AGAIN I SAY REJOICE
COUNT IT ALL AS LOSS
PHILIPPIANS 3:1-11
INTRODUCTION
- Most of you have probably never heard of the man named Edward Mote. Mote was born in January of 1797 in London, England. His family was poor and not at all religious. In fact, Mote is quoted as saying as an adult “My Sundays were spent in the streets. So ignorant was I that I did not know that there was a God.” In his school, Bibles were not even allowed to be seen.
- But as a teenager he began learning the art of cabinetmaking. And at sixteen his master (his boss) took him to hear a popular preacher at a local church. There he was converted to Christ , and began his life long journey of following Jesus. Initially, that meant moving just outside of London and becoming a well known cabinetmaker and devoted church goer.
- In 1834, as he was walking to work, Mote decided that he should write a hymn. By the time he got to work he had already worked out the chorus; and would have four completed verses by the end of the day. He would add a few more verses later. The first verse of his hymn has these words:
My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly lean on Jesus’ Name.
- Most of us know where it goes from there: “On Christ the Solid Rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand.” About a decade and a half after writing that hymn, Mote became the pastor of a church than he helped build with his own hands. There he preached for over 20 years until illness required him to step down at an old age. And just before his death he is said to have made this comment: “The truths I have been preaching, I am now living upon, and they do very well to die upon.” He died at the age of 77.
- I tell you that story so that you can get a picture of a man who understood the meaning of biblical salvation. Here was a man who knew that there was absolutely nothing he could do to earn God’s favor. Here was a pastor who knew that what people needed to hear most was that Jesus Christ was there only hope.
- Most will go through life never understanding what Edward Mote did. Most will live their lives assuming that somehow, some way, heaven will be attained because they lived a sincere life. Tim Chester in his book Total Church gives us an interesting rewrite for that famous hymn that epitomizes how most people think:
My hope is built on something less
Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.
I trust my skills, I trust my fame,
And maybe sometimes Jesus’ name.
- It is after all one of the most common traps the enemy leads us into. The fancy term for this kind of attitude is self righteousness. By righteousness I mean being right with God. A self righteous person thinks exactly what the label says – that they are righteous by themselves. Something about who they are makes them righteous. Some good work they do makes them righteous. Some religious tradition they invent makes them righteous.
- Scripture takes people who think they are righteous on their own to task. It confronts them head on. We could spend our whole time together looking at statements that tell us about our human condition. One of the clearest is Romans. 3:10-12: as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”
- All we have to do is look around and we know this is true. Men and women are not righteous; and anyone who thinks they are, is fooling themselves. I read a quote this week from a preacher I like to listen to named Matt Chandler. He says “The depravity of man is the only doctrine we have with thousands of years of evidence.” History shows us over and over again that left to his own devices man will not seek God.
- Now as we come to Philippians chapter 3 we are going to see Paul make a similar argument. He is going to tell us that there is nothing we should have confidence in except Jesus Christ. There is no room in biblical Christianity for self righteousness. As the hymn says, our hope should be built on nothing less than Jesus’ shed blood on the cross and on his righteousness on our behalf.
- Let’s look to the word of God together.
[READ PHILIPPIANS 3:1-11]
- In this passage, there are several things that Paul warns us not to trust in. Let’s see what they are. The first thing Paul warns is this:
DO NOT TRUST IN RELIGIOUS RITUAL
- In v.1 Paul segues into his next topic by reminding them of the joy that is to be found in Jesus Christ, then turning to the issue of protecting them from false teachers. He has already mentioned the opposition in the latter part of chapter 1; and this is an issue that Paul most likely addressed outside of this letter as well. This is why he mentions that he is being repetitive, but that it is good for him to repeat the things he is going to write because it keeps the Philippian believers safe from spiritual error.
- He starts out with a rebuke of sorts concerning a certain group of people, then moves into an autobiographical section that is highly instructive for us. In v.2 he tells them to look out for the dogs, look out for the evildoers, look out for those who mutilate their flesh.
- Dogs in the New Testament era were not usually pets. Dogs were seen as a nuisance and sometimes even a danger. They would roam around in packs feeding on garbage, and occasionally attack a human. Because of this bad connotation the term κύων (dog) was used as a derogatory epithet. In fact, the Jews would commonly call the Gentiles “dogs”. So to be “dog”, in a Jewish mindset, was to be a person outside of the true faith.
