Philippians 3:10-14: Apprehending That for Which Christ Apprehended Paul by R. F. Cottrell

Seventh-Day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Thursday, January 22, 1880

FromThe Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, Vol. 55, No. 4

Philippians 3:10-14: Apprehending That for Which Christ Apprehended Paul

By R. F. Cottrell

PHIL. 3 : 10-14.

BY ELD. R. F. COTTRELL.

A DISCIPLE is a learner. Jesus said, “Learn of me.” A true disciple of Christ will always be glad to learn more of him, and of the word of the gospel which he announced and sent forth into all the world by the servants of his choice.

In reading the passage referred to in my heading, the sense of the clause which says, “If that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus,” has not been clearly apprehended by me. But from reading the passage in Whiting’s translation, I have received an idea new to me; and I will give it, not as infallibly true, but for the consideration of the reader. If it is not right, I shall be glad to learn. I will first give the text as rendered by Whiting, from verse 11 to verse 14.

“In order that by any means I may attain to the resurrection from among the dead. Not that I have already attained, or have already finished my course, but I am pressing forward, so that I may lay hold of that for which I also was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have laid hold of it: but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and stretching forward to the things before, I press forward toward the mark for the prize of the calling from on high, of God, by Christ Jesus.”

The past tense of the verb in the phrase, “was laid hold of by Christ,” suggested the following. When Saul of Tarsus was on his way from Jerusalem to Damascus to persecute the saints, the Lord Jesus apprehended, or laid hold of him, by the way. Jesus said to him, “I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister and a witness both of these things which thou hast seen, and of those things in the which I will appear unto thee, delivering thee from the people, and from the Gentiles, unto whom now I send thee.” Acts 26 : 16, 17. Here the apostle received his call to the ministry. It was a high calling, or a calling from on high, a calling of God made by Christ Jesus. A “course” was set before the apostle, which was that he should go to the Gentiles and wherever God should send him, and faithfully fulfill his ministry. A dispensation of the gospel was committed to him; and at the end of the course, or race, there was a prize, which was a part in the first resurrection,—the resurrection “from among the dead,”—and “a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge,” would give him in that day.

Reader, a course is set before each one of us, and the same prize awaits us “in that day,” if we finish our course as the apostle did his, faithful to the last, loving Christ’s appearing. See 2 Tim. 4 : 6–8.

With a realizing sense of his commission, its responsibilities and its results,—the salvation or condemnation of those to whom it came, the preacher as well as the hearer,—it is no wonder that the apostle should feel such anxious solicitude to finish his course and fulfill his ministry in a way to meet the approval of Heaven. Said he to the elders of the church at Ephesus, “And now, behold, I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there; save that the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide me. But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.” Acts 20 : 22–24.

When Paul wrote to the Philippians, he had not finished his course, and consequently had not yet fully secured that which the Lord designed to give him, when he appeared to him on his way to Damascus,—that prize of eternal life at the first resurrection,—but he was still pressing forward to this object, “if by any means” he might lay hold of that for which he had been called by the Lord Jesus. He finished his course with joy; and may the reader and the writer so fulfill their respective callings as in the end to “lay hold on eternal life.”