The Stock Exchange, Part 2

In chapter 3, I’m pretty sure that John planned
that. If he didn’t, it’s an amazing coincidence because
what more appropriate time to sing that particular song than
today in light of the passage and where we’ll be this morning.
If that passage or if that little chorus isn’t built on this particular
passage, I’d be surprised because the themes are just almost an
echo of where we’ll be this morning. We find ourselves in Philippians
chapter 3 in that great section between verses 2 through 11. We have been there for several
weeks and just by way of a A more brief review this morning, I
just want to take a step back and take an overview of where
we’ve been. Paul there in Rome heard news
of his precious Philippian church and likely even had direct knowledge
of the troublemakers that were Already in Rome, but likely already
in Philippi as well. And Paul wanted his church apprised
of the nature of their argument, of their destructiveness, of
even how to proceed in light of their impending attack. Paul didn’t want his church ignorant.
He didn’t want them devoured. And so he opens this lengthy
section with some of the strongest words in all of the New Testament.
Let’s consider, if you would, verses 2-11 of Philippians 3. Beware of the dogs. Beware of the evil workers. Beware
of the false circumcision. For we are the true circumcision
who worship in the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus
and put no confidence in the flesh. Although I myself might
have confidence even in the flesh. If anyone else has a mind to
put confidence in the flesh, I far more circumcised the eighth
day of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew
of Hebrews, as to the law, a Pharisee, as to zeal, a persecutor of the
church, as to the righteousness which is in the law found blameless.
But whatever things were gained to me, those things I have counted
as loss. for the sake of Christ. More
than that, I count all things to be lost in view of the surpassing
value of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I have suffered
the loss of all things and count them but rubbish in order that
I may gain Christ and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness
of my own derived from the law, but having that which is through
faith in Christ the righteousness which comes from God on the basis
of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection
and the fellowship of His sufferings being conformed to His death
in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.”
Paul heard that the Judaizers were going to come Perhaps they
were already in Philippi. We know they were already in
Rome. They were going to come and they were going to bring
message that there were things that must be added to Christ.
That Christ alone was not enough. And that some of the works of
the law, some of the Jewish rituals must be added if a person were
truly to be saved. And it’s because of that that
Paul called them dogs. Mangy. They were malicious. They
were evil workers. This wasn’t just bad ideas. This was evil, ill-intended ideas
that would leave a person hellbound if they were to be imbibed. They were mangy, they were malicious,
and they were mutilated. None of their rituals meant anything
in God’s eyes. They didn’t accomplish anything.
They were worthless. And Paul goes from there in verse
3 to outline Who are the true children of God and what are
the marks of the true children of God? They are those that worship
in the Spirit of God. And as we looked at that word
worship, it is the word that just speaks of our entire life
laid before God, not just our one hour in coming to church,
but the entirety of our life becomes devotional service to
God. Devotional service is divinely
actuated. Paul also pointed out that another
mark of the true children of God is that they glory in Christ
Jesus. The ground of boasting is divinely
oriented, that it’s only God and only in Christ Jesus that
we have anything for which to boast. The third mark there in
verse three of the true children of God is that a child of God
is one whose trust is divinely refocused. They put no confidence
in the flesh, do these children of God. Paul plays upon that
argument. And he knew that there were likely
people, even in his own audience, perhaps even in the Philippian
church, that perhaps with a Jewish background might even be tempted
to lean not only on Christ, but also to add to him with some
of their background, their heritage, some of these other things that
were so important to the Jew. Paul says, you know what, look,
if anybody that ever existed, lived in such a way that perhaps
we might have something by which to boast, something that we might
want to bring in our heavenly handbag, something that we can
bring with us that commends us to God. If anybody would do that,
it would be me. And Paul looks at that great
list of things that between him and God He had in his so-called
heavenly handbag. And Paul says, I loaded them
all up in a trunk and I pushed the trunk into the sea. Look at the list. Paul essentially
says, if we are going to have Christ, we have to lose our hope
in ritual. Circumcise the eighth day. There
were those and there are still those in our day that would pin
their hopes on some little ritual. Christ, yes, but Christ plus
being baptized in a particular way or having gone to such and
such a place. We have to lose our hope and
ritual, our faith and nationalism, our pride of lineage. There are
still people today that will claim Christ and claim that they
are of a good family lineage. If we would have Christ, we must
lose our reliance on our heritage, our confidence in our conservatism. Paul said that he was a Pharisee. And in that day and age, the
most far right that you could get, our confidence in our conservatism,
our assurance and enthusiasm, our trust and virtuousness, all
of those things Paul said he heaved into the sea as being
worthless. Because he knew if he were to
hold to any of those things, to any degree as a hope of heaven,
was to lose Christ. And Paul said, I cannot, I cannot
have that. If I cannot have Christ, I must
lose all. And he did. We began last week
with considering the rest of that analogy. Paul, as it were,
was on a ship. And the ship was storm-tossed.
