Philippians — Norman Grubb

Galatians, Colossians, and the Cross-to-Throne Life

Galatians is the true interpretation of the new birth, because the new birth includes the identification. Colossians is the risen life, the resurrection. Galatians is the cross. Colossians is the resurrection.

We see him being risen with Christ, because he is with us. Christ is our life. Christ is all and in all. He is the season, the Colossians is the season, because you know it is the ascended life. When he is left, left our cross identification, our resurrection identification behind.

And therefore the relationship between the seated, which means completely settled, finished. But not seated in the sense of real activity, because he is the activity. God is totally active, so are we.

But seated in the sense of a certain understanding of who I am that is settled. Crucified risen. Seated in the evidence of that being completed. Having left that behind, we move into new level of action.

Therefore the throne life is the outgoing life, the reproduction life. From the throne the Holy Ghost goes out as a third person. If there is a third person in it, there is a third person by it. So I said he led, what is he also, when he attained up on high, he led captivity captives.

That is the previous one, the devil's captives become his captives. That is the cross of resurrection, and gave gifts unto men. That is the Holy Spirit equipping us for action. That is where the gifts are.

All the gifts come in there. It is formed by which the Holy Spirit moves into action by us. It is saving action. That's all. I take it those four letters present us with the local truth. Again they were completely formed in Romans.

And then he broke it up into detail in Galatians, followed by Ephesians, followed by Romans, followed by Colossians, followed by Ephesians. How we relate to the cross, how we relate to resurrection, how we relate to ascension, or where we are in them.

Philippians and Paul’s Intercessory Life

Philippians is a letter of permanent personal condition of this own person, which is joy. It is a personal letter. It tells a great deal about himself, his joy experience in his ascended life. His ascended life being his accessory life.

People often come back and quote to me, I think it comes to me, about getting what's behind. I press forward, you know, to obtain. They quote that to me. And I was there as striving to accomplish something.

Getting what's behind, I press forward to obtain. Yeah, the point being that I ask him about this, maybe something he has privately, but I just get it out. His last statement there about this is Paul's intercessory life.

That's because he says this is not a pressing forward to show how great you are today, or to attempt to pay back. You know, that merit kind of thing. But he's talking there about his intercession life.

He's pressing forward, pressing out as an intercession. Would you comment on that just a little bit? Because I think anybody who does intercession often faces those other types of descriptions that imply self-effort.

And that is one of them. And your answer to me was helpful. But, of course, you can see I was very sketchy in getting what you mean. So would you amplify that? That's Philippians. Perfection is the completion of the purpose of God by us, not in us.

It's not that I'm really perfect. That's not referring to inner perfection. It's referring to the completion of the outer product. What God does by me. That's the way it says in Hebrews, that Christ's perfection was having learned obedience to the things he suffered.

Being made perfect, he was able to bring all others into the same sort of perfection. A son learned the obedience of the things he suffered. Being made perfect, he became the author, that's the perfection, of salvation unto all that is availed.

His perfection was to bring other people into what he got. And that's an incomplete perfection. Because that only finishes when our human life finishes. And that's what he's referring to in the Philippians.

Paul’s Self-Righteousness and Stephen’s Witness

He uses, as the whole scripture does, the three soul levels. And he said he had been a lost person for his losses, because he's selfless. Self-centeredness. I must have conscience of flesh. Any man think that he has, well he might trust the flesh.

I'm all. That's self-centered self. All is valued in himself. To circumcise the eight days, talk of Israel, pride of Benjamin. Hebrew of the Hebrews. Touching the law of Pharisees. The church. A perfect selfhood.

A perfect devil. A perfect devil. A perfectly self-sufficient self. In all its level of perfection. His level of perfection was perfect self-righteousness. And that's a perfect devil. And he says, for the first step, what things were gained to me, it was like I had been lost for Christ.

I saw the diversity of that false perfection by contrast with Stephen. That's why it's our lives to convince other people. But when he was headed up the stony of Stephen, and when Stephen had these stones poured on him, he was a dying man.

This is all he believed. He looked to heaven, and he said, I see Christ standing by the right hand of God, and so on. And then the last thing he said, Lord, lay not these things in their charge. That got him.

