In This New Year, For Me – To Live – Is Christ
Posted by John Reuther on December 28, 2009
Let’s connect two beautiful statements from Paul’s letter to the Philippians: “For me…..to live…..is Christ…..” (Phil. 1:21), and, “I press on…..toward the goal…..for the prize…..” (Phil. 3:14). There is a poetic rhyme or meter in the English Bible in these two verses which makes them easy to remember. I recommend that we treasure these two statements in our hearts for repeated meditation, and relate these two statements in our exegesis.
In Philippians 1:21, Paul is showing us how to view life. It is a statement of the Christian worldview in its boiled-down practical essence. If we were given the assignment to state our Christian-life worldview in a summary statement, we would expect to be allowed at least 100 words or more in which to do it. But imagine being told: state your Christian life worldview in six words. We would think that quite unreasonable. But this is what Paul has done in Phil. 1:21. Is this your Christian-life worldview?
Philippians 3:14 is Paul’s way of showing us how to live life. He is telling us there that the Christian life is a race to be run. We recognize that the Christian life is not only a race to be run, for other analogies of the Christian life are used in Scripture (e.g., it is warfare to be won). But the analogy of the race to be run is certainly a comprehensive expression of Christian living because reaching the goal appointed for us is of the essence of our salvation. Christ himself said, “he who endures to the end shall be saved” (Matt. 24:13). Are you running the race to reach the goal?
For Me
For Paul to say that Christ was his whole life is truly astounding. This is the man who took great pains to describe himself in all of his true colors, and this he did in numerous passages of the New Testament. But right here in Philippians 3:5-6 he tells the big story about himself: “circumcised the eighth day,” (ritual cleanness)…..”of the nation of Israel,” (nationhood)…..”of the tribe of Benjamin,” (bloodline)…..”a Hebrew of Hebrews,” (choice)…..”as to the Law, a Pharisee,” (zeal)…..”as to zeal, a persecutor of the church,” (hostility)…..”as to the righteousness which is in the Law, found blameless” (ethical morality). What a mixed-up set of virtues. What a messed-up man Paul was. He was everything that Judaism came to be in its checkered history, and worst of all, Paul represents all of those Pharisees who opposed Jesus and incited His death, all rolled up into the one man Saul!
To Live
I dare say that most people live life without first understanding it. They live it without learning what it means and how it works. A person can live life by the trial and error method. If something doesn’t work, or involves too much pain or loss, they’ll just try something else. A person can life by the Eat, drink and be merry approach. Try to get the most that you can out of life and enjoy it because the day is coming when it will be all over. No doubt Paul is reflecting back on his life and confessing that he was living it the wrong way, a wretched way indeed. Grace had come and given him a new life in Christ, so that finally, he knows how to live. And his confession reveals that there is only one way – this way: For me to live is Christ. This confession is the norm for living in the real world where God is sovereign and life is precious.
Is Christ
Now Paul is confessing Christ as every true follower of Him must do, and will do. It is a simply grand confession belonging to all Christians: For me – To Live – Is Christ. It means that all of our faith and trust is in Christ, and toward the Father through Christ. We place no confidence in the flesh, and seek no control over our pathway. Rather we commit our way to Him and trust fully in Him to do for us what only He can do. All of our hope is in Christ. We hope for many things and have many desires, but our ultimate and far-reaching hope is in the promises assured to us through the New Covenant sealed in His blood. That righteousness, for which we hunger and thirst daily, is found in Him alone. Sin, the greatest of human problems, is solved in Christ as we receive from Him Divine forgiveness and cleansing. The wisdom we need to work our way through the difficulties of this life are all found in the wisdom which He gives. Truly Christ “became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption…” (1 Cor. 1:30). Christ is the only true and lasting comfort that we have in sickness, sorrow, and death. Comfort and consolations abound in Him and thus in the deepest trials of life our confession is a firm anchor for our storm-tossed souls.
How is it with you my friend? How is it with me? Can we really make this confession and mean it? Let’s be careful now. Watch out for religious God-talk. I often catch myself when I am singing a hymn and ask myself: “Do I really mean that?” It’s so easy to sing the hymns and be detached from what we are saying. I remember when my children were young how sometimes I would catch myself reading them one of their favorite story books and hardly remembering what I read after the words came out from my mouth. If we confess For me To live Is Christ, it will need to be with substance behind and beneath it. And when we confess these words substantially there will be a corresponding style of life that befits them.
Connections
The connection between Phil. 1:21 and 3:14 is easy to see. I press on…..toward the goal…..for the prize. For me, Paul says, I press on. To live is to be oriented toward the goal. And Christ is the prize. I am not a runner and I do not know the euphoria of running and crossing the finish line. So I depend on those who are runners and do know that feeling. Paul certainly identified with the Greek races. And it is clear to see in Paul’s words in Phil. 3:14 the three things that are essential to running and winning: a good start, momentum and endurance, and a passion for victory.
