THE GOSPEL AND ITS GOAL - 1

Philippians 3:4-9
Bob Bonner
July 20, 2008

The greatest need of most human beings is to know that they are loved and to feel accepted and approved of. When you are put down by a teacher, rejected by a parent or spouse, disregarded by your boss, coach, or someone else who is most significant in your life, how do you feel?  Pretty worthless.  Sometimes, it is so crippling that you don’t feel like you can do anything worthwhile or beneficial. What do we typically do when others disapprove of us or trade us in for someone else?  Usually we try to find some other person who will approve of us, love us, and not reject us. All of this leads us into the very dangerous position of being used or manipulated by others.  The wise man Solomon put it this way in Proverbs 29:25: “The fear of man brings a snare, but he who trusts in the Lord will be exalted.” I like the way The Message paraphrases this same proverb, because it reveals more of the intent of Solomon’s words. It reads, “The fear of human opinion disables; trusting in God protects you from that.”

The only secure and lasting antidote to the experience of feeling the sting of rejection, disregard, and disapproval of others is to know someone more important, bigger, with more clout. He judges fairly because He knows more than those who have abandoned you, and He says of you, “This person is my beloved, in whom I am well pleased.” 

Who carries more clout than God, the creator of you and of the universe? Who is more powerful than God, who can destroy the world that He created? Who judges more perfectly and fiercely than God? Who loves as unconditionally as God? Who is more significant than the Almighty God? Absolutely no one! That’s why when we trust in Him, when we seek to honor Him, when we seek His approval, and when we receive it, not one thing anybody else says matters in comparison. Oh, we will still like the approval of others, but we won’t need it to get along.

Growing up, I had a hunger to succeed so that I might be approved of by others. It led me to fearing failure and doing everything I could to please others so that they would not reject me. On the outside, I appeared confident. But on the inside, I desperately wanted to know that I was loved, accepted, and approved of. It took me until my middle thirties before I began to realize the importance of the truth that we are about to look at this morning. When I finally understood it, this truth literally changed my life--almost overnight. Oh, I still would like and want the approval of others, and it still stings when I am rejected, but I no longer need it to survive. Neither do I need it to feel that my life counts, nor am I addicted to or held captive by the opinions of others. I found that when I fully understood I was forgiven, loved, accepted, and fully approved of by God, my life changed. 

And I am in good company, because that is the very same thing that happened to the Apostle Paul. He went from trying to perform to earn God’s and others’ approval, to simply resting in God’s forgiveness, acceptance, approval, and love. In the end, what Paul was striving for was to be accepted, loved, and so forgiven by God that he would feel forever comfortable in His presence and that he would enjoy a meaningful relationship with God. 

Our next section of Philippians to be studied begins with 3:4 and continues down to verse 14. In this verses, Paul is going to demonstrate why the Judaizers’ (of 3:1-3) approach to earning God’s approval is futile, and why the gospel is the only hope we have of knowing God intimately.

In verses 4-6, Paul is going to give us an overview of his life as a Jew before he met Christ, to show that he fully understood where the Judaizers were coming from in trying to earn God’s acceptance, forgiveness, and approval. As Paul’s past life will demonstrate, he excelled more than they did when it came to fulfilling the Law and living as a godly man. Yet he will show, in verses 7-9, that his past religious success and that proposed by the Judaizers was all futile in trying to earn God’s acceptance. It amounted to a waste of time, effort, and life. It was only when Paul personally encountered Jesus while in route to capture and kill Christians in Damascus that he discovered how he could be made righteous or acceptable to God and once and for all know God’s love, forgiveness, and approval. He spells that out more clearly in verse 9.

In the end, what Paul was striving for was to be welcomed by and to “know Christ” personally and intimately. Between verses 8 and 10, Paul repeats his desire to know Christ four times: two times in verse 8, once in verse 9, and one more time in verse 10. From that initial meeting with Christ on the road to Damascus, all Paul ever wanted in his life was to have intimate, unbroken fellowship with Jesus. These verses explain how the gospel, God’s efforts to rescue humanity, made that possible for Paul and anyone else who hungers to know the living God deeply and to enjoy an intimate relationship with Him.  The gospel makes it possible to know that one is completely forgiven, forever accepted, totally approved of, and unconditionally loved.

In this section of scripture, Paul addresses the three main theological categories that make up the gospel. In verses 7-9, Paul writes about justification, or how one can be saved and have a right standing before God.  In verse 10, Paul describes what is known as sanctification, or that part of the gospel that deals with Christ’s transforming a believer’s life from the inside out, conforming him to the image of Christ. Then in verses 11-14, Paul covers the third aspect of the gospel known as glorification. This is that event that comes after death, when we are permanently united with Jesus in our new resurrection bodies, free of the distresses, distractions, and temptations of the evil that is around us, able to enjoy perfect unbroken fellowship with Jesus. This morning, we will concentrate on just the first aspect of the gospel, found in verses 4-9.

