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Scripture Reading: Phil. 1:20-21; 2:5-16; 3:12, 14; 4:10, 12-13
The New Testament unveils Christ, and every book in the New Testament is for the experience of Christ. The experience of Christ is the key that opens up each book of the New Testament. In this chapter we shall consider the experience of Christ in the book of Philippians.
The experience of Christ unveiled in the book of Philippians includes several items. In chapter 1 Christ is our life and living. To take Christ as our life within and our living without is to live Christ (v. 21a). This chapter also reveals that the reason we live Christ, taking Christ as our life and our living, is for the furtherance of the gospel (vv. 5, 12). The experience of Christ as our life and living comes out of the furtherance of the gospel. The more we have fellowship in the gospel, in coordination with the apostle, the more we live Christ. The factor for living Christ is the furtherance of the gospel, which is carried out in a corporate way.
Some have separated the preaching of the gospel from the experience of Christ. This is a mistaken concept. Our experience of Christ, our living of Christ, must have the factor of the furtherance of the gospel. Without such a factor our words about living Christ are vain. Paul and the Philippians lived Christ, taking Christ as their life within and their living without, because they all were in the corporate fellowship of the gospel. The apostle was burdened for the furtherance of the gospel, and the Philippians were in coordination with him. Paul and the Philippians were happy in the furtherance of the gospel, and they all enjoyed Christ as their life within and their living without. Philippians 1 reveals not only the factor but also the result. The factor is the furtherance of the gospel with the apostle, and the result is the enjoyment of Christ, the experience of Christ, as both our life within and our living without. When you go out in the gospel, you enjoy Christ, not in a doctrinal way but in a very experiential way.
Some have said that we should not have too much activity but that we should learn to enjoy Christ by attending the meetings, doing our best to uplift the meetings so that others may enjoy Christ. But without the factor of the furtherance of the gospel, we cannot enjoy Christ that much. Some have also said that we should come back to the enjoyment of Christ, implying that the preaching of the gospel is not the enjoyment of Christ. Our enjoyment of Christ must have a factor, and it must also have an issue. The furtherance of the gospel is the factor of our enjoyment of Christ. Furthermore, the more we enjoy Christ, the more we participate in the furtherance of the gospel. Thus, the furtherance of the gospel is also the issue of our enjoyment of Christ.
The enjoyment of Christ will cause you to visit people in their homes with the gospel. The enjoyment of Christ will never make you sleepy; rather, it will stir you up. When we enjoy Christ to the uttermost, we are beside ourselves. The more we enjoy Christ, the more active we will be. When we enjoy Christ, we can never be silent or quiet.
Paul enjoyed Christ to such an extent that he could say, “To me, to live is Christ and to die is gain” (v. 21). The “gain” here is the presence of Christ. To live is Christ, and to die is to enjoy the presence of Christ. Paul might have said, “According to my feeling, I would rather die, because to die is to be present with the Lord. Nothing on the earth can satisfy me any longer, but if I die, I will be with Christ. This is much better for me, but for your sake, Philippians, I choose to remain here in order to live Christ, to impart Christ, and to share Christ with you.”
I dare not compare myself with the apostle Paul, but in my experience I have had the same kind of feeling that he expressed in Philippians 1:21-24. As an elderly person, I have had a lot of experiences on the earth. I have lost my taste for anything on the earth except Christ. As a young person, it is easy to be attracted to other things. But as an elderly man, without the Lord Jesus I would lose interest in living. This is because there is nothing good on the earth. The only interest, taste, and enjoyment I have as I remain on the earth is to help sinners receive Christ, to help all of you enjoy Christ more, and to help the church be built up organically as the living Body of Christ. This is what I really enjoy.
During these last five weeks of the training, I have been quite busy laboring even until late at night. Yet I have had a good and sound sleep every night. Occasionally, the enemy Satan raises up attacks from different directions, but the Lord has taught me the lesson of not being touched or stirred up regardless of what happens. I can testify that nothing on the earth can frustrate someone who enjoys Christ. Paul’s experience was like this. Paul wrote his Epistle to the Philippians from a prison in Rome while he was under the threat of martyrdom. He knew that he might be killed, but he was not bothered or upset; rather, he expected to magnify Christ in his body through life or through death. He said this while his body was in bonds. His concern was not for his bonds but for how the enjoyment of Christ among the Philippians could be increased. When the material gift came to him from the Philippians (4:10-17), he was happy because this indicated that their concern for the furtherance of the gospel, which had become dormant, was blossoming again. Their experience of Christ made him very happy.
The subject of chapter 2 is taking Christ as our pattern (vv. 5-11) and experiencing Christ as our expression (vv. 12-16). When we take Him as our pattern, spontaneously we express that pattern.
In chapter 1 Christ is our life and our living, in chapter 2 Christ is our pattern and our expression, and in chapter 3 Christ is our goal and our seeking, our pursuit (vv. 12, 14). We all must have a goal, and our goal must be Christ. He is our seeking, our pursuit. Day after day we seek Christ. He is not only our destination but also our goal. Sometimes we may reach a certain destination but miss our goal. In shooting a gun, the bullet may reach the target, but it may not touch the center of the target. We have to run not only to reach the destination but to obtain the goal.
