Knowing Christ and Pressing On

 Philippians 3

Welcome! Today we continue our study of Paul’s letter to the Philippians. This week on several occasions I had the opportunity to talk with people about matters of faith, and repeatedly I heard the idea that religious belief systems are all about what one must do to be “good”. I heard the idea that the essence of religion is the desire to better oneself, and that there is value in religion in that it motivates and inspires people to be better than they “naturally” are.

This sounds good, doesn’t it? After all, our world is a dark place, and there are all kinds of pressures to bring us down to our baser instincts, to have us give in to our most selfish desires, to take because we can, to live out the Darwinian so-called law of “survival of the fittest.” Not only this, but there is satisfaction in revenge, there is release in acting upon anger, there is even a pleasure in power, and this pleasure is not diminished by the means one uses to obtain this power.

And so religion would seem to be good because it curbs these negative tendencies and encourages living within the law and orderly behavior and caring about others and so on. The details of the religion, many would say, are less important than the effects, the degree to which it encourages good behavior. Many agnostics who are not hostile to religion but neither choose to embrace a particular religious belief would agree with such statements.

What would the Apostle Paul say to such thinking? What would he reply to those who say that a religious code of behavior is good for mankind, that it promotes orderly society and individual goodness? What would he say to those who held up the Jewish Law as an example of a wonderful code to follow because it promotes these things? What would he say to those who said that, if you really want to be in God’s good graces, you too should pick up and follow these wonderful practices and traditions?

Well, Philippians chapter 3 tells us exactly what he would say, because he says it. Let’s dig in and look at the response of Paul, who was inspired directly by the Holy Spirit of God to put down exactly what God Himself thinks of such ideas.

Watch out for those dogs, those men who do evil, those mutilators of the flesh. – Phil. 3:2

Paul does not mince words. Paul was referring to Judaizers, people in Paul’s day who were teaching that to be truly good, to be in God’s good graces, you had to adopt the entire Jewish Law, including (and you could say, starting with) the practice of circumcision. Although these people probably did not think that all religions were good to the degree that they got people to be better people, they did think that by observing all of the Jewish Law, and only by doing so, could you really be someone that God would be pleased with.

What does Paul call these people? Dogs.  By the way there are at least two words for dogs. One is kunarionwhich means a little pet dog. That’s not the word Paul uses; he uses kuon. This refers to wild dogs, which were everywhere in that society. They had no Humane Society. These dogs attacked people. They roamed in groups. They were often disease-ridden. People bitten by them often died from disease. This is what Paul calls these people. It is, by the way, a startling term for Paul to use, because Jews of that day often called Gentiles kuon. Paul is calling the Jews, the Judaizers, kuon.

Then he calls them Evil-doers. Evil-workers. Again, this was a shocking term to call Jews, because they prided themselves on being workers of righteousness. That is what they called themselves, and they did so because they literally added up all the good deeds they were doing. Paul rejects their self-assessment and calls them literally the opposite of what they called themselves.

And of course Jews knew themselves as the people of the circumcision. But that isn’t what Paul called them. He didn’t call them circumcisers, in Greek, peritome, literally, ones who cut around the periphery, butkatatome, mutilators, literally those who cut through and through.

These are harsh words. Why was Paul so opposed to the Judaizers? What could be so bad about encouraging people to follow laws that had helped preserve and protect the Jewish people, rules that God Himself had proscribed to His people?

Well, the Judaizers came in varying “flavors,” but they all seemed to agree that circumcision was an absolutely necessary starting point. Why was circumcision so important to them? Almost certainly one reason was that circumcision was one of the first commands given to God’s people. It was given to Abraham, the “father of the Jews,” centuries before the Law was handed down to Moses. And almost certainly another reason was that because infants were circumcised at 8 days of age, it was seen as a “starting point” for obedience to the Law (not that the infants had any choice in the matter). It was felt that you couldn’t really begin following the Law until you did this first essential thing.

