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As we get started this morning it is important to recognize that we are skipping a section of Paul’s letter.
I say it’s important because I do not believe that there is anything in scripture by accident.
I hope that you will still read it.
The end of chapter 2 represents Paul’s love for the church at Philippi and his desire that they be encouraged.
In chapter 3, where we will be today, Paul enters a discussion of some of the most profound themes of New Testament theology.
I mean that seriously.
Before we tackle these themes, let’s pray.
PRAYER
Let’s look at our text for this morning.
If you have your own Bibles, I always encourage people to bring their own Bibles so that you can feel free to mark notes in the margins or even write questions there.
Even in the early church they dealt with issues that took them away from the heart of God’s message.
It is our tendency as fallen creatures to pretend.
We want people to think we’re perfect even though we know, and we know that they know, we are far from it.
In reading our passage today we need to recognize the early church came from the Jews.
It started with Jesus of course, and the 12 apostles all of whom were jewish.
So it is no wonder why they would consider that circumcision would be required as a part of “becoming” part of God’s people.
We often get caught up in appearances.
In the Old Testament we read:
Throughout the Bible, God reminds us that he is looking at our heart, not any physical characteristic.
The Philippian church was not made up of jews, but of gentiles.
It was the Judaizers, those that wanted new converts to look like them, that were forcing circumcision upon them and making them “take confidence in the flesh.”
It is the presence of the Holy Spirit that is the irrefutable proof that they are members of God’s people.
Paul reminds the church that there are three characteristics people of God exhibit:
Phil
“…worship by the Spirit of God...”
“…glory in Christ Jesus...”
“…put no confidence in the flesh...”
All those outward things get us caught up in the doing of the Law.
What we too often forget and what the Jews and now the early church was forgetting was that the Law was written for man, man was not created for the Law.
The Law was written not as the main thing.
It was to point us toward God.
It was meant to set up boundaries so that we could find our way to God again.
In the fall - way back in Genesis - we lost sight of God because we’d become gods unto ourselves.
We wanted to determine right from wrong.
We wanted to make our OWN decisions.
Doesn’t that sound like every child you ever met?
After the Fall what is evident throughout the Old Testament, is our inability to follow God on our own will.
So we get caught up in the works aspect of the relationship.
We get caught up in the “circumcision” the physical aspects of being a Christian.
But those acts are not our righteousness.
Those outward signs do not signify our relationship with God.
I have known non-Christians, even anti-Christians that knew their Bible’s far better than I did.
I love what Paul does next.
He’s like, okay, you want to go toe to toe with someone that’s done the righteous thing?
Here we go.
Look at what he writes in the next few verses:
And then the pedigree comes out:
If you want to be a law keeper, look at me.
I did it.
I kept the law.
I was blameless under the law and you know what it added up to?
Nothing, nada, bupkis.
It was merely a beating of the air.
Because the law is powerless.
It’s not the Law that saves us, it’s Christ.
You can be polite,
be charitable,
be honest,
feed the hungry,
be kind to everyone you meet,
help the poor,
shelter the homeless,
give to every charity,
go to church every Sunday,
teach Sunday School,
preach,
but if you have not Christ...
…it’s bupkis!
Paul writes to the Philippians and to us:
Paul has lost everything...
not really, but he counts them as loss,
WHY? vs. 8
“because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.”
And the verse continues, doesn’t it?
“For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish...”
The word that is used there for “rubbish” can be translated “dung”.
It’s total and utter waste.
And for what purpose would Paul consider all of these righteous things he’d done and the loss of all things rubbish?
“…in order that I may gain Christ...”
That which is of supreme importance.
He continues in the remainder of our passage.
“and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own.”
Since it’s Reformation Sunday, I would be remiss for not bringing some statement from the one credited with starting that great change in our world.
Martin Luther struggled with the very thing that Paul is referring to in our passage today.
In his reading of
Luther remarked, “I hated that word, ‘the righteousness of God,’ by which I had been taught according to the custom and use of all teachers … [that] God is righteous and punishes the unrighteous sinner.”
The young Luther could not live by faith because he was not righteous—and he knew it
it had to do with “doing” all the right things, something he knew he was incapable of doing.
He knew he was a sinner like everyone else.
Then it dawned on him the verse was not about righteousness, but about faith!
The word that stood out to him was that word “righteousness of God” and to him for so long it had to do with “doing” all the right things, something he knew he was incapable of doing.
He knew he was a sinner like everyone else.
Then it dawned on him the verse was not about righteousness, but about faith!
it had to do with “doing” all the right things, something he knew he was incapable of doing.
He knew he was a sinner like everyone else.
Then it dawned on him the verse was not about righteousness, but about faith!
You see this quote on the front of our bulletins:
“At last meditating day and night, by the mercy of God, I … began to understand that the righteousness of God is that through which the righteous live by a gift of God, namely by faith.…
Here I felt as if I were entirely born again and had entered paradise itself through the gates that p 35 had been flung open.”
And the end of our passage, Paul points us to the eternity we all hope for:
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