let’s use Paul’s own definition from this passage. A Christian is someone who has done nothing to earn their salvation. A Christian is someone who has nothing in their profit column except the righteousness of Christ. A Christian does not work for their salvation because that is rubbish. A Christian is made righteous by faith in Christ. If you think that you are a Christian for any other reason then you are sadly mistaken.
Guaranteed—there is nothing tricky here. When I say guaranteed I mean guaranteed. This is not a limited warranty. There is no fine print to read. There is nothing that you or anyone else can do to change this guarantee.
Success—What I mean by success is that you will succeed in the pursuit of Christ. Obviously we will still sin and still fail, but ultimately our following after Christ will succeed. It cannot, not succeed.
The key verse that describes this final success is verse twelve. 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. Paul states that he has not yet obtained something, which he calls “all this”. The “all this” to which he is referring is found in verse eleven: becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. Obviously Paul had not become perfect because at that point he had not attained the resurrection of the dead. He had already been made righteous, he already knew the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ, but he did not have perfect knowledge that comes from being changed into a resurrected body and abiding with Christ for all eternity.
He was not there yet, however, he made this startling statement— I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. If we are not careful we could run past this verse. We know that he is pressing on to attain the resurrection from the dead. Another word for taking hold would be to possess. Paul wanted to come into full possession of Christ through his own resurrection, but the second half of the verse is he key to the first half. Really, it is the key to this whole section. Paul was seeking to possess that for which Christ Jesus took hold of him. Let me show you how this verse reads in the ESV. Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Paul said Christ has “made me his own”. The King James reads, he has “apprehended” me. The NLT reads, he “possesses” me.
Here is a radical thought that is often overlooked. If you are a Christian, Christ possesses you. He possesses you because he purchased you. You were bought with his precious blood. “For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.” (1 Peter 1:18-19) The Judaizers, with whom Paul is fighting against in this passage, make the same mistake that everyone has always made since the beginning of time—they want to make a deal with God, or with the many gods that they worship. This is what al religion boils down to—making some kind of deal with God. Purchasing favor from God by some kind of deed. Maybe the deed is an animal sacrifice, or a human sacrifice as was required of the worshippers of Baal or the Mayan religious culture. Maybe it is a religious duty such as circumcision, baptism, or hundreds of other laws and regulations. Perhaps the most common way that people try to earn favor with God, especially in western cultures, is to be a nice person. It is extremely rare to find someone who doesn’t think that they are basically a good person. Listen to these hardened prisoners talk about their “good hearts”. Ex. Video being a nice person…
I am basically a good person, so if there is a God, then he has to let me into heaven because I earned it through my good deeds, or at the very least, I didn’t do enough bad things to earn a place in Hell. Everyone wants to strike a deal with God. In fact, we did strike a deal with God, only it was a unilateral deal. We didn’t bring anything to the negotiation table. We did a complete surrender and he purchased our salvation at the highest price possible.
This past Thursday I paid an outstanding debt. I bet a friend a cup of coffee that John McCain would be the next president. My friend and I hold polar opposite viewpoints on almost every possible issue. He brought up the possibility of finding intelligent life on other planets. I told him that it was so unlikely this could happen that I bet every last dollar I own. I didn’t think this was enough so I sweetened the deal and said I would give him my house, my money and ever last possession if they ever found intelligent life on other planets. He said to me, “I can’t take that bet. The price is too high.” If that price is too high for a negotiation between two friends, then what about the precious blood of Christ as a negotiation price?
I cannot purchase my own righteousness because Christ has purchased mine for me. This is why two weeks ago I reminded you that this is indeed a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. There is a progression of three verses in the Song of Solomon that I am convinced apply to our relationship with Christ. Throughout history, most scholars though that the Song of Solomon was one big allegory about the love relationship between God and his people. Today, it is fair to say that the majority of scholars see it quite literal—it is a love story between two passionate people, before and after their wedding day. But just because it is t be taken literally does not mean that there are not spiritual and figurative parts contained in it.
The first verse is from 2:16, My lover is mine and I am his. This is a statement of intimacy and in each of these examples, it is the woman who is doing the talking. It is a statement of possession—my lover is mine. We could rephrase it this way: My lover belongs to me and I belong to him, or, I love him and he loves me. The next verse shows a progression in intimacy. I am my lovers and my lover is mine (6:3). Again, we could phrase it in terms of possession: I belong to (or am possessed) by my lover and he belongs to me, or He loves me and I love him. Can you see the progression? The verse is merely flipped on its head, but that makes all the difference in the world. In the first verse the emphasis was placed on the woman having possession of the man. He is mine. I possess him. The emphasis is on her love for him, but the second verse shows an emphasis on the man’s love for her. He loves me and I love him.