- Paul uses the term in a similar way here. Only he’s not referring to Gentiles, but Jews themselves. He is warning the Philippians to watch out for those who would tell them that adherence to the Old Testament law, especially the rite of circumcision, was necessary to be saved. Those who mutilate the flesh refers to those who practice circumcision. I don’t think we need to go into any detail there; most of us are familiar with circumcision. If not, you can find out what it is later.
- Why is Paul warning them against such people? Because these people thought that they were made righteous by being circumcised according to the command of Jewish law. It’s not that circumcision itself is wrong. It is still commonly practiced today in the United States. It was their reliance on a religious ritual for righteousness instead of Jesus Christ that made them enemies of the true faith.
- Biblical salvation is a change of heart wrought by the Holy Spirit as one trusts in Jesus Christ’s sacrifice on the cross for the sins of humanity. That’s what v.3 says: For we are the real circumcision (“real” is inserted by the translators in order to show the contrast), who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh.
- This was a recurring problem for the early church. Some leaders simply refused to let go of certain rituals that were important to them, and they elevated those things to salvific status – they claimed those things were necessary for salvation. Circumcision was the big one. And Paul clearly combats that error by saying: don’t trust in religious ritual.
- Secondly, Paul warns:
DO NOT TRUST IN ETHNIC BACKGROUND
- Here is where Paul appeals to his own life and lineage. Again he writes: “Do not put any confidence in the flesh.” Now he will go on make that point by stating his own earthly credentials. If there was anyone who would be tempted to trust in himself to be saved, it was Paul. Look at v.5: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel... We’ve already mentioned circumcision; what about that next phrase?
- Paul says “I am an Israelite.” Now why would that have been such a thing to take pride in; and a temptation to rely upon for salvation? Because Israel was the elect nation of God. In Deuteronomy 7:6 Moses tells the people of Israel: ...you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. God chose the Jews to be his people.
- So the thinking went like this: God chose the Jewish nation to be his own treasured possession. I am a Jew, a member of that nation. Therefore, I am one of God’s treasured possessions. I belong to him. I know him simply by virtue of being a Jew.
- But there’s a problem with that. That’s not what God intended to accomplish when he chose the Jews to be his people. He meant for them to be a light for the nations. They were to point the way to the one, true, living God. But instead of that, the Jews were constantly being engulfed with the idolatry of their neighbors.
- Even when their Messiah came; the Deliverer for whom they all said they were waiting; they crucified him on a piece of wood. It should have been blatantly obvious to them that their ethnicity did not guarantee that they knew God. But a privilege like that is hard to let go of. It’s hard not to appeal to your ethnicity when your people were elect of God. But if they focused on their ethnicity they missed the point.
- God wants true worshipers; as Jesus said in John 4: people who will worship God in spirit and in truth. People who recognize their need of God through Christ and relinquish any claims to their own righteousness by virtue of ethnic background.
- But he goes further. Next he tells them:
DO NOT TRUST IN PROMINENT POSITIONS
- He reminds them that he was: of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews.
- There is some debate as to why Paul would appeal to being a Benjamite. Because while the tribe of Benjamin consisted of some of the great heroes of the Jewish faith, it also produced some grave evildoers as well. I think the point to be made is that Paul is reinforcing his claim to be an Israelite.
- Some in Paul’s day would have no idea what tribe their family belonged to. But Paul knew his lineage precisely. Not only was he an Israelite, he was of the tribe of Benjamin. He was, as he states, a Hebrew of Hebrews. Meaning both his parents were Hebrews. He was, if I could borrow from equine terminology, a thoroughbred Jew. His blood was Jewish through and through.
- So he was not just any Jew. If you made a list of Israelites according to pure lineage, he would be at the top of the list. In America, he would be a member of the Bush family, or a Kennedy. He had also learned from the best rabbis. So he had gone to the Ivy League schools, so to speak.
- He was born in Tarsus, a Gentile city, but moved to Jerusalem to study under the great rabbi Gamaliel. He describes this in Acts 22:3: I am a Jew, born in Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up in this city, educated at the feet of Gamaliel according to the strict manner of the law of our fathers, being zealous for God... This is a portrait of a man who oozed Jewish heritage.
