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Philippians 3:1-14 (This is Paul speaking) Finally, my brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you is not troublesome to me, and for you it is a safeguard. 2 Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of those who mutilate the flesh! 3 For it is we who are the circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God and boast in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh– 4 even though I, too, have reason for confidence in the flesh. If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more: 5 circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; 6 as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. 7 Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. 8 More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith. 10 I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, 11 if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead. 12 Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. 13 Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.
Faith: A Gift from God
Did you know that Paul was a man who had a lot for which he could have been proud? Did you know that the most courageous thing he ever did was to put his faith in what Christ had done rather than what he could do? Paul had every right to brag about who he was. He was of the southern tribe of Benjamin which had remained true to the house of David, so his lineage was impeccable. He had studied under one of the greatest rabbis. He was a Pharisee, he knew the law and he kept the law scrupulously. Paul was the perfect Jew in every way. Then Jesus knocked him to the ground and knocked some truth into him at the same time. Paul realized all his great accomplishments were nothing compared to knowing Jesus and Paul spent the rest of his life telling others about Jesus, leading them to open their hearts as his had been opened.
Now we can see Paul is rather upset in this portion of his letter. Some background will help us understand why. When Christianity was just starting out the only Christians were Jews. As the church spread into the Gentile world many in the early church thought a person had to first convert to Judaism, which required circumcision, before someone could become a Christian. Some in the early church were preaching a false gospel, one that relied on circumcision, on acts rather than Christ alone. The “dogs” Paul mentioned were people in the church who preached this different gospel. By the way, in Paul’s day dogs were not viewed highly. It was a huge insult to call anyone a dog. Paul is teaching the Philippians that this is false. He recites a list of all his accomplishments as a Jew and then tells them his accomplishments are rubbish, are dung, excrement when compared to the surpassing value of knowing Jesus Christ as his Lord. Righteousness, salvation comes not from following the law but through faith in Jesus.
You see, sometimes we can get caught in backward thinking. If we do great things for God, if we are missionaries, if we bring lots of people to Christ then God will save us. Some Christians have been known to keep score of how many people they led to Christ. Those who led the most are the best Christians. That is the opposite of how it works. We can never earn our salvation. We could say the best Christians are those who love God the most. Deeds flow from love.
There are many, many people who do wonderful, good things in our world. Serve the poor, work for justice, give away fortunes but all their good deeds, good though they are, will never get them into heaven. Only Jesus opens the door, only Jesus leads us to the Father. Once we are saved, then we will want to do things for God, we will want to tell others of the love of God and the salvation offered through Christ. Do you understand the difference? It isn’t doing good works that gets us saved, it’s getting saved that leads us to good works. It isn’t what we do but what is done inside us by the Holy Spirit.
Sometimes we keep one foot in the domain of the law where “doing” prevails, hoping that our doing will lead to our being righteous. We forget that we do not strive to live by the Spirit in order to be in the Spirit. It is the reverse. Because we are in the Spirit we live by the Spirit. And because the righteousness of God has been conferred on us, we do deeds of righteousness. We do righteous works not to get in right relationship with God, but because he has already justified us. We are in right relationship with Him by faith. Our righteousness comes to us through faith in Christ.”
There was a belief in Judaism that if every Jew in the world kept a perfect, holy Sabbath, broke none of the hundreds of laws for that Sabbath, then the Messiah would come. If we are all perfect, God will come. At first, it sounds like a lovely idea, everyone keeping the Sabbath holy. What could be wrong with that? What’s wrong is that it puts us in control and not God. As Presbyterians we strongly believe in the sovereignty of God. Not that other denominations don’t, but we put a special emphasis on it. God always acts in complete freedom, holiness and love. Our piety doesn’t cause God to act; it is God acting in us that causes our piety in the first place. There never has been a perfect Sabbath and there never will be; but God sent the Messiah, Jesus, anyway. Not because we deserved it. We certainly didn’t. God sent the Messiah because God loves us. God knew we needed saving and we were incapable of saving ourselves.
We can never earn righteousness by following rules, our righteousness comes through faith in Christ, it is a gift from God, it is Christ’s righteousness that covers us, Jesus did for us what we could not do for ourselves. Paul knew this to the very core of his being which is why he turned from his own previous piety and considered it worthless. He turned instead to Jesus Christ alone. I love his phrase, “the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.” This is the most important, the most valuable, the most wonderful thing that we can ever know. Christ Jesus our Lord. This is not a head knowledge like Paul had of all the Jewish laws, this is a knowledge of relationship, of love.