Let’s begin our study by reading Philippians 3:4-6, which is Paul’s personal testimony about his human efforts to live righteously to be accepted by God, and how those efforts failed. He states:

   ⁴Although I myself might have confidence even in the flesh [meaning   

   confidence in his human abilities to stand before God righteous and

   accepted, independent of God’s help]. If anyone else has a mind to

   put confidence in the flesh, I far more: ⁵circumcised the eighth day,

   of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews;

   as to the Law, a Pharisee; ⁶as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to

   the righteousness which is in the Law, found blameless.

Confidence in human religious efforts to be righteous before God is what the Judaizers were all about. But in verse four Paul says, “If you want to play that game of putting confidence in your religious accomplishments, I can play that game better than you can. My credentials with regard to Jewish identity and acceptability are impeccable.”

In these verses, Paul points to seven different ways that he excelled as a religious person; the first three came to him at birth, for which he could not take personal credit, but it does show the righteous heritage he had behind him. The rest he accomplished on his own, making him a Hebrew of Hebrews--blameless.

His first claim in his human attempt at making himself acceptable to God is that “eight days after I was born, I was circumcised.” Right out of the chute, he accomplished that mandatory requirement of every first-class religious male Jew, to be circumcised on the eight day as directed by the Old Testament Law. Not all of the Jews, especially the Hellenistic or Greek Jews who were more liberal in their faith, could say that. This requirement of circumcision is that which the Judaizers say, “Life with the family of God begins.” Having been circumcised as a baby, Paul is not like a Jewish proselyte or a gentile turned Jew who as an adult male was required by the Judaizers to get circumcised in order to become Jewish and acceptable to God. Paul was born a Jew! He was the real deal from the beginning, not a Joseph come lately!

Secondly, Paul cites that he was “of the race/people/nation of Israel.” This is what the Judaizers hope to help the Gentiles achieve, to become part of Israel.

Thirdly, he could trace his ancestry back to one of the original twelve tribes of Israel--not something all Jews could do. Paul was from the “tribe of Benjamin.” Benjamin was the favored tribe from which Paul’s name’s sake, Israel’s first king Saul, had come. This tribe was blessed by Moses as “the beloved of the Lord” (Deuteronomy 33:12), in whose territory sat the Holy City of Jerusalem where the Temple stood. The tribe of Benjamin was also notable because it alone joined the tribe of Judah in loyalty to the Davidic Covenant. 

So, Paul’s ability to trace his lineage to a tribe, and that being the tribe of Benjamin, was a big deal. Gentile converts to Judaism could become members only of Israel, but they could never become a member of one of the original twelve tribes. Hence another superior mark of Jewish religiousness for Paul. Just so you know, there were several biblical celebrities from the tribe of Benjamin, such as the great leader Mordecai, used by God along with Esther to save the Jews from genocide during the Babylonian Exile.

Next, Paul declares that he was a “Hebrew of Hebrews,” meaning both parents were Hebrews.  There was no non-Jewish blood in his veins. He was brought up to speak the Hebrew language, unlike other Hellenistic Jews who could not speak Hebrew. He observed the Jewish national way of life, rather than the Hellenistic lifestyle of the day. Hence, Paul was as orthodox in his Judaism as they come. 

But not only that--he was a Pharisee. To become a Pharisee was to reach the highest level in devout legalistic Judaism and to be extremely zealous for the traditions of his ancestors. No Judaizer in Paul’s day could come close to comparing to a Pharisee.  Today, you would have to earn a doctorate in the study of Hebrew Old Testament Law and its modern day application to become a Pharisee. Their job was to know, interpret, guard, and obey every yod and tittle of Old Testament Law. In the first century, there were only an estimated 6,000 Pharisees. To be a member of the Pharisees was to be in the most elite and influential group of the most highly respected men in Israel. We have no other known Judaizers in first century history that could make this claim.

Declaring that Paul was a Pharisee gives the framework for understanding the next two listed items: zeal for persecuting the church, and righteous living that led to his being able to claim himself blameless. 

To the Jews, zealousness was viewed as the supreme religious virtue. It is a two-sided coin; one side is love, the other hate. To be zealous is to love God and hate what or those who offend Him. In Paul’s pre-conversion days, his misguided love for God zealously lead him to hate and persecute Christians for having turned away from the Law, the basis of true Judaism.

