Note: Devotion taken from last Sunday's sermon on Philippians 3:4-12.
And
be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but
that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by
faith (Philippians 3:9).
In warning the Philippians
against false teachers (whom he calls dogs, evil workers, and the concision in
Phil 3:2) Paul reviews his own spiritual history as a “Hebrew of the Hebrews” (vv.
5-6). The false teachers were declaring that one needed circumcision to be saved.
If they believed they had “confidence in the flesh,” Paul declared he had even
more (v. 3).
After reviewing his
spiritual achievements as a pious Jew, Paul concludes “and [I] do count them
but dung.” The Greek word for “dung” here is skybala. Some render the
term as “rubbish,” but “dung” is closer to the fact. Think of a slang word that
means excrement or refuse. Everything I once thought most valuable of all my
achievements, I now consider them a big pile of “dung” in comparison to “the
excellency of the knowledge of Christ” (v. 8). This recalls the prophet
Isaiah’s statement that “all our righteousnesses
are as filthy rags” before a holy God (Isaiah 64:6).
Eta Linnemann
(1926-2009) was a German woman who became an accomplished university professor
of Biblical studies, even though she was not a believer and only looked upon
the Bible with skepticism. A group of Christian students witnessed to her and
prayed for her, however, and she was soundly converted. After describing her conversion in a book, she
addressed the readers:
“I regard everything
that I taught and wrote before I entrusted my life to Jesus as refuse. [...]
Whatever of these writings I had in my possession I threw into the trash with
my own hands in 1978. I ask you sincerely to do the same with any of them you may
have on your bookshelf” (Historical Criticism of the Bible, p. 118).
Of course, she was
using language that echoed Paul.
At the end of v. 8 Paul
says he considers his past life dung, “that I might win (or gain) Christ.” A
man’s arms cannot be wrapped around both Christ and the things of this world at
the same time. In order fully to embrace Christ, one must let go of the world.
Paul then expands upon
this in v. 9, saying, “not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law,
but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of
God by faith.”
This is where Paul’s doctrine of justification by faith
appears. Luther called
it the doctrine by which the church either stands or falls. Calvin called
justification “the main hinge on which [true] religion turns.”
Paul says that in
coming to know Christ he discovered that he did not have any righteousness of
his own, any grounds for being justified or considered to be righteous in God’s
sight.
He discovered the only
righteousness which he had was that “which is through the faith of Christ.”
This may well refer to the perfect faithfulness of Christ. It may also refer
simultaneously to Paul’s faith in Christ which he describes in Ephesians
2:8 as being “the gift of God.”
Paul further describes
this, at the end of v. 9, as “the righteousness which is of God by faith.” This
was the great truth which Paul discovered. Men are not justified before an
all-holy and all-righteous God by the works of the law (including circumcision)
but only by faith alone in Christ.
We cannot look to
ourselves, to our own pious works. We can only look to Christ and his
righteousness.
Grace and peace, Pastor
Jeff Riddle
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