READING ON PHILIPPIANS

with J.N.Darby

Chapter 3: 10-21

One thing in Philippians is that all through the Epistle it takes up the whole course; we are looked at as going on to the other end of the wilderness. That passage in chapter 1 is a very striking instance of it: "I know that this shall turn to my salvation through your prayer, and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ". Philippians is the path of the Christian governed by the Holy Ghost, and salvation is looked at at the end of the course, because it consists in being like Christ and with Christ. It looks at God's purpose at the end of the course.

Q. The soul sees that already in Christ?

Oh yes; and you get it too in other scriptures.

This wilderness journey that we have to go through is not necessary to redemption. The thief had no wilderness journey; the Lord said to him: "Today shalt thou be with me in Paradise". There is nothing for us to wait for. The wilderness journey is not part of the counsels of God; it is part of His ways with us, His counsel is to have us in glory with Himself, and His counsel is perfect. His ways are another thing.

In Colossians you get: "Who hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light"; but as a matter of fact there is the wilderness to go through. And so here eternal life is looked at as at the end of the journey; we are seen "waiting for the adoption, to wit the redemption of our body", Redemption is a finished, settled thing, but God puts us through the wilderness to know what is in our hearts, to humble us and prove us, as He did to Israel; here comes the testing. All the 'ifs' in Scripture are connected with the wilderness. There are no 'ifs' in Ephesians: there it is the counsels of God. You never read, If redemption is complete. There is no 'if' to that.

In John 14, we get: "At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you". The Holy Ghost is in us then; so that is where responsibility comes in. We are now to shew forth the life of Christ in our walk. Then you get the 'ifs'. In the wilderness everything is tested. There is no uncertainty as to the work; that is finished, and Christ is accepted and glorified; it is all settled. But now if you go on "to the end", "if you continue in the faith".

But besides this, there is the positive, certain promise of our being kept. It is constant, unceasing care and love that keeps us; though we have to be kept. Our state is tested. We have to get to the end; but we have the promise that He will keep us to it. "Kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation". "They shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of my hand". But then it is keeping every day. As to that, it is not an accomplished work. So in Philippians, we get the apostle saying: "That I may win Christ", because he is looking on to the end.

Q. Is it necessary to go through Colossians and Ephesians to get Philippian experience?

There is no such thing as going through Ephesians. Ephesians is a settled thing; it is what is in God's mind. In Colossians the hope is "laid up in heaven". I have not got it. And in another place: "If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel". The state is settled, but we are still on the road. We have the wisdom for the walk: "Filled with the knowledge of his will, in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, that ye might walk worthy". And we have the strength for the walk: "Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power". And then we give thanks to the Father: "Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light". Having delivered us from the power of darkness does not satisfy Him. He puts us in Christ in place of it.

All that is settled; it is all in the past tense. And then he comes to another point which introduces something else. "You that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled". This, too, is all settled; it is in the past tense. But then comes: "If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled". There is the full promise that we shall be kept. I have no doubt that those who are saints, those who have life, will be kept to the end, but there comes the wilderness walk, the test as to whether the faith is real.

In Philippians you get the power of the Spirit of God, able to do everything. The apostle says: "Not having mine own righteousness" and "not as though I had already attained, either were already perfected"; he has not got the thing yet; but he starts as one thoroughly prepared and furnished. No one can go through Philippian experience who has not peace and deliverance. That is all a settled thing. I go through other experiences before my soul is clear as to redemption. And then comes out the responsibility of a Christian to manifest the life of Christ.

Our responsibilities flow from the place we are in. I do not expect you to behave to me as my children; but suppose for a moment you were my children, I should expect you to behave accordingly. The duty flows from the place you are in. It may be said, If I am saved it does not matter what I do! If you were a child in your senses you would not say such a thing to your father. We are to "walk as dear children".

But besides this, the wilderness is to humble us and prove us. The Israelites all rebelled.

We next get knowing Christ, "and the power of his resurrection". I have the power of the risen Man with which to walk through this world, and to have the fellowship of His sufferings, and to glorify Him. Paul was a prisoner at this time.

"If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection from among the dead". This implies no uncertainty as to our place in Christ. It refers to the way. You see the security that we already have in verse 12: "I am apprehended by Christ Jesus".

"Mark them which walk so as ye have us as an example".

They knew the Object that governed his path.

There are two things in a certain sense, but they go together. First: "That I may win Christ". Second: "The resurrection from among the dead". To be with Him, and to be like Him. The one looks at Christ as my object; the other looks at the state that enables me to be with Him.

It is "the power of his resurrection", the power of the risen Man in this world - Christ in us. Everything is governed by that power.

