“Christ Jesus Took Hold of Me”: The Gospel in Philippians 3:12

Paul was no slacker. The apostle who wrote the majority of the books in the New Testament seems never to have done anything halfway. We see that profoundly in Philippians 3, where he describes the price he paid to follow Christ: “I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord … that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead” (Phil. 3:8, 11). In his discipleship, he made an unmitigated commitment—and he stuck to it.

Paul’s example certain sets a high bar. What a relief we feel, then, when we come to the next verse: “Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect” (Phil. 3:12)! If we stop at verse 11, we might be tempted to think our hope rests on having a zeal like Paul’s. Some hope that would be! But the apostle gently reminds us that even all his zeal is not enough. Instead, he rejoices in the only sure hope: “I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own” (v. 12). Or, as the NIV puts it, “I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.”

Ultimately, Christian faith is not a question of men and women reaching out and taking hold of God. The Gospel is good news about a God who reaches out and takes hold of us. Like infants, we may eagerly grasp Him back, but it is His strength and His initiative—not ours—that draws us close.

Jesus Takes Hold of Us Personally

In his life-changing encounter on road to Damascus, Paul himself, who had been an enemy of the Gospel, heard a voice from heaven calling him by his Hebrew name: “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” (Acts 9:4; 22.7; 26:14). He was not seeking Jesus—but in His mercy, Jesus reached out and grasped him in the midst of his rebellion. That is what He does for us as well! Without His laying hold of us, we would remain strangers to Him, “having no hope and without God in the world” (Eph. 2:12).

The attitude of men and women in religion so often is “I can handle this. I am self-sufficient. I will find words of empowerment from somewhere, and I will be able to deal with this.” Prior to his conversion, that was certainly Paul’s attitude, and he had all the marks on his religious report card to go with it: “circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless” (Phil. 3:5–6). He didn’t yet realize his labors to earn favor with God were actually in vain.

Christianity is not a do-it-yourself project. The best of our efforts leave us still separated from God. As Isaiah 64:6 says, “All our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.” If we could “do it ourselves,” there would have been no reason for the incarnation and no purpose in Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension. God the Son came to do for us what we could not do ourselves, living a perfect life and dying to take the penalty of sin so that we could be His forgiven people. To believe in Christ is to believe this: When we could do nothing to save ourselves, He took hold of us.

Jesus Takes Hold of Us Permanently

Genuine faith doesn’t begin with our efforts—and, of course, it doesn’t go on by them either. Paul has said earlier, in Philippians 1:6, “He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”

In Christ, we don’t live wondering if the misdeeds of today have snatched us from God’s hand (John 10:28–29). The one who took hold of us also carries us on, with all the same power and purpose with which He took hold of us in the first place. The energizing power of God that redeems us from corruption and fills us with His Spirit is not there in fits and starts but sustains us all the way through life’s journey. 

Christianity is not a do-it-yourself project. The best of our efforts leave us still separated from God. .

In theological terms, this reality is sometimes referred to as the perseverance of the saints, but another term may be more helpful: the preservation of the saints. It is God’s faithfulness, not ours, that lays the foundation upon which our ongoing faithfulness exists. We persevere because He preserves us. He is consistent amidst all our inconsistency. This doctrine leaves no room for a believer’s smugness. He took hold of us.

Jesus Takes Hold of Us Purposefully

In spite of those realities, Paul still believed there was a part for him to play. God took hold of Paul, and therefore, Paul strove to take hold of Him: “Forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 3:13–14).

God’s plan to redeem us is not static. It’s not simply to bring us into a position of forgiveness whereby we can sit down and say, “What a relief! Now I think I’ll go find a hill somewhere to live on, away from all these wicked people and away from all the silly nonsense that surrounds me.”

If we are going to enjoy all the benefits and blessings that God intends for us in Christ, then we’re going to need to remember that we were saved for a purpose.

When God took hold of Paul, He sent Ananias to preach the Gospel to him. God told Ananias about Paul, “He is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel” (Acts 9:15). Paul tells us that when God takes hold of us by grace, He does so because “we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Eph. 2:10).

If we are going to enjoy all the benefits and blessings that God intends for us in Christ, then we’re going to need to remember that we were saved for a purpose: that we might become like Christ—the very thing Paul was striving to do (Phil. 3:10–11).

The Christian life is not one of resting on our laurels because “Christ Jesus took hold of me.” No, Christ Jesus took hold of us so that we might live for Him in newness of life. With Paul we can say, “I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.” Faith zealously reaches out to take hold of Christ—yet it always rests securely in the strong hand of our Lord.

This article was adapted from the sermon “‘Christ Jesus Took Hold of Me’” by Alistair Begg.