And in order to save the ship, and perhaps save himself, he
heaves everything overboard, much like the mariners would,
not only in that day, but even in our own. They heave everything
overboard in order to lighten the ship that it won’t be broken
up on the rocks and by the wind and the waves. Paul said he heaved
everything into the deep, dark ocean. But as we began last week,
the storm begins to abate. Dawn begins to break. The ship,
even without sails, meanders into a beautiful bay. And the
ship and the passengers are saved. But that’s only part of the story.
As they disembark from the ship, they find that they are in a
kingdom and the kingdom is so vast and so beautiful, so wealthy,
so rich beyond all imagination. And they are welcomed into this
kingdom, not as guests, but as the very princes and princesses
of that kingdom. That’s the image. And so, if
we’ve heaved everything into the sea, if we’ve divested ourselves
of our hope in ritual and our confidence in conservatism, in
all of those things that we might say commend us to heaven, if
we’ve heaved everything into the sea, what do we gain? What
do we gain? And that’s where we began last
week. What are the things that are gained in this great stock
exchange that a Christian engages. As he comes to Christ, as we
see Christ for who He is, what are those things that we gain
as we empty ourselves of all? We began last week by looking
at the blessings gained in our loss. And in the loss of all
things, we saw, first of all, the Christian gains a saving
knowledge of Christ. Look at v. 8. More than that,
I count all things to be lost in view of the surpassing value. It was superlative. It was beyond
all other things. The surpassing value of knowing
Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I’ve suffered the loss of all
things and count them but rubbish. It was a lasting attitude for
Paul. that he not only had set those things aside, but he had
pushed them into the sea and not only had he lost complete
grip on them, but he did not desire to go on one of those
recovery expeditions. Paul didn’t long for any of those
things that he once heaved into the sea. They were gone and he
left them and he counted them to be lost. Not just lost. He would continue and He would
do it all over a thousand times over in view of knowing Christ. We speak of that as Christians
even to this day. It’s one of our favorite things
to do when we meet new believers. How did you come to know Christ? We speak in more general terms
of those who know God. Those words are biblical words.
It’s exactly that for which Jesus prayed in John 17. This is eternal
life that they may know you, the only true God and Jesus Christ
whom you have sent. And it speaks of that intimate
experiential knowledge of God, not just head knowledge, not
just a casual reading through the Gospels once. But far beyond intellectual knowledge,
it’s that intimate knowledge of who Christ is, who God is,
what is their character, what is their nature. And having that,
it makes it easy to leave hold of all of those things that we
once held dear, as our chorus said. It was for Christ, Paul says,
that he had suffered the loss of all things in a very real
sense. He laid them down in exchange for Christ. He knew what he gave
up and he knew what he gained. As we saw several weeks ago,
Paul heaved it all into the sea because he counted them but rubbish.
