THE PRIZE OF THE HIGH CALLING
or
The Out-Resurrection And The Word ‘ If.’
[My sincere thanks to Mr.
HAIRE (Coleraine) for his help in acquiring
permission to use this part of the author’s published work.]
"Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the proving
[assurance] of things not seen ... And without faith it is impossible to be
well-pleasing unto him [God]: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that
he is [becometh] a rewarder of
them that seek after him ... By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed
to go out unto a place WHICH HE WAS LATER TO RECEIVE FOR AN INHERITANCE;
and he went out, not knowing whither he went. By faith he became a sojourner in the land of
promise, [Canaan] as in a land not his own, dwelling in tents, with Isaac and
Jacob, THE HEIRS WITH HIM OF THE SAME PROMISE: for he looked for the
city which hath the foundations, whose builder and maker is God. ... These all died in faith, NOT HAVING RECEIVED THE PROMISES,
but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having confessed that they
were strangers and pilgrims on the earth ...
By faith Abraham, being tried, offered up Isaac: yea, he that had
gladly received the promises was offering up his only begotten son; even he to
whom it was said, In Isaac shall thy seed be called: accounting that God is
able to raise up, even from the dead; from whence he did also in a parable
receive him back. ... By faith Moses, when he
was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter; choosing
rather TO BE EVIL ENTREATED WITH THE PEOPLE OF GOD, than to enjoy the
pleasures of sin for a season; accounting the reproach of Christ greater riches
than the treasures of Egypt; FOR HE LOOKED UNTO THE RECOMPENSE OF REWARD
... And what shall I more say? For the time will fail me if I tell of Gideon,
Barak, Samson and the prophets: who through faith
subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mounts
of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, from
weakness were made strong, waxed mighty in war, turned to flight armies of
aliens. Women received their dead by a
resurrection: AND OTHERS WERE BEATEN TO DEATH, NOT ACCEPTING THEIR
DELIVERANCE; THAT THEY MIGHT OBTAIN A BETTER RESURRECTION: and
others had trial of mockings and scourgings,
yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment: they were stoned, they were sawn
asunder, they were tempted they were slain with the sword: they went about in
sheepskins, in goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, evil entreated (of whom
the world was not worthy), wandering in deserts and mountains and caves, and
the holes of the earth. AND THESE
ALL, HAVING HAD WITNESS BOURNE TO THEM THROUGH THEIR FAITH, RECEIVED NOT
THE PROMISE, God, having provided some better
thing CONCERNING US, THAT APART FROM US THEY SHOULD NOT BE
MADE PERFECT.
Therefore let us also, seeing we are compassed about with so
great a cloud of witnesses, lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so
easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
looking unto Jesus the author and perfecter of our
faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising
shame, and hath sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." (Heb.
11: 1, 6, 8, 13, 17-19, 24-26, 32- 12: 2.) R.
V.
-------
It
is impossible to have fellowship with the sufferings of Christ, and still not
be made conformable unto His death. This conformity to His death leads on to
the conformity of His resurrection, the apostle's goal, 'if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the
dead'.
The
doctrine of the identification of the believer, with the death and resurrection
of the Saviour, is entirely a matter of grace, but there is an identification
with His death and its shame and sufferings that is voluntary and experimental
and is moreover the necessary prelude to attaining the resurrection of the
dead. It is obvious therefore that not
only must the conformity unto the death of Christ be something beyond the
doctrinal identification of the believer with His death and resurrection, it is
also equally obvious that the resurrection which was the object of the
apostle's aim, a resurrection concerning which he entertained doubt, cannot
possibly be the resurrection which is the blessed and certain hope of every
believer.
The 'out-resurrection'
and the word ‘if’
Resurrection
is not only a blessed hope, it is inescapable. The unjust, as well as the just, they that
have done good, and they that have done evil, those who form the body of
Christ, and those who stand before the great white throne, each and every son
of Adam, Jew and Gentile, saved and lost, must be raised from the dead. The fact that the apostle could preface his
reference to resurrection in Philippians 3:11
with an 'if', after having expressed his
complete surrender to the grace of God in Christ, is of itself an indication that something exceptional is before us.
'If by any means I might attain unto'.
