Justification, Sanctification, and Glorification

Lets quickly get caught up in this wonderful book. If you’ll recall, we made note that the major theme of Philippians is Christ. Paul showed us that the gospel and the Christ of the gospel is the life of the Christian. For to me, to live is Christ. As we moved into chapter two and three, we learned that Christ is our highest example. As we look to Christ, and are found in him, we are to have his mind of selfless service towards the other. And in our last two sections, we are learning that Christ is the goal of the Christian. He is that to which we strive for. We are in union, but have not arrived yet. We keep in mind another major theme of this epistle, that of Joy. Joy as one put it, is the atmosphere, it is the aura of Philippians. Joy permeates this epistle. In suffering for the gospel, in giving up one self over to service, in persecution, opposition, even in the face of death, we are to be marked by joy. A certain conviction that in all these things God is working our good, and his glory, as the gospel is kept and advanced.

Will consider our text this afternoon under to points Spiritual Bankruptcy ( 7,8), and spiritual wealth ( 9-11).

7 But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ.

We remember previously, that Paul had laid out a resume for the Philippians to consider. He gave his credentials which were thoroughly impressive. Unmatched. Yet whatever things were gain( rich Jewish heritage, religious prestige, zeal, and accomplishment), he counts as loss. He means, they weren’t gain, they were actually a hindrance to me. They got in the way of Christ! Those things-that I though were gain, but, which really weren’t gain to me—I have thrown out and torn up. I don’t want them on my resume any more because they get in the way of my glorying in Christ. In accounting terms, he was in the negative. They were actually harmful to him.

He is throwing out a Romans 10:3 type of righteousness Romans 10:3 “3 For not knowing about God’s righteousness and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God.”

8 More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ,

John 17:3 is being fulfilled in the life of the apostle. Jer 9:23.

But the apostle doubles down here. It wasn’t just the list mentioned above. He say’s here that you can put anything, anything! on the competitive floor with Christ and Christ wins out every time, clean sweep, no competition. He is thoroughly convinced, he doesn’t need to wait upon further evidence. He is without a doubt persuaded that nothing can compare to Christ. All things stand in the negative. They are a net loss compared to Christ.

What hinders you from magnifying Christ more, from knowing more of him?

Paul has no family, few friends, not well fed clothed or sheltered. What does he say? Man, I’m up a creek without a paddle. No, he concludes that he has more than enough to be rejoicing. Why? Because the excellency of Christ is a subject, an object that is impossible to exhaust. You would have more success counting all of the sand on earths shores than exhausting the excellency of Christ!

Boston:

He is the storehouse, from which all the saints, from Adam, have derived the supply of their wants."In him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. “What would we have, it is all in him. Whatever excellency or perfection is in any thing else, it is derived from him. The most desirable creatures shine with light borrowed from him. There is no perfection in the creature, but what is eminently in himself, as the first cause. "That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world."

He’ll go on to say:

Everything other than Christ lacks sufficiency and certainty for happiness and satisfaction. Christ alone in whom all the fulness of the Godhead dwells is both sufficient for you, and certain, he is the same yesterday, today, and forever. 

You need not fear lack in Jesus and you need not fear change in Jesus. That cannot be said of any created thing. Do you see how gloriously superior, surpassingly great how surpassingly valuable the knowledge of Jesus is? Every creature runs dry, not so with the fount of living water. 

Paul states this 3 different ways in verse 8 to emphasize his point. list…….

This is what you have dear believer grab onto this more by faith today.

And consider how Paul can be an example to us here of proclaiming the excellency of Christ to others. Paul didn’t stay silent about his love and glorying in Jesus.

And if we have him, and have tasted of his goodness and seen his glory, how could you stay silent about it? How can you not break forth into this rapturous contemplative praise as Paul does? How can you hold back from telling others about the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus your Lord. 

Telling them about the one, whom Boston says:

can do for us what no other can do, procure for us pardon of sin, peace with God, a right to heaven, things which angels and men cannot do.

