Philippians Sermon Notes Week 7
Big Idea
Themes: Knowing Christ
Verses
Phil 3:8
“More than that”
“I also consider everything to be a loss”
Paul not only regards his personal heritage and achievements as loss for the sake of Christ. Now he considers ‘everything’ (πάντα) on which he might place his fleshly confidence to be positively harmful. He does not spell out in detail what he has in mind, but πάντα might include his Roman citizenship, material possessions, or an assured position in the world—in fact, anything in which he was tempted to trust and which therefore stood over against the personal knowledge of Christ.
“knowing Christ Jesus”
But Paul’s understanding of γνῶσις here is controlled by OT ideas of knowledge, on the one hand of God’s knowledge, that is, his election of his people (Ex. 33:12, 17; Am. 3:2), and on the other hand of his people’s knowledge of him as a loving and obedient response to his grace (cf. Je. 31:34).
In the OT knowledge signifies ‘living in a close relationship with something or somebody, such a relationship as to cause what may be called communion’. To know God was regarded as of paramount importance (Ho. 6:6; cf. 4:1, 6) and meant to be in a close personal relationship with him.
Here at Phil. 3:8 Paul is speaking about ‘his own personal relationship with Christ’, something that is absolutely basic and fundamental to his being a Christian. It ‘includes the experience of being loved by him and loving him in return’
but he clearly emphasizes that it is ‘the only knowledge worth having, a knowledge so transcendent in value that it compensates for the loss of everything else’.
“my lord”
‘Here and here alone in his writings do we find the intensely personal Christ Jesus my Lord; and it would be a dull reader indeed who did not mark the warm and deep devotion which breathes through every phrase’.
In the Philippian hymn Jesus has already been set forth as ‘the Lordly Example’ for the readers (2:6–11), and Paul has asserted that God has highly exalted him and graciously given him his own name, that is, κύριος in its most sublime sense, the personal name of Yahweh
Rather, the wonder of this knowledge of Christ Jesus as his Lord is so great and the relationship is so intensely personal that he focusses upon it in his testimony.
“dung” σκύβαλον
(1) ‘dung, muck’ both as excrement and food gone bad,
the two notions of worthlessness and filth are present in σκύβαλα.
Although the apostle’s language is stark, it is inappropriate to weaken its meaning because of embarrassment, as some of the early Church Fathers did:
“gain christ”
‘Gaining Christ’ is best understood in terms of a relationship with Christ as Lord, and thus is akin to the personal knowledge of Christ already referred to in the expression γνῶσις Χριστοῦ Ἰησοῦ. To gain Christ and to know him are then ‘two ways of expressing the same ambition’. The apostle came to know Christ when he was converted. He desires to know Christ more, for he wants this personal relationship with his Lord to deepen. Similarly it could be said that Paul had already gained Christ on the Damascus road. His ambition is to gain Christ perfectly, a goal that will be fully realized only at the end.
Phil 3:9
The long sentence of vv. 8–11 has thus used parallel and overlapping expressions to refer to Paul’s ultimate aims: he desires to know Christ fully, to gain him completely, and to be found in him perfectly, final goals that are before him day by day
Accordingly, the three expressions ἵνα Χριστόν κερδήσω (v. 8), εὑρεθῶ ἐν αὐτῷ (v. 9), and τοῦ γνῶναι αὐτόν (v. 10) are regarded as parallel and overlapping expressions of Paul’s ultimate aims, that is, he desires to gain Christ completely, to be found in him perfectly, or to know him fully.
“be found in him”
to be found in Christ’ really means ‘to be in him’ (cf. Phil. 2:7).
“not my rightesouness but his”
God “imputes” Christ’s lifelong record of perfect obedience to the person who trusts in him for salvation; that is, he thinks of Christ’s obedience as belonging to that person, and therefore that person stands before God not as “guilty” but as “righteous.”
The righteousness to which Paul no longer aspires is described as ἐμὴν δικαιοσύνην τὴν ἐκ νόμου (‘my own righteousness, which comes from the law’)
It is not simply the righteousness that he possesses but that which he has acquired
In sharp and decisive contrast (ἀλλά) a different kind of righteousness is what Paul will have as one who is perfectly found in Christ when he stands before God’s tribunal. This righteousness is different as to its origin (ἐκ θεοῦ), its basis or ground (διὰ πίστεως Χριστοῦ), and the means by which it is received (ἐπὶ τῇ πίστει).