Think of it this way, all of us have head knowledge of some type. Nurses, doctors, pharmacists and other medical professionals know medicine. Lawyers know the law. Farmers know how to farm. Whatever your trade, you have knowledge of it and that knowledge is valuable. You earn money because of it but it is all head knowledge.
The good news of the gospel of grace needs to penetrate to the level of our emotions. We are talking here of heart knowledge, of the way you know your wife or husband, your children and your parents. It is a knowledge of relationship. That is what Jesus did for us on the cross. He reached across the great divide that sin caused between us and God and brought us back into relationship with God, our Father. It is in knowing Christ Jesus that all other knowledge becomes useless because when we know Jesus, we suddenly have everything we need.
For some this is a way of life, some have always known Jesus since they were small children. This way of life comes from parents who introduce their children to Jesus at a young age. Who take them to church and Sunday School, who live lives of commitment to God that their children can see and emulate.
For others of us not raised that way, God has other ways to reach us. I am convinced that God reached me because after my daughter became a Christian in her first year of high school she started praying for my salvation. Now I continue to pray for the salvation of my other children and for any others I know who don’t know Jesus. We can’t bring others to Christ, only Jesus can do this. But, and this is an important but, God does act in and through our prayers, our words to others and how our lives look to others.
Paul talks about pressing on to the goal of knowing Jesus better and better, of growing closer and closer to Christ because he wants the prize, he wants to hear God’s call through Jesus Christ. Paul knows that salvation comes only by grace, only by the righteousness imparted to us by Jesus through his death and resurrection. Nothing can save us except Jesus Christ. He alone is Savior. It is not what we do that saves us. It is not our baptism that saves us. It is not praying the “sinner’s prayer” that saves us.
(The Gideons came last Sunday and he talked about praying a prayer that brought people to Jesus. That is not correct. We are not saved by a prayer we say. Salvation comes only from Jesus.)
It is not even our faith that saves us. It is Jesus Christ who saves and who gives us our faith. Salvation is a gift and faith is a gift. All undeserved, all grace.
The Christian author, Philip Yancy defines grace as “a gift that costs everything for the giver and nothing for the recipient.” And he says, “There is nothing we can do to make God love us more, There is nothing we can do to make God love us less.”
I want to give you an example of grace; I’ve adapted it from something Charles Stanley wrote about his experiences in seminary. Imagine you are back in a classroom and you have to take a final exam. The teacher hands it out and cautions you to read it all the way through before beginning to answer it. At the top of the exam the caution to read it all first is also written. As you begin to read through the test, it becomes very clear that you have not studied nearly enough. The further you read, the worse it becomes. There is no way you can pass this exam. About halfway through you can hear others groaning out loud about how impossible this test is. On the last page of the exam is written a note which says, “You have a choice. You can either complete the exam as given or sign your name at the bottom in which case you will get an A for this exam.” Why? The professor did it to illustrate grace, unearned, undeserved grace.
Charles Stanley was given an exam like this and said the professor later told him that over the years some students began to take the exam without reading it all the way through, and they would sweat it out for the entire two hours of class time before reaching the last page. Others read the first two pages, became angry, turned the test in blank, and stormed out of the room without signing it. They never realized what was available, and as a result, they lost out totally. One fellow, however, read the entire test, including the note at the end, but decided to take the exam anyway. He did not want any gifts; he wanted to earn his grade. And he did. He made a C+, but he could easily have had an A.
This story illustrates many people’s reaction to God’s solution to sin. Some people look at God’s standard–moral and ethical perfection–and throw their hands up in surrender. Why even try? they tell themselves. I could never live up to all that stuff. Others are like the student who read the test through and was aware of the professor’s offer but took the test anyway. Unwilling to simply receive God’s gift of forgiveness, they set about to rack up enough points with God to earn it. But God’s grace truly is like the professor’s offer. It may seem unbelievable, but if we accept it, then, like the stunned students who accepted the professor’s offer, we, too, will discover that, yes, God’s grace truly is free. All we have to do is accept it.
Paul was courageous in turning from all his religious piety and trusting in Jesus Christ alone. We also need to trust in Jesus alone. “Grace has the power and the strength to break down the barrier between us and God. This power is only available by one source, by one person, by one life. That person is Jesus. Paul understood this truth and this truth is what set him free. Grace is a gift and all gifts need to be accepted. If you have never truly given yourself over completely to Jesus, If you know about God but don’t have a relationship with Him, it is never too late to accept His grace. If you know God’s grace already, may it shine forth from you and light the way for others.
Let us pray. God, our Father in heaven, thank you for the grace you offer us through Jesus Christ. Help us to know that faith is a gift from you, help us to turn from trying to earn our salvation and help us to know your amazing grace.