We rubbed shoulders with people every day who are running dry cistern after cistern of creaturely enjoyments. Worse, they are holding broken cisterns that hold no water, trying to fill themselves up to the point of despair, inward despair, and would we stay silent about the living fountain that we have inside of us. If you drove by someone sitting on the side of the road parched, licking a potsherd trying to satisfy their thirst, and had a bottle of water on hand surely you would give it to them. What about the living water inside you, will you not hold it out to those around you who are spiritually parched, spiritually famished, trying to be satisfied by various fruitless endeavors.

Maybe you’re nowhere near this today. Not thrilled with the grace of the gospel, and the desire to proclaim it. If you’re not here today, then fight for renew joy of the gospel of Jesus Jesus Christ.  fight for renewed sense of love and concern for the lost around you . Do the people around you hear of your affection for Christ? Beeke asks in his new book on Do your children hear it, family, friends? Of your love for Christ.

Do they hear that everything else when compared to knowing him is dung, excrement. That being found in him, united to him is the most thrilling and satisfying thing. Do they hear you lament spiritual bankruptcy of things in your life that you give too much time to.

Spirutal Wealth

Justification, sanctification, glorification.

9 and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith,

He concluded v.8 by giving his first purpose for ditching everything. That, “I may gain Christ”

“and” is epexegetical meaning, Paul is now going to explain what he means by “gaining Christ”

What do you mean by gaining Christ Paul? Why did he do all that? Why does he throw it all away. Because at the end of the day what must we have? What must we be? We must be found in Christ, we must have a righteousness from God through faith in Christ. In union with Christ, in justifying faith, Paul found that pearl of great price. You see the parallels? He sold everything he had, for the priceless possession! Like in the parable. Christ is Pauls boast.

What is at the center in this verse. The righteousness that comes from God. It comes from outside of you. It is alien to you. An alien righteousness is the only kind of righteousness that can save. Not one from me, but in contrast, one from God. Given. The righteousness from me, and the righteousness from God, are mutually exclusive. Pause.

My righteousness, fleshly righteousness, according to the law righteousness wont do. God’s righteousness in Christ received by faith as a gift, is the only saving righteousness. What is faith in this text? renouncing as loss all of the things that might give you self-confidence before God. That is to walk by faith.

Consider once again the rich beginning of verse 9. “Found in him” What is your boast at the end of the day? I served faithfully in my church to the end. No, to be found in him.

Matthew 16:24–26 “24 Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. 25 “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. 26 “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?”

Paul counted everything as loss(He lost his life Mt 16) to be found in Christ. He found his life in Christ. And now his life is hidden in Christ. It’s untouchable.

Colossians 3:3–4 “3 For you have died(lost your life) and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.”

It also calls us back to Phil 2 where Jesus was found in human form, why, so that as Paul says here….we might be found in Him, that we might be united to him, one with him. As Murray wonderfully points out Union: “has a broader reach than just one step in the application of redemption…it underlies every step of the application of redemption.” Union with Christ is everything for the believer. Beale just published a 600 p book on that topic. That is how deep and rich and bottomless it is.

Which brings us to a consideration of sanctification in verse 10.

10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death;

There are two purpose clauses in this section marked as that. The first is that I may gain Christ, v8 which we just discussed Pauls elaboration of. The second is here, “that” I may know him.

The connection is simple. Those whom God justifies he also…..

Justification, rather than leading to complacency in sin, leads to walking in newness of life, it leads to the sanctified life.

To know him more is the life of salvation and sanctification. To know him more and more is the idea here.

More than know though, he says know him, fellowship in sufferings, conformity in his death.

Ferguson says:

Conformity to Christ here is suffering for Christ, and mortifying sin. Union with Christ, turns into living communion.

Paul what do you mean by knowing Christ, Knowing Christ is Communion in suffering and death.

Sanctification only comes through pain in other words. It is a cutting away process, a purging. Dying to self.

What a profound and yet mysterious verse. Communion in his sufferings and conformity in his death. Strange.