His love was to destroy Stephen. God's love in Stephen was to save his enemies. Got him. Out of love. He didn't want his enemies to go to hell. Paul wanted his enemies to go to hell. And that's the goads, the prodders, who kicked against the pricks, kicked against the goads all those years.

Inside Paul, all those months, it's fine. And because he's an intense man, he's intensely reactive. So intense reaction is very healthy. It's a good sign. So intense reaction of murdering the Christians.

To escape this inner goad, your love. You're wrong. You're off-beam. Because you don't, at the bottom of it, see a man. This self-loving, self-elevating self-making. Much of your Jewishness, and your temple, and that's...

This temple of self-elevating self-making, this is a lie. And the treasure of the love of Christ. What he forgave to me, the love of Christ. When he got the vision of the love of Christ, come to him.

It came when he came to Peter. From the heavens. And this boy said to him, Paul, what has this done me? Caught the meaning of love. Caught the meaning of eternal love. Through Peter, through Stephen, in Christ.

That was his gain. Accepted and received as the redeemed son by Christ. Then he had to move on from an accepted self to finding who he truly was, a Christ self. Not Christ for him, but Christ as he. Being he.

The Loss of Self-Righteousness and the Knowledge of Christ

And for that he had to go through a painful process. In which he had to experience the cross. He received the bearing of Christ's cross. What is his gain to me is that I lost the cross. Justification to Christ's cross.

Now he had to experience the cross. And he says, yea, doubtless. And I count all things but loss. Not just my self-righteousness. All I am. All I have. All things but loss. Not just my own eggerhood in the sense of my pride and all that.

Exceeding knowledge. Exceeding realization. Of Christ my Lord. Meaning Christ is taking me over. He's the me. He's the one running this house. Not I my Lord. Christ my Lord. That exceeding new state. That he was this person.

His whole being is to be this person. So that cost him all things. To whom I suffer the loss of all things. So it cost him. So there was a hurt there. In that dying. Whatever form it took. Being cast out by his own people.

It cost him. Hurtful hurt. Talk about hurtful hurt there. He suffered. The loss of all things. It cost him to lose me. That's the next stage. When the precious treasure of life. Precious is life. Being he.

He being you. Christ he is my Lord. My Lord. Not just my Savior. My Lord is the implication. He's the one that runs this show now. He's the I. Instead of I being my own Lord. Or Satan being my Lord. Jesus Christ is not just my Savior.

He's my Lord. The cost that you are real conscious of. Of the people who see the cost more than you do. I don't think you think. That your life has a tremendous cost. You've done what you had to do. What you wanted to do.

Objectively there might have been a cost. But do you really yourself see it as a great price. You paid giving all to Jesus. Or don't other people see that cost about ten times as much as you do. I would think.

In saying that I'm confusing. The price I paid to the intercessor. And the price I paid to the Soviet Union. This is the preliminary price he paid. I think he paid it in those three days. When he learned he would suffer many things for my sake.

Before the Holy Ghost. I don't know. This price I'm now talking about. This costly price. Isn't the cost of having lost all things. Now you're burned out. You've become a living sacrifice. That's another kind of suffering.

That's the technicality of suffering. That's the necessity of suffering. That's what he calls my life affliction. It might be that death has liked him. This also liked him. In other words they're in a place where it costs us to die.

For the time we die. The time we die. Isn't that right? And it's cost. That's all. Sometimes, well, cost. What I'm going on to say is this. The whole point of this is. He turns right round. And he lowers the thought that he was loved.

Christ as the Believer’s Life for Others

This is the third. Because where he said here. I count all things but loss. For the excellent is the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. Whom I suffered the loss of those things. Now. And do count them but dung.

Dung is offensive. Dung is manure. Not very pleasant things. Those things are very pleasant. Those things are pleasant. I don't want to lose my reputation. I don't want to lose my everything. I don't want to lose them.

And I'm losing things that have a pleasant smell to me. It turns out none has a pleasant smell to me. It's a radical change. So the values of life have changed. Now this is the third one. That's not the second.

The second is discovering he is my love. Or my me. My all. Which has had a cost in it. And then that cost is gone. I agree. Then it's gone. There's been that. And then you move into this life. And it's you.