Finally the progression in intimacy is made complete in verse 7:10. I belong to my lover and his desire is for me. Has the woman stopped loving the man? Of course not, but what she feels most powerfully is that her husband loves her and his desire is for her. Especially when viewed as a progression in their relationship, you can almost feel the level of intimacy. The woman is absolutely secure in her husband’s love. She is safe in his arms, literally and figuratively. In the Song of Solomon there is anticipation for love and physical expressions of love, but this progression of intimacy stands out as the highlight of the book. And, it also forms a paradigm for Christ’s intimacy with us. We are the bride of Christ and he is our lover. He pursued us and he purchased us and now we belong to him. We can say, “We belong to Christ and his desire is for us.” With a love like this you can see why it is so foolish to approach God ask, “Will you love me if I get circumcised? Will you love me if I try really hard to be a good person?” Rubbish.
The implications of this perfect love are immense and infinite. We are safe and secure. We can rest in his love. Do you understand what it means to rest in the love of Christ? As we said last week, it means that your worth and identity are found in Christ. It means that your search for significance is finished. It means that your compulsive driving after success is no longer necessary. It means that you do not have to find love, fulfillment and self-worth in any other person or any other thing. Not a husband or wife, not a boyfriend or girlfriend, not a job, a sport, a career, a hobby, a ministry. Your worth, your significance, your love, and your very being are all found in your identity in Christ. He possesses you. You belong to him and his desire is for you, therefore, rest in that love.
Rest and security are obvious and necessary implications of the fact that Christ possesses us, yet Paul has another application in mind. Going to back to verse twelve, I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Listen to the extreme effort and hard work in the next two verses. This is the language of a trained athlete. This is the language of athletic competition at the Olympic or SuperBowl level. 13 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, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
Twice Paul said he is “pressing on”. He is straining. He is seeking to win the prize. Here is the big question. If Paul is safe and secure in the unconditional love of God, and if Christ already possesses him in the most intimate sense of the word, why then would Paul continue to strive so hard after Christ? Why would he work so hard if he already has what he wants? We would expect the Judaizers and everyone else who is working to find favor with God to use language like this, but not Paul. We know that Paul is not striving and straining to earn his salvation, because everything he has written in this chapter would contradict that. Paul is straining with great effort because he knows that all of his striving will be successful! This is what I meant when I said, Christians are guaranteed success. If you could do anything in all the world and be guaranteed success, what would you do? Well, here we have the single greatest possible pursuit—the pursuit of Christ—the prize of heaven—and we have a guarantee of success. You cannot conceive of a higher goal and you cannot be given a more perfect guarantee of success.
Do you see what this means? It means that all of our striving will turn out to be successful. In the end, we will possess that for which Christ has already possessed us. It means that all of my daily struggle to live for Christ will be successful in the end. It means that every diaper you change for the glory of God really is significant and will be successful. It means that every day when you drag your tired body out of bed and go off to another day at the office for the glory of God, you will succeed. Your daily activities of obedience and your daily experiences of everyday life, however exciting or mundane they might be—all of these will succeed in terms of gaining the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus. This does not mean that every thought and action that we do from this point forward will be free from sin and impure motives, nor does it mean that we will have health and wealth beyond your wildest dreams, but it does mean that our search for significance is over, our rest is secure and our striving will succeed.
But I am guessing at this point some might object by saying: If Christ already possesses us, if our future is guaranteed, if nothing can change this fact, then why should we “press on” at all? Why all of the straining? Why not just rest and get by in this life? Why not just coast through life and take it easy? I would say that this kind of question would not even be asked by someone who has been justified by faith and bought by the precious blood of Christ. If Christ already possesses you, if you already have this intimae, personal relationship with Jesus Christ, why would you not want more of it now? A true, intimate relationship will want to know Christ more NOW in anticipation of knowing him perfectly later.
Paul knew and we should know that this straining toward success will entail suffering. I love the way Paul talk about suffering in verse ten. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings. In all of the teaching about suffering in the N.T., this phrase is unique—the fellowship of sharing in his suffering. The word for fellowship is koinonia (κοινωνία). How many of you are familiar with this word? In a few minutes we will share our fellowship dinner together. This is the kind of koinonia that we are used to—wonderful, sweet fellowship between fellow believers. But the kind of koinonia Paul is referring to here is a koinonia of suffering, a fellowship of sharing in his suffering. As we close this morning, we get the privilege of remembering this fellowship of suffering by sharing together in the Lord’s upper.
Rich Maurer
February 1, 2009