Christ presents to us Himself (as we follow out this rich Philippian passage) as _all_ our Righteousness, in His precious justifying Merit, offered for the acceptance of the very simplest faith. And He presents Himself as _all_ our Power, for deliverance and for service, in His resurrection Life; coming to reveal Himself to us in the divine beauty of His sufferings, His death, through which he has passed for us into "indissoluble life" (Heb. vii. 16). Our Righteousness--it is HE, "the propitiation for our sins." Our Sanctification--it is still HE, in "the power of His resurrection, and fellowship with His sufferings, and assimilation to His death." Our Redemption, from the power of the grave--it is still "this same Jesus," in union with whom alone we "attain unto the resurrection which is out from the dead."
Even so, Lord Jesus Christ; let us thus be "found in Thee"; worshipping, exulting, confiding; resting on Thee, abiding in Thee, with an accepting faith which only grows more simple and single as the years move on and gather "since we believed."
"Help us, O Christ, to grasp each truth With hand as firm and true As when we clasp'd it first to heart A treasure fresh and new;
"To name Thy name, Thyself to own, With voice unfaltering, And faces bold and unashamed As in our Christian spring." [1]
But St Paul is again dictating, and we must follow. He has confessed and affirmed, once for all, his standing and fixity in the Lord, and in Him alone. Now he must emphasize another aspect of the living truth, his progress in the Lord; the non-finality of any given attainment in union with Him.
Ver. 12. +Not as though I had already received+ (_elabon_) the crown of accomplished glory, +or had been already perfected+, with the perfection which shall be when "we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is." +No, I am pressing on+ (_dioko de_), as on the racer's course, +if indeed+, if as a fact, in blessed finality, +I may seize+ (_katalabo_) +that+ promised crown +with a view to which[2] I was actually+ (_kai_) +seized by Christ Jesus+, when in His mercy He as it were laid violent hands upon me, to pluck me from ruin, and to constrain me into His salvation and His service. Yes, "I press on" to "seize" that crown, with the animating thought that it was on purpose that I might "seize" it that the Lord "seized" me; and that so every stage in the upward and onward course of faith runs straight in the line of His will whose mighty, gracious grasp is on me as I go. +Brethren+,
Ver. 13. (I speak the word of pause and of appeal, as if I could stand by you, and lay my hand upon your arm,) +I+ (_ego_), whatever others may think and do about _them_selves, +do not account myself+ (_emauton_, emphatic like _ego_) +to have seized+ the crown as yet; no, one thing (_en de_)--my thoughts, my purposes, are all concentrated on this _one_ thing--+the things behind forgetting+, as one experience after another falls behind me into the past, +and towards the things in front stretching out and onward+ (_epekteinomenos_), like the eager racer, with head thrown forward and body bent towards his object, seeking for more and yet more, in the grace and power of my unchangeable
Ver. 14. Saviour, +goal-ward I press on+ (_kata skopon dioko_), "not uncertainly," with no faltering or divided aim, +unto+ (_eis_), till I actually touch, +the prize+ (_brabeion_, 1 Cor. ix. 24), the victor's wreath,[3] the prize +of+, offered by, made possible through, +the high call of God+, the voice of His prevailing grace[2] coming from _the heights_ (_ano_) of glory and leading the believer at length up thither, +in Christ Jesus+; for through Him comes the "call," and its blessed effect is to unite the "called," the converted, sinner _to_ Him, so that he lives here and hereafter in Him. +So let all+