Not objectively speaking, but comparatively speaking. All of
those things that he had were precious. Some of those things
are of great value, not monetarily, but socially and in many other
ways, psychologically speaking. To know that you come from a
great family heritage. To know that you’re of the greatest
nation of Earth. The apple of God’s eye. Those
were great things. Objectively speaking, but comparatively,
once he stacked them all up, He looked at them individually,
looked at them all collectively and even collectively, they didn’t
count to anything compared to Christ. They were rubbish, garbage. Worth only to be thrown aside. Compared to Christ and knowing
Christ. They were worthless. Paul’s great
desire was to know Christ and to win Christ. as one said, to
lay fast hold on Him, to receive Him into his heart, to make Him
his own. That’s our desire, isn’t it,
Christian? To let everything else beside. To leave everything behind. But
if we could only know Christ, if we could only lay hold of
Him to gain Christ, that’s our desire. That’s what we gain. That’s what we have as we sailed
into harbor. We have the saving knowledge
of Christ. Secondly, the second blessing gained in our loss,
we find in verse 9, that in the loss of all things, the Christian
gains not only the saving knowledge of Christ, but righteousness
through faith or justification by faith in Christ, if you will.
Look at verse 9 again. And we talked about last week
briefly in our Greek lesson, this second of three subjunctive
verbs. And this subjunctive verb is
a verb of hope, of anticipation. It’s not actualized in the here
and now. We possess it in a sense, but
we possess it more fully in the future. And it’s the great goal
of the apostle. And he uses these verbs three
times in this passage. as possessing, but yet yearning
still to possess it more fully. And may I be found in Him. That’s the verb. That I may gain
Christ. That’s the first. And that I
may be found in Him. That’s the second. That I may
be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the law,
but having that which is through faith in Christ. Paul’s great desire was to be
found in Him. And that little word just implies
that after a series or process of scrutiny, whether here or
in the hereafter, Paul’s great desire was to be found, to be
discovered, to be completely residing in Him. It just speaks of that in Him,
speaks of that incorporation with Christ as our Lord, where
we are one with Him. Paul wanted to be seen to be
or discovered or proven to be in Christ. He didn’t want to
be seen on his own merits any longer. He didn’t want to be
seen as part of some great company or some great nation. He didn’t
want to be seen as part of some great and conservative group.
He didn’t want to be seen as part of some particular faction
of that group that had received a particular right. None of that
meant anything to him, but to be in Christ was everything.
To be in Christ. One said it this way, by virtue
of his fellowship and union with Christ through faith, Paul no
longer had a righteousness of his own. He no longer had a righteousness
which consisted in the strict outward fulfillment of the obligations
of the law, but instead a righteousness of attitude towards God accomplished
by reason of the fact that it was appropriated by way of faith
in Christ. That whole word there, found,
just suggests a trial And as Paul says, I am scrutinized in
the future. I want nothing more to be said
of me that I am in Christ and in Christ alone. That word, as
we pointed out last week, in him, is just a tremendously popular
little phrase with Paul. Paul uses it so often. in the
Scriptures, that everything that the Christian does, everything
that the Christian is, everything that is precious to the Christian
is precious because we are in Him. One summarized with these
observations. The Christian exercises all the
functions of his life in Christ. In him, or in fellowship with
him, are rooted trust, joy, boldness, Christian refreshment. In him,
one speaks. In him, one executes his ministry.
In him, one entertains others and ministers to others. In him,
one maintains unity with others. In him, we obey another. In him,
we are strengthened. In him, we can do all things. That thought, that unity with
Christ is expressed in a manifold number of ways in Scripture.
Galatians 2.20 says it this way, I’ve been crucified with Christ
and it’s no longer I who live, which is an interesting thought,
right? It’s no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. The union is so strong that I
have receded, faded to the background and now it’s Christ. The life which I now live in
the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and
gave Himself up for me.” John 17, which passage I already mentioned,
but at the end of that prayer, Jesus says that they may all
be one, even as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that
they may also be in us, so that the world may believe that You
sent them. He prayed for unity, but the image is there that it’s
union with Christ. that allows for unity with one
another. It’s the fact that we are in
Christ, that we are one with another. And of course, the great
passage that we all often think of is when we think of this oneness
with Christ. The branch. That image of the branch in John
chapter 15, every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he
takes away every branch that bears fruit. He prunes that it
may bear more fruit. And that image of being in Christ
and abiding in Christ is there as well. He’s not talking
about external fellowship, merely coming to church this morning
doesn’t place you in Christ. That is an act, a work of God
that places you, baptizes you in a sense, into Christ, immerses
you into Christ, so that for once and for all, you are literally
in Him. It’s not external fellowship.
