Philippians 3:12 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 (ESV)
The first thing standing out to me in this verse is this; “not that I have already obtained this.” And I stop there and ask, obtained what? Without the context of this verse we miss the heart behind Paul’s address. He’s referring to being found in Christ, “not having a righteousness of” his “own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that which depends on faith-that” he “may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in death, that by any means possible” he “may attain the resurrection from the dead” (Philippians 3:9-11). There is much that is coming to mind as I meditate upon this address “to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the overseers and deacons.” The first thing is this, one thing remains, that is righteousness. Whether under the law or in Christ, the absence of righteousness is non-existent. The difference is this, one is established upon righteousness of the flesh, while the other is found through faith in Christ. I want to camp out on this thought for a while. I will go as far to say what Paul has said, “faith without works is dead” (James 1:20). If our righteousness in Christ depends upon the faith, then that faith must produce something in our life. It must produce the works, otherwise it is a dead faith. In order to better understand this we look at the definition of faith. A belief or trust: belief in, devotion to, or trust in somebody or something, especially without logical proof.
Although we must understand this one thing, our faith in Christ Jesus is not a blind-faith. We are not required to commit intellectual suicide by believing in Christ Jesus as Lord. Think about these three verses; “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” (Matthew 22:37). “And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” (John 17:3). “God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:24). So here is the thing, we have been given the truth, the word of God, and we have been given the mind, or intellectual capacity, so that through the empowerment of the Spirit, we have the ability to know God. For me it works something like this. I fill my mind with the truth, the truth then sparks my spirit, and my heart generates an energy and desire to continue filling my mind with the truth. My heart, soul and mind are working in perfect harmony and without a proper balance, or one of the three to an extreme it could be dangerous. This proverb comes to mind, “Desire without knowledge is not good, whoever makes haste with his feet misses his way” (Proverbs 19:2). Or heart without mind. When we are given a desire we need to weigh it against the truth, to see if it is in Gods will. Gods will is not a lighting bolt that hits us in the fiery feeling of warm fuzzy tingling, its 66 books full of truth and commandments, the designed and intended way of living. God, omniscient and omnipotent and all wise has poured out through loving channels (I.e. Christ) all his creation would need for an eternity through the power of his word. “He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power” (Hebrews 1:3).
Braking this verse down problematically there are two more things to note. I cant help but love the person of Paul, maybe its Christ within him that I am attracted to, but regardless his words are inspired by the Spirit and profound none the less. He says, “I press on to make it my own.” Clearly through scripture we have been informed that we have the ability to make it our own. If eternal life comes through knowing God (John 17:3), then you had better believe that he has created us with the ability to know him. If we truly believe in Christ, we should see an outward manifestation of righteous action due to an inward transformation of the heart and mind through the power of the Holy Spirit. In John 3:16, one of the most commonly memorized and quoted scriptures of the Christian faith, says that we find eternal life through believing in Christ. It does not say who ever believed, but whoever believes. This word believes, in the Greek, is in the present tense, an on going continuous action.
Believing is an ongoing condition of the heart, not just a one time act. If you believe in an ongoing way then you don’t perish. “But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” (John 20:31). This verse sums up the purpose of the gospel. The first word believe, in the Greek is a tense that describes coming to believe. The event of starting to believe. The second word believe is the present tense of ongoing action. In paraphrased form, this gospel was written, and the events of Jesus are recorded, and preserved, so that at a point in time you might come to believe, and by believing for the rest of your life get and experience eternal life. In other words, don’t think back to the encounter you had with God 10 years ago, at the point of you Christian life, when you were saved. What saves is not a point in time, but do you believe right now? This very moment. Ill put it like this, “You believe, that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe-and shudder!” (James 2:19). If the demons believe, yet have not received eternal life, we should note there must be more to the belief of a Christian. It should be a belief that is so true, a belief that Jesus Christ is enough, that the desires of this world would be no more. If you truly believe Jesus is enough, your actions will reflect that belief, when tempted with the lusts of this world, you will without struggle pick the love of God.
This is where it becomes personal, this is where we should strive to make it our own. The faith of my neighbor is not going to earn me the righteousness of Christ. It’s personal, Christ died for all, but that means he died for you and me both. So as he made me his own, we should make our faith our own. We are in danger unless we understand this one truth, we will receive empowerment to be holy as he was holy. Paul was trying to attain something, we have failed to mention up to this point, but this is the climax, this is the punch line, this is the resurrection from the dead. Now we need to know the power of Christ’s resurrection. Without the resurrection there is no power in the cross. But because Christ resurrected, he conquered death, and through the cross, through the resurrection, through Christ do we find eternal life. But within the eternal life we have obtained the ability to share in that power. We are to die in a spiritual sense, upon the death to self (the flesh), we receive a rebirth of the Spirit. We are not longer dying but we enter into eternal life, death has lost its power through the resurrection of Christ. This is what we are to make our own, we are to share in his sufferings, share his death, that we might know him and share in the power of his resurrection. The power of the cross, the heal and bind the broken hearted, the power to liberate, to power to restore, the power to set the captives free this is the power of the cross. So daily wake up, pick up that power and make it personal.