In fact, it is quite distinct, and the apostle is using δικαιοσύνη in two different senses here in this one verse. The earlier reference to δικαιοσύνη described Paul’s own moral achievement, gained by obeying the law and intended to establish a claim upon God, especially in relation to the final judgment; it clearly had ethical connotations. The second kind of δικαιοσύνη, that which comes from God, is not some higher kind of moral achievement but is a relational term, denoting basically a right relationship with God. It has to do with ‘the status of being in the right’ and thus of being acceptable to him. The righteousness that comes from God is God’s way of putting people right with himself (cf. Rom. 3:21).
ἐκ θεοῦ indicates that the source of this righteousness is God himself. It stands in sharp contrast to ἐκ νόμου: Paul viewed the two as mutually exclusive. He recognized that this right relationship with God in Christ, both for himself and for others, was all of grace.
Phil 3:10
The goal of trusting in Christ is to know him, that is, to know Christ in a personal relationship, and also to know the power of his resurrection—namely, the power Christ exerts now from the right hand of God. But this power is made known as the believer shares the same kind of sufferings Jesus faced—the sufferings that attend faithful witness in a fallen world. The good news is that those who suffer with and for Christ will attain the resurrection from the dead, even as he did.
As Paul participates in Christ’s sufferings, the tribulations through which every Christian must pass, so he desires to understand and experience the life-giving power of God, that power which he manifested in raising Christ from the dead, and which he now displays in the new life the Christian receives from the risen Christ and shares with him. Paul enters into a deeper personal relationship with his Lord and thus becomes more like him each day, being continually conformed to Christ’s death. This is part of his dying-and-rising-with-Christ teaching, which refers initially to Paul himself but which also applies to all believers.
“to know him”
Here, too, γνῶναι, which draws attention to a participation in Christ, has to do with the response of the whole person; it ought not to be thought of in purely intellectual terms (though, of course, there is an intellectual dimension to it). Perhaps a paraphrase such as ‘understanding and experience’ brings out the nuances of Paul’s statement.
This, then, gives the content of Paul’s deep desire, i.e., to come to know Christ in a life-shaping way.
“the power…and fellowship”
As indicated, to ‘know’ Christ is explained more fully in the immediately following words (the καί is epexegetical), that is, knowing the power (δύναμιν) of his resurrection and the fellowship (κοινωνίαν) of his sufferings. Together τὴν δύναμιν τῆς ἀναστάσεως αὐτοῦ and κοινωνίαν παθημάτων αὐτοῦ form a single unit:
In this verse two ideas complement each other: the power of Christ’s resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings. They provide a theological foundation for Paul’s thought, as well as a model for Christian growth.
It is the power of his resurrection, known and experienced ‘in and under the concrete “participation of his sufferings” ’, that is in view.
“the power of his resurrection”
The most likely suggestion, however, is that by drawing attention first of all to the power of Christ’s resurrection the focus falls upon the strength and motivation for suffering. Fellowship in suffering, the ability to endure suffering for Christ’s sake, becomes possible and rich in meaning because of the power of his resurrection.
to focus attention on the might that God exercised when he raised Christ from the dead and by which he now works in and through the lives of his apostle and people (cf. ‘This power working in us is the same as the mighty strength that he [God] used when he raised Christ from the dead’, Eph. 1:19–20).
Accordingly, the knowledge that Paul seeks to obtain, by which he and by implication other Christians are transformed as they pass through sufferings, is this comprehensive δύναμις.
“The fellowship of his sufferings”
To what does the expression refer, and in what sense can Paul know the fellowship of these sufferings? πάθημα, meaning ‘suffering, affliction’ or ‘misfortune’, was used from the time of the Greek tragedies onwards to denote that which befell a person and had to be accepted by him.
Paul uses the word to designate the afflictions in which all Christians participate as part of the sufferings of Christ.
All Christians participate in these sufferings; through them they enter the kingdom of God (Acts 14:22; cf. 1 Thes. 3:3, 7). Suffering with Christ is a necessary prerequisite to being glorified with him (Rom. 8:17). But none of these afflictions is able to separate the believer from the love of God in Christ (Rom. 8:38–39). They ultimately lead to hope and glory (Rom. 5:3), and the assurance is given that the sufferings of this present time (Rom. 8:18) are not worth comparing with the glory to be revealed. Such afflictions may include physical sufferings such as imprisonment, floggings, beatings, hardships, and privations of different kinds (2 Cor. 11:23–28) as well as mental anguish (2 Cor. 1:4–11, esp. v. 8; 11:28).
As Paul participates in Christ’s sufferings, the tribulations through which every Christian must pass, so he desires to understand and experience God’s power that was manifested in Christ’s resurrection.
