Philippians 3:1-12  An Old Perspective On The New Perspective

1 Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you is no trouble to me and is safe for you.

2 Look out for the dogs, look out for the evildoers, look out for those who mutilate the flesh.

3 For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh---

4 though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more:

5 circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew 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 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.

8 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

9 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---

10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death,

11 that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

12 Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.

 

Paul sounded like so many preachers. He says, "Finally" but then goes on for 2 more chapters.

What's wrong with that?!  Kent Hughes added in his commentary the story of the little boy who whispered to his father in church, "Daddy, what does the pastor mean when he says, "Finally"; to which his father responded, "Absolutely nothing, son."

The word Paul uses is a word that doesn't mean he's run out of things to say, but that he's signalling to his readers that he's about to move on to other matters. Or in the case, he is moving on to BIG matters.

You could translate it, "Now then".

Before Paul moves on, he repeats one critical issue at hand. Notice again – verse 1 – Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord.  He will command it again in chapter 4:4.

Paul uses this verb as an imperative – in other words, you could put an exclamation after the phrase. It's a command – rejoice in the Lord. You could also write after it in your margin – Just do it.  Do it!  Rejoicing is a command.

In fact , more than just a command to do it, Paul is saying something even bigger! Something really important!

How can an expression that Christians use glibly be a game changing theological and psychological statement?

As a command, expressing joy then is not the result of an emotion – because you can't command someone to feel a certain way; you can't command emotion.

Joy isn't a temperamental characteristic because you can't rewire someone by simply commanding it. Joy isn't related to circumstances or health or bank accounts – because you can't control circumstances and health and bank accounts just because you want to.

To rejoice in the Lord means to look to Him alone as your depository of joy. To rejoice in the Lord means that you find in the Lord your source of joy; He is the highest object of your joy; He is the treasure and fellowship of joy. And more than a command, Paul regards doing this, rejoicing in the Lord, as being a safeguard. A protection. Like a protective barrier from plunging over a cliff! The word Paul uses here for safeguard comes from a word that literally means to keep from tripping up or stumbling or losing your stability.

Imagine, rejoicing in the Lord can do all of that and more!

Matthew Henry, the Puritan expositor of the 1600's put it this way when he wrote, "The joy of the Lord is a divine armor against the assaults of our spiritual enemies and puts our mouths out of taste for those pleasures with which the tempter baits his hooks . . . the taste of joy in our mouths makes the tempter's offerings seem bland by comparison."

Warren Wiersbe wrote of a woman who was arguing with her pastor about the matter of faith of works as both necessary for salvation. She said to him, "I think that getting to heaven is like rowing a boat – one oar is faith and the other oar is works. And if you use both, you'll get to heaven. If you use only one oar, you'll only go around in circles." The pastor replied, "There is one major problem with your illustration – nobody is going to heaven in a rowboat."

Funny enough, there is a teaching that many pastors coming out of reformed seminaries have indeed adopted that same idea. They call it "The New Perspective on Paul." It is related to some books by an Anglican Bishop named N.T. Wright, and several others. Ridley College in Melbourne has some teaching this belief. There is a concern that some Sydney Anglican ministers have adopted this teaching. I am sure it is found in every evangelical and non evangelical denomination today.

The April 2014 edition of Christianity Today features a profile of twenty-first century biblical scholar N. T. Wright. On the issue's front cover, we are told that Wright "is brilliant, prolific, and controversial —and says we've missed the heart of the gospel." For 400 years Christians have missed the heart of the gospel, until Wright came along! The heart of this teaching is that for hundreds, if not thousands, of years Christians have seriously "misunderstood" the apostle Paul and his teachings—thus the need for a new perspective on Paul.