Yet these two things are part of the fundamental makeup of genuine Christianity. This is discipleship. True piety. So many don’t count the cost of what being a disciple means and go the way of the seeds in the parable of the sower. Many false teachers today give folks the sense that you can come to Christ and not suffer and not mortify sin. God loves you the way you are. You can become a Christian without changing a thing. That’s not Christianity, that’s not the gospel. We come as we are, but do not remain as we are. We are to put the flesh and deeds of the flesh away. You have died with Christ. But I haven’t actually died, what do you mean. Died to sin. Dead to lusts. Rom 6. Furthermore, we are granted to suffer. Philippians 1:29 “29 For to you it has been granted for Christ’s sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake,”

“Conformed to his death.”

Silva says:

When Christ died, his people, whom he represented, died with him—his death became theirs…..and there is also a sense in which that death is reenacted in the spiritual experience of conversion and sanctification.

John Murray about united with Christ death: there is a once-for-all definitive and irrevocable breach with the realm in which sin reigns.

This flows right out of justification. The justified believer is a new creature and begins to think walk and act like a new creature.

This is what your knowing is brothers and sisters. Experiencing the resurrection power in you to mortify your flesh by the power of the Spirit of Christ. And to suffer for righteousness sake by the same power and grace of Christ.

Do not let sin reign in your mortal bodies. Be killing sin or sin will be killing you. Why does Owen say this? Aren’t I a saint. Yes but simultaneously a sinner, in whom sin rears its ugly head everywhere, everywhere! In every relation, conversation, activity.

Though it is painful, it is assuring to us. It marks our legitimacy as christians. Listen to Silva on suffering: The stinging reality of Christian suffering is our reminder that we have been united with Christ. More than that, it is the very means God uses to transform us into the image of his Son. Isn’t that a blessed reality.

In short, that is your knowing, that is your growing intimacy with Christ, fellowship in suffering and putting to death the flesh, conformity to his death.

In order to do that, we need to know our savior and our sin. Be familiar with these two brethren. I mentioned Heidelberg, good place to start. Larger catechism, excellent.

You need to know Jesus and his work, you need to know your sin that nailed him there. And then you need to put that remaining sin to death. It is the classic law gospel balance that we need all through the Christian life.

You can’t mortify until you know something about your sin that brought our savior to the cross.

In short, now the gospel better. Know better that Jesus died for a sinner such as me.

And as we mention often, this conformity, this further knowing, comes by beholding his glory in the gospel. 2 Corinthians 3:18 “18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.”

This is our lot until the hope of verse 11 is realized.

11 in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.

Glorification

Whats the connection to verse 10. Romans 8:17 “17 and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.”

It is not as if it were not going to happen. Those he sanctifies he also….

It is a humble longing that Paul is communicating to us. If at last I may attain to the resurrection. He knows God will complete that work, he has that assurance. There is no doubt here, only a humble an longing comment and a fitting transition to the next section. Which we will visit next time DV.

Lets pray.

Todays title is……….Striving for Perfection

Unconvinced not only of his previous righteousness, he is dissatisfied with the standard. Perhaps a sense of satisfaction was floating around the church as to growth. Paul is convinced that the new standard, is one much greater, much loftier, much more glorious. And is to be persued with much more zeal and vigor.

We could say onward and upward in the Spirit captures the text.

Paul is not there and he’s not going to get there until glory. Yet that does not deter him from ceasing to strive for maturity even perfection.

12 Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect,

The question is; does this justifying faith, does union with Christ give me license to stop striving? To have an antinomian spirit? Have I reached such a point were I can stop pressing on toward further sanctification. Can I just kick my legs up and sit back in like a “Christian retirement”. Has he worked long enough as a Christian to sit on a “christian social security check and retirement account?” The answer is no. An emphatic no. I haven’t attained the resurrection, and have not attained Christian perfection.

Now it seems obvious that he has not achieved “it” ressurection previous verse. He is currently writing after all. What he has in mind is fulness, as the text will bear out.

but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus.

