Some thoughts on Philippians, chapter 3
“I deem
everything to be a loss on account of the excellence…of knowing Christ, and the
power of his resurrection, and communion in his sufferings…not that I have
already been perfected, but…I press onward to the mark, for the prize of God’s call
upward in Christ Jesus” (3.8, 10, 12, 14).
Paul made it his life’s goal to “become like Jesus”. In Philippians 2, Paul shared the hymn which
described Jesus’ self-emptying and humiliation through his incarnation and
death on the cross (2.6-11). In chapter
3, as he warns the Christians of Philippi against Judaizers (who insisted that
circumcision was necessary in order to become a Christian), Paul describes the “confidence
in the flesh” that he had previously as a Pharisee (3.4-6). Paul tells the Philippians that he has gone
through an emptying process similar to that of Jesus – indeed, he “has lost all
things on Christ’s account” (3.8).
Moreover, he considers all the things that had previously given him confidence
and status to be “excrement” and a liability.
He has found the “pearl of great price” (cf. Mt. 13.45-46). Paul turned his back on each and every prerogative
that his religious pedigree had given him.
Paul has done this because he had discovered, in Jesus, the path to true
glory. The way up is the way
down. Just as Christ descended to the
lowest depth of shame and pain, only to be exalted to the highest place (2.9),
so Paul is “striving towards the mark for the prize of God’s call upward”
(3.14). For Paul, Jesus is the standard
of perfection, the one member of the human race who has been exalted to share
in the very glory of God (cf. Rom. 3.23; 2 Cor. 4.6). The way to glory, i.e. resurrection (3.20-21),
is the way of the cross (Phil. 3.8-11; cf. Gal. 6.14; Mk. 10.35-45).
Paul’s
single-minded goal was to become like Jesus, and he called upon the Philippians
to imitate him (3.17; cf. 1 Cor. 11.1). As
their apostle/pastor, Paul was “Jesus” for the Philippians, and he calls them
to be “Jesus” for each other (2.1-5).
Christians are called to “carry the cross” in both their communal life
and in their public witness, all in the hope of experiencing resurrection glory
when Christ returns to establish God’s new world (cf. Rom. 8.18-25). This is the pattern of reality – indeed, all
attempts to experience “glory” in the Present Age are doomed to end in disaster
(3.18-19). The only way to salvation is
the way of voluntary suffering now, i.e. participation in the work of Jesus
(cf. Col. 1.24, 27), in the hope of everlasting glory in the Age to Come. The cross comes before the crown.
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