There are four basic tenets of "New Perspective on Paul." First is the belief that Christians misunderstand Judaism of the first century. They say that Paul was not battling against Jews who were promoting a religion of self-righteousness and works-based salvation and that the Pharisees were not legalists. Yet the Bible describes the Pharisees as those who "neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness," "straining at a gnat while swallowing a camel," and ones who "cleaned up the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence" (Matthew 23:23–25). The view that first-century Pharisees were not legalists and their religion was not one of self-righteousness and works-based salvation directly contradicts Jesus' own words in this and numerous other passages.
The second tenet of this false teaching is that Paul really did not have a problem with the doctrine of salvation taught by the Jewish leaders of his day. His disagreement with them was simply over how they treated the Gentiles and not a fundamental difference over how one is saved or justified before a holy God. However, in his letters to the Galatians and the Romans, Paul clearly and solidly condemned the works-based system of righteousness promoted by the Judaizers who were trying to lure the Galatians away from the true gospel message. In fact, he said that anyone who preached a gospel other than the one he preached should be "eternally condemned" (Galatians 1:8–9). Once again, Scripture shows that the "New Perspective on Paul" is not based on the testimony of Scripture but instead is contrary to it, making it an unbiblical teaching with serious consequences for those who follow it and are led astray by it.
The third unbiblical tenet of the "New Perspective on Paul" teaching is that the gospel is about the Lordship of Christ and not a message of personal salvation and individual redemption from the condemnation of sin. Certainly, the Lordship of Christ is an important part of the gospel truth, but, if that is all it is, how is that good news? No one can make Christ Lord of his life without first being cleansed of sin and indwelt by the Holy Spirit. Only the Spirit of God can empower us to yield to the lordship of Christ. Clearly the hope of Christians is that Christ is first and foremost a Savior whose atoning sacrifice has personally and completely made atonement for their sins. It is for this reason that the gospel is the good news, because "it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek" (Romans 1:16).
This leaves us with the fourth and the most serious unbiblical tenet of the "New Perspective on Paul" teaching—the denial of the doctrine of justification by faith, a central and non-negotiable Christian doctrine. According to proponents of this unbiblical teaching, when Paul wrote about justification, he was not speaking of personal and individual justification whereby a guilty sinner is declared righteous on the basis of his faith in Christ and Christ's righteousness being imputed to the sinner. Instead, they claim, when Paul wrote about justification, he was speaking of how one could tell if a person was "a member of the covenant family."

Paul effectively says to the Philippians – beware anyone who misleads you into believing the gospel of grace is actually the gospel of works.

A gospel of witnessing longer, sinning less often, praying more often, doing better, working harder . . . more, more and even more and then perhaps God will love you and accept you if you do still more.

No, the truth is, we are sinners, saved by grace through faith in Christ and accepted in the beloved.

Beware of the dogs – they will spiritually harm you;

Beware of the evil workers – they will spiritually mislead you

One more – Paul writes in verse 2, beware of the false circumcision.

Keep in mind Paul isn't talking about 3 different groups of people – he's talking about the same group of Jewish false teachers in three different ways.

And in this last description, by calling them the false circumcision, Paul literally destroys their sense of pride and their trust in their own man-made relationship with God.

Circumcision was essential to the Jewish people – beginning with Abraham. It was the distinguishing mark of God's covenant. Over time the Jews would refer to one another as "the circumcised."

But these early Jewish false teachers were attempting to make every Gentile go through the ceremony of circumcision in order to guarantee their covenant with God.

And Paul very graphically sets the record straight here. He refers to them, not with the normal word for circumcision here in verse 2, but with a slightly different word that means physical mutilation.

You see, now, because of the sacrifice of Christ and His finished work on our behalf, salvation comes through faith in Christ alone.

No physical mark, no symbol, no act, no ritual, no ceremony can ever change the heart or transform the heart anyway – they all pointed to Christ's sacrifice.

If it isn't Jesus alone, it is Jesus plus something.

That's legalism at its core. It steals your joy by suggesting that God's love and favor have to be earned and you'd better do more and you'd better be better.  God will never be pleased with you unless your hand accomplishes something that can be added to the cross of His Son. 

 Jesus plus baptism.            Jesus plus church membership             Jesus plus tithing

 Jesus plus Sabbath worship    Jesus plus tithing      Jesus plus pilgrimages       Jesus plus prayers

Then . . . maybe . . . God will be satisfied with you – which implies God the Father isn't satisfied with His Son.

Your baptism doesn't save. No one is saved by an act you might do, whether its religious ritual, race, religion, rules or reputation.

My orthodoxy won't save me             My activity won't save me

My sincerity won't save me                My ability won't save me.

You need a fresh perception of your spiritual bankruptcy before God.

We are those who trust in ourselves least.

Paul writes at the end of verse 3, we put no confidence in the flesh.

Nothing in my hands I bring Simply to Thy cross I cling.

Foul I to the fountain (of His blood) fly Wash me Saviour or I die.

Just as I am without one plea But that Thy Blood was shed for me And that Thou bidst me come to Thee ,

O Lamb of God I come I come.

