For those who are in Christ, our suffering and loss become the very means of knowing him more, being kept by him, and ultimately, attaining to the resurrection from the dead. Our suffering becomes the very means by which we attain the deepest and most lasting joy.

Our Greatest Joy and Our Union with Christ

If we ask what is distinct about the theology of Philippians, on one very important level, the answer is: nothing. The theology of Philippians is the same Christ-centered, God-glorifying theology that fills all of Paul’s letters, the NT, and the whole Bible. Having said that, however, we can identify a few key themes that take a prominent place in the letter.

To begin, some might point to the distinctive place that joy plays in the theology of Philippians. Philippians is sometimes even called the “epistle of joy.” While it is certainly true that this is an important theme in Philippians, this is not the only place in Paul’s letters where we see this emphasis (cf., for example, 1 Thess. 5:16; Gal. 5:22; Col. 1:24). However, in Philippians, there is a clear link between the suffering of Christ, our union with him, and the deep joy that results from this.

The famous hymn recounting the humiliation of Christ in Philippians 2 provides us with one of the clearest pictures of both Christ’s humiliation and exaltation in the NT. Christ, who was and is equal to God, added a human nature (without losing any part of his deity) and became obedient to death on the cross. His suffering is both an example to us and the foundation and ground of our salvation. Because Christ has suffered, everyone who is united with him joins in both his sorrow and his joy. Or, put a different way, the risen Jesus joins us in both our sorrow and our joy because we are truly united to him.

In his Institutes, Calvin reminds us that union with Christ is at the center of salvation:

That joining of Head and members, that indwelling of Christ in our hearts—in short, that mystical union—are accorded by us the highest degree of importance, so that Christ, having been made ours, makes us sharers with him in the gifts with which he has been endowed. We do not, therefore, contemplate him outside ourselves from afar in order that his righteousness may be imputed to us but because we put on Christ and are engrafted into his body—in short, because he deigns to make us one with him. For this reason, we glory that we have fellowship of righteousness with him.¹

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