It can’t be explained away just by merely this process of discipleship. It is union. It is close. It’s
tender. It’s vital. It’s living. It’s
vibrant. It’s constant. It’s ongoing. Is that the relationship that
you have with Christ? Was it a one-time thing that
kind of has faded since then? But you still have the card that
you signed? That’s not adequate. That’s not union. That’s not
what it is to be in Christ. That’s not what it means. That’s
not what Paul was longing for when he desired to be in Christ
and found in Him. And so, Paul describes the results
of that gaining Christ and being found in Him in the following
words here. What is it? To be found in Christ? To gain Christ? It is to be found
not having a righteousness of my own derived from the law.
That righteousness was always seen as empty. Paul writes about
it repeatedly in his own epistles. In Galatians 2.16, a man is not
justified by the works of the law, but through faith in Christ
Jesus. Even we have believed in Christ
Jesus so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by
the works of the law, since by the works of the law no flesh
shall be justified.” Paul didn’t want a righteousness
of his own. He did at one point. Until he
came face to face with Christ, The Christian wants nothing else
but Christ. And that’s where Paul was. There
are often those who will paint themselves as Christians and
present themselves as Christians, but want to bring all this other
baggage with them. By the works of the law, no flesh
will be justified. Acts 13.39 says it as well. Luke
records there, through him, everyone who believes is freed from all
things from which you could not be freed through the law of Moses.
It was worthless. There was no point in whatever
so-called righteousness adherence to the law could bring. Because
it couldn’t save. Even a perfect adherence to the
law could not save. And Paul says in the final analysis,
it too is worthless. what Paul did possess. He possessed
by the good grace of God. Having come face to face with
Christ on the road to Damascus, Paul had heaved everything, as
it were, into the sea and he gained nothing more than righteousness
which came from God on the basis of faith. And here we spent no
little time last week on the whole matter of justification
by faith and looking at those great passages that point to
the polemical view that Paul has, the same view that Paul
has here in this passage. Remember, Paul has brought up
these legalists that wanted to add to Christ by this right adherence
to the law, which in essence was a work. Paul said there’s
no one going to be justified by works Paul points us repeatedly through
the Scriptures to this instantaneous work of God called justification.
We are justified because of the righteousness of Christ. That’s
how we’re made worthy to stand before God. And we receive that
by faith. That’s the conduit. Romans 1, I’m not ashamed of
the Gospel. It’s the power of God for salvation
to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the
Greek. For in it, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith
to faith as it is written, but the righteous man shall live
by faith. That’s how we receive the righteousness
of Christ. And to let go of all of those
things takes great faith. To let go of our heritage, to
let go of our nationalism, to let go of those things in which
we placed our trust up until the point we come to Christ.
It takes great faith. But faith, nonetheless, and that
faith as one said, is a confident, continuous confession of complete
dependence and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ for the necessary
requirements to enter God’s kingdom. It’s Christ and Christ alone.
It involves more than mere intellectual assent to the truth of the gospel.
Saving faith includes trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and surrender
to his lordship. Paul in writing to the Galatians. We’ll take just a minute. If
we have just a moment. Turn to Galatians 3. In Galatians 3, Paul polemically
is dealing with the same issues. Those that would add to Christ.
Those that were actually adding to Christ in their practices
and habits as professing Christians. No wonder it draws out the strong
language of verse 1 of chapter 3. You foolish Galatians, who
has bewitched you? Before whose eyes Christ, Jesus
Christ, was publicly portrayed as crucified? This is the only
thing I want to find out from you. Did you receive the Spirit
by the works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so
foolish, having begun by the Spirit, are you now perfected
by the flesh? All these things that you’re
going to add to Christ. Are you going to add to the very
work of God by some work of man? Did you suffer so many things
in vain if it indeed was in vain? So then, Does he who provides
you with the spirit and works miracles among you do it by the
works of the law or by hearing with faith? Which one is it?
