Thoughts on Philippians 3:12

"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."

We are saved by faith alone in Christ alone. That does not mean, however, that we have no responsibility in the working out of our salvation. There is a necessary balance between Christ’s work in making us righteous and our work in our own righteousness. Please understand that Christ’s work ALWAYS precedes our own. Christ comes first and changes our hearts and only then will we even have the desire to work for our own righteousness. It never happens in the opposite order. It will never happen that Christ sees us doing good things, working for our salvation and then, as a result, decides to come and grant us righteousness as a reward for all our hard work. Scripture is clear: “We love because he first loved us.”

This verse highlights the tension between Christ’s work in us and our responsibility to work. There is a balance here of God’s call and our response. Paul writes: “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.” Paul understands that he has a responsibility to press on to make righteousness his own. He also understands that this responsibility is a result of the saving work that Jesus has done in him.

I really like that term “press on.” For me it evokes pictures of extremely hard work. I think back to times in the fire academy when it was 110 out with 75 lbs of gear on climbing up flights of stairs with another 25lbs of gear on my back. I remember how absolutely exhausted I was. I remember feeling like the muscles in my legs were so strained that they could not carry me another step. I also remember the encouragement we gave to each other. We would say things like “press on” “keep going” “we can do this”. We all understood that because of the call to this line of work we all accepted we had a responsibility to “press on” through the most difficult circumstances in order to reach the goal that was put before us. The Christian life should be no different. We should all understand that, as a result of Jesus’ call on our lives, we have a responsibility to “press on”, to work as hard as we can, especially when we feel like we can’t make it another step to accomplish the work Christ gave us to do.

"Paul knew his reward was sure in Christ. But he also knew that he would receive it only by pressing forward, working out his salvation with fear and trembling just as Christ was working in him (Phil 2:12-13). Sanctification (our growth in holiness) is a cooperative effort between us and God. He makes our victory certain in Christ, but we know that it is ours if we press on away from sin and toward Jesus (2 Peter 1:10-11)" (Sproul).

For further explanation of the balance between faith and works see my posting from March 27th.