The Change

Philippians 3:15–21

Most of us are comfortable with change, as long as we are the ones who thought of it. Yet Christianity is built around the reality of change. The gospel doesn’t come just to make a bad person a little better, or to add religion to a life that otherwise remains the same. When Christ comes into a life, something changes. The sinner is forgiven, the guilty heart is cleansed, old things pass away, and all things become new.

In Philippians 3, Paul describes two groups of people moving in entirely different directions. One group is occupied with earthly things and is described as the enemies of the cross. The other can say, “our conversation is in heaven.” The word carries the idea of citizenship. Through Christ, our allegiance, our direction, and ultimately our home have changed.

The change gives us a new direction. Paul describes those “whose God is their belly…who mind earthly things.” Their appetites and desires control them. Before salvation, self naturally asks, “What do I want?” Grace teaches us to ask, “What does God want?” The Christian life isn’t about seeing how much of the world we can keep while still calling ourselves Christians. Our desire is to please God.

The change gives us a new standard. Paul tells believers to walk according to the light God has already given them. We don’t use our humanity as an excuse for sin, nor do we assume we have nothing more to learn. God can cleanse the heart and give us a settled purpose to please Him, while we continue pressing toward the mark and remaining open to whatever else He wants to teach us.

The change gives us a new home. Philippi was a Roman colony, and its people understood what it meant to live in one place while possessing citizenship somewhere else. Paul takes that idea and applies it spiritually: We live here, but we belong there. Our feet are on earth, but our citizenship is in heaven.

Because our citizenship is in heaven, we are also looking for our King. Paul says that we “look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ.” One day Christ will return, and there will be one final change when He transforms this mortal body to be like His glorious body.

There is a first change when Christ saves us and changes our citizenship. There is ongoing evidence of that change as our direction and standard become different. And there is a final change still ahead when Jesus comes again.

The gospel begins with change, produces change, and points us toward one final glorious change.

The question is not whether Christianity has changed the people around us. The question is whether Christ has changed us.