He says it’s the same basic argument that he’s offering here to the
Philippians. Only the Philippians hadn’t fallen
into the error yet as the Galatians had. Even so, Abraham believed
God, verse six, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. Therefore,
be sure that it is those who are of faith who are sons of
Abraham. The Scripture, foreseeing that
God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel
beforehand to Abraham, saying, All the nations will be blessed
in you. Look at verse 11. Now that no one is justified
by the law before God is evident, the righteous shall live by faith.
However, the law is not of faith. On the contrary, he who practices
them shall live by them. In other words, he says, if you’re
going to do this one little right, you better go live by the entirety
of the law. That was always the command.
Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse
for us, for it is written, cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.
In order that Christ Jesus, the blessing of Abraham, might come
to the Gentiles so that we would receive the promises of the spirit
through faith. Look down at verse twenty one.
Is the law contrary to the promises of the God of God, and you can
hear the argument back and forth, Paul knew what they were going
to say, but the law, the law, the law may it never be. For
if a law had been given, which was able to impart life, then
righteousness would indeed have been based on law. But Scripture
has shut up everyone under sin so that the promise by faith
in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. But before
faith came, we were kept in custody under the law, being shut up
to the faith which was later to be revealed. Therefore, the
law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ so that we may be
justified by faith.” Paul desires that the precious Philippian
church not lose sight of the fact that they are justified
by the righteousness of Christ already having received that
by faith. They don’t need to add to that.
They don’t need to undermine or undo the very work of God
by adding these little rights and isms into their mix. What
do we gain by heeding everything into the sea? In the loss of
all things, the Christian gains the saving knowledge of Christ.
We gain justification by faith in Christ. And thirdly and finally
this morning, we gain glorification by association with Christ. Look at v. 10. The third in that
series of subjunctive verbs that looks with hopefulness to the
future in a more complete fulfillment, but possesses it in the here
and now. Look back at verse 8 at the end of it. In order that
I may gain Christ. In verse 9, in order that I may
be found in Him. Verse 10, that I may know Him
and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings
being conformed to His death in order that I may attain to
the resurrection from the dead. At the start of this passage,
there is that repeated phrase, that I may know Him. Paul seizes
upon it again. It’s not enough for him just
to pass by that once in v. 8, knowing Christ Jesus my Lord,
but his great desire is to fully know Him. To know the Father, said one, and
Jesus Christ, because he is the only way to the Father, as John
14.6 says. To know the Father refers not
merely to abstract knowledge, but to joyful acknowledgement
of His sovereignty, the glad acceptance of His love, and the
intimate fellowship with His person through Scripture, His
word to us, and through prayer, our word to Him. Paul longed
to know intimately this God. And you stand back and you look
in relief at the casual nature with which we approach this God
and this Savior that we know is our longing, that great longing
to know Him, to know how He operates, to know His character, to know
His great attributes, to know His Word, to know His people,
to know His passion, Christ is to be known by His
people experientially. He’s to be known personally. John 10.14 speaks of those sheep
that know me. As one writer said, each born
again person can say with Job, I have heard of you by the hearing
of the ear, but now my eyes sees you. There is a deeper knowledge
that the child of God possesses, not just a knowledge about God,
but a knowledge of God. The believer knows Christ not
merely as the outstanding figure in history, but as the savior
of his soul. He has a heart knowledge of Him.
He knows Him as the rest giver, as the friend who sticks closer
than a brother. His people know Him with the
knowledge of faith and confidence. They feel in Him a loving trust
which an unbeliever can form no idea. That’s what it means
to know Him. And we must long as Christians
to know Him because that knowledge is of a deep and ever deepening
experience. It’s not like we ever plateau.
It’s not like we ever say, OK, enough, God, I know you’re pretty
good now. Thank you. As one said, it’s not historical
insight, it’s not general and theoretical information. The apostle aimed to know him
as being in him, it was an intimate union, a longing for an ever
deepening of that relationship. So the spiritual man’s aim is to know Christ. To be regarded as the sum of
believers’ aims is this goal. To know everything else and not
to know Christ brings infinite loss. But to know Christ, even
if nothing else be known, brings infinite gain for he who knows
Christ knows the great secret, the secret of the chief good. Paul not only wanted to know
Christ, but he wanted to know the power of his resurrection,
and this has been. Misunderstood and mischaracterized
throughout centuries, what did it what did it mean that Paul
wanted to know the power of his resurrection? In essence, it’s everything that
the resurrection implies. Our being resurrected from our
death to sin, to a new life that’s here, our rising to live a different
life, ultimately living with God in eternity forever. It’s
all of that rolled in together. This resurrection, said one,
reversed every doom of every kind of death and has annulled
the hopelessness that must settle down on everyone who thinks out
seriously what is involved in the universal empire of death.”