Many Judaizers went so far as to say that circumcision was a necessary condition for salvation. People like this confronted Paul in Acts 15:

Some men came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the brothers: “Unless you are circumcised, according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved.” – Acts 15:1

The apostles met as a council in Jerusalem to consider this claim, and rejected it. Peter pointed out that Gentiles were coming to faith in Christ and being filled with the Holy Spirit without being circumcised. And the council concluded that circumcision was certainly not a condition of salvation. In fact, the council seemed to reject any condition as an adjunct to faith in Christ; they mentioned some things non-Jewish Christ followers should do, but they did not specifically tie these things to salvation.

As to why Paul was so forceful in his response to Judaizers, in Galatians 5, led by the Spirit, he puts forth a powerful argument about the dangers of this kind of “faith plus” kind of thinking:

Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law. You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. But by faith we eagerly await through the Spirit the righteousness for which we hope. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. – Gal. 5:2-6

And in Colossians 2, Paul explains that the circumcision requirements of the Old Testament were really just a shadow of the far greater reality to be found in the New:

See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ. For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority. In Him you were also circumcised, in the putting off of the sinful nature, not with a circumcision done by the hands of men but with the circumcision done by Christ, having been buried with Him in baptism and raised with Him through your faith in the power of God, who raised Him from the dead. – Col. 2:8-12

Circumcision was only an outward shadow, a “type” to be fulfilled in Christ. What we have in Christ is so much greater than circumcision! And so we conclude that, as Paul says, circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing. People today often circumcise their baby boys for cultural or health reasons, and there is nothing wrong with this, but likewise there is nothing wrong with not doing this. In terms of faith and righteousness, it is nothing. What is something, what is dangerous, toxic, and even deadly to faith, is the idea that adherence to Law, self-effort, betterment, is what Christianity is about. It’s not! The message of Christianity is the utter failure of self-effort, the total futility of “religion.” Our sin is not fixed or remedied by self-realization or betterment exercises, or anything like this. Like the Pharisees, we may for a time achieve the appearance of looking good, but all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. All of our righteousness is as dirty rags. As Scripture says in Romans 3, apart from Christ:

“There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one. Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit. The poison of vipers is on their lips.Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.Their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and misery mark their ways, and the way of peace they do not know. There is no fear of God before their eyes.”- Romans 3:10-18

Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin. – Romans 3:19-20

But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. – Romans 3:21-24

It is through our faith in Christ that we are forgiven, that we appropriate this decreed righteousness from God. It is by grace through faith that we are saved, redeemed. This is the glorious truth of the gospel. Paul warns the Philippians to “watch out” for those who confuse or dilute or muddle this most important of truths.

We have spent a long time on one verse, but it is so important that we know this, that we are reminded of this again and again! Paul goes on in Philippians:

For it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh… – Phil. 3:3

As a new believer, it took me a while to really grasp these truths. I was born and raised Jewish, and so as a new believer I struggled with these very issues. Could I eat pork? Was I supposed to worship on Sunday or Saturday? What about clothing? What about marriage? And so on. After some time really just getting to know Scripture, in my own quiet times – and I would just remind you that there is no substitute for this; coming to church once a week is no substitute for daily times in the Word. Just as a child who eats one bowl of rice a day will become severely malnourished over time and his growth will be stunted, so it is that spending only one day a week exposed to God’s Word will stunt and malnourish you – anyway, spending time in the Word, I eventually came to understand this. The only circumcision of any value is the one we have in Christ. The only confidence we have in becoming “good” is in the work of Christ and the Holy Spirit in our lives. We have a role, but we don’t have the power. That is all Christ. And in Christ, we have all the power we need. And so we put our confidence in Christ, not in our flesh, that is in our self-efforts or rules or upbringing or anything else. Paul goes on:

…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.But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.– Phil. 3:4-6

Paul goes through this in part to answer the charge that he wasn’t Jewish enough to understand the value of adhering to the Jewish Law. Did the Judaizers actually level this charge against Paul? We don’t know, but regardless, Paul is heading off this argument in this letter before it can even be made. Paul is not some outsider when it comes to Judaism – he was in the innermost circle. Paul had a Ph.D. in Jewishness. He had been there, done that, lived it, more than 99% of others who could make such claims.

