Chapters 16, 17, and 18 in Motyer
One of the key questions used in Evangelism Explosion to clarify a person’s position with regard to the Gospel is “If you were to die tonight and God asked you why He should let you into heaven then what would you say?” If someone answers “Nothing but the blood of Jesus” then they may have an understanding of Grace. If someone answers, “Because I’ve been a pretty good person all my life and God grades on a curve” then they probably don’t understand the Grace by which we are saved. As the set of Laws given in Old Testament scripture came to an end as a means of obtaining righteousness then those who had always relied on them had a major hurdle to overcome in the Gospel. The Apostle Paul probably had the highest hurdle of anyone but the Holy Spirit radically changed his concept of where righteousness came from and why God should accept him.
Philippians 3:4-6 though I myself have reasons for such confidence. If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless.
Paul was in the perfect position to be confident in his ability to work his way to heaven. He had ritual (circumcision), race (Israel), rank (Benjamin), tradition (Hebrew of Hebrews), religion (Pharisee), sincerity (zeal), and legalistic righteousness (obeyed the law). Consequently, you could say he was the least likely to abandon a righteousness made by his own hands and to accept salvation by Grace alone through Faith alone in Christ alone to the Glory of God alone.
Since birth Paul had labored to under the covenant that was given at Mount Sinai. He mentions the “People of Israel” because under that covenant God made promises to the nation of Israel. It was an “if then” arrangement that was dependent on the obedience of the nation and Paul could argue that he was faultless as far as a legalistic righteousness could take him. Of course that still meant that he was a sinner.
We have folks in this day and age that consider church membership and adopting a particular life style to be means of acquiring righteousness. Anytime you want to be righteousness then you had better figure out what God says because anything else is of academic interest at best. The moral law still is something that we as God’s children should obey. In fact, Jesus makes it clear that simply physical obedience is not sufficient and that we need both physical obedience and a deep heart obedience. That is a staggering standard and would be crushing were it not for God’s provision of the Holy Spirit to be the One Called Alongside to aid us. We have our righteousness settled before God by the work of Jesus in which our sins are forgiven and we wear the imputed righteousness of Christ. Then we live our out lives learning to be obedient to God in both our actions and attitudes.
Philippians 3:7-9 But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, 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 and is by faith.
How do you respond to Grace? Paul treasured it above everything else because he realized that this finished work was something that set him free from the law of sin and death. Think of all the “water under the bridge” when Paul says “the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.” Think of all the preaching, danger, hunger, cold, imprisonment, and beatings. Paul’s losses were not always voluntary but he wanted Christ above all else.
The law was good. The law was not a bad thing; however, because of our sinful nature it condemns us all as sinners. On the other hand the covenant given on Mt. Sinai was temporary. Christ’s work on the Cross was the end of the Law for righteousness sake. Paul labors this point in Romans (and in other places as well) and he stresses that we now have the promise fulfilled that was given to Abraham. As Christians we are the children of Abraham. We are wild branches grafted into the True Vine. We are living examples of all nations being blessed through Abraham. We are the children of the promise. We are the Children of Israel. We expect to see an outpouring of the Holy Spirit someday in the physical land of Israel. At that time we expect to see many of Jewish descent come to a saving knowledge of Christ but right now we are the Seed of Abraham.
Paul knew that there was no parallel salvation through the law. Paul knew that righteousness based on Faith predated the Law. He goes to great pains to explain that in the book of Romans. All have sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God but God has made a way. We have the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith or … we have nothing but filthy rags. It is one or the other and we don’t want to (when we are thinking clearly) contaminate the righteousness that comes by faith with a vain attempt at righteousness in the flesh. How might we do that? When we count ourselves righteous because of our good works we have sinned. We have something to ask God’s forgiveness for and to repent from. Paul, who had the best of the best when it came to a legal righteousness, knew that he had rubbish apart from Christ.
Even in our hearts, or maybe especially in our hearts, the end doesn’t justify the means. God wants you to serve Him with your whole heart. A good work is a work done as God directs, when God directs, with no thought but for the Glory of God. John Bunyan was an Englishman with little formal education and he wrote the second best seller in the history of the English language. The book “Pilgrim’s Progress” by Bunyan is second only to the Bible in copies printed. Once after he preached someone told him that he had preached a wonderful sermon to which he replied, “Aye, you have not need to tell me that, for the devil whispered it to me before I was well out of the pulpit.” Satan might tempt Bunyan to the sin of pride but Bunyan knew that his righteousness was bought by the blood of Jesus alone. A nobody gentile like Bunyan (who God used in a tremendous way) and a Hebrew of the Hebrews like Paul (who God used in a tremendous way) are both branches supported by the True Vine and rejoicing in their Savior to the glory of God the Father.
Philippians 3:10-11 I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.
Paul wanted to be immersed in Christ and to know the power of His resurrection. But he doesn’t stop there. He also embraced the sufferings of Christ and His life of sacrifice. Paul knew that resurrection power came as a result of a life of service and death to self and yet Christ makes that resurrection power available to us as we seek to live lives in His service. Paul wanted to be so identified with Christ that when others saw him they would see Christ in him. Fundamentally, the power of the Cross enables me to take up my cross and lay down my life and see that resurrection power in my life day by day till that last day when I fully enjoy my resurrection.
Philippians 3:12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.
We don’t have to be perfect to be in the game. I hope everyone can agree that is a good thing. Even an apostle isn’t perfected on this side of Glory. The attitude is one that is a sports analogy. There is to be a hunger for the goal. We are to stay away from apathy toward the things of the Holy Spirit. If you aren’t hungry and focused on the goal then you are everyone’s favorite opponent. Without that desire I’ll wander out without my spiritual armor and I’ll be hard of hearing and ineffective in what God calls me to do. Eventually I’ll be subject to discipline by my Father to get me back on track. God can make us run laps and stadiums until He has our attention again. He didn’t take hold of us in vain.
Philippians 3:13-14 Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
Letting go of our failures and defeats is a hard lesson to learn. Even in sports failures can seem to build. We get a problem stuck in our head and we have trouble leaving it behind. We fail repeatedly and lose confidence that we’ll ever succeed. We can’t fix the past. We may have unrepentant sin in our past. You can fix that and need to right now. Once we have repented from past sins then the failure we must avoid is letting past failure stop us from following God today. Think of Paul. Think of what he did to the church. He was so bad people were scared to let him know who they were. Paul was there when Stephen the first martyr was killed. Paul had worse things than you to forget and leave behind. Life is too short to waste the rest of it (no matter how long or short) thinking of past failures. If you do that then you are disobedient to God because He is telling you, through Paul, to suck it up, shake it off, and get on with it.
Philippians 3:15-16 All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. Only let us live up to what we have already attained.
This maturity can be thought of as a fitness for the trial and a readiness for the contest. A man with his head in his hands mourning his last loss and thinking of what a failure he was in not ready for the next battle. If you aren’t yet ready for the contest then God will make it clear to you soon.
Motyer says, “For Paul does not expect us to achieve everything on our own. There is a God who is over all, whose irresistible purpose is to make us like His Son. As we obey the truth He has already given us, He will Himself take charge of the process, and where we are still in error, deficient or weak, He will reveal that also.”
Amen. What a gracious God! And remember, you are not being called to be something you are not; He is calling you to be what you already are. Only let us live up to what we have already attained.
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