Paul was living a resurrected life. He was living a new life. He was alive, really and truly,
in a very real sense for the first time. So that power that is spoken
of there is not the power by which Christ was raised from
the dead. It’s akin to that power, as Paul says in his letter to
the Ephesians. But it’s life power. It’s life
giving power. It’s the power of the risen Christ
as it becomes part of our day to day application of God’s grace
at work in our lives. I’ll tell you, the best commentary
on this passage is Romans chapter six. Would you turn please for
a moment? Romans chapter six. one of my favorite passages of
Scripture. What shall we say then? Verse
1, Are we to continue in sin that grace might increase? May
it never be. How shall we who died to sin
still live in it? Or do you not know that all of
us who have been baptized into Christ have been baptized into
His death? And as I’ve said before, even
during baptism services, that isn’t necessarily water baptism. It’s talking about that immersion
into Christ Himself. Therefore, we have been buried
with Him through baptism into death. And so the water baptism
becomes that image of dying with Christ and going down into the
water, only to rise again in resurrection. Therefore, we have been buried
with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was
raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we
too might walk in newness of life For we have become united
with Him in the likeness of His death, we shall certainly be
in the likeness of His resurrection.” That’s resurrection life. That’s
what Paul is talking about here when he talks about the power
of the resurrection is to rise and walk in newness of life in
living out by God’s grace this life to which He’s called us. Knowing this, that our old self
was crucified with him in order that our body of sin might be
done away with so that we would be no longer slaves to sin. For he who has died is freed
from sin. That’s a different kind of living,
isn’t it? Now, if we who have died with Christ, we believe
that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having
been raised from the dead, is never to die again. Death is
no longer a master over Him. For the death that He died, He
died once for all. But the life that He lives, He
lives to God. Even so, consider yourselves
to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.” It was
a new life. It’s a completely new kind of
life that the Christian is called to live. And Paul’s great desire
was to know that power of resurrection, to feast constantly on the grace
of God, to live a new and different life, a life for God’s glory. Paul said the same thing to the
Colossian church. Turn there, if you would, to
the Colossian church in chapter three. Colossians chapter three. Paul
wrote to them, probably with the same context in background,
the house arrest under which he was facing. Colossians chapter three, verse
one, therefore, you have been raised up with Christ. There’s
the knowledge of that power in resurrection. You’ve been raised
up with Christ. Keep seeking the things above
where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind
on the things above, not on the things that are on the earth.
You know, from time to time, I hear that goofy phrase. I think it’s even on a bumper
sticker. People are so heavenly minded they’re of no earthly
good. I don’t know what that is. I don’t know what that is
and I don’t think Paul knew either because he says, set your minds
on the thing above and not on the things that are on the earth.
Become so heavenly minded that your earthly life does become
transformed. That is the power of the resurrection.
For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you will be
revealed with Him in glory. It’s a great thought. Not only that, Paul says, that
I may know Him, that is Christ, that I may know the power of
His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings. I don’t seek
to be released from them. I don’t go looking for them.
But I certainly, when I come face to face with the difficulties
and sufferings, I know that it is part and parcel of the Christian
life, says Paul. I want to know the fellowship
of His sufferings being conformed to His death. I know that we
are constantly going to need to mortify the flesh and put
to death those sins that come into our hearts and minds. Paul speaks of them many times
in his epistles. The sufferings of Christ, 2 Corinthians
1.5, are ours in abundance. Well, if they’re ours, then how
are they Christ’s? It’s all the constant and ongoing
persecution of Christ and the purification of our own flesh
that Paul has in mind there. First, Peter, Peter addressed
it for 13 to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ,
their Christ’s sufferings, but you’re going to get your share
of them. Keep on rejoicing so that also at the revelation of
his glory, you may rejoice with exultation. One pastor said it this way,
a participation in the sufferings which Christ endured in his mortal
life is what is in view. The fellowship of the sufferings
is involved in the union with Christ. Being in Christ involves
fellowship with Christ at all points. His obedient life, his
spirit, his sufferings, his death, his glory. The fellowship of
the sufferings follows the experience of the power of the resurrection. Now, for us, it’s just completely
the opposite. We are raised to newness of life
and experience a life of sufferings. Christ’s sufferings led him to
the culmination of death and ultimately then resurrection.