Paul said he had the birth credentials, born Jewish, circumcised on the 8th day. He also had the race; he wasn’t a converted Jew, but of the people of Israel. And he had the rank, or tribe. The tribe of Benjamin was considered one of the elite tribes (perhaps second only to Judah). There are a number of reasons to say this; one is that Benjamin was the last, and especially loved, child of Jacob (all that was left of Rachel’s sons after Joseph was betrayed). When the tribes gathered to fight enemies, Benjamin was in the front line. And when God divided up the Promised Land, the land given to Benjamin included what became the holy city of Jerusalem. Also Saul, the first king, the one chosen for stature, was of Benjamin, and later, when the kingdom split into two after Solomon died, Benjamin was the only tribe to stay loyal to Judah. And to know he was a Benjaminite means that his family had not been “polluted” with other tribes or mixed races even during the days of captivity in Babylon.

And he was a Hebrew of Hebrews; that is, he continued the practices and culture and language of his family, staying pure to Hebrew traditions. (Many other Jewish families were tainted and corrupted by Greek or Roman culture). And as for practicing the Law, he was a Pharisee, you could say, a fundamentalist, one who kept the strictest standards. The Pharisees were an elite group, probably only 5 to 10 thousand of them at the time Paul wrote this letter. As for zeal, eagerness to promote the Law and so on, he actually persecuted those who taught otherwise; he wasn’t just an armchair quarterback, he was a soldier. Of course it is extremely ironic, even blackly humorous, for Paul to use his past persecution of Christians as evidence for his zeal, but it does truly establish what he is saying. And lastly, he says he was “righteous,” that is, he didn’t just talk about the Law, he really followed it. Paul had devoted his entire life to these things. This was more than just a job or career, it was Paul’s very identity. But how does Paul see it now?

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. – Phil. 3:7-9

That word “loss” in Greek is zemia. The only other place it is used in the Bible is in Acts 27, where Paul was on a ship, and they had been delayed in their passage, and as a result, they were hitting the time of year where it was extremely dangerous to continue on. In verse 10, Paul said, “Men, I can see that our voyage is going to be disastrous and bring great loss (zemia) to ship and cargo, and to our own lives also.” The word implies not just loosing something, but damage. Here in Phil. 3, Paul is saying that he considers all he accomplished, all he had going for him, not just useless, but actually harmful.

I think sometimes in our culture people try to present the gospel as something “better.” The implication is that if your life is currently going OK, fine, but it could even be better. Do you have needs? Come to Christ and He can help satisfy them. But how different is what Paul is saying! He says that his past life was harmful, damaging. He goes on to call it rubbish, skubalon, which literally means the excrement of animals. That is how Paul views his former life, his life of relative success (from a worldly and Jewish view), a life where he seemed to have it all, popularity, recognition, power, and even an outward form of righteousness. He views this as excrement compared to his new life, one in which, at the time of writing his letter, I remind you, he is in prison, chained to a soldier, with an uncertain future, and a life which he has experienced beatings, shipwrecks, and other physical and emotional hardships that we cannot even begin to imagine. This new life, though, is life with a living real relationship with Christ, a life in which any righteousness he has is through the power of Christ, through faith, and he says that this is so awesome that his old life is poo in comparison. Paul goes on to say,

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. – Phil 3:10-11

These are just awesome words. Paul says, “I want to know Christ.” In Greek that is just as it is worded here. It isn’t that Paul wants to know about Christ. He wants to really know Him, deeply, fully, intimately. This is Paul’s hunger. And Paul’s attitude is that if sharing in suffering, even becoming like Him in His death, helps him to know Christ better, then he is all for it. Paul views this as infinitely better than his old life.

We can know Christ in this life. Not perfectly. But we really can experience Him. We can experience His power in our life. We can receive insight from Him. We can hear Him – perhaps not audibly, but we can hear Him nevertheless. I think of John 10, the “good shepherd” chapter, where Jesus says in the parable, “His sheep follow Him because they know His voice.” He goes on to say, “I know My sheep and they know Me.”

But to know Christ like this takes a brokenness, a willingness to see our old lives as dung, and it takes a hunger to know Christ, to follow Him, even to share in His sufferings if that is where He leads.

But I don’t think Paul even looks on these hard things as a negative. He’s not looking at the tradeoffs between not pursuing Christ and having a safe life against have a life pursuing Christ and experiencing untold hardships, even death. To him it’s not even a comparison.

