Misconceptions about Salvation
Scripture References: Philippians 3:2-4:1
Deuteronomy 30:6
2 Corinthians 5:10
Romans 16:18
Other References: The Bible Knowledge Commentary
1. Introduction
a. We each have made mistakes in our life. We probably continue to do so today.
b. Some have little price other than perhaps an embarrassment. Others, can cost us with huge impact—our source of income, our health, and ultimately our life.
c. It is also possible to make mistakes when it comes to salvation.
d. In today’s message, Paul warns the Philippians of three major mistakes we can make when it comes to our view of salvation.
e. Those same mistakes are just a possible today as they were in Paul’s time.
f. Read Philippians 3:2-21
2. I’ve got me, what else do I need? (vv 2-11)
a. In this passage, Paul was warning the Philippians to not fall into the same trap the Judaizers had.
(1) The Judaizers were a Christian sect still adhering to the Jewish Law. They came from converted Pharisees.
(2) Unwilling to see Judaism die out, they adopted a legalistic idea of salvation and insisted that no non-Jews could be saved without submitting to circumcision and observing the Law of Moses.
(3) The legalistic parallel of the Judaizers can be seen in many churches today.
b. Verses 3-4a
(1) Paul stresses that it is their faith in God and in Christ that saved them. They did not rely on works or the law as the Judaizers did.
(2) Rather than bragging about and relying on human accomplishments, they should boast about and rely on Christ alone.
(3) Paul stressed it wasn’t the physical circumcision that guaranteed their salvation, but rather they were, because of their faith in and reliance on Christ, circumcised of the heart, as God had intended.
Read Deuteronomy 30:6—The LORD your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, so that you may love him with all your heart and with all your soul, and live.
c. Verses 4b-11
(1) Paul placed no confidence in his abilities or in his station in life.
(2) He recounts for the Philippians the things he could have placed his confidence, much as the Judaizers were.
(3) His list includes all the things he did place great confidence in before Christ.
(4) Almost as though he was challenging the Judaizers to a showdown, Paul establishes that in his former life, he was greater than them; but he gave all of that up for what now has in Christ.
(a) Privileges of Birth (without choice)
(1) Circumcised on the 8th day—exactly as Jewish law required; not at some point later in life like the proselytes or after age 13 like the Ishmaelites, but as a pure-blooded Jew.
(2) Of Israeli birth—both of his parents were Jewish (not Jew and Gentile). He could trace his lineage all the way back to Abraham.
(3) From the tribe of Benjamin—the tribe which produced Israel’s first king. This tribe was viewed with great honor and esteem.
(4) A Hebrew of Hebrews—Hebrew was his native tongue. Unlike some of the Israelites, he did not adopt Greek customs. He knew thoroughly the language and the customs of the people of God. He was a Hebrew son of Hebrew parents.
(b) Chosen Privileges
(1) Pharisee—a member of the strictest sect among his people. Pharisees added their own regulations to the Law of Moses, which in time were interpreted as equal to the law.
(2) Zeal—his was so great he persecuted the church of Christ. No Judaizer could match that claim.
(3) Legalistic Righteousness—in his own eyes he was faultless.
(5) The Judaizers would have loved to be able to boast such a list of credentials, but Paul considered them loss or rubbish in comparison to what he gained in Christ. Having Christ as his Lord and Savior far surpassed anything he had in Judaism.
(6) Paul goes on to say that even though he knew Christ as his Savior, he wanted to know Him more intimately as his Lord.
(a) The Greek translated “to know” in v. 10 means “to know by experience.”
(b) Paul desired to experience the very power that brought about Christ’s resurrection and is now part of every believer’s life.
(c) Paul also longed to share in Christ’s sufferings and become like Him in His death.
(1) These were not the substitutionary sufferings on the cross, because Paul knew that those could not be shared.
(2) Paul desired, because he was one of Christ’s, to participate in Christ’s suffering for the sake of righteousness.
(d) The words translated “becoming like Him” mean “being inwardly conformed in one’s experience to something,” in this case Christ’s death. As Christ died for sin, a believer must die to sin.
3. I’m saved so I don’t have to worry about Christ any more. (vv 12-16)
a. Though Paul was a spiritual giant in the eyes of the Philippian saints, he wanted them to know that he had not yet reached his goals in Christ. He was still actively pursuing them.
b. Paul’s was saved about 30 years before he wrote to this letter to the Philippians.
(1) He had won many spiritual battles and grown much during that time, but he truthfully admitted he had not achieved his goals, nor was anywhere close to being perfect.
(2) He still had more spiritual mountains to climb.
