“Identification,” Philippians 3:10-14
Pastor Tom Johnson, October 8, 2023
Earlier this year the movie Jesus Revolution came out. The movie tells the story of how a generation of young people find their way to faith in Jesus. The main character, Greg, has a similar journey. He is disillusioned by the materialism of the day. He does not want to conform to rigid and closed-minded thinking. That’s when he meets a group of students who are non-conformists. They have found a new way to find their identity—not in their parents, the educational system, or politics. They have found their way through drugs, alcohol, and music. They are called hippies. They were trying to transcend this world and suffering. What Greg and so many realize is that their new identity does not fill the hole deep in their soul. It does not bring them the peace and meaning they seek. In fact, it becomes dangerous and deadly. The story of the movie is how they find Christ—or how Christ finds them. Blaise Pascal said, “There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of each person which cannot be filled by any created thing but only by God the Creator, made known through Jesus Christ.”
That’s what Paul is talking about in our reading from his letter to the Philippians. It is a vulnerable moment for Paul. He shares his impressive background and résumé with us. But then he says he considers this old identity of his all “rubbish.” By the way, the word rubbish is the naughty Greek word for “excrement.” All that striving to fill that empty space with ethnic pride, family heritage, education, money, things, and power—all of that making a name for himself and trying to fill that God-shaped vacuum with worldly things—it is all a load of you-know-what compared to what he now has in Jesus Christ.
This is a message we all need. It really doesn’t matter what we use to fill the emptiness. It could be harmful things like risky behavior or substance abuse. But it can even be things that can be used for good—like money, music, and influence. Or we may be neglecting the greatest gift we always have in the present moment: knowing Christ. The great insight of our Scripture today is that nothing—nothing compares with personal encounter and personal relationship with Christ. Like the old hymn says, “On Christ the Solid Rock I stand. All other ground is sinking sand.” So Paul says, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.”
And how do we enter this relationship with Jesus? How do we find our new identity in Christ and fill that God-shaped hole in our souls? By faith—trusting in Jesus—by, in Paul’s words, “forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead.” Letting go of the old—letting it die and fade away in memory. Just as God chooses not to remember our sins—but forgives us—so we also must let go of the past. Just as Paul has let go of his prestigious past, so we also must let go of our pride. What matters is where we go from here. What matters now is how we get used to our new identity. Paul says he wants to intimately know and experience Christ and the power of the resurrection. He wants to continue to grow in his faith and journey with Jesus. The way is counterintuitive. It’s through identifying with Christ’s suffering and death. By making his suffering and death to sin our own. And making his rising our own.
Jesus found his identity with us by taking on our humanity. He was born of the virgin Mary. The eternal Word became flesh. He intimately knows what it means to be human. He knows what it is to suffer in body and soul. He experienced death. He confronted and defeated death on the Cross and through the empty grave when he rose again from the dead. All this to identity with us—but also to rescue us from captivity to our sin and death. Scripture says he purchased us, not with gold and silver, but with his precious blood. So we are now his treasured possession. You could say that he owns us—but not as property but as his own beloved children.
I find Paul’s words in our reading so powerful: “Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.” Jesus is always ahead of us. He told the disciples he is going ahead of them into Galilee. Jesus has gone ahead and already has made us his own. Hi first takes his loving hold and grip on us. “We love because he first loved us.” We strive to make him our own because he has made us his own. I love that Paul gives us no formula in how to do this—only his example, and more importantly, Christ’s example. We let go of the old unhelpful and harmful things. We let them die away. We yearn for a deeper life through a selfless, sacrificial pursuit of a relationship with our Savior and Creator. We are just trying to catch up—we are growing into the reality of how deeply and unconditionally loved we are. We are just getting used to the truth that we are worth all the suffering and death of Christ. As we die to self and rise in Christ, our Scripture says we will become like him.
Riches I heed not, nor vain, empty praise,
Thou mine inheritance, now and always:
Thou, and Thou only, first in my heart,
great God of heaven, my treasure Thou art.
(“Be Thou My Vision,” WOV 776 v. 3)
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