But then. When you move into this life. This new life. You're so sold out. To others having it. Anything. Things. It feels like it's done to you. Nothing can be bothered with. It's offensive to you. It's a waste of your life.

Not on daily duties. That's part of the way God comes through. But in things. My interests. Values of life have changed. So everything I have becomes part of something for others. Like your life Bill.

Like John and Linda's. I hope it's for others. It would be hectic for them just to run a big show. And have a nice home. While you accumulate your money. You can't do it. It's become down to you. But a lot of times you like to do it.

And that's why I have to die. So once I have died. Somewhere that cost. It hate not. There is a place. You hate not. Father, mother, wife, children, houses, land, the air, the night, also. Who say. Who say.

All that he has. Can't be my son. What you really hate. Is that self love. Which is. That love of. Not. Not. Not that. Well. Of course. It's the completion of that. End of self love in Christ. But that love which is still attached to things and people.

Father, mother, wife, children, houses, land. They're things. Well they're not my salvation now. But they're things. And for some it's said I'm still attached. Now that's an attachment. That's the middle attachment.

So radical. Because Jesus uses such radical terms. We wouldn't say hate. We'd just say dislike. Jesus saw in total terms. He's a total person. And to say you hate your father and your mother and your wife and your children and your houses and your land.

Yet really we do. Actually we've done it. Because when the chips are down we do it. When the chips are down we don't sacrifice anything for Jesus. We want to be helping. But if the chips are down we'll do it.

Which is we hate. It's the same hate that Jesus had when his mother and brethren tried to get him out of all the crowds around him. Thought he would get a fanatical. He said, oh I don't see you. Who am I?

You're my brother and my brethren. Who's really going to go? I reject my mother and father. I hate them. His own mother. The same mother who he commended to John's care on the cross. It was a mother who a few years away said, I don't deal with you.

You're not my mother. You should know my mother. That's stronger isn't it? That's Jesus. That's radical. And so basically there is a hatred. Because love is hate of course. It has to hate that which combats love.

So this is, I'm trying to say, I think that's the second one. It's, I hope, something we've gone through. And passed out of. But as we look back there was a certain area which was the costly business.

But now the very things which we might at that time. And so of course there's the laugh at keeping. Not only a laugh. We don't want them. They're offensive to us. They annoy us. They're wrong to us. They're hindrance to us.

We don't want them. We have got everything with Jesus. The curious thing is of course when you have everything with Jesus you have everything back. That's the paradox. You come back into Paul's 1 Corinthians 2, 3.

When he says, when you are Christ. In other words, you are Christ in other words. He's taken you over. For all things are yours. Whether Paul, or Paulus, or Peter. Or the world. All ours. All life. All death.

All things present. All things come. All are yours. Twice over. Not all are not yours. All are yours. Extraordinary paradox. You host them. You get rid of them. Then you get them all back. Because you want them back.

Because the main thing behind all personal enjoyment is that there is some need to wish others. That's true. That's what union life is. That's what we're moving into. It's a radical basis. Not many of us want to say, well, I'm related to this union life.

Union Life and the Believer’s Participation in Christ

What we're saying is, you can't be a person who you're not to the Christ, without being a person to others. He's a nature. He's a nature. He's got to come out. And you may, as soon as you renounce your home, or you renounce your business, you've got it all back.

That's another. So it's a, it's what the world can't see. Because you get everything back. It's another. Then you've got the whole lot back. Because it's not for you. There's something in you which isn't at least you.

And you know it's not for you. And you know it. If it began to be so, you'll have to go, no, I'm not taking that. You take it. Imagine that. Now, that's the beginning of the third. Is this an experience of the unification period?

You said a minute ago, when I was writing for a national diary, you said this has been the second level. Is this death and the experience of I live, yet not I'm alive? And there's a cost to it. I suffer and also I don't like it.

It really hurts. That's a baby. It's an adolescent. And we look back now and tell others. We say, ah, that cost me something. We try to describe how it cost us in different ways. That's the value of our person, isn't it?

Oh, that cost me something. But thank God now. I know I said thank God. I do say thank God then. Thank God now. But that's only accepting me in. That's only putting me out. The meaning of the meaning of me in, of course, is it's costing me.