He is not deterred by this fact. Nor lazy or presumptuous. He is eager to arrive. He lays hold on it. Stretches for it. This is games language. Like a runner stretching his whole body forward to the finish. Think of an olympic sprinter stretching to the finish.

Yet, it is towards something certain.

Vincent: “The pursuit is no groping after something undefined, nor is it prosecuted with any feeling of doubt as to the attainment of its end. Though he had zealously pursued the 'law of righteousness' (Rom. ix. 31) as a son of Israel, he was now pursuing the righteousness of faith with even greater zeal, under a mightier impulse, and with a clearer view of his goal.”

His pursuit flows out of the work of Christ’s Spirit in him. Out of God’s work in him. Work out your salvation.

I think we naturally assume that if something is strove for or eagerly pursued, that it implies doubt. But that is not always the case. It is certainly not the case in the Christian life as we learned from Phil 2:12-13.

Vincent:

The divine grace in Paul's conversion is the moving power of his Christian development. The fulfilment of the ideal contemplated by Christ when he transformed him from a persecutor to an apostle is the goal which invites him. He desires to grasp that for which he was grasped by Christ. The aorist marks the time of his conversion, which was literally a seizure.

Christ laid hold of me in my conversion, so that I might lay hold of him, that his suffering and death might be filled up in me as he says.

12-14 form an ABAB chiasm

A-Not attained

B-I press on

A-I do not regard myself as having laid hold

B-Forgetting whats behind I press on

13 Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind

He’s not unthankful, not unappreciative of what God has done in him. It’s not holding on to what he used to do in Judaism. He doesn’t get hung up on past achievements, he understands that sanctification is a progressive work of God in the Christian. More than progressive, he also understands the transcendent greatness of what the Christian is called to. How embarrassing what certain folks consider perfection or holiness. Aren’t you glad the bar and goal are set so much higher? Aren’t you glad that the perfection we strive for is not merely horizontal. Aren’t you glad the fulness of it, is beyond even your full mental grasp in this life. God has heights much more glorious for us in mind. What we experience in this life of likeness to Christ is just a taste, just a drop of the ocean of delights and glories that we will experience in our resurrected bodies. the holiest of men have made but little progress. As believers, we have yet to experience anything that is not affected by remaining sin. Everything we do personally or collectively is marked by sin. That’s why he leaves any past attainments behind. Paul is setting our sights on that blessed and certain hope. One day it will not be that way. That is the glorious reality Paul strives for.

His achievements as a Christian, stimulate him toward more strenuous efforts(one commentator). Repeat. How could he be satisfied knowing what he knows about Christ and the resurrection to come.

and reaching forward to what lies ahead,

Again, reaching toward glorification. Every Christian should be busy reaching toward what awaits him in glory. Elsewhere, Paul refers to this as groaning. Are you reaching in this way? If you are, then you will groan. Groan for what? Long for what? To be set free from this body of death. There is a sense of frustration here. To finally be altogether free of the old man. The old man and new man, the flesh and the Spirit are stuck together throughout the life of the Christian. They are like twins conjoined at the hip, and they don’t get along. The only thing that will end the feud is death or second coming.

Until then.

14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Towards the mark, something to which someone fixes their look. the bullseye.

Theophylact says:

"Most appropriately did he say diokeiv(press toward); for he who pursues sees nothing but that towards which he is hastening, and passes by all things, for the dearest and the most necessary"

This is what the believer is called to. Called by God to Christ. Now in Christ.

God has called the believer into the sphere which is Christ Jesus. Christ your life, your example, your hope, your goal. That is the mark. The fulness of resurrection power. Fulness of conformity to his death. Death to sin. Sin vanquished.

The prize is the sharing in his exaltation. For this reason( suffering and obedience to death), for this reason also, God highly exalted him. But what came before exaltation. Suffering. Fellowship in suffering and conformity to death before the prize.

Fix your eyes on the mark to attain the prize. In 1 Cor 9 Paul uses the analogy of the grecian games and the singleness of mind for those who desiring to win a perishable wreath.