In chapter 4 Christ is our strength (v. 13) and our secret (v. 12). Paul says, “I am able to do all things in Him who empowers me” (v. 13). In order to do anything, we need strength, and we also need to know the secret, the way, to accomplish a task. You may have a lot of strength, but if you do not have the secret, you may waste your strength. Even in tasks such as arranging plants in a house or hanging pictures on the wall, there is a certain way, a secret, to doing them. Christ is not only our strength so that we are able to do things; He is also our secret. A secret is not rigid or legal but very flexible. It is always flexible and readily available to be applied at any time and at any place.
As Christians, we should enjoy Christ as our life, our living, our pattern, our expression, our goal, our seeking, our strength, and our secret. The way for us to enjoy and experience Christ as all these items is through the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ (1:19). The Spirit in this verse is called the Spirit of Jesus Christ. This Spirit is the consummated Spirit. In eternity past the Triune God had not passed through any processes. But in time the Triune God passed through incarnation, human living, crucifixion, and resurrection. After all these processes He became a life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b), the consummated Spirit. This consummated Spirit is the consummation of the Triune God. Now after all the processes, God is no longer “raw.” He has been processed, “cooked.” This “cooked” Triune God as the Spirit is the consummation of the Triune God.
After His resurrection and before His ascension, the Lord Jesus came back to the disciples and said, “Go...disciple all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matt. 28:19). In the entire Bible this is the first time that the Triune God is mentioned in such a perfect and complete way. At this time, after resurrection, the Triune God had been consummated. In eternity past He was the Triune God, eternally perfect but not complete. He did not have the human nature and the experiences of human living, death, and resurrection. Through incarnation He put on human nature; thus, humanity was added to His divinity. He then passed through human living. That was wonderful, but He still had not experienced death. He entered into death and died an all-inclusive death, solving all the negative problems in this universe. From that time onward the element of death has been with Him. Death in Adam is ugly, but the death accomplished by Christ is so dear, precious, sweet, and lovable. Now such a sweet death is with the Triune God.
After His resurrection He came back to His disciples and breathed into them the consummated Spirit (John 20:22). This Spirit is not only the Spirit of God but also the Spirit of Jesus (Acts 16:7) and the Spirit of Christ (Rom. 8:9). This Spirit as the consummated Spirit, the all-inclusive Spirit, is the consummation of the processed Triune God. Such a Spirit is now within us. The Triune God — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit — is now in us (Eph. 4:6; 2 Cor. 13:5; Rom. 8:11). If we want to enjoy Christ and experience Christ, there is no other way except by the all-inclusive Spirit as our bountiful supply.
Paul said the Spirit of Jesus Christ had become his salvation (Phil. 1:19). From what did this Spirit save him? This Spirit did not save him from his bonds or chains; rather, this Spirit saved him from being weak so that he could magnify Christ. By this Spirit Paul in his imprisonment was able to magnify Christ without being defeated. This is salvation on the highest level. If we were taken by persecutors and threatened with death, we might pray, “Lord, save me from being martyred.” This kind of prayer indicates that we are already defeated. Instead, we should pray, “Lord, supply me with the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ so that I may overcome such martyrdom.” This would be salvation on the highest level.
When I was a young Christian, my friends and relatives who did not love Christ would sometimes argue with me, saying, “Look at how much the apostle Paul loved Christ. Did Christ save him from Roman imprisonment? Did Christ save him from being martyred? You should not believe in Him or love Him because He cannot be seen, and He can do nothing for you. Jesus Christ did nothing for the apostle Paul, and he was martyred. Where is your salvation?” This salvation may not deliver us from martyrdom; rather, it gives us the victory in martyrdom.
In the 1930s as the communists were spreading in China, they captured and martyred two missionaries. One of them said that the face of a martyr is an angel’s face, and his heart is a lion’s heart. This missionary experienced salvation to the uttermost. The apostle Paul also enjoyed Christ even in the face of martyrdom through the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Paul might have prayed, “Lord, thank You that You have chosen me, commissioned me, and sent me. Caesar did not bring me here, but You have brought me here. Lord, I am willing and ready to be martyred. What a glory that I can die for You.” The Spirit of Jesus Christ became Paul’s top salvation.
We may have all kinds of situations in our married life, work life, and in our relationships with other brothers and sisters. These situations may cause us to be defeated. The only way to not be defeated is by the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.
You may be without a job. If you pray for a job and the Lord gives you a job, you may be happy and say that your getting a job is your salvation. Actually, this is not salvation. On the other hand, suppose you lose your job and, being unable to find a job, have to look for two or three months. If you have the strength to overcome the suffering of losing a job in order to live and magnify Christ by the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, this is the top salvation.
Although the term the Spirit is short and simple, it denotes something that is all-inclusive. The Spirit is the secret of our victory. In human life one of the most difficult things is to forgive people. To remember someone’s mistake is easy, but to forgive someone’s mistake is hard. To forgive means to forget. To forgive anyone’s offense to the extent that you forget requires the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.
By this Spirit you take Christ as your life for your living. By this Spirit you take Christ as your pattern for your expression. By this Spirit you take Christ as your goal and your pursuit in seeking. By this Spirit you are really able to do all things in the One who strengthens you, and this is your secret.