(3) Paul’s testimony reminded the Philippians—and it’s a good reminder for us today—there must never be a stalemate in our spiritual growth.
c. Paul sought Christlikeness with the determination of an Olympic athlete.
(1) Unlike the Judaizers, he did not claim to have attained spiritual maturity.
(2) By his own words, he had not yet attained perfection or ultimate conformity to Christ. But he was determined to forget the past and look only to the future.
(3) He refused to be controlled or absorbed by his past heritage or his achievements.
d. Enthusiastically and with focus Paul sought “to win the prize” to which God had called him heavenward.
(1) Again the Greek games must have been on his mind as he wrote of the prize.
(2) The winner in those games was called to the place where the judge sat in order to receive his prize.
(3) He may have referred to ultimate salvation in God’s presence, or to receiving rewards at “the judgment seat of Christ.”
(4) Read 2 Corinthians 5:10—For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.
e. Paul charged the Philippians to share with him the pursuit of Christlikeness. What he wanted for himself he also wanted for them.
(1) All mature Christians should persistently strive for the goal of being more like Christ.
(2) One mark of spiritual maturity is a desire to go on with Christ.
f. The greatest need among Christians is to live up to what we already have in Christ.
(1) Most of us live far below our exalted position in Christ.
(2) Paul’s appeal to the Philippians was that they live up to what they had already reached, namely a righteous position in Christ.
4. If my heart is in the right place, it doesn’t matter what I do. (vv 17-21)
a. Some false teachers of the era believed the spirit is good and that the flesh was evil. They reasoned if your heart is right, it doesn’t matter if your body happens to do something wrong.
b. Paul, on the other hand, taught just the opposite.
(1) His life’s ambition to be more Christ-like, Paul did not hesitate to tell the Philippians to follow his example.
(2) He wanted them to imitate him, although not every single area of his life, for he had just told them he was not sinlessly perfect. But in the matter of persistently pursuing Christlikeness, he did set himself up as an example.
c. Believers should be able to determine truth from error.
d. As enemies of God these false teachers were destined for destruction.
(1) Those Paul warned against were those who trusted in their own accomplishments and not in the adequacy of Christ alone.
(2) All who do so are not children of God, so they await destruction.
(3) The word translated destruction does not mean annihilation, but rather ruination by being separated from the presence of God in eternal judgment.
e. Paul gives three further descriptions of these false teachers.
(1) Their god is their stomach.
(a) They had in mind only their own physical desires.
(b) Read Romans 16:18—For such people are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own appetites. By smooth talk and flattery they deceive the minds of naive people.
(2) Their glory is in their shame.
(a) Instead of giving glory to God, they heaped praise on themselves.
(b) They prided themselves in the things they should have been ashamed of.
(3) Their mind is on earthly things.
(a) It is certainly not wrong for God’s people to care about their earthly affairs.
(b) The false teachers were depending on earthly things to gain merit with God.
(c) Paul frequently warned the people of God against such a lifestyle.
f. The old gospel song says, “This earth is not our home, I’m only passing through…”
(1) The Philippians were living in Philippi as colonists while their citizenship was in Rome.
(2) Similarly we, while living on earth, have our citizenship elsewhere—in heaven.
(3) This contrasts with those in verse 19 whose minds are exclusively on earthly things.
5. Summary
a. Someone asked the late W. R. Walker, “Are you saved?” He replied, “I have been saved, I am being saved, and I hope to be saved.” “What do you mean?” the person asked. He explained, “When I accepted Jesus as my savior, my sins were forgiven. I was saved. Since becoming a Christian, however, I have done wrong from time to time. I claim the promise of 1 John 1:9, though, and he cleanses me from my present sins. And yet, my salvation won’t be complete until that day when I hear my Lord say to me, “Well done, though good and faithful servant. Enter into the joys of the Lord.”
b. Having me and all I have to offer leaves me wanting. The antithesis to “I’ve got me…” is that I am not enough. I cannot grant me salvation, forgive my sins, or grant me eternal life. Without Christ I am nothing.
c. When I was in the Navy, as I would ask a question about a particular system or component while pursuing engineering qualifications, the other operators would jokingly say, “I used to know that, but now I’m qualified.”
(1) Although qualified, they still needed to know the information in order to safely operate the plant—the other 120+ lives on the boat depended on that knowledge.
(2) Just because I am saved and have Christ in my heart, I still need Him in my life just as much as I did before I was saved. Just having Him in my heart is not enough; I need a deeper knowledge of Him for the spiritual safety of my life depends on it.
d. It makes no difference that your heart is in the right place if your body and your actions aren’t right there with your heart. Remember, in us may be all the Christ some will ever see.
6. Invitation
