Phases of Christ.
"I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ." Paul presents Christ in four aspects.
I. As A PRIZE. "That I may win Christ." What is it to win Christ? It is something more than to become acquainted with his biography, something more than to understand the doctrines he taught or the theory of his life and mission. To gain him is to gain his moral spirit. His moral spirit is himself—that which marked him off from all other men that have lived—that is the Christ. "If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his."
II. AS A REST. "Found in him." For the soul to be found in Christ is to be found in his character. We are all living in the characters of others. The unregenerate world lives in the fallen character of Adam. The regenerate world lives in Christ, in the character of Christ. Resting in his character as the branch rests in the trunk of the tree, deriving from it its life, its form, its hue, its fruit. Oh to live in his character, in his spotless purity, in his immeasurable love, in his matchless excellence! Those who do so will not have their "own righteousness, which is of the Law," etc., but his moral rectitude.
III. AS A THEME. "That I may know him." The knowledge here does not mean intellectual knowledge, but heart-knowledge, experimental knowledge.
1. Know him by experience personally. Before you can know a person you must have the spirit that animates him. Love alone can interpret love, etc.
2. Know by experience the power of his resurrection. All the spiritual significance and benefits of his resurrection from the dead.
3. Know by experience his sufferings. "Have fellowship with his sufferings." There are three kinds of suffering:
We are commanded to be partakers of some of his sufferings.
IV. AS A MODEL. "Conformable unto his death." What does this mean? To die in the manner which he died on the cross? No. But to live and die in the mood he did, which was self-sacrifice. He died, not for himself, but for others. "He gave himself a ransom for many." Self-sacrificing love is the essence of personal Christianity, and nothing else.—D.T.