Now, this other has become the third. Because you are in this free person position, this is no longer home. You're interested in having a home for yourself. Have a nice hell of your life, but not yourself.

Not just that you're having more money. Have all your guests, but not yourself. You change right round. But paradoxically, if you can be a wealthy man or a wealthy new man or this, or OK, because you have a wink.

Thank you. The world may think it is. It isn't. A new drive got you. Now, in this new drive, there have been other forms of death. Now, this is another death. This is the death that Paul Covett is participating in.

He now said, I counted the dung. This thing is going to turn around in me. I want to like it. Now I may win Christ. Now my attitude has changed. My interest has changed. My interest has totally changed from making money, doing this, doing that, as an interest.

I may win Christ. Christ is the deity for others. The Holy Spirit is for others. I may win being Christ. Win means, be like. You won the prize. It is your prize now. Not now a prize of a person saying to you, that is out.

That stuff is gone. We always say, you are out of the position in which you are dependent upon God. You become a pro-God. He is your permanent God and all that stuff. That is out. That is why we don't order prayer and stuff.

That is out. Because that thing which has Paul's dependence in it, that is out. Now you are winning Christ. You won the prize. You won it now. The prize is Christ. Not what he gives you, himself. But Christ is a savior.

Christ is a savior. He is totally others. He is a deity. He would not be a deity to us if he was us. If I am not mistaken, he never gets it back again. If I am not mistaken, there is a sense in which the deity itself is unique.

It can't be understood. Because he can only understand by his opposites. There is no opposite deity. So the original one is the Father, Son, Spirit. We don't know. We don't know. This is the eternal original one.

Christ’s Self-Emptying and Servant Identity

When you come out, you can do something. You limit yourself. Come out to be other people. Limit yourself. Now it says that Jesus counted out robbery to be equal with God. And then it says, he made himself of no reputation.

In Greek, he emptied himself. Took himself as a former servant. Now, the former servant, that is the Philippian one. It is not serving us. It is general serving. Because he comes before he became a man.

It doesn't say he became a man to the point of being a former servant. Before he became a man. He made himself of no reputation. He counted out robbery to be equal with God. He was God. What is God? There is a certain unique sense in the eternal deity.

We don't know anything about that. Now he emptied himself. Made himself of no reputation, Philippians 2. And took himself as a former servant. That is his permanent form. And then he was made like to men.

So he was a servant before he was a man. So he took on his whole expression of God. His servant expression. In which he identified with those. So he compiled up that the Lord was a servant. With those whom he serves.

I am seeking to say. That something happened to Jesus. Before there was Jesus. When he was the word. And then became the son. The only Jesus on earth. That he fulfilled apparently the eternal purpose.

Which that he was forever to be man number one. I enjoyed a lot of things that Sonny was bringing into scriptures. He brought that yesterday. That man number two. The last Adam was the second man. And the first man is out.

The second man. The real man. Adam was the first man. That is the detail. But he became a man. Because forever. The deity is manifested. By his main agent. And the first main agent is his son. And so you get that thought in the scriptures.

There are little things set in. Don't you? With a great phrase. They have a great revelation in it. In that one little phrase. It is not set quite like anywhere else. Where it says. For there is one God.

And one mediator between God and man. The man Christ Jesus. So he is the risen person called the man. Not the crucified. Not the human person. He is the risen one. The mediator. The man Christ Jesus. One could equate the two things.

So of course he is the eternal man. Now I am only getting at all this. A little bit to show. The whole of his life therefore. Has a hidden basis of renunciation. I say hidden. Because if you take too much of renunciation.

Renunciation to us is a rather uncertain word. We don't easily see the glory of renunciation. The hidden basis of it. My man who went across to his son. He used to make little doggerel poems. He had one.

Take my life and let it be a hidden cross revealing thee. So it didn't cross up in the front. Take my life and let it be a hidden cross. A great deal mixed up in there. And revealing thee. So I am saying that Christ's promise has become that.

He was closer to the top man universe. And in that sense remains second to his son. To his father. Now that doesn't fit. Unless you make room for these things. It is said. He can't stop robbery till he is equal with God.

And yet in the final word used. Forgiveness. In 1 Corinthians 15. For he has put all things under his feet. He was lame. Jesus. And he has put all things under his feet. The last element to be destroyed is death.

