“CHRIST JESUS MY LORD”
A. J. E. Welch
There is a heavenly character about this letter. It has been referred to as a love letter. It is full of affections which are of God. It speaks to us of more excellent things. Therefore it lifts our outlook to what God has before Him. In these verses we get some sense of the writer’s outlook, and it raises the enquiry, What is the outlook of each of us? Each of us has a certain sense of the values of things with which he has to do. I feel concerned that we examine our sense of values, so that our outlook is what God would have it to be. We may well ask ourselves what our minds turn to most frequently. What are the things which engage our attention, and what is the value of them? What is the abiding value of them? Are we occupied with passing things, things that soon will pass away? The Lord, I believe, in such a case would change our outlook.
The apostle is very free in this letter to confide his inward feelings and he would by that means reach into our inward feelings, because things go on in us which nobody else can see.
You may have some very cherished object in your course here; it may be cherished in secret.
Of course, the Lord Jesus sees it. It is known to God, but it may so far as others around you are concerned be secret. I wonder if anyone secretly is turning away from the precious things of Christ? I should not need to ask that question in a company like this, but somehow the matter is in my mind to ask the question—Is anyone turning away from Jesus?
God would use such a time as this to change your outlook.
Paul’s outlook had been changed on the Damascus road. He makes much of Christ in this passage. Not only does he make much of Christ but he makes much of the knowledge of Christ, “The excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord”. What is your knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord? Can you speak of ‘Christ Jesus my Lord’? Does that expression have real meaning in your life? Is it a life that is lived and is planned in relation to Christ as Lord? That is of the greatest importance. It is practical Christianity, if we live in relation to Christ as Lord. Have you what I could speak of as a current knowledge of Christ? Have you gained some fresh impression of Christ today? Maybe you got one in this meeting. But did you get one outside of these meetings? Did you speak to the Lord before you came and get an impression of Him? That is what I mean when I say ‘current knowledge’ of Christ Jesus our Lord. The knowledge of Him is something exceedingly precious. Of course He in His Person is glorious. Let the glory of Christ penetrate deeply into our hearts. But the knowledge of Him is precious, and that is what He would strengthen in every heart here.
To Saul of Tarsus that knowledge became everything. There were many things that Saul of Tarsus had gone on with. He was a very fine exponent of Judaism. He was a very well educated man; he moved among the leaders of Judaism. They would have spoken of Saul of Tarsus as one of the promising young men of his day. But all that was changed, and it was the Lord Jesus, a Man in heaven, who changed it, changed it in a moment of time, in presenting Himself to this man. What grace was in that, for Saul of Tarsus was a great opposer of Christ.
But the Lord changed his whole outlook. The outlook which governs you is the vital thing. I know what it is to have certain secret ambitions, maybe ambitions as to things here. I might want a good job; I might seek prominence among men. There may be these secret ambitions working, and they may become my outlook. But the Lord is going to change it so that your outlook may be Christ. See what Paul says now—“What things were gain to me these I counted, on account of Christ, loss”.
The sense of values is completely changed. What was of the greatest value is now of no value, because something of supreme value has changed it. The outlook of this beloved servant was now Christ. Christ filled his vision, Christ filled his heart, Christ governed him in everything he did. And that in one sense is vital Christianity, that what governs and dominates everything is Christ.
What will bring about this change of outlook is to see what the true value of things is. So he goes on to say, “I count also all things to be loss on account of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord”. That is, there is one single thing in comparison with which everything else is loss. You know how men compile their accounts; they have losses on one side, and profits on the other. On the side of profits Paul would write ‘Christ’ and on the other side he would write everything else, because the profit side is Christ, I believe we need this sense of values, all of us. There are things to which we devote our minds, things to which we devote our time, things to which we devote our energy—what is the real value of them? The Lord would help us to examine that. I am not speaking, of course, of what is normal to our households; I am not speaking of what under the Lord is necessary to provide things honest before men, but things which may come in to occupy where Christ should be.
And that is what the beloved apostle is writing about here. He says, “I … count them to be filth, that I may gain Christ”. That is, there is such a thing as gaining Christ; not just that you know about Him; not just that you read about Him; but there is a knowledge and appreciation of Christ which is yours, which you have reached in His presence and under the skilful touch of His instruction. How He loves to instruct us, to increase our understanding of what is truly precious!
