From weakness to glory series—Week 9: ‘Spiritual sight’.

One of the first questions people often ask to break the ice in social settings is “What do you do?”

The story goes that at one party people were introducing themselves to each other, taking an interest in their respective occupations. One worked as a graphic designer in a marketing team, and another as a maths teacher to senior school students. A third was employed in industrial fabrication. A fourth had worked internationally in the hospitality industry. The conversation flourished, as each became intrigued with the experiences shared. Noticing that one person in the group hadn’t yet shared their profession, the others asked what he did.

“Oh,” the man said with a nervous smile, “I work for the local council.”

“Planning and infrastructure?” one of the others enquired. The man shook his head.

“Community services delivery?” another asked.

“Ah…no…” he responded, with an awkward pause. “I’m a parking inspector.” And with that the others in the group made a hasty beeline for the bar.

So much of our personal identity—and therefore our approval or disapproval—is bound up in one’s occupation and achievements. A close second is our ethnicity and family heritage.

In today’s reading from Philippians, Paul cited these things as shaping his identity too. He pointed to his nationality as an Israelite—a Hebrew of Hebrews—and his family ethnicity: he is from the tribe of Benjamin, the tribe of Israel’s first King, Saul (1 Samuel 9). He is also from a devoutly religious family, verified by the ritual of circumcision for boys eight days old, and although not mentioned here, was originally named ‘Saul’ after King Saul. His identity was also shaped by his participation in the religious life of the Pharisees, a Jewish religious sect who were seen as the moral gatekeepers of the community by meticulously upholding rabbinical tradition and interpretation of the Old Testament scriptures. And he identified with what he did: he was dedicated in following the ethos of the Pharisees’ worldview perfectly. In terms of human efforts to be righteous, he was faultless. He was so zealous that he persecuted the church. You might remember from Acts 7 that Stephen was cast out of the city and stoned for the message of repentance he challenged the religious leaders with, and Saul approved of his execution.

But there seems to be one glaring omission from Saul’s identity: he had not seen himself as God saw him. He had not mentioned his being uniquely created in God’s image, knitted together in his mother’s womb (Psalm 139) with even every single hair on his hair numbered (Matthew 10:30). He had not noted how he fitted into God’s plan of redemption, or any thought of God’s love for him, quite apart from how righteous he strived to be, and the religious identity which he built for himself.

This all changed when God brought Saul to an identity crisis. In the book of Acts we hear how Saul had gone to Damascus hoping to arrest Christians and bring them to Jerusalem: “Now as he went on his way, he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven shone around him. And falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” And he said, “Who are you, Lord?” And he said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.” The men who were traveling with Saul stood speechless, hearing the voice but seeing no one. Saul rose from the ground, and although his eyes were opened, he saw nothing for three days.” (Acts 9:1-8).

In this series we’ve heard that unless the Holy Spirit comes to us, our eyes are open yet we effectively see nothing. We cannot have spiritual sight to see who Jesus is. We can’t truly see ourselves and how deeply we need Jesus. We can’t see God’s ways and will for our life or God at work in the world. Without the Holy Spirit, we walk by sight, not by faith in what we can’t see.

Jesus sent a man named Ananias to lay his hands on Saul and restore his sight. And immediately something like scales fell from Sauls’ eyes, and he regained his sight (Acts 9:17-18). Paul not only regained his physical sight. He gained spiritual sight—sight from the Holy Spirit—for the first time.

Faith is more than believing some things about God. Faith is also experienced. It comes from an encounter. In some church circles we can be suspicious of spiritual experiences—but in fact, an encounter with God—a spiritual experience—must come first. For no one can come to faith unless the Holy Spirit first brings a person to have an encounter with Christ, like Saul in Damascus—in what God wills to be the start of a completely new life.

After God took the initiative to come to Saul and reveal himself to him, Saul not only saw Jesus but he also saw who he really was himself. He saw with spiritual eyes how the things he had prioritised and sought after were totally out of alignment with God’s will. He saw how he had misplaced his trust in his own effort and striving. He saw how he needed to completely change the course of his life—in fact, how it was God who had completely changed the course of his life. God had met him at the crossroads of his life and given him faith—a new life with a new identity: Paul. As Spirit-filled Paul, he was able to see that the old Saul had to die. He saw who he really was, and all people are, as people loved by God and redeemed in Christ.

In today’s reading we hear how Paul testifies that his faith and life in Christ is his new identity. It shapes everything about him. Paul talks about knowing Christ—note he doesn’t say “knowing about Christ” but “knowing Christ.” He confesses that knowing Christ personally is far more important and valuable than any human genealogy, geographical allegiance and religious status and achievement in a religious community:

But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. (Philippians 3:9-11).

Knowing things about Christ would involve only our intellect. But knowing Christ is the experienced reality of the Christian life. Paul can now really see, with a completely different view on life, because he has a completely different relationship to God—indeed, he has a personal relationship with God. Rather than continuing to persecute Jesus, Paul now reveres Jesus as Lord of his life. Paul has deposed himself as the architect of his future and confesses: What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord” (verse 8).