It’s an imperfect analogy, but I have known a number of people who have had the “travel bug.” Do you know what I mean? These are people who, when they are home, are constantly planning their next trip, wishing to be elsewhere, and generally are miserable for the longer they have to stay at one place. I’m the opposite of this – I’m more like a hobbit, happy to be home and unhappy when I’m away. But I’ve known some people who’ve had the travel bug really bad, and to them, nothing compares to being on a new adventure. Growing up, I also had some friends who were “ski bums” real bad. I had one friend who came back from a ski trip with a broken leg and a smashed car but was as happy as could be because “the snow was incredible! Two-foot powder for three days!”

Paul has the “Jesus bug.” He’s got it real bad. He’s had a taste of Christ, His fellowship, His presence, His love, His power, and Paul can’t get enough of it. He truly sees suffering as an opportunity to get to know Christ better. And this is how we should be too, and this would be how we all would be, if we truly understood the reality of how incredible it is to know Christ more, how incomparably awesome that truly is.

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. 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, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. – Phil. 3:12-14

This is one of a number of times Paul uses a sports analogy to make his point. Here he paints the picture of running. The word for “press” means to pursue, to chase, to run after with every ounce of energy you’ve got. And Paul is not just running for the joy of running, but running to win. To use a phrase that has become popular in the last few years, he’s “in it to win it.” And note how Paul says he is forgetting what is behind. A runner running full speed, if he turns his head to look back, will lose a ton of speed and lose the race. And we too, if we look back on past regrets, or periods of our life where we didn’t seek Christ, or anything like this, if we are doing this, then we are not running to win the prize.

Some of us struggle with regret. We may know we are forgiven, but we still regret our past sins, our past foolishness. Others of us may also struggle with forgiveness. We have asked forgiveness and may know in our heads we are forgiven, but we don’t believe it in our hearts. Both of these behaviors are incompatible with running to win the prize. Leave it behind! What’s done is done. What matters is what you do going forward. Are you going to hunger for Christ? Are you going to press on to know Him with all you’ve got? To do this there is just no room in your heart to keep thinking about the past. The past is past. Press on. Strain towards the goal.

As you get older, this also applies to reminiscing about the past. We can look on our early days in Christ, especially I think, if they occurred with a really good Christian fellowship in college, as the “good old days.” And then we look back on those, and look at the present, and sigh. If you are doing this, then you too are not pressing on towards the goal, not running full speed ahead, straining for the prize. I am sure that Paul, if he had allowed himself, could have thought back to the good old days, you know, when he wasn’t stuck in prison. But he didn’t allow himself to do this.

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. – Phil. 3:15-16

Just in case you were beginning to think, well, that’s great for Paul, but he was a superhero of the faith. I’m just a regular guy. Well, so much for that thought! If you’ve been a Christian for a while, then either you are mature in Christ or you should be by now. Either way, you not off the hook. You too should have an attitude like Paul, seeing a worldly life like garbage in comparison to knowing Christ, and seeing the goal of knowing Christ more as all-encompassing, all-important, all-everything. You too should see this goal as something worth running full-bore for, pressing on, straining, for the prize.

Join with others in following my example, brothers, and take note of those who live according to the pattern we gave you. For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things. – Phil. 3:17-19

To become a better runner, you hang out with runners. To become a better couch potato, you hang out with couch potatoes. Which is it going to be? Choose your friends carefully. Not that we don’t build friendships with people who need the gospel, or people who are young in the faith, but that we build our best friendships with those who want to run, to press on for the prize. You don’t become a better runner by running solo. And you certainly don’t become a better runner by only hanging out with those who ridicule your running altogether.

But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables Him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like His glorious body. Therefore, my brothers, you whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, that is how you should stand firm in the Lord, dear friends! – Phil. 3:20-4:1

The love Paul has for the Philippians just oozes out of this passage, doesn’t it? And the last thing I want to do is to compare myself to Paul, but I do have love for you. I desire that we be a church body running together, pressing on towards the prize. I desire that we spur one another on, pick one another up when one of us falls, even carrying one another for a time when that is what it takes. We are a team. God has put us together as a team, and He equips us with what we need through each other to run for Him. And He will transform our lowly individual bodies so that they will become like His body, the church. Will you run with me?