- And yet, he does not cling to such a noble position. You can begin to see now why he says that if anyone could boast about their own accomplishments, it was him. Still he writes that he puts no confidence in these things. But as if that were not enough, he goes on by saying:
DO NOT TRUST IN RELIGIOUS AFFILIATION
- Again in v.5: as to the law, a Pharisee.
- Within the realm of Judaism there were several factions. There was a group called the Sadducees who denied the authority of tradition and favored the Mosaic Law (the first five books of the Old Testament) over other Old Testament books. They denied the existence of angels and did not believe in the resurrection of the dead. They were largely made up of wealthy citizens; and they controlled the Temple in Jerusalem.
- There was also an ascetic group called the Essenes. The withdrew from society and devoted themselves to celibacy. The often lived in caves outside of the major cities, and they were consumed with reading and studying OT Scripture, prayer, and ceremonial cleansings.
- Paul was a member of a third group: the Pharisees. The Pharisees were descendants of the Jews who fought against Greek rule earlier on in Jewish history. The saw themselves as separate and elite. But rather than withdrawing from society they stresses strict rules and scorned Jews who did not obey their rules. By the time of Jesus most Pharisees were consumed with pride and hypocrisy. While the Sadducees controlled the Temple, the Pharisees controlled the synagogues.
- So to be a Pharisee meant that you had a zeal for strict living, however misguided. It meant you were, or at least saw yourself as, an elite Jew. It meant that you knew the tiniest details of the law; and so devoted were you to obeying those tiny details, you made extra rules to prevent yourself from even coming close to breaking the law.
- So by way of example, if the law stated “Do not eat pizza on Wednesday.” then you certainly didn’t eat pizza on Wednesday. But just to make sure you didn’t eat pizza on Wednesday you made it a rule that no one should eat any of the ingredients of pizza on a Wednesday – no cheese, no tomato sauce, no pepperoni. And in addition to this, no one should eat any of these things on Tuesday or Thursday either – just to be sure there was no overlap with Wednesday.
- Now to my knowledge they had no pizza laws, but you get the point. These were strict religious men. They were extra careful about doing the right thing. And they deceived themselves into thinking they were successful in their pursuit of perfect obedience. So pride set it. That’s why we see Jesus blasting these men in the Gospels.
- But that was Paul prior to knowing Christ. He was as religious as they came. Yet he includes his Pharisaical association with those things that he places no trust in.
- Now here is where things get touchy. Next he writes:
DO NOT TRUST IN SINCERE MOTIVES
- Moving on into v.6: as to zeal, a persecutor of the church...
- Before Paul encountered Christ on the road to Damascus, he was a feared enemy of the church of Jesus Christ. He was so devoted to his Jewish lineage as just described that he would arrest people and throw them in jail for their faith in Jesus. He would vote to execute Christians. He persecuted believers so much that even after repenting and coming to faith in Jesus Christ, that shame continued to make other Christians wary of him.
- What is he saying? If righteousness was earned by simply sincerely devoting yourself to what you believe, then I would have been more righteous than most. Unfortunately, sincerity means nothing if the truth is missing.
- One commentator put it this way: Paul was sincere, but wrong. The world is full of people who, like him, are sincere in their religious beliefs. They will make any effort, pay any price, and sacrifice anything in their attempts to please God. They may be devout, orthodox Jews, loyal Roman Catholics who attend Mass regularly, or even Protestants who are involved in church services and ceremonies. They may pray, fast, or live in poverty, and seek to do human good. But religious zeal guarantees nothing. Those people can be absolutely wrong. When Paul faced the reality of Jesus Christ, the zealous persecutor of the church realized that his misguided zeal was a spiritual killer and belonged in the spiritual loss column.
- We all know people who would say “It doesn’t matter what you believe, as long as you are true to your own faith.” And that sounds good when you first hear it. And we may sound harsh or mean by contradicting it. But that statement could not be more false.
- It does matter what you believe; the veracity or truthfulness of what you believe matters. You can sincerely believe that unicorns exists, but if they don’t really exist, your belief is false. You can sincerely believe that everyone goes to heaven, but if they don’t, your belief is false. Muslims can whole-heartedly believe they are serving Allah who is the one true God, but if Allah does not exist, their belief is false.
