Philippians 3:12

‘I press on…’
(Philippians 3:12)

Here the apostle Paul is talking about pressing on towards what he describes a couple of verses later as ‘the goal… the prize… the high calling of God in Christ Jesus’(Philippians 3:14). Ultimately he’s talking about attaining ‘to the resurrection from the dead’(Philippians 3:11), and being ‘made perfect’(Philippians 3:12) in eternal ‘glory’(Philippians 3:21), crowned with an ‘incorruptible’(1 Corinthians 9:25) crown of ‘righteousness’(2 Timothy 4:8), ‘life’(James 1:12) and ‘glory’(1 Peter 5:4). However, he also has in mind that, as Christians, we should be striving to live in a way that’s consistent with our ‘citizenship… in heaven’(Philippians 3:20), even now, fully committed to the journey of ‘being sanctified’(Hebrews 10:14) and ‘perfected’(2 Corinthians 13:11).

Nevertheless, Paul is quick to point out that he, and by implication we, are not ‘already… perfect’(Philippians 3:12). As John put it: ‘If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves’(1 John 1:8ff.). We still inhabit a ‘body of… death… the flesh’(Romans 7:24-25), and although must ‘put to death’(Romans 8:13) our fleshly, sinful nature, i.e. ‘sexual immorality… evil desire… covetousness’(Colossians 3:5) etc., it still ‘lusts against’(Galatians 5:17) our good ‘desire’(Galatians 5:17; Romans 7:21ff.) for holiness. And so, as we press on, we creak and ‘groan within ourselves, waiting…’(Romans 8:23).

Yet we can be confident in our ‘stand’(Ephesians 6:13ff.) against these hostile forces. Ultimately nothing can ‘bring a charge against’(Romans 8:33ff.) us, as Christians, because the ‘blood of Jesus… cleanses us from all sin’(1 John 1:7), and we’re blessed with the ‘righteousness… through faith in Christ’(Philippians 3:9) that Paul mentions here. Moreover, as Jesus promised: anyone ‘“who comes to me I will… raise… up at the last day”’(John 6:37-40), ‘“I give eternal life to them… no one will snatch them out of my hand”’(John 10:28), a fact echoed by Paul later in this study verse: ‘taken hold of by Christ Jesus’(Philippians 3:12). So we, alongside the Philippian Christians, can be encouraged as we press on, that ‘He who began a good work in [us] will complete it’(Philippians 1:6).

This is certain because being ‘united with Him… we will also be part of His resurrection’(Romans 6:5). Obviously the ultimate realisation of that will be our eternal ‘resurrection… Not… already obtained’(Philippians 3:11-12) mentioned above. However, our pressing on includes progressively knowing ‘the power of His resurrection’(Philippians 3:10), even now. Again as Paul explains in his letter to the Romans, ‘if the Spirit of Him who raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised up Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you… So then… by the Spirit… put to death the deeds of the body’(Romans 8:11-13). This resurrection begins from the very start of our Christian lives. We are ‘buried… with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life’(Romans 6:4). So, amazingly, it’s with Christ’s resurrection power that we press on, which should obviously be a great encouragement to us in the battle. As Paul encouraged Timothy: ‘Fight the good fight of faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called’(1 Timothy 6:12), similar to the ‘take hold of’(Philippians 3:12) in this study verse – our reciprocal response.

The pressing on that Paul is talking about here involves all of this, as if we’re in the middle of an ongoing resurrection, to be completed in eternity – an epic struggle, yet with predetermined sure outcome: ‘glorified’(Romans 8:30), as certain as the resurrection of Jesus Christ Himself – ‘declared to be the Son of God with power… by… resurrection from the dead’(Romans 1:4).

Nevertheless, our union with Him also involves ‘the fellowship of His sufferings’(Philippians 3:10), as Paul puts it here, i.e. ‘we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified with Him’(Romans 8:17, cf. Philippians 2:17ff.), both collectively and individually, including being chained by things like the Roman ‘palace guard’(Philippians 1:13), which was Paul’s predicament as he wrote this letter. It’s an awesome and humbling calling. So let’s heed Paul’s encouragement to press on, exercising, developing and expressing our ‘salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who works in’(Philippians 2:12-13) us. And let us live up to what we have ‘already attained’(Philippians 3:16), ‘forgetting the things which are behind, and stretching forward’(Philippians 3:13), like an athlete who ‘strives in the games’(1 Corinthians 9:25), to ‘run with perseverance the race… set before us, looking to Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who… endured the cross… and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God’(Hebrews 12:1-2, cf. Philippians 2:5-11).

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