Today, we have Christians who out of zeal for God sometimes forget to love their brethren and reject them because they don’t live up to what they think are God’s standards. But in actuality, the scriptures may be silent concerning the standards by which they reject others. In Paul’s case, he was sincere, but sincerely wrong.

As to being blameless, Paul is not pointing to his moral perfection, because in Roman 7 he confesses to a sin that he could not conquer and that led him ultimately to see his need for a savior. What he means by blameless is that he faultlessly followed the observance of Torah, as prescribed by the religious leaders of his day. He scrupulously adhered to the pharisaic interpretation of the Law, for example, what to eat, days of worship, and so on. Furthermore, in Romans 14:17, Paul makes it clear that true “righteousness” goes infinitely beyond these matters of being blameless in following religious traditions. 

At one time in his life, Paul actually valued his Hebrew pedigree, covenant connection with Israel, and zeal for righteousness because, in a sense, they did contribute to his well-being on the human plane. He was honored, valued, and respected by his fellow Jews because of his accomplishments. But later when he met Christ, he quickly learned that on the spiritual plane, all of those were worthless. They never accomplished what we all desire, to know that God forgives us, accepts us, approves of us, and loves us. And this realization is what he points to in the following verses when he says that if you want to know real “life”, one that enjoys God’s forgiveness, acceptance, approval, and love, then begin with “knowing Christ.”

Before we read the next three verses, allow me to explain and hit a few highlights of these verses, so that when we read them, they will make a little more sense.

Beginning with verse 7, Paul signals us that a drastic change in his thinking took place. With the first word of verse 7, “but”, which reveals a strong contrast statement to come, Paul tells us that suddenly all those good things Paul enjoyed, all those advantages he possessed from his religious heritage and personal effort, the very thing that the Judaizers were trying to push, he considers a liability. Worse than that, he counts them as rubbish! 

In addition, you will notice in these verses that Paul uses several accounting terms to express what a liability his past religiosity was to him: asset, gain, liability, profit, loss. He even adds, in verse 8, the term “rubbish” to the list, which is a well-attested vulgar term, a most disgusting term, used to describe “unspeakable filth.” Among other things, it was the word used when referring to human dung or a half-eaten rotting corpse. Hence, as you will see in these verses, Paul abandons putting any stock in his own past religious effort to make himself righteous before God.

And because it is such a religious term that is often vague to the reader, allow me to clarify what righteousness means. Being righteous means to have a right standing before God, being totally forgiven, fully accepted, completely approved of, and forever loved by God. And when a person realizes this, it becomes the very bedrock of one’s self worth, value, and identity.

Read along with me, from verses 7-9. 

   ⁷But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as

   loss for the sake of Christ. ⁸More than that, I count all things to be

   loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord,

   for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but

   rubbish so that I may gain Christ, ⁹and may be found in Him, not

   having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that

   which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from

   God on the basis of faith,

Paul uses the term “gain” in verse 7. In English we read it as a singular, but it is actually plural in Greek: not “gain” but “gains”. In contrast, the word “loss” is in the singular, stressing that all his gains can be summed up in one big loss! His point is that he has no grounds in himself to be confident before God by anything that he thought previously would be gain to him. In comparison, “knowing Christ” and being “found in Christ” is the most worthwhile gain one could possibly imagine.

In verse 8, Paul says, “I count all things loss.” When Paul turned to Christ, he lost everything near and dear to him. He was excommunicated from his Hebrew family. He was ostracized by friends.  He lost his property and his family inheritance. He experienced death threats and the destruction of the property he could have carried with him. He lost his status in the community and all the advantages of wealth and fame that came to him socially because he was a Pharisee. Furthermore, if you study the Apostle Paul’s life closely, you will notice that not all of the losses that he experienced were wholly voluntary. Sometimes he was forced to give up things for Christ; sometimes they were stripped off him by others. For instance: He lost the skin off his back through a Philippian flogging.  This is what Paul meant by, “suffered the loss of all things”. 

Paul’s turning to Christ was no empty or purely academic or philosophical exercise. He voluntarily gave up all that was known previously to him to be considered of great value. And now Paul feels utter revulsion toward those advantages he had surrendered. Obviously, the conclusion that Paul wants his readers to grasp is this: If there were no future or benefit for him to hold onto his Jewish identity, then it obviously held no benefit for any non-Jew or gentile in Philippi trying to seek after a Jewish identity in order to become a Christian.