I Press On
A good start in a race gives confidence and helps the cause of momentum and endurance. A bad start adds another requirement to running and winning, the need to recover. This can be done and some runners win with this added strength. But the good start is nevertheless essential. For living the Christian life we might rather call this element “A fresh start.” We need a fresh start in every Christian grace and duty. Think of how many times you have proved it to be true in your own Christian life. How many times have you found yourself recommitting yourself to more life-transforming and consistent Bible reading and devotional prayer? Remember how many times we began again to work on dealing with a besetting sin or the cultivation of the fruit of the Spirit? This is what Paul is saying in the words I press on. I like to think of the simple daily routine of pressing the on button of my razor or the computer or the appliance in order to get the work going. So we must engage ourselves in the Christian life by pressing on. How do we do this? By starting with the heart. Psalm 119:32 makes the connection: “I shall run the way of Your commandments, for You will enlarge my heart.” When seeking a good start, a fresh start, we do well to assess the state of our hearts, because David is saying that it is the heart that propels us forward; not a big heart with little knowledge, but good knowledge impelled by a great heart: “Incline your heart to understanding” (Prov. 2:2). “Watch over your heart with all diligence” (Prov. 4:23). “A tranquil heart is life to the body” (Prov. 14:30). “A joyful heart makes a cheerful face” (Prov. 15:13). “Give me your heart my son” (Prov. 23:26) is what God is calling us to do. And Paul reminds us always “do not lose heart” (Eph. 3:13).
Toward the Goal
Paul uses the phrase kata skopon, which is translated “toward the goal.” The Greek phrase envisions Paul against the goal. He must get to the goal and overtake it. And in the process he must keep a steady pace and a firm footing. This contemplates the runner’s momentum and endurance. And in the previous verse he seems to be telling us about the two most important things that are involved in maintaining momentum and experiencing endurance.
The first is forgetting what lies behind. In the context Paul is referring to his former manner of life in Judaism, his wickedness and shameful behavior. Moreover, he is thinking about the fruitless and insulting pursuit of one’s own righteousness. He is not saying that he wipes away every last vestige of memory about himself that is so loathsome to him. The past has didactic value for us. We are meant to learn from it. But we are not to allow the past to cripple or paralyze us. Paul did not glory in his past; he could not forget his past; he walked away from his past and from that old man to embrace the present of grace and the future of glory in Christ. Each one of us must run the race by keeping the past in proper perspective. The past is God’s providence in our lives, and valuable for that reason. God’s providence is His personal leading, and even though it be through the mix and mess of an experience like Paul’s, it is ours, and ours to learn from. But when the past is met by the grace of God it enters into great glory by renouncing the shame and folly of the old. It is only because of the grace of God that we can walk away from it, say goodbye to it, renounce it, and move on. For Paul the past represented mighty big issues. For us the past may not have such weighty matters to press us down. But each one of us must assess how the past looms to weigh us down, hold us back, and keep us from running with endurance and keeping a good momentum toward the goal. We must get the past into the categories to which it belongs: providence, experience, maturation, and a more sober approach to sin and saving grace.
The second thing that Paul says about momentum and endurance is that we must reach forward to what lies ahead. We see it in the nerves and muscles of the runner. A race is a forward-moving and forward-looking way of life that involves stretching and reaching. We must expand our minds, our knowledge, our emotions to bear with new situations, our reason to reach for new avenues of problem-solving, and our love for new ministries of service. We cannot allow ourselves to get stagnant. God has not called us to life-as-usual. Our life in Christ is dynamic, growing, expanding, and we are always expecting that God is changing us to fit us for new challenges.
Too often we are resigned that things must always be the way they are. Rather than stretch ourselves with goal-oriented pleading and praying, we just grumble about situations and complain about the way things are. So often God’s providences are designed to move us off center and point us away from ourselves. I am convinced that God often brings circumstances into our lives (which we do not like) to move us to consider other avenues and options. How often does God close one door to open another, or “deprive” us of something only to bless us with something completely unexpected?
For the Prize
What is the prize here? He says that it is the “upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” In the analogy of running the race, it is the victory, and the fulfillment of our passion for victory. In the reality of the Christian life it is the finalization of the original call. We have been called in the Gospel to follow Christ. We have been called out of the world and saved from a crooked and perverse generation. We have been called into fellowship with His Son. Obviously, this calling is multi-faceted. But Paul focuses on one aspect of the calling in his statement of purpose. He mentions the direction of the call. It is upward, that is, heavenward. The race is won in heaven. Heaven brings us into ultimate possession of the prize which is Christ Jesus and the glorious inheritance we have promised in Him. To be spiritually-minded is to be heavenly-minded while we live our lives on this earth. But this earth is not our home. We are steadily progressing through it with a runner’s passion to reach the end of the call. Every call involves movement: the call to a task, the call to a decision, the call to a meeting, and the call to salvation in Christ Jesus. Godliness, sanctification, holiness, self-denial, devotion, commitment, faithfulness, applied to running the race is movement toward the goal. The quality control of the Christian life is endurance and momentum toward the goal for the prize, not success in the here and now (though many successes attend faithfulness). The one who calls is the one who also crowns the runners who run with endurance to the very end. Be one of them! This new year 2010 is, in a very real sense, a fresh start for us all. Yes, the calendar to which we are bound has this built-in gift: a New Year. Can we do any better at this new beginning than to come to grips with Paul’s confession of the Christian-life worldview and his portrayal of the Christian-life race? I do not think so. Let’s do it!
For me to live is Christ / I press on toward the goal for the prize!
John Reuther, Pastor Covenant Baptist Church, Lumberton, NJ; Reformed Baptist Seminary, Easley, SC.
2 Responses to “In This New Year, For Me – To Live – Is Christ”
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December 29th, 2009 at 1:01 am
[...] treasure these two statements in our hearts for repeated meditation as we prepare for a New Year. In This New Year: For Me to Live is Christ __________________ Bob Gonzales Jr., Dean Reformed Baptist Seminary Easley, South Carolina [...]
December 30th, 2009 at 7:14 pm
Great article- or sermon, or whatever you want to call it. I needed this.