- And lest people say we are being hard on others and lenient on ourselves, we must be prepared to say the same thing about Christianity. We can sincerely believe that Jesus is the way to salvation, but if his bones are still laying in a hidden tomb somewhere is Israel, our belief is false.
- It doesn’t matter who you are or what you believe, sincerity is not necessarily coupled with reality.
- Now we know the truth. We know that Jesus is alive and that he is, in fact, the only way to heaven. But other people are just as sincere in their beliefs. What differentiates between all of these religious thoughts out there? It is the truth. Which one is true?
- They can’t all be true. Some people like to say that all religious claims are equally true. But that’s like saying some people think that to get to Boston from here you drive South; some people think you drive North; others think you drive East or West; still others think that we are actually in Boston already; and they are all right. That’s nonsense. Only one is right. (Boston is south- southwest of here).
- So sincerity on its own gets you nowhere. You must also know the truth. And we make the claim that the truth is not simply a belief system but a person: Jesus Christ. Total reliance upon him leads to everlasting life and nothing else.
- Now if we were to wrap all of these things up into one statement it would be this:
DO NOT TRUST IN ANY GOOD WORK
- Paul writes at the end of v.6: as to righteousness under the law, blameless.
- Paul, being a Pharisee, had obedience to the law of Moses down pat. He says if a right standing before God was earned by obeying Jewish law, then he was absolutely blameless. He was perfect. But righteousness is not attained by any of that. It’s not found by meticulously adhering to the rituals of a religion. It’s not found by being born into a specific people group, or into a certain church. And once you think you’ve found your own way, it’s not found in following that way sincerely.
- You say, well you’ve spent an awful lot of time telling us how to not be made right with God. Is there anything that brings us into a right relationship with God? Is there anything that does work?
- Yes. Here’s the conclusion. Anything you do that you think may make you acceptable in God’s sight; all of your good works; all of your religious merits; all of your familial lineage; all of your national heritage; all of your so called sincere attempts at pleasing God your own way; take all of that stuff, and throw it out...
COUNT IT ALL AS LOSS & TRUST ONLY IN CHRIST’S IMPUTED RIGHTEOUSNESS
- Listen to the wisdom of the Apostle beginning at v.7: But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order 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 comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
- Imputation is a foreign word to most of us. It’s not used a lot anymore except in theological circles. And that’s a shame because it is a meaningful and useful word. To impute something means to reckon or credit something to someone’s account.
- When we use it biblically we are usually referring to one of two things. The imputation of Adam’s sin to the whole of humanity. Or the imputation of Christ’s righteousness to those who believe in him. The idea is the same in both cases. We are credited (either positively or negatively) with, in the case of Adam doing something we didn’t physically do or, in the case of Jesus, having something we don’t actually have.
- Why is imputation important to our current discussion? Because you should have noticed already that a right standing before God is unattainable for us. There’s nothing we can do on our own that will make us righteous. Righteousness has to be given to us. It has to be imputed to us. Someone else’s righteousness has to be credited to our account.
- There’s only one person who has ever lived a truly perfect righteous life. His name is Jesus the Messiah, the Lord of the universe. Faith in his sacrifice on the cross and the subsequent empty tomb is what brings righteousness. And only those with a right standing before God can, as Paul writes, know the power of Christ’s resurrection and attain the resurrection from the dead. Only those who are right with God through faith will see eternal life.
- And here’s some irony for you to chew on as you leave. If righteousness is not based upon anything you do, then even the faith that makes you righteous is not your own doing. The gift of righteousness is given through the gift of faith. It’s all a gift of God’s grace. As the familiar words of Scripture tell us: For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God. What is the gift of God? Salvation, and the grace and faith that bring it.
- So what is it that you may be relying on other than Christ’s righteousness on your behalf? For anyone who doesn’t know Christ as Savior, this is Christianity 101. Trust in Christ and Christ alone for the salvation of your soul. Yet even as believers we tend to forget that we rely on Jesus alone; and we can become prideful in our own deeds or in so many other small things. Whatever it is, count it as loss; and build your hope on nothing less than his blood and his righteousness.
