From J. C. Philpot's Daily Portions
October 15 "That I may win Christ." Philippians 3:8 What is it to "win Christ?" It is to have him sweetly
embraced in the arms of our faith. It is to feel him manifesting his
heavenly glory in our souls. It is to have the application of his atoning
blood, in all its purging efficacy, to our conscience. It is to feel our
heart melted and swooning with the sweet ravishments of his dying love, shed
abroad even to overpowering. This is winning Christ. Now, before we can thus
win Christ, we must have a view of Christ, we must behold his glory, "the
glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." We
must see the matchless dignity of his glorious Person, the atoning efficacy
of his propitiating blood, the length and breadth, the depth and height of
his surpassing love. We must have our heart ready to burst with pantings,
longings, and ardent desires that this blessed Immanuel would come down from
the heaven of heavens in which he dwells beyond the veil, into our heart,
and shed abroad his precious dying love there. Now, is not this your feeling, child of God? It has been
mine over and over again. Is it not your feeling as you lie upon your bed,
sometimes, with sweet and earnest pantings after the Lord of life and glory?
As you walk by the way, as you are engaged in your daily business, as you
are secretly musing and meditating, are there not often the goings forth of
these longings and breathings into the very bosom of the Lord? But you
cannot have this, unless you have seen him by the eye of an enlightened
understanding, by the eye of faith, and had a taste of his beauty, a glimpse
of his glory, and a discovery of his eternal preciousness. You must have had
this gleaming upon your eyes, as the beams of light gleam through the
windows. You must have had it dancing into your heart, as the rays of the
sun dance upon the waves of the sea. You must have had a sweet incoming of
the shinings of eternal light upon your soul, melting it, and breaking it
down at his footstool, as the early dawn pierces through the clouds of
night. When you have seen and felt this you break forth--'O that I might win
Christ!' Like the ardent lover who longs to win his bride, you long to enjoy
his love and presence shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Spirit.