Now it is not his nationality and family of origin which define Paul’s identity, but his heavenly homeland in which he has citizenship together with all fellow believers. It is Christ, and Christ alone who reached out to Paul, and made Paul his own as a brother and fellow heir with him. This now defines Paul’s identity, an identity which comes from God and is clung on to with the spiritual sight of faith. Paul no longer speaks of his own efforts and achievements, but in what Christ has done by his death and mighty resurrection, and his great rescue of Paul from the emptiness of human religious rituals in trying to attain righteousness: “I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.” (Philippians 3:10-11).

Seeing who he really is in Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit, Paul is free to let go of everything he previously trusted in for approval, status, worth and identity. That is something else that so often defines who we are—our past. Our past failings and mistakes, our past hurts and losses. Our past shame, which we keep stuffing down to the bottom of our secret vault, which would horrify us if it were ever unlocked in public. What Paul once thought was righteousness in God’s sight was actually evil, but God had graciously freed Paul from his past, to bag those things up and throw them in the bin. His goal was now no longer persecuting others who didn’t measure up to a human legalistic framework that Paul himself once embraced. Now his purpose and goal is to share in Christ’s sufferings, becoming like Jesus in his death (in other words, dying to himself) so as to attain Jesus’ resurrection—a resurrection that can only come by trusting in Jesus’ works; a resurrection that human traditions and rules are powerless to give.

Paul says he presses onwards toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called him heavenward in Christ Jesus. This is the life of worship of the Christian—“serving God by his Spirit”—as Paul calls it in today’s text. The person who serves God by his Spirit boasts in Christ Jesus, and puts no confidence in the flesh. To see by the Spirit is to see the things which cannot be seen with human sight. It is to see Jesus has taken hold of us with the same divine grace which he bestowed upon those in the gospels. It is to see Christ’s righteousness alone as our righteousness. To see with spiritual eyes is to see Jesus as Lord, Lord of our crumbling and conflicted world, and Lord of our hearts, so that whatever puny empires we seek to build for ourselves must be surrendered to him. For that which we work so hard for on earth is not our true home, for that is in heaven where we are raised and seated with Christ, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal (Matthew 6:20).

To see with spiritual eyes is to see that nothing occurs by chance or coincidence, but behind all we see God is unfolding his plan and purposes for our life. As we search through the scriptures, we see there the divine will and purpose for our life: you were chosen by God before he even created the world, to be conformed to the image of his Son, to know the power of his resurrection and participate in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and attaining to the resurrection from the dead.

Since our righteousness is through faith in Christ, we therefore see clearly that we are already pleasing to our Father in heaven for Christ’s sake, and so nothing throughout all the storms of life can separate us from the Father’s great love for us in Christ Jesus our Lord—neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation. It is to see that God leaves nothing to chance but works all things together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28; 38-39). It is to see that we will never be abandoned by God who is not far away from us but with us always in the person of Christ, and by his Spirit who has made his home in us, so we therefore do not need to be anxious and worried about tomorrow, which we cannot yet see.

Dear brothers and sisters, although Jesus is concealed from human sight, you have encountered him. You have encountered Jesus in the waters of baptism where he took hold of you. You have encountered Jesus who clothes himself in the pages of his word. You have encountered Jesus every time you have accepted his invitation to recline with him at his holy table. In all these ways your Father in Heaven has poured out his Holy Spirit upon you so that you can see more and more who you really are and how immeasurable God’s vast love for you is. So keep on seeking first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness by keeping your eyes fixed on Jesus. Keep on searching for his will for your life to be revealed to you in his holy word, so that forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, you might press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called you heavenward in Christ Jesus. Amen.

Pastor Tim Ebbs

St Paul’s Lutheran Church, Glenelg

Time after Pentecost, 2026

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION

“To see with spiritual eyes is to see that nothing occurs by chance or coincidence, but behind all we see God is unfolding his plan and purposes for our life.”

 

1. What things did Paul once consider valuable according to Philippians 3:4-6?

 

1. What does Paul now count as loss compared to knowing Christ? (vv. 7-8)

 

1. How did Paul’s spiritual vision change after encountering Christ?

 

1. Why might spiritual eyes view worldly achievements differently than natural eyes?

 

1. What does it mean to “know Christ” beyond simply knowing facts about him?

 

1. How does focusing on the resurrection help believers see life differently?

 

1. Why is forgetting what is behind and pressing forward important for spiritual growth?

 

1. How can earthly things distract us from seeing God’s eternal purposes?

 

1. What accomplishments, possessions, or titles might we be tempted to value more than Christ?

 

1. What past failures or successes might keep you from moving forward spiritually?

 

11. How can w develop spiritual eyes that see people and circumstances the way God sees them?

 

1. In what area of your life might you need a more eternal perspective?

 

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