In 2 Corinthians 1 he says: "We had the sentence of death in ourselves that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead". He had the sentence of death in himself as to his moral state, but he had the power of resurrection in his spirit. So here he can say: "Christ shall be magnified by my body, whether it be by life or by death. For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain". If they kill me I shall be with Him, that is all. The moment I have got hold of the power of the resurrection of Christ, I have got hold of what death cannot touch. The power is always in Christ. We must realise that; then we can go on.

Q. Is this power what we get in Ephesians?

In Philippians it is a constantly operating power. In Ephesians it is the power that "raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ". It does not say with Him. In Philippians it is on the way; "I press toward the mark"; that is what characterises the Epistle.

Q. It says in verse 12: "Not as though I were already perfect"; and in verse 15: "Let us therefore, as many as be perfect".

Perfect means like Christ in glory. Was he like that? No. But he was in Christ, who is in glory; and that is what the second means. This is the only possible perfection for the Christian. ("This one thing I do"; having not two objects, but one). Perfection is "the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ". He had reached it, but he was running on to be like Christ in glory.

Q. So that the perfect man had to be perfected?

He knew himself in Christ, and of course that is perfection. Christ has gone into glory, having accomplished redemption, and if we are in Him we are in the place we have in Him, and that is the only perfection. Hebrews 5: 14 says: "Strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age" or perfect. That shews you what it means. And then it says, "Let us go on unto perfection".

There are two things in Christianity - three, in a certain sense. What God has done, as applied to what I am in Adam; all my sins cleared away; the old man gone; we died with Him. I have the perfect forgiveness of my sins; but that is not enough. There are other things: there is not what I am cleared from, but what I am brought into. It is not merely that I am forgiven, that all is cleared away; but there is the bringing me into the second Man in Christ there. I get this place; I know it; I have got hold of it. I have got it, but yet it is the thing I am running after.

Thus in Philippians we are put through the wilderness to get there. Not that it is necessary, for He "hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light", and the Holy Ghost in us is "the earnest of our inheritance". We have redemption, but we have not got the state that brings us into it. We have it in our hearts.

Q. "As many as are perfect" does not include all Christians?

No; there are some babes. But we are never of full age if we take Christ as the model. We are of "full age" as to our faith; but we are "growing up into Him in all things", "unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ". Of course we cannot actually be that until these poor bodies are changed; but Christ is risen, and He is in me, and I am going through this world in possession of this fact. I follow after if I may lay hold. Christ laid hold of him for that, and Christ alone had the capability of keeping him.

Q. Could he have learned what Christ laid hold of him for by seeing Him at the right hand of God? Yes.

Q. Is that Ephesian truth?

He had seen Christ in glory. It is not an uncertainty at all. John 14 is the effect of the presence of the Holy Ghost. "At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you". He does not say there the Father in me, but "I in the Father, and ye in me, and I in you". That is when the Comforter is come; and a person is not a proper Christian at all until sealed by the Comforter.

What I get first of all is I am saved in Christ; and afterwards comes the walk down here.

Paul was looking to be just like Christ down here.

Wonderful expression of the Spirit of God in a man!

"I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus" (v 14). That word "high" should be "above". I have seen a glorified Christ; I have seen the Man who wrought redemption sitting at the right hand of God; and I am going to be like Him. It is God's calling above.

You measure everything by the object you have before you. If I were swimming for my life and I had a belt of gold on, I would throw it away. I judge of everything by my object. If a man of mind sees a man spending all in pleasure, 'Did you eve see such a fool?' he says. He judges by his object. So if Christ is the object, everything is measured by Him.

What facilitates our going through the wilderness is having death upon everything. But you cannot have death upon everything until you have the life of Christ.

Turn to Galatians 2: 20. There we get: "The life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me". I have got an object. I have got a life, and that is Christ; I have got an object, and that is Christ.

Q. "I live by the faith of the Son of God". Is that the faith Christ had in going through this world?

How could you have the faith Christ had? I live by faith in the Son of God; I know He has loved me and given Himself for me. There is "faith in God", and there is "Christ dwelling in your hearts by faith". "Faith of the Son of God" is the character of it.

Q. It is not faith that once possessed carries me through. I must have it fresh every morning like the manna?

Yes, every morning. In John 5 He "quickens whom he will". In John 6 I eat "the bread of life". If I do not eat I shall starve.

There is the danger very often of Christians stopping at knowing they are forgiven. They have peace with God, but nothing more except a general feeling of thankfulness. But I must have something before me; there must be going on.

Q. I do not quite understand that verse, "Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded". That applies to my state as responsible.