No ambiguity attaches to the original
here, the Revised Version makes but
one alteration, the exchange of 'may'
for 'might'. The simple way of 'putting
the condition' is attained by using the particle ei,
as in Philippians 1:22. In the passage before us, ei
is combined with the
adverb pos 'how', and so means 'if
somehow'. The word eipos occurs
but four times in the New Testament and in every case the contingency is very
real and the possibility of failure is stressed. The passages are:-
'If by any means they might attain
to Phenice' (Acts
27:12).
'If by any
means now at length, I might have a prosperous journey' (Rom. 1: 10).
'If by any
means I may provoke to emulation' (Rom.
11:14).
'If by any
means I might attain unto the resurrection' (Phil.
3:11).
The
grafting in of the Gentile, as a wild olive, failed to provoke Israel
to emulation. The attempt to reach Phenice, ended in
shipwreck. The original of Philippians 3:11 reads
eipos katanteso eis, the original of Acts 27:12 reads eipos
dunainto katantesantes eis. The
differences are purely grammatical, katanteso
being singular, and katantesantes
being plural, and the added word dunainto
being the addition of the word meaning 'be able'.
The
experiences of the apostle recorded in Acts 27
must have left an indelible impression upon his mind, and as he pressed the
words 'if by any means I might attain unto the
resurrection' he knew, by actual
experience, that there was the possibility of failing to arrive just as
surely as the venture to attain unto Phenice met with
disaster. Moreover, in the verse
following he emphasizes the fact that he had not 'already
attained', but that he 'followed after',
still further adding 'brethren, I count not myself to
have apprehended'. Contingency is the very atmosphere of the
context. Now it is certain that
Paul could have entertained no doubt concerning his standing in grace, or of
his acceptance in the Beloved; his hope, like an anchor, was sure, and if he
used words that expressed contingency and uncertainty, then it is morally
certain that he was not speaking of the hope of the believer. In verse 14
he reveals that his uncertainty was related to a 'prize',
and this attitude of mind he has already exhibited in relation to the same
theme in 1 Corinthians 9:24 to 10: 13.
The 'resurrection'
therefore that was the object of the apostle's desires here in
Philippians 3:11, for which he suffered and was willing to endure, must be something equivalent to 'the first resurrection' of Revelation 20:4-6, or the 'better resurrection' of Hebrews 11: 35.
The
words 'first' and 'better'
stand visible for all to read in the passages cited, but neither the Authorized Version nor the Revised Version use any such qualifying
prefix in Philippians 3:11. The Authorized
Version reads:-
'If by any means I might attain
unto the resurrection of the dead',
and the Revised Version reads:
'if by any means I may attain unto the resurrection from the
dead':
but that is all the difference there is between the two versions. The reader will by this time be desirous of
consulting the original, and to this we accordingly turn.
The
Received Text reads ten exanastasin ton nekron 'the out-resurrection of or from the dead'; The Critical Texts read ten exanastasin ten ek nekron 'the out-resurrection, that
which is out from the dead ones'.
In
order to appreciate the intention of the apostle here it will be necessary to
review the teaching of the New Testament on this question of resurrection.
Two
sects divided the religious beliefs of Israel into conflicting camps, the
Sadducees and the Pharisees. Of the
Sadducees it is written that they say 'there is no
resurrection' (Matt. 22:23). When the Saviour challenged the faith of
Martha concerning the resurrection of her brother Lazarus, she replied in the language
of the common creed of the day 'I know that he shall
rise again ... at the last day' (John 11:24). The simplest statement concerning the
resurrection is that given by the apostle before the Sanhedrin, a belief which Israel
and the believer could share 'and have hope toward God,
which they themselves also allow, that there shall be a resurrection of the
dead, both of the just and unjust' (Acts
24:15). Here in the words anastasin nekron we
have the most elementary form in which the resurrection of the dead can be
expressed, a form used by Pharisees, by Paul, by the sister of Lazarus and by
the common people, for the Apocrypha,
written long before Christ, contains the words anastasin
eis zoen 'a resurrection unto life'.
