In the next verse, Paul said whatever he has been saying is the way the mature should think.
He would say that should be the attitude of those who believe they are at the very height, who are "perfect" in quotes.
He said he does not consider himself perfect or to have attained. And that is part of the heart of humility.
With this verse, we have seven things Paul is aiming for:
1. My aim is to gain Christ (v8)
Christ here is a person, not an idea, not a feeling, but a spiritual person - God in the flesh - who died and rose from the dead, and is right now at the right hand of the Father (1 Corinthians 15:3-4, Hebrews 1:3).
Christ is the beginning and the ending: the Alpha and the Omega (Revelation 22:13).
He is the originator of our spiritual life and the end it aims for (Hebrews 12:2).
Gaining Christ is seen in the parable of the kingdom of God, where a man sells all he has to obtain a pearl of great value (Matthew 13:44).
And the kingdom is like a woman who lost one coin and had to devote everything to find it (Luke 15:8-10). And she rejoiced when she did. So gaining Christ is a joyful thing.
2. My aim is to know him (v10)
Knowing Christ is the pursuit of the right knowledge of God, right teaching about Christ, and coming to the right conviction about who He is.
The difference between the non-Christian and Christian-Paul is knowing Christ.
But here we are seeing that knowing Christ is also a pursuit, a journey. Therefore, it is beyond information gathered; it is a spiritual experience.
Jesus rejoiced that God has hidden things from the mighty and revealed them to babes (Luke 10:21).
Therefore, it is both something revealed and something we pursue.
2. My aim is to experience the power of his resurrection (v. 10)
No one speaks like this.
The only person who was buried and raised was Lazarus, and Jesus said, "I am the resurrection and the life" (John 11:25-26) at his grave.
The resurrection is a display of power - Death-overcoming power - maybe not in the way you think about it.
Everything we think about Christ is death-overcoming power. Beginning with His incarnation, death, resurrection, ascension, and even in His coming with the voice of the archangel, with the dead in Christ hearing his voice and coming from the grave (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17).
Everything is resurrection power. So Paul is saying his rejection of righteousness by the law is not just to latch onto a strange idea; there is a big payback in the experience of the power of Christ's resurrection.
3. My aim is to share in his sufferings (v.10)
This is not what people would want to choose, but Paul realized that the door to the resurrection is through sharing in his sufferings and being like him in his death. Paul was not going to deceive himself.
However, what that will look like will differ from one person to another.
- For example, we read that the one who will live a godly life will suffer persecution (2 Timothy 3:12). It's either compromise or righteousness. It cannot be both.
- Even though Job suffered, he was pointed to as an example of endurance, even Christ also.
4. My aim is to be like him in his death (v. 10)
Not just suffering, but death. Not necessarily actual death (in this passage), in my opinion. Therefore, we should see the resurrection (in this passage) as being in a figure, both going on at the same time.
Jesus used another imagery. He said Carry your cross.
5. My aim is to somehow attain the resurrection of the dead (v11)
The suffering and death are not the end; the end is the resurrection of the dead. Paul talked about dying and suffering, but there is glory as a reward on the other side. That is what we are saying. Again, Job and Jesus are examples of this.
6. I strive to lay hold of that for which Christ has laid hold of me (v12)
This is about the divine purpose. This is personal. We can all be sitting down in church, hundreds of people, but the reason for which Christ has laid hold of us is different in the specifics. That is why the call is to carry your own cross (Luke 9:23), not our cross, but your own cross, and follow him.
7. I strive toward the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
Now we have come to this verse. Paul calls it the upward call of God in Christ. Look at how beautiful those words are, showing you the oneness between the Father and the Son, that your alignment with Christ is the same as your alignment with the Father.
The point is: This is what God wants. How exciting! It is mystical, it is mysterious, but it is also divine; it is the divine desire for you.
From Addiction to Freedom by Favour Oyinloye
Nature Song
