- The knowledge of Christ: (3: 8): To know Christ means to have a personal relationship with Him through faith. Salvation is knowing Him in personally and this experience will make us different from others. When we have the knowledge, we try to please Him and obey Him through the study of the Word.
- The righteousness of Christ: (3:9): Our righteousness or righteous acts are like filthy rags in the sight of God. Whatever we have is the self-righteousness which works very much contrary to God. We need to put on God’s righteousness. Paul trusted Christ, he lost his own self-righteousness and gained the righteousness of Christ. Paul looked at his own record and discovered that he was spiritually bankrupt. He looked at Christ’s record and saw that He was perfect. When Paul trusted Christ, he saw God put Christ’s righteousness to his own account! More than that, Paul discovered that His sins had been put on Christ’s account on the cross (2 Cor. 5:21) and not on Paul. This is because of His grace and mercy towards us. What a wonderful experience of God’s grace! What Paul says about the nation Israel was true in his own life before he was saved: “they refuse to abandon their own righteousness that they might receive the free gift of the righteousness of Christ” (Rom.9:30-10:13). Many religious people will not even admit they need any righteousness. Like Saul of Tarsus, they are measuring themselves by themselves, or by the standards of the Ten Commandments, and they fail to see the inwardness of sin. Paul had to give up his religion to receive righteousness, but he did not consider it a sacrifice.
- The fellowship of Christ: (3:10-11): Paul gave up everything: family, friendship and freedom in order to know Christ and His resurrection power. We too have access to this knowledge and this power, but we may have to make sacrifices to enjoy it fully. When we are united with Christ by trusting in Him we experience the power that raised Him from the dead. This same power will help us to live morally with renewed life. We must also die to sin. Just as the resurrection gives us Christ’s power to live for Him, His crucifixion marks the death of our old sinful nature. We cannot know the victory of the resurrection without personally applying the crucifixion. Paul said “somehow to attain to the resurrection” was speaking about the mode of attaining. He was not doubting but looking forward to his death either as a martyr or would die of old age, but he was eager to experience the resurrection. Paul was exhorting all believers that just as Jesus Christ was resurrected and exalted high above, we will also be resurrected for the glory of God (Rev. 22:1-7).
Further Paul says that it was a privilege to suffer for Christ (Phil 1:29-30). In fact, suffering had been a part of his experience from the very beginning (Acts 9:16). As we grow in our knowledge of Christ and our experience of His power, we come under the attack of the enemy. Paul had been a persecutor at one time, but he learned what it means to be persecuted. Paul lived for Christ because Christ died for all the human beings once and for all which resulted in spiritual resurrection, a wonderful hope for every believer.
Yes, Paul gained far more than he lost. In fact, the gains were so thrilling that Paul considered all other “things” nothing but garbage in comparison! No wonder he had joy, for his life did not depend on the cheap things of the world but on the eternal values found in Christ. Paul had the “spiritual mind” and looked at the things of earth from heaven’s point of view. People who live for “things” are never really happy, because they must constantly protect their treasures and worry lest they lose their value. But for the believer, his treasures in Christ can never be stolen and they never lose their value.
A great Christian Life : (3:12-16)
Now-a-days many scientific and management theories and formulae viz. SMART or TOP principles have come up luring the people to have a great life, but ultimately leading them to severe mental breakdown. But Paul gives the formula to have a real great Christian life one can have in this world.
Apostle Paul often compared the Christian life to different types of athletics as Christian life is always compared to a running race. Paul says, I press on in (3:12 and again in 3:14) The idea is that to run swiftly in order to catch a person or thing or to run after. The phrase press on gives us the picture of one in a race running swiftly to reach the goal. Since the Christian life is like a race, we are running to win the prize.
When we look at the runners participating in Olympics, they undergo a great amount of hard work and practice. It takes a great deal of effort to be a world-class runner. Lot of practice and hard work is required to win the prized gold medal. It is the same way even in a Christian life. The basic requirement of Salvation which is God’s gift can be received through our faith, but the growth and maturity can only be obtained by living in Christ’s righteousness. We need to make an effort from our part. We don’t automatically achieve spiritual maturity when we trust Christ as Lord and Savior.
- We cannot grow if we don’t spend time in the Word.
- We cannot grow if God’s word is not taught or professed regularly.
- We cannot grow if we don’t spend time in prayer.
- We cannot grow if we don’t gather with other believers and getting encouraged by them and encouraging them in return.
Faith is just the beginning of the race we run as Christians and we need to exercise our faith and put it into practice. We need to be like Paul and press on or run the race. It takes effort on our part to grow and mature as believers.
But some people sadly sit back to relax saying that they have already obtained the ticket to heaven through their salvation. In (1 Cor.3:1-3) Paul warns the church not to behave like a baby but be matured and eat solid spiritual food.
Paul was not a babe in Christ. He was pressing on. He was running the race. He wasn’t content to sit back and take it easy. He wanted to make progress.
There are 4-things we need to remember as we press on.