CHRIST OUR OBJECT
A. J. E. Welch
From this passage we get some impression of the inward exercises of Paul. In this little company together here today there are many inward feelings and exercises. The Lord knows at this moment the exercises that we have. How much love we have enjoyed from Him! What a heart do we know in our blessed Lord Jesus! It is today and at all times towards us. We are always under His eye, and in His heart we have each one a place. It has often been said, but it should be apprehended in its fulness and attraction, that we have a place in the Lord’s heart, and the enemy can never rob us of it. Paul had a lasting impression of the Lord. Love flows towards us from His heart; it cannot be easily expressed in words, but must be experienced. I would like to emphasize this for the young ones. You are loved with a love that is eternal.
This can never change because it abides for ever in the heart of the Lord Jesus Himself.
We learn much in his writings of the inward exercises of Paul who, although an apostle, speaks as a man who had a history with God. How much is written in books about human thoughts, but the question is, what is my experience with God? What have I learned from the Son and the Spirit? Oh how wonderful is the assembly and every opportunity we have of meeting together! We receive an impression from the Lord, again and again a fresh impression. We gain something we have not experienced in just the same way before; it is quite new in this respect—a fresh experience with the Lord,
the Son of God, in the place where He now is. Perhaps it is an impression of the love of the Father for the Son, or of the Son for the Father. The power of the Spirit comes into this.
Without the voice of the Spirit we would never understand it; it becomes something wonderful and living in the assembly. I ask myself today whether I have freshly experienced the Spirit’s voice. How powerfully, clearly, and attractively it comes to us in the assembly and brings us into the realization of our relationship with Christ, and with the Father as His sons.
What is my history with God? The apostle shows us that he had had a place among men.
What a personality he was, and what a man in Judaism! He does not speak proudly about it, but he did have a history among men. Why does he speak of it? In order to show that all this was finished with. He had been on the Damascus road and had seen the Lord, who had asked him why he was occupied as he was. He says later that what had been gain to him he now counted as loss. No matter what it was that had made him proud, or distinguished him in the eyes of men, it was all loss. Perhaps we love our work. Does mine interest me too much? I ask myself. Is it gain to me or loss? Paul came to it that it was all loss. Each one of us has had something which we have learned to describe as loss.
In the assembly the test is whether the truth is being maintained. The Lord loves us so much that He proves us as to whether all is for His pleasure. Such is His love for the assembly that He will have nothing in it that hinders. The assembly is the vessel that affords response to His heart. The Lord loved Paul, but would never take pleasure in what was of the old man. It is necessary that we come to an understanding of this through the excellency of the knowledge of Christ
Jesus as Lord. At what a cost I now have the knowledge of Christ Jesus as Lord! It has cost His death, all the pain and suffering, in order that I should have this knowledge, the excellency of the knowledge of such a Person. Is it not something wonderful? What a glorious Lord we have in Jesus! For His sake Paul suffered loss and counted all as filth. What exercises were his! Our own exercises must be definite, and the Lord would strengthen them with us. Paul the Pharisee, that great man, was no more; all was ended for Paul in death at the cross. He has now a goal before him and speaks quite plainly about it. He speaks of righteousness by faith, as in the letter to the Romans. He speaks of the fellowship of Christ’s sufferings in the testimony. We suffer together with the Lord as sharing His reproach. The Lord was crucified, so we seek no place in the world in which He was crucified.
Paul says moreover, “Not that I have already obtained the prize ... but I pursue”. He had been taken possession of by the Lord, not by violence, but in His love. Paul could now do nothing of his own will, he was—and we are to be—taken possession of by the Lord. “I pursue” means that he had not reached the goal. Perhaps we may say, ‘I have reached the goal; I am there’. But no, there is always more; we are not there yet; even if we have great knowledge there is more to be learned of Jesus.
The Lord is coming quickly, but whilst we are still in the wilderness there is always something fresh for us. What is our objective? That is a question I should often ask myself.
“Forgetting the things behind ... I pursue”; and Paul’s goal is Christ. Have you or I a different one? Let us take up the challenge and answer it. Have I a different goal from Paul? We all have exercises, but our goal must be that of Paul. His objective must be mine, and no other. “And if ye are any otherwise minded, this also God shall reveal to you”—what grace! He will not forsake us; He knows our exercises and will make all clear to us. We may always seek the Lord as we judge ourselves and enjoy communion with Him; we ask and He answers. It is a living system in which we know what glory is. It is important that we tread together such a path as Paul found. Let us walk in the same steps. What a path!—our goal the Lord Jesus, the One well-pleasing to God and exalted by Him.
Address at Crottendorf
14 July 1979