For he has put all things under his feet. But when he says all things are put under him. It is manifest that he is accepted. Which means put all things under him. And when all things shall sit in due under him.

Then shall the son also himself be subject under him to put all things under him. That God may be all in all. So we are left with the equal son become a subject. That may be that. I am only trying to say something of the involvement.

In a life which is involved as other people live. This is the third order. And therefore I am saying winning Christ means that. Winning a person means you are now what that person is. That person is a saviour.

Not just a convenient saviour for me. He is the world saviour. That I may win Christ. And be found in him. Now he very beautifully preserves that it is all he. When he keeps off the law. He says it is not going to become this.

Be found in him. Not telling my own righteousness. Not telling this. I am telling myself. Which is in the law. Not back there. On that self-evident stuff. But that which is through the faith of Christ.

The righteousness which is God by faith. I am what I am in Christ. Because Christ is that. I am that. Now he is doing by becoming something. I am that because Christ is that. Therefore I am that. He very carefully preserves that right at the centre of the word here.

So he does not run back to the third. So now an arm must be used. He does not run back. So now an arm must get going. He very carefully preserves a preservation from law and law effort. To all being Christ.

Right in the heart of his third development. And that is why he says. I may win Christ. And be found in him. Not only my righteousness. I may know him. And the power of resurrection. So that is what we are always doing.

It is a permanent involvement. In fresh discovery. A fresh discovery. Who we are. What he is. How we operate. It is a great fresh discovery. Knowing him in that sense. Knowing him as being him. Not now trying to know him as saviour or lord or that.

Knowing him in his eternal purposes. Moving into what he said to the Father. That he may know him. That he is from the beginning. Is that right? Do you agree with me? And the power of resurrection. Now I am now going to learn how to operate.

By this wholly new power. Now it is all part of learning how to operate. This is just hopeless. We are talking how to see nothing. Except as expression of God. I am only learning. I learn a lot by learning.

That is why I am so keen to learn. Learning. This is the kind of thing that I am going to talk about. The power of resurrection. In every situation you move back into what he is. You move back from the first appearance.

We needn't discuss that here. We are operating on this faith level which is fact level. We think that is so. That is here. That is here. That is here. We are dropping the word faith out and replacing it by fact.

Fact level. That is it. That is what the first word of faith is. Because the word of faith is saying fact is a fact. We are all learning that obviously. Now that is part of this thing. Know him and begin to learn how.

Second Corinthians and the Suffering of the Intercessor

This spirit life is like a form. And the process of suffering. Now here is a new type of suffering. This is in the book form, the letter form, where 2nd Corinthians comes in. 2nd Corinthians is the opening up of the intercessor what he really needs to be an intercessor.

What is your attitude, your actions, what is the price you pay, the whole business is there. There is a great deal of suffering. A great deal of pressure. And Paul doesn't botch it. He comes up on the other side.

It is a letter of glory in suffering. A great deal of suffering, a great deal of glory. So his point in 2nd Corinthians is where it changes from glory to glory. It is a glory letter. But he doesn't botch the fact.

You are pressed for the Messiah. All that list of suffering he went through. Fighting without fear within. And earthen vessel, persecuted in opposition, perplexed and not in despair. Cast out but not destroyed.

Always dying by the way, the dying of the Lord Jesus. That is a life living. Dying means I am ceasing to see something. I am replacing my negative responses I must have. When something is costed, something is hurt.

To the cost of Christ in me. In my body shows it. Christ in me shows my body. I always pray about the body of the dying Lord Jesus. Christ in me manifests my flesh. Your body shows it. Shows the glory I mean.

Shows the victory. Always praying about the body, the dying of the Lord Jesus. He is talking about the body, the physical suffering now. The life also may be of Jesus in me manifests my body. For we live always delivered unto the death of Jesus Christ.

The life also of Jesus Christ manifests my mortal flesh. There is no death but there is life in you. Now that is the power of resurrection. That is the social suffering. Now that is what we are put into.

Intercession as a Commission in the Body of Christ

That is why we always say recognize that. This is an involved life. And that is our glory. That it will cost us. This is the intercessory right now. For the intercession, which is this third area, is the sense of commission.

