He has in effect taken ownership of me, Paul says (and so do I, with joy!). The Greek ( katalambanó) gives the emphatic idea of being seized, grasped, and taken hold of tightly. It’s powerful to read at the end of verse 12 that Christ Jesus has made me his own. Related: Run, Walk, Stop - The Life of a Believer We Belong to Christīecause Christ Jesus has made me his own. But the more you read his writings, the more you realize, as far as he had come, he regarded himself with the humility of having much farther yet to go! This should be an encouragement to us when we think we are not progressing quickly enough in our walk with Christ. Often when we look at the apostle Paul, we think he was this super human, above all the struggles and temptations we have. As we have been spiritually “turned around” and now face a new direction (toward Christ), we seek to walk in that new direction by God’s enabling power. 6:12) - not for salvation, but for holiness. There is a need, as Paul says here, to press on, to fight the good fight (related: 1 Cor. What happened to Paul - and to you and I - when we were saved in Christ is that our guilt was removed, our sins were forgiven, and we were accepted with God. For Paul, pressing on, or pressing forward, is not simply about trying to finish the race, but to finish in the best way possible. Paul likes to use metaphors close to home many of the people he wrote to would have been familiar with Grecian races, which awarded a prize (usually a crown) to the winner. diókó) that Paul uses in verses 12 and 14 speaks “figuratively, of one who in a race runs swiftly to reach the goal” (Thayer’s Greek Lexicon). I press on to make it my own… I do not consider that I have made it my own. It is important for Paul to convey to Timothy and to the Philippians that the race is still underway. Whatever it was contained significant enough error to lead Paul to exhort Timothy to stand firm in his faith and not be swayed by foolishness like this. We do not know specifically what these two individuals taught regarding the resurrection. Paul may be thinking of the fact that some people were saying that the resurrection had already taken place, as he refers to in 2 Timothy 2:17-18. But he had not yet attained the thing still in front of him: the resurrection to glory. In the sense of being “raised” from or out of the body of sin he had formerly been ruled by, yes, he had been resurrected. He has been adopted into the family of God through faith - God’s gift to him - and because of this, he longs for ongoing progress in his sanctification. But he does know this much: he belongs to Christ. His sanctification is not complete he has not been resurrected or glorified. When Paul says in verse 12, he has not already obtained this or is already perfect, he is referring back to verse 11 about resurrection. 13 Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. Already But Not Yetġ2 Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. He moves on in these next verses to explain the diligence with which he pursues conformity to Christ on a daily basis, with a view toward glory. We saw in the last study that Paul rejected the idea of his human accomplishments making him righteous before God, that he held solely to faith in Christ for his salvation. Part 14 of a whole book study series called “Joy in Christ: A Study Through Philippians.”įind the whole series in Philippians here. 3:12-16 to walk with the expectation and hope of our future resurrection glory, allowing that to motivate us to greater holiness by God’s enabling grace! Our past sins and regrets can often paralyze us, steal our joy, and have us looking back so much we forget what lies ahead.
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