20

20

Both, I think, had the same chance; they had received a new

heart, but Saul the king did not work it out, he furthered the

wrong man. It was different with Paul the apostle, another

Saul.

He went through the exercises of Romans 7 to experience

himself, and to show us, that there is another Man who is to be

furthered; “No longer live I, but Christ lives in me”, Galatians 2:

20. That is a wonderful transformation. Saul the king failed in

it, fell short of it, but Saul of Tarsus wrought it out fully, and we

see his exercises here in Philippians 3. What he left behind

was the old man; it was that man that Saul the king was

furthering. Saul of Tarsus left him behind, and he was

stretching out after what was new, after the wonderful

heavenly Man, after that Man whom he was persecuting

formerly, but who now became his life, his all.

Beloved brethren, how wonderful a goal he had before him!

“forgetting the things behind, and stretching out to the things

before, I pursue, looking towards the goal, for the prize of the

calling on high of God in Christ Jesus”. What a transformation!

The matter of transformation was touched upon in our

readings, and I was thinking of what goes on in the present

time, that is 2 Corinthians 3—“transformed according to the

same image from glory to glory”. For the time being it is moral;

it is one being transformed in a moral way, looking at the Lord

in His moral glories. “The Lord is the Spirit”; He is working out

this transformation in our hearts and souls, and that is what we

find in other words in Philippians 3.

But at the end of this wonderful chapter we

have the finishing touch. For the time being it is just moral, but

there will come a time when the finishing touch will be given as

to our bodies. Now it is a transformation of our hearts and

souls into the same image, and the Lord the Spirit is active in

doing this in us, but what is before us—wonderful outlook!—

relates not only to the spirit, not only to the soul, not only to our