'That I may gain Christ, and be found in Him, not
having a righteousness of my own, even that which
is of the law, but that which is through faith in
Christ, the righteousness which is of God by
faith.'--PHIL. iii. 8, 9 (R.V.).
It is not everybody who _can_ say what is his aim in life. Many of us
have never thought enough about it to have one beyond keeping alive. We
lose life in seeking for the means of living. Many of us have such a
multitude of aims, each in its turn drawing us, that no one of them is
predominant and rules the crowd. There is no strong hand at the tiller,
and so the ship washes about in the trough of the waves.
It is not everybody who _dares_ to say what is his aim in life. We are
ashamed to acknowledge even to ourselves what we are not at all ashamed
to do. Paul knew his aim, and was not afraid to speak it. It was high
and noble, and was passionately and persistently pursued. He tells us it
here, and we can see his soul kindling as he speaks. We may note how
there is here the same double reference as we found in the previous
verses, gaining Christ corresponding to the previous loss for Christ,
and the later words of our text being an expansion of the 'excellency of
the knowledge of Christ Jesus.' No man will ever succeed in any life's
purpose, unless like Paul he is enthusiastic about it. If his aim does
not rouse his fervour when he speaks of it, he will never accomplish it.
We may just remark that Paul does not suppose his aim to be wholly
unattained, even although he does not count himself to 'have
apprehended.' He knows that he has gained Christ, and is 'found in Him,'
but he knows also that there stretch before him the possibilities of
infinite increase.
I. His life's aim was to have the closest possession of, and
incorporation in, Christ.
His two expressions, 'that I may gain Christ and be found in Him,' are
substantially identical in meaning, though they put the same truth from
different sides, and with some variety of metaphor. We may deal with
them separately.
The 'gain' is of course the opposite of the 'loss.' His balance-sheet
has on one side 'all things lost,' on the other 'Christ gained,' and
that is profitable trading. But we have to go deeper than such a
metaphor, and to give full scope to the Scriptural truth, that Christ
really imparts Himself to the believing soul. There is a real
communication of His own life to us, and thereby we live, as He Himself
declared, 'He that hath the Son hath life.' The true deep sense in which
we possess Christ is not to be weakened down, as it, alas! so often is
in our shallow Christianity, which is but the echo of a shallow
experience, and a feeble hold of that possession of the Son to which
Jesus called us, as the condition of our possession of life. Christ is
thus Himself possessed by all our faculties, each after its kind; head
and heart, passions and desires, hopes and longings, may each have Him
abiding in them, guiding them with His strong and gentle hand, animating
them into nobler life, restraining and controlling, gradually
transforming and ultimately conforming them to His own likeness. Till
that Divine Indweller enters in, the shrine is empty, and unclean things
lurk in its hidden corners. To be a man full summed in all his powers,
each of us must 'gain Christ.'
The other expression in the text, 'be found in Him,' presents the same
truth from the completing point of view. We gain Christ in us when we
are 'found in Him.' We are to be incorporated as members are in the
body, or imbedded as a stone in the foundation, or to go back to the
sweetest words, which are the source of all these representations,
included as 'a branch in the vine.' We are to be in Him for safety and
shelter, as fugitives take refuge in a strong tower when an enemy swarms
over the land.
'And lo! from sin and grief and shame,
I hide me, Jesus, in Thy name.'
We are to be in Him that the life sap may freely flow through us. We are
to be in Him that the Divine Love may fall on us, and that in Jesus we
may receive our portion of all which is His heritage.
This mutual possession and indwelling is possible if Jesus be the Son of
God, but the language is absurd in any other interpretation of His
person. It is clearly in its very nature capable of indefinite increase,
and as containing in itself the supply of all which we need for life and
blessedness, is fitted to be what nothing else can pretend to be,
without wrecking the lives that are unwise enough to pursue it--the
sovereign aim of a human life. In following it, and only in following
it, the highest wisdom says Amen to the aspiration of the lowliest
faith. 'This one thing I do.'