1 Corinthians 9:24 “24 Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win.”

This is what the new creature is made for. We are created to run, called by God to run toward and for glory.

Ephesians 2:10 “10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.”

Conclude this section with Calvin quoted by Zanchi:

It is asked, 'What is it that Paul says he has not yet obtained?" For certainly as soon as we are grafted onto Christ's body by means of faith, we have already entered God's kingdom, as is uttered to the Ephesians: "Through hope, we are already sitting in the heavenly places." I respond that, for now, our salvation is situated in hope, such that our inberitance is, indeed, certain, but as yet we do not enjoy possession of it.

Nevertheless, Paul here is focusing on something else, namely, the progress of faith and mortification that he had mentioned. He had said that be contended and strove toward the resurrection of the dead through fellow ship with the cross of Christ, and he adds that he had not yet achieved it. Achieved what? Having undivided fellowship with Christ's sufferings and a full draught of the power of the resurrection so that he might know Him (Christ) completely. Accordingb, by bis own example, [Paul teaches] that one ought to make progress and that knowing Christ is an enterprise so vast that those who labor in nothing else still do not attain perfection (in this, that is, in knowledge of Christ) while they live.

Zanchi:

Hence, the thing that Paul said he had not yet attained and in pursuit of which he was continually exerting himself was (in Calvin's opinion) the perfect knowledge of Christ about which he had previously said: In order that I might know Him and the power of His resurrection.”

There is an already not yet tension in the christian life. One that if you do not understand will not allow you to make sense of much of the NT or christian experience. We have and are experiencing resurrection power. But we are not yet to the resurrection. We have and are experiencing freedom from the power and dominion of sin. But we are not freed from its presence yet. We have certainty about the perfection and fulness of these things, so we press on with great alacrity and eagerness, and zeal.

Again, Paul here is not at odds with Paul in Romans 8:28–30 “28 And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. 29 For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; 30 and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.” (passed tense)

Romans 8:37–39 “37 But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Motivation. If I know that full retirement benefits are coming after one more year of work, then you press in to that final year. If you sit around, you won’t make it. If a football team is up 50-0 at the half they don’t stop playing in the second half. Jesus has conquered the devil, and sin, and hell on our behalf, so we with confidence war with, and mortify, and strive to enter the blessed state of glory.

15 Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, have this attitude; and if in anything you have a different attitude, God will reveal that also to you; 16 however, let us keep living by that same standard to which we have attained.”

Paraphrase: And if, in any particular, your ideal of the possibilities of Christian attainment and of your proper attitude towards these differs from that which I have held up to you, God will correct this by future revelations(illumination); but only on the condition that you act up to the ideal which you already have, and follow the rule which it imposes.

There are mature Christians. There is spiritual maturity. That have come to grasp the whole of the Christian walk. Not perfect as sinless, but perfect in a well-rounded sense. Perfect in understanding the Christian walk and goal. Mature in the sense of conforming in their minds and lives to what Paul has just laid out. Which is certainly a humble approach.

They are not children in the faith. The implication is that they are not children, not childish and weak. This is what we strive for, and are called to stir each other up to this. None is exempt from this ideal, this standard. Mature, spiritually minded in this way christians. And a spiritually mindedness or knowledge that is combined with godliness. The only true spirituality and maturity.

What is the attitude, what is the standard. It evokes the mind of Christ.

Philippians 2:2–6 “2 make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose. 3 Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; 4 do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. 5 Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped,”

If you are different in anything pertaining to the standard, God will reveal it to you. Assuming you keep with what you already have. Don’t backslide in other words. If you relax in pressing forward, you should not expect greater maturity. But if you acknowledge where you are, and your needs, and know that God is in you, and walk in step with the Spirit and in prayer, then be confident that God will teach you. They shall all be taught be God. Who shall be taught by God. Israel, which you are. God is in you to will and work for his good pleasure. And not only can we have this confidence for ourselves, but for our brothers and sisters as well. You can be confident that God will here you on their behalf. Because it’s his will that we grow up together.

Lets pray.