OUR FATHER WHO REVEALS OUR ULTIMATE DESTINY TO US

The third chapter of the Apostle Paulˋs letter to the Philippians, from verses 12 - 21, records his admission that he had not yet attained the perfection for which God had laid hold of him but he revealed to his readers that to get closer to that goal, he forgot what was behind with its regrets and glories and pressed forward toward the prize of the ascendant call of God in Christ Jesus which is ultimate and eternal role that a person could attain to in his relationship with God.

12 Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. 13 Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, 14 I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Paul, addressing the mature people in Christ among his readers, instructs them to keep in mind the ultimate purpose of being alongside God in eternity and if they couldnˋt imagine it, Paul assured them that God would reveal this to them but in the meantime, as far as they had attained far towards perfection, they should continue to walk by the same rule of unity.

15 Therefore let us, as many as are mature, have this mind; and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you. 16 Nevertheless, to the degree that we have already attained, let us walk by the same  rule, let us be of the same mind.

The apostle calls on the Philippians to follow his example because he was set in place as pattern for them. He tells them this because there were many who became enemies of the cross of Christ and who would end in desctruction because they set their minds on earthly things rather than on heavenly things.

17 Brethren, join in following my example, and note those who so walk, as you have us for a pattern. 18 For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: 19 whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame—who set their mind on earthly things. 20 For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself.

Paul likens heaven to a country that believers were citizens of and whose king, the lord Jesus Christ our Saviour, was eagerly awaited by those who were citizens of that country but lived on the earth.

Paul also reveals a mystery; The Lord Jesus, by His great authority and power over all realms, will transform our temporal bodies into glorified bodies. These bodies will be eternal and they will be capable of transending limitations that we had in our temporal bodies. Further, we will remain tripartite beings where we will made up of a glorified body, a renewed mind and born again spirit but we will have the scars of the earth imprinted on our glorified bodies like the Lord Jesus did when He showed his hands to His disciples after he ressurected. We will also retain the fragrance of the earth of our original selves by which our unique identity will be augmented.

Amen.

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