And now, in the place of loss, there stands Christ. To know Christ, to gain more of Him, to know Him more intimately, to experience His supernatural power in transforming the heart from the inside out, and ultimately one day to experience the power of His resurrection, coming back to life in a gloried body--that is worth so much more than self righteous religiosity.

Dr. Harry Ironside goes on to explain that Paul “was not simply exchanging one religion for another; it was not one system of rites and ceremonies giving place to a superior system; or one set of doctrines, rules, and regulations making way for a better one. . . . He had come in contact with a divine person, the once crucified, but now glorified Christ of God. He had been won by the Person forever and for his sake he counted all else but loss. . . . Christ, and Christ alone, meets every need of the soul. His [Christ’s] work has satisfied God, and it satisfies the one who trusts in him.”

For Paul, what he wanted most was to know Christ and to be known by Christ. What does that mean? Where does one begin in knowing Christ or in gaining Christ? Paul points us in the right direction in verse 9, when he uses the expression “to be found in Christ.”

So, what does it mean “to be found in Christ?” The rest of the verse tells us that it has to do with being found “righteous.” This is the cry of the human heart. Paul wanted this all his life. He sought after it all his life like the Judaizers did. But Paul learned through his own failure in sin that he could not live a life without failure. He could not live a holy life. He couldn’t live without violating his own conscience. So how could he make himself righteous or acceptable to a perfect and holy God? On his own he could not. None of us can.

So then, how does someone gain God’s forgiveness, acceptance, approval, and love, if it is not by living up to some moral law? How could Paul know that one day after he died, he would be resurrected and spend eternity with God? Paul answers that in verse 9, when he states that it is “through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith.”

By faith, we place all of our confidence in Christ’s effort, His substitutionary atoning death, His finished work on the cross. We cannot add anything to His completed work. Christ doesn’t become ours by our effort in trying to be a better, more religious person or in trying to clean up our act by following religious laws and then trusting in Christ. That would be like striking a match to help the sun shine. Instead, when we reject our own self effort as being worthless and then put our faith in Christ’s work on our behalf, we are “found in Him.” We immediately become “righteous” in God’s sight, fully forgiven, completely accepted, totally approved of, and forever loved by God. 

So, nothing depends upon us but all depends upon the work of Christ. We can do nothing to earn or maintain God’s forgiveness, acceptance, approval, or love other than putting our complete trust in Christ’s finished work. As a result, we are “justified in Christ.”  That word, “justified” in Greek is a legal term that shares the same root word from which the word “righteous” comes. It means to declare innocent, acquitted, righteous, and accepted. Paul takes its legal meaning one step further to say that you are not just declared so, but being born again, part of you is made righteous. Having been born again, you are now a new creation, the old you has passed away; he is dead, and the new you is born.  Like our physical bodies, we are birthed, and then we grow into adulthood.

Because this first aspect of the Gospel known as justification is so important, because everything concerning our relationship with God begins with it, let’s make clear what is necessary for genuine justification to become a reality for you. First, justification begins with understanding that because of sin, our rebellion against God, and our ignoring of God, all human beings are alienated from Him in the sense of having no connective relationship with Him. Our fellowship with God was broken by our sin. We are His enemies.

Secondly, no human being can possibly reconcile their relationship with God by their own efforts. God is holy and perfect, and we are imperfect and unholy and are powerless to make ourselves perfect and holy, acceptable to God.

Thirdly, God, the source of true righteousness, must take the initiative to reconcile this relationship between Himself and the individual. He does this through His own redemptive action. That means he was willing to pay the price personally to reconcile and restore His relationship with you that was broken because of your sin. God has indeed taken this initiative in Christ, in his life, death, and resurrection.

Fourthly, God’s initiative must be met with a human response. A right relationship with God is established by one’s faith in Christ, that is to say, by one’s continual confession of total dependence upon Him for the necessary true righteousness, by one’s personal trust in and surrender to Christ. Hence, “faith in Christ,” then, is another way of stating what it is necessary to be justified so that one can be “found in Christ.”

As you consider these truths, where do you stand? Do you desire to know God intimately?  Have you trusted in Christ’s work alone on your behalf to bring you back into a right relationship with God? Do you know God’s forgiveness, approval, acceptance, and love because you have trusted in Christ? Or have you trusted in Christ to forgive your sins, but have lived as though it is up to you to live a holy life and thus maintain God’s acceptance and approval of you? If you are living as though it is up to you to maintain God’s acceptance and approval, then you have not fully understood how justification takes place. You bring nothing to the table. You can add nothing to putting your faith in what Christ has done to bring you into God’s full forgiveness, acceptance, approval, and love. It’s all Him. Your part is simply to put your faith or confidence in Christ’s finished work.

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