If I have got hold of this truth, I am going to be like Christ and with Him; well, I say, that is everything. Suppose it is suffering, I say, the more like Christ. I am pressing towards the mark. I am to be set upon going through the wilderness with this before me. But until I get to know Christ in glory, I cannot have Him as an object. I may know what He has done for me as a sinner, a blessed thing too, but I do not know this high calling. God has put me into the second Adam. I am to be like Him. My eyes see that, and I am pressing on. I know He is sitting there on the Father's throne until He has His own throne. In an ordinary way God puts us through the wilderness to be exercised and tested, only He is with us all the way.

Q. One going through the wilderness finds everything against him?

Everything except God. Yes, it is so. God only brings in refreshing by the way. Paul glories in tribulation because it works patience, the finest thing in the world, he says. And James says: "Let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing". There is no will in patience. Christ says: "I waited patiently for the Lord".

Two things go together. I have an object, and I want a state to enjoy that object. So I am looking and pursuing.

It is resurrection out of the dead. The Greek word is very strong. Resurrection out of, very specially here.

It is a blessed promise: "If in anything ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you", (v 15). It is a great comfort. I get the affections connected with Christ. I may see the world hanging about a person who may yet be desiring to walk uprightly. Having one mind is having one object. If you are following Christ with all your heart, and I am following Christ with all my heart, we are of one mind. But, he says, suppose any are not perfect. Then I say, I know I am forgiven, washed in the precious blood of Christ, and so on; and you know all these blessed truths, too; so you and I can walk together so far.

Q. It is like a man and a child walking together - purpose of heart?

Yes. "Is thine heart right, as my heart is with thy heart?" If so, get up into the chariot.

How soon evil came in! "Many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things". The cross of Christ is what crucifies the world to me and me unto the world. We are total enemies to each other.

See Peter in Matthew 16: "Flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven". Then it comes to the cross, and he cannot go on with that. Many take up Christ as a Saviour, but they will not take up their cross and follow Him. When Peter saw the cross was the necessary consequence of following Christ, he could not go on with Him at all.

Q. Would these people necessarily be unconverted?

I think so: their "end is destruction". They are like the world. "If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him". But though these have the characteristics of those who are not Christians, we cannot get away from the end of this word.

Q. May it not be said of some who know the Lord that they are "enemies of the cross of Christ"?

The flesh does not like the cross. The flesh is the same in me as in an unconverted person. If I am not going on with Christ I do not like the cross. Here it is the end which is characteristic. It says: "If any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him". The Father has established a new world, and if I am going on with this world I am going on with the first man.

In Galatians 6 they were avoiding the cross lest they should suffer persecution. I have no doubt many who are walking in an easy-going way just now, would brighten up wonderfully if they had a little. In families perhaps you get it now.

Q. But that passage holds good: "All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution"?

Oh yes; certainly.

There is life, and there is an object, and there is power for the walk. We cannot go a step without Christ. Christ is the measure. I may have Christ for my object, really no other object. I may start on a journey to come to this place, and I may see some pretty flowers on my way, and may stop to look at them; but that does not make them my object. It is a distraction, and we have to guard against such. When the object is really Christ, and if I am not intent upon it, I see a pleasing thing and then I stop. It is a distraction. I have no intention to stop.

In verse 17 "our conversation is in heaven", that is the whole Christian condition, "from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ; who shall change this body of humiliation, that it may be fashioned like unto his body of glory, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself". That is whom we wait for. One has said, that he enjoyed the thought that for him all was packed up and gone before, and that he was on the way home.

This is the whole thing for us here: that we are going to be with Christ in glory and like Christ in glory; it is "that I may win Christ" and “that I might attain unto the resurrection from among the dead". Our "conversation", our living associations are in heaven; and we are looking for the Saviour to come from thence.

What characterised Christ here was obedience and love to the Father: "The prince of this world cometh and hath nothing in me; but that the world may know that I love the Father".

Q. Was the love to us secondary?

In a sense it was, though it was perfect. But love to His Father was the great object. "Hereby perceive we love, because he laid down his life for us". "The Son of God who loved me, and gave himself for me". The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts, the effect of the Holy Ghost dwelling in us.

It is just this that keeps us in our daily walk. We have all got objects here, business or something; everything is calculated to distract us. And we have to attend to these things. But I have no doubt, if Christ were our object, we should attend to everything perfectly.

The test of our affections is, Would you like Christ to come? Of course God's time is best; and we know that "the long suffering of God is salvation"; but, as to the state of your affections, would you like Him to come?

We cannot go a step without His presence. But we often forget the presence of God. If God was here visibly! It says: "He endured as seeing him who is invisible".

The pains He takes to persuade us of His love! - in its very perfection, too! And what a place He has brought us into! It is wonderful the perfectness of Christ! how exactly He was as He should be in everything He came across! And every step that He took was for our ensample.

 

From: Food for the Flock,

January 1885