Paul made a revealing discovery about his relationship with the Lord, he said, “…whatever things were gain to me, those I COUNTED LOSS FOR CHRIST.” (Phil. 3:7) Paul went on to say, “My brothers, I do not count myself to have taken possession, but one thing I do, forgetting the things behind and reaching forward to the things before, I PRESS TOWARD THE MARK for the prize of THE HIGH CALLING OF GOD IN CHRIST JESUS.” (Phil. 3:13-14)
The allusion is to the white line, or mark, which the runners in the Olympic games made up to, and to which he that came first received the prize; and by which the apostle proposes the Lord Jesus Christ, who is skopos: the distant mark or the goal. A little earlier Paul stated that he wanted to “…be found in Christ; not having my own righteousness, but through the faith of Christ, the righteousness of God by faith, that I may know Him and THE POWER OF HIS RESURRECTION and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable to His death…” (Phil. 3:9-10)
Conforming to Christ’s death is a matter of knowing the power of His resurrected life, as Paul says here: “Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so…
WE ALSO SHOULD WALK IN NEWNESS OF LIFE…(Rom. 6:4)
-Bill Stockham