“conformed to his death”
Accordingly, we conclude that συμμορφιζόμενος κτλ. qualifies all of the preceding words of v. 10, not simply κοινωνίαν παθημάτων αὐτοῦ. This makes better sense: it is not in the fellowship of Christ’s sufferings as such that Paul is conformed to Christ’s death; rather, it is by participating in those sufferings (which he experiences in the course of his apostolic labours) and as strengthened to do so in the power of his resurrection that he is continually being conformed to Christ’s death.
Although Paul’s words in Phil. 3:10–11 and, for example, 2 Cor. 4:10–18, have primary reference to the apostle himself, what he says in both places applies to all believers, as indeed does his teaching on dying and rising with Christ generally. Thus S. Kim is correct when he concludes: ‘the life of discipleship, which involves our participation in Christ’s sufferings and our being conformed to his death, is paradoxically the process in which we are being transformed into the image of Christ from one degree of glory to another (2 Cor 3:18) and in which the resurrection life of Jesus is being manifested in our mortal bodies (2 Cor 4:10f.; Phil 3:10).’
Transforming Power
Resurrection power has two phases. First, at conversion believers experience the power of a spiritual resurrection. They are given new life. A new spiritual energy characterizes the new life in Christ. Yet this powerful life only begins at conversion.
Successively and progressively the moral life must be changed, the physical body ultimately transformed, and believers brought to the eternal resting place of resurrection, heaven itself. The transformation does not happen at once. It culminates in the attaining of the resurrection from the dead.
Paul also spoke of his identification with Christ’s death. Being united with Christ in his death was a spiritual reality, but being conformed to his death was the daily process of living. Again Rom 6:11 provides the theological parallel.
The task of the Christian is, in part, to realize that the nature of salvation is a death. By constantly choosing that death to sin and self, a conformity to Jesus’ death occurs. Jesus completely died to self and became a sacrifice for others.
Paul describes the second result of gaining Christ in verses 10–11. It means that Paul’s life will take the shape of Christ’s death and resurrection. When Paul describes his own life elsewhere as taking the shape of Christ’s death, he refers primarily to the suffering he endured as a result of his call to preach the gospel to the Gentiles (2 Cor. 4:7–12; 6:4–10; 11:23–29; 12:10). That suffering included the physical dangers encountered during his missionary travels (2 Cor. 6:4–5; 11:23–27), the theological perils of holding at bay the ferocious wolves who were attempting to undermine the infant faith of his churches (2 Cor. 11:26), and the emotional turmoil to which the immature within those churches subjected their father in the faith (2 Cor. 2:1–4; 11:29; cf. Gal. 4:19). Just as Christ’s death was the means through which God worked the miracle of the resurrection, so Paul’s own suffering in faithfulness to his calling is the means through which God is bringing spiritual life to the congregations of believers he has been establishing (2 Cor. 4:7–11; cf. Col. 1:24). As a result, Paul tells the Corinthians, “death is at work in us, but life is at work in you” (2 Cor. 4:12).
Relational Atonement
The atonement does not only mean that when God looks at us he sees Christ, and it does not only mean that an exchange has taken place between our guilt and Christ’s innocence. It means that God acknowledges us to be innocent and, like the father in the parable of the prodigal son, runs to embrace us (Luke 15:11–32).
Problems arise, however, when we limit the term know to this relational meaning. To know God in the biblical sense is also to be aware of his will and to be willing to obey him. Paul’s union with Christ’s death, therefore, involved a costly obedience to the commission God had given him to establish and shepherd predominantly Gentile churches (2 Cor. 4:7–12; cf. Rom. 15:17–19; 1 Cor. 9:16–17; Col. 1:24–29).
For Paul …”flesh” means the highest righteousness, wisdom, worship, religion, understanding, and will of which the world is capable. Therefore the monk is not justified by his order, nor the priest by the Mass and the canonical hours, nor the philosopher by wisdom, nor the theologian by theology, nor the Turk by the Koran, nor the Jew by Moses. In other words, no matter how wise and righteous men may be according to reason and the divine Law, yet with all their works, merits, Masses, righteousnesses, and acts of worship they are not justified.
Words
“i have considered” - ἡγέομαι
The perfect tense ἥγημαι (‘I have considered’; the present ἡγέομαι appears twice in v. 8) brings out the present significance of Paul’s past change of attitude.
loss - ζημία
But now the apostle viewed them not simply as indifferent or unimportant, but as positively harmful.
“because of Christ”
ἀλλὰ καί occurred in classical literature on occasion in a progressive sense to introduce an additional point in a forceful way (= ‘yes, indeed’; note the close parallel at 1:18)