We can go into that now. But we always say intercession means specific commission. This is what I am in. I accept this. It is my God by me operating out from me into others. And it is on that level we put in those promises.

Those two when Paul said, not I but Christ is in me. They said the same thing. It is mighty in me to acknowledge. I don't think the martyrs say. It is mighty because he is doing the job. It is in me because he is corresponding to others themselves.

So you have got to have it here. What happens there. And I am always saying, we always say that is a fact. Don't try and guess it. And they say it is a fact. That is happening to you. Don't ask how. That is God's business.

Don't look around. So this is the effect of God's work. It is so important. It is in me. It is mighty in me to acknowledge. And somehow that is happening. All I have got to say is it is happening. This is faith.

And we always look at that scripture. John said, if you believe, out of yourself, there is an attitude of faith, by which you got saved, which you know the union, you know the self, Take it. And operate on that level of faith.

Intercession, the Body, and Lifelong Redirection

How is that going to do with you? Now this is important. But it does involve, the next part of the mission, I do it by you. The body. The body. Interpersonal body. Personal spirit. Interpersonal body.

It is in the body. And that means in the outer, I have personal spirit. That is better. Somewhere, I don't know where, material resolve, as well as spiritually. I do it all by myself. I am self-objecting in my own mission now.

I say, well, it serves to the world. Retirement. I say there is no such thing as redirection. Cut the word out. It is not in any way to hurt people. When you, when you discuss with people, I talk to them all the time, they put a term limit, 65.

What is 65, I say? If you think that, we have, we used to have our own mission, but when first, first thing I learned in the mission, we had no solo period. If you do, you count on it. When you go out, say you have two more years, I am no longer at home.

Instead of being immersed for the next two years, for Africa, you are thinking, once I am home, I am going to go home. So don't say, I have a solo five years. No, you have. You have got that. And we do count it up to five years.

Because we are human. And we can't look at what you see. So if you have a retirement, oh, I am probably near 65 now. Well, you put a, and I am afraid, we have precious workers, who, I have some precious workers who we have done that in 15 years.

This is the retirement home, they are good people, and of course, they are my age now, but they are married, I am not. But we put a wrong connotation on, which I am trying to change now. So cut the word out, I put redirection.

That is just redirection. And maybe you can do it, 70 years later, it is not the sacrifice of Africa. Maybe, that is what you do. So, don't retire, do the redirection. So we don't know that, do we? So we don't know that.

All our lives now, there has been a permanent redirection. That is the person who suffers. And so it goes on. And that doesn't mean, I don't know, for years, I don't, we have to still do it. You should, at a certain time, in the, in the, in the US, I mean, say, now, you know, it is true, what we need for the next one, a permanent redirection from the dead.

I don't, I don't define this today as, nothing more, nothing less. It doesn't go as far as we all are, because we already have the original redirection. It is just an observation. So, when it came into that field, I think there is a, to me, there is a certain element in the truth of the Bible, that, there are those, the Bible talks about, there are those who are the overcomers, who came, there is a certain element, where a lot has already been, uprooted for God.

Resurrection Realized and the High Calling

I think it must be that. So, when you have that, I have the word realize, resurrection, health, there is a realization that goes down. Surely we have been resurrected, but many do not realize it. Well, I, I, I agree.

So, if somebody, somebody said about, there is a greater and greater realization, that the kingdom of heaven has come, and we stop looking to the hills, for what comes as our health, And we all look forward to Maranatha to realize that...

Now, the other thing, I won't talk about that stuff now, is that it takes away from the power of this message, of the development, from cutting down to winning him, to power, resurrection power, suffering, death, there's something more in it than I've got.

I'm sure something's there. He's off to tell me it. Doesn't matter, we need it. Back to the original... That pressure I'm on now, not that I've already attained, or I'm already perfect. I'm not perfect as a soldier.

My perfection is quite good in my life, quite rightly. As a soldier, I have to be perfect for years. As far as I'm concerned, that's what I've got to tell you. Of course, there's to be a resurrection, so on.

The pressure of the mouth, the tongue. The high calling of God to do that, is resurrection. Yes, yes, the high calling of God. And the highest calling is to be a soldier, we know. Towards the mouth of the tribe.