It
is therefore somewhat disconcerting to read in Mark
9: 10 of the disciples that they questioned one with another 'what the rising from the dead should mean'. Are we to understand that the very disciples who had been selected to witness the
transfiguration on the mountain, were not so mature in the faith as an
unconverted Pharisee? Did Martha
outstrip the apostles in this article of faith? Once again therefore we must turn to the
actual words as recorded in the original before attempting a conclusion.
The
words that troubled the disciples were those used by the Lord when He said: 'Till the Son of Man were risen from
the dead' ek nekron anaste
'risen OUT FROM dead ones'. It is the presence of this word ek 'out' that caused the questioning. It was something additional to the common creed. It was this resurrection ek nekron that declared Christ 'to be the Son of God with power' (Rom. 1:4). The first
to rise out from the dead was Christ, as Paul testifies in Acts 26:23: 'That Christ
should suffer, and that He should be the first that should rise out from dead
ones'.
We
now take one further step forward and discover a reference that is nearer to
the form found in Philippians 3. Tes anastaseos tes ek nekron, in
Luke 20:35.
‘But they which shall be accounted
worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection, that which is out from the
dead ones'.
Here
it will be observed, we not only have words similar to those used in Philippians 3:11, 'accounted
worthy to obtain', but a similar context. Believers can be accounted worthy to obtain
that age at the out-resurrection, they may be accounted worthy to escape the
dreadful things that are coming on the earth and to stand before the Son of
Man, they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name: and the
persecutions which they endured were a manifest token of the righteous
judgments of God, that they may be counted worthy of the Kingdom of God, for
which they suffered (Luke 20:35; 21:36; Acts 5:41;
2 Thess. 1:5).
The
word 'obtain' in
Luke 20:35 is used by the apostle in 2
Timothy 2: 10, 'that they may also obtain the
salvation which is ... with eternal glory',
where the context associates 'suffering' with 'reigning', and in Hebrews
11:35 'that they might obtain a better
resurrection', which is an obvious parallel with the 'out-resurrection' of Philippians
3: 11.
While
Paul was sure of the 'Hope' of his calling, he
could not be sure of attaining unto the 'Prize'
of this same calling, and associated with that prize is the special resurrection,
the out-resurrection and the desire for conformity unto the death of Christ
which we have been considering. In the
verse following the apostle makes it very clear that this uncertainty is
legitimate, and one or two added words are employed in making this fact clear.
'Not as though I had already attained' ('Not that I have already obtained', R.V.), 'either were already perfect' ('or am already made perfect',
R.V.), 'but I follow after' ('but I press on, R.V.),
'if that I may apprehend that for which also I am
apprehended of Christ Jesus' ('if so be that I
may apprehend that for which also I was apprehended by Christ Jesus',
R.V.) (Phil.
3:12).
The
Authorized Version, by repeating the word 'attain'
in Philippians 3:12, gives a continuity to
the apostle's argument, but as two very different words are employed, katantao in
verse 11 and lambano in verse 12, the Revised Version is preferable. The change from 'attaining'
to 'obtaining' moreover,
reveals a change in the apostle's objective. He sought first to 'attain'
to the out-resurrection and then subsequently to 'obtain'
the prize. This comes out clearly when
we remember that lambano,
'obtain', occurs in
1 Corinthians 9: 24, 25, 'one receiveth the prize', 'they
do it to obtain a corruptible crown'.
It
is moreover evident from the apostle's language, that
one who 'obtained' the prize, could be
considered as 'perfect'. Here the Greek reading teteleiomai 'I have been perfected' anticipates the triumphant teteleka 'I have finished' of 2
Timothy 4:7, where once again we
have the race course, the conflict, and the crown.
The
reader will recognize that in both of these Greek words, there is the common
root tel
which means that the 'end' has been
reached, the race run. Telos 'end' (Phil. 3:19),
gives us teleo
'to reach an end, or finish' (2 Tim. 4:7); and so teleioo 'to make perfect' (Phil. 3:12);
and teleios
'perfect' (Phil.
3:15).
The
apostle said 'I follow after', and what he
sought for was that he might 'lay
hold of' that for which he had been 'laid hold
of' by Christ. The apostle's 'confidence' in chapter 1 and his 'diffidence' in chapter 3 show the two aspects of truth
that present a perfect whole, two aspects which are expressed in Ephesians by the words 'the
HOPE of His calling' and in Philippians
by the words 'the PRIZE of the high calling'.