Then Paul speaks of his righteousness. I have often been impressed that he reverts to the principle of righteousness, emphasizing that his righteousness is of God through faith. I think it is because we often go back to our own righteousness instead of standing on the simple ground of the glad tidings. Just think about that! I believe we sometimes revert to our own righteousness, perhaps to justify ourselves in something we do. But there is only one righteousness in the sight of God, and that righteousness is absolute and stable and we owe it to Jesus.
Then he says, “to know him, and the power of his resurrection”. Christ is out of death now. The power of His resurrection is real because in coming out of death He has opened up a whole order of things beyond death. The portion of those who love Him in these days is beyond death. This is to free us from being earthly-minded. We are not just thinking of present things; we have an inheritance. Have we explored the inheritance? The inheritance lies beyond death. It is opened up to us in the power of the resurrection of Christ and our association with Him. We have the Spirit as the earnest of the inheritance. That is, it is part of His wonderful service to give us some experience of what the inheritance is. We need to go in for it. There needs to be purpose of heart with us to claim and enjoy our portion in the inheritance. It is opened up to us by the power of His resurrection. We have a portion which death cannot touch. Oh what a comfort that is! In a scene of moral death, a world which “lies in the wicked one” (1 John 5: 19), we have a portion that death cannot touch.
Then there is the fellowship of His sufferings. We find we suffer; we suffer perhaps in different ways. We suffer reproach at our work. We do not go to the social events. We say, ‘No, I love Christ’. We may come under reproach because we will not join a union. We say, ‘No, I belong to the Lord’. Sufferings are real; but it is the fellowship of His sufferings. He supremely has been the Sufferer. No one has suffered as Jesus has. No one in the whole course of the creation has suffered as Jesus did. But His lovers suffer with Him, and we can say that often His lovers suffer together, and in their sufferings are bound together in holy sympathy. The fellowship of His sufferings brings great support in suffering circumstances.
And then Paul says, “If any way I arrive at the resurrection from among the dead”. That is, he recognizes that the reality of things is dependent on committal. It is not a question whether he will be raised. The question is his coming now into the gain of resurrection power and the enjoyment of what lies outside of death. There is a certain allusion there to eternal life, which death cannot touch. He says, “Not that I have already obtained the prize”. He is not claiming to have reached the prize yet. None of us could claim that. But he is striving after it, and there is this side of the truth for us to consider tonight, that we have to follow things through in our responsible course here. We often have wonderful truths opened up to us. But then that has to be followed through in our responsible life, and that is what Paul is saying to us here. He says, “I pursue, if also I may get possession of it”. He is moving in energy and purpose of heart. He has a single object, which is Christ; he is pursuing this object, and the whole energy of the man is devoted to it.
We cannot claim to understand wealthy elements of the truth and yet live in a different way.
That is a real issue; whether we value these precious things and live in relation to them. So he says, “Seeing that also I have been taken possession of by Christ Jesus”. He emphasizes this point that Christ has a claim upon him. He has been taken possession of by Christ and he is yielding himself to that; he is not resisting it. The claim of the Lord Jesus is absolute. What a blessed thing, what a wonderful thing, to have Christ as prime object in everything! We thus come into the assembly in the true character of it, for the assembly cherishes Christ, the glorious Bridegroom; the assembly appreciates and understands the love of Christ and characteristically responds to that love. The assembly consists of persons who have Christ before them.
So he says, “Forgetting the things behind”. There is much that we can afford to forget. I do not mean unjudged sins, but there are many things we can well afford to forget, while “stretching out to the things before”. I wonder what these “things before” would be in the writer’s mind. He would be thinking of the supremacy of Christ, and then of the assembly here as answering to is heart. He would be thinking of the service of God proceeding, and we are thinking of that as the first day of the week draws near. These are the things to which he is stretching out; that is his outlook; his energy, his whole being, are in this direction. We often speak of committal. But this is what committal really means, that the whole being of the person is towards Christ. So he says further, “I pursue, looking towards the goal, for the prize of the calling on high of God in Christ Jesus”. What an object he had!—and the whole .energy of the man was directed to it. What an outlook he had, and he is free to tell us about it, to stimulate us so that our outlook may be like his own. May Christ fill our hearts and fill our lives, for His name’s sake.
Address at Bad Endbach
14 April 1979