We don’t try to dodge. the sufferings that come our
way. We don’t try to dodge the difficulties because we know
because what first Peter and James teaches, we know ultimately
those have a purifying effect on us. They are all designed
to work us to God’s glory. This idea essentially has the
same idea that occurs in Colossians 1.24 where a share in Christ’s actual
sufferings was impossible to Paul, literally speaking. But
the sufferings of Christ weren’t necessarily ended. They’re continued
and continuing to be experienced by God’s people in the world.
Paul longed to suffer. He longed to have that kind of
fellowship with Christ, that communion, not as some kind of
a punishment that was due to Paul, because Paul wasn’t looking
to purify himself or to pay back or to atone for his sins. But to know Christ more fully.
That was his great desire. One said it this way, union with
Christ implies that all of Christ’s redemptive experiences are duplicated
unredemptively in the believer. Suffering with Christ, being
crucified with him, dying with him, being buried with him, being
made alive with him, raised with him, being made joint heirs with
him, being glorified with him. Just as Romans chapter six said,
and the great end. The third subjunctive. The third
great thing that the Christian earns as he sails into harbor
is glorification being associated with Christ. It’s not just knowing
Him, and it’s not just suffering with Him, and it’s not just this
resurrected life, but the whole thing has a purpose. And the
purpose is that I may attain to the resurrection from the
dead. That’s the great desire of all Christians. It is great to know Christ. Now,
I don’t know how people live without Christ. I don’t know
how they make it day to day. I don’t know how they make it
when a loved one takes their life. I don’t know how they make
it when they go bankrupt. I don’t know how they make it.
But I know how Christians make it. They have the great end in
view, the great resurrection, the being with Christ for eternity. That’s what’s in view for the
Christian. It’s the union of the believer
with Christ that ultimately ends in the glorification, in our
resurrection, in our body, where we are with Christ for eternity.
That’s the great end in view. One pastor said it this way,
it was the resurrection to eternal life that was secured by Christ
that the apostle aspired to reach a glorious privilege. to rise
out of the ashes of the tomb and to meet the descending Lord,
to assume a body which has a fitting home for the pure and perfect
soul, to pass into heaven arrayed in an entire humanity and to
feel the resurrection that augmented happiness, which is the crown
of redemption. That’s the Christians great desire,
isn’t it? From the moment you hear the
Gospel, the great longing of our heart wells and wells and
wells evermore for that day that we are going to be glorified
in Heaven forever. To attain to all of this, said
one, was to reach the fulfillment of all of His highest and holiest
hopes. What a glorious privilege it
will be to rise out of the darkness of the tomb, clothed in a spiritual
body, which will be a perfect abode for the immortal spirit,
both body and spirit, freed from all sin, delivered forever from
the curse under which we now groan.” What did we gain? When we heaved
everything into the sea, we gained it all. We gained a saving knowledge
of Christ. We gained our justification by
faith in Christ and we gained glorification. We gained it all. And it is infinitely greater
than everything that we heaved into the sea. Let’s rejoice before
him. Our merciful God, we pause and
bow before you and acknowledge that we deserve none of this. that You looked upon us and had
pity on us and mercy and called us to Yourself. And as we saw
You for who You were, with our eyes having been opened by Your
grace, Lord, we counted all things as rubbish, as loss. If we had
held tight to any one of those, we would have lost Lord, we would have lost the
greatest gift of all in Christ Jesus, our Savior. Father, we
thank you for your word to us. Build up in us hope and rejoicing
for all that you have bestowed upon us purely by your grace.
We thank you and praise you in Jesus name. Amen. you.