The prize of, the high
calling of God in Christ Jesus
The
figure of a race, a conflict with a crown or prize
at the end, is used by the apostle in more places than one. If this 'prize'
is something for which we have been apprehended by Christ, then if for no other
reason than to please Him, we should get to know what it is and how it may
be obtained.
It
is right for every believer to sing:
'Not for weight of glory, not for
crown or palm,
Enter we the army, raise the warrior's psalm,
But for love that claimeth lives for Whom He
died',
but it is
also right for every believer to believe what God has said regarding 'the prize' that is attached to our 'high calling', as it is right that we should
understand the high calling itself.
When
one has perceived the riches of grace that characterize the calling of the
Mystery, there is a temptation which is very strong, to put out the hand to
save the ark of God, and to deny the
possibility of 'reward' in the Prison Epistles,
lest by so doing the character of grace should be impaired. While sympathising with this regard for grace,
we must nevertheless resist it, for we
must have a higher regard for 'truth' of which
grace is a part, and truth demands that we shall allow a rightful place in the
dispensation of the mystery to the undiluted meaning of 'race' with its 'crown',
'prize' and 'reward'.
- C. H. WELCH.
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NEVER TOO OLD
It is not good for the race to believe that a man’s best days
are over sixty. It tends to break down man’s energy and
prevent him from utilising the best that is within him: the best that has come
from years of experience and work.
There
are figures to show that the greatest
productivity of man’s life lies in the decade between his sixtieth and
seventieth year. The method
adopted to learn the actual facts relating to man’s period was as follows:
Some
four hundred names of the most noted men of all times, from all lines of
activity, were chosen. There were
statesmen, painters, warriors, poets, and writers of fiction, history, and
other prose workers. Opposite to the
name of each man was indicated his greatest work or achievement. This list was then submitted to critics to
learn their opinion of the greatest work of the man submitted. The names of their greatest works were
accepted, or altered, until the list was one that could be finally accepted. After this was done the date at which the work
was produced was placed after the name, and so the age was ascertained at which
the individual was at his best. The list
was then arranged according to decades.
It
was found that the decade of years between sixty and seventy contained 35 per
cent. of the world’s greatest achievements. Between the ages of seventy
and eighty 23 per cent. of the achievements
fell, and in the years after the eightieth 6 per cent.
In other words, 64 per cent. of the
great things of the world have been accomplished by men who had passed their
sixtieth year, the greatest percentage, 35 per cent., being in the sixth
decade.
The
figures for the other periods of life are interesting. Between the fiftieth and the sixtieth years
are found 25 per cent., between forty and fifty 10 per cent. These all totalled together leave the almost
negligible quantity of 1 per cent. to be attributed to
the period below the age of forty.
But,
taken as a whole, the figures prove conclusively that the period of the
greatest achievement in a man’s life comes not when he is in his youth, but
only with the years of mature manhood.
It
is indeed very remarkable to find thus recorded, that only 1 per cent. of the world’s greatest achievements were accomplished
before the age of forty, while 64 per cent. were done
after the age of 60, and 6 per cent. after even 80
years. But how does this apply to the
spiritual life? Surely in much the same
way, for as years advance there is, or should be, growth in grace and in
the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, and the spiritual senses,
by reason of use, should be exercised to the clearer discernment of good and
evil.
Dr.
W. F. Jhonston, of India,
says, "Counting pulpit, classroom, and press
work, the ten most useful years of my life as a missionary were those between
the years of seventy and eighty."
-
The Friend’s Witness
"Labour
and sorrow," the psalmist said,
Was the gift of the fourscore years;
And he almost envied the sleeping dead,
Escaped from the vale of tears.
But the psalmist’s heart was overwrought,
And his harp was out of tune,
For the fourscore years to me have brought
Sweet restful days like June.
And so I sing of the beautiful years,
Each one with his goodness crown’d;
And better far than by foolish fears
Were its months and its seasons found.
So now with my fourscore years I wait*
Till I hear the higher call, [*Heb. 11: 39]
And I pass within through the pearly gate
To the heaven that crowns them all.
-
Elizabeth Jane Long.