 

More than that, Paul is positively renouncing anything he might have confidence in to get him to heaven.

7 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.

8 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

Nothing either great or small—  Nothing, sinner, no; Jesus did it, did it all,  Long, long ago.

"It is finished!" yes, indeed,  Finished every jot: Sinner, this is all you need—    Tell me, is it not?

When He, from His lofty throne,  Stooped to do and die, Everything was fully done;  Hearken to His cry:

Weary, working, burdened one,  Wherefore toil you so? Cease your doing; all was done  Long, long ago.

Till to Jesus' work you cling  By a simple faith, "Doing" is a deadly thing—  "Doing" ends in death.

Cast your deadly "doing" down—  Down at Jesus' feet; Stand in Him, in Him alone,  Gloriously complete.

Sir James Simpson, the discoverer of chloroform, used to say that the greatest discovery that he ever made was the discovery that he was a sinner and that Jesus Christ was just the Savior he needed. John Wesley could have said the same. But, whereas Sir James Simpson was able to point to the exact date on which the sense of his need broke upon him, John Wesley is not so explicit. He tells us that it was in Georgia that he discovered that he, the would-be converter of Indians, was himself unconverted. And yet, before he left England, he wrote to a friend that his chief motive in going abroad was the salvation of his own soul. As soon as he arrived on the other side of the Atlantic, he made the acquaintance of August Spangenberg, a Moravian pastor. A conversation took place which Wesley records in his journal as having deeply impressed him.

"My brother," said the devout and simple-minded man whose counsel he had sought, "I must ask you one or two questions: Do you know Jesus Christ?"

"I know," replied Wesley, after an awkward pause, "I know that he is the Savior of the world."

"True," answered the Moravian, "but do you know that He has saved you?"

"I hope He has died to save me," Wesley responded.

The Moravian was evidently dissatisfied with these vague replies, but he asked one more question.

"Do you know yourself!"

"I said that I did," Wesley tells us in his journal, "but I fear they were vain words!"

He saw others happy, fearless in the presence of death, rejoicing in a faith that seemed to transfigure their lives. What was it that was theirs and yet not his?" Are they read in philosophy?" he asks. "So was I. In ancient or modern tongues? So was I also. Are they versed in the science of divinity? I, too, have studied it many years. Can they talk fluently upon spiritual things? I could do the same. Are they plenteous in alms? Behold, I give all my goods to feed the poor! I have labored more abundantly than they all. Are they willing to suffer for their brethren? I have thrown up my friends, reputation, ease, country; I have put my life in my hand, wandering into strange lands; I have given my body to be devoured by the deep, parched up with heat, consumed by toil and weariness. But does all this make me acceptable to God! Does all this make me a Christian? By no means! I have sinned and come short of the glory of God. I am alienated from the life of God. I am a child of wrath. I have no hope." It is a great thing, I say, for a man who has been brought within sight of the kingdom to recognize, frankly that he is, nevertheless, still outside it.

 

You Have A New Position of Security

 "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 that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith---"

 

We are those who brag about Jesus Christ most.

Notice again, we glory in Christ Jesus.

The word for glory is a word that describes boasting with joy about what a person is most proud of.

We are people who understand that when you strip everything away, the only thing we have to boast about is our salvation – the only person we have to boast in, is Christ.

 

But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus as my Lord.

I count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ.

The word for counted again is an accounting term for carefully adding everything up. I have carefully looked at what I had to offer God. You see, Paul adds to his personal testimony – here's what I've learned; verse 9. I don't have a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith.

This is what theologians call imputation. It means "to put to someone's account."

In other words, Paul looks at his life ledger and recognizes that he's actually bankrupt. And then he looks at Jesus Christ's ledger and sees nothing but perfection. And then by faith he believes in Christ and God the Father puts Christ's righteousness to his bankrupt account – and then writes his sinful record into the account of Christ, for which Christ suffers and dies and pays for . . . giving to Paul – and every believer – imputing, depositing – the righteousness that He alone can give.

Which comes from God on the basis of faith.

 And it isn't faith plus ceremony.

 faith plus faithfully attending Mass as a Catholic;

 faith plus being baptized in water as a Protestant;

 faith plus zealous devotion to your religion.

 Faith plus keeping the golden rule or making sure you don't commit the dirty dozen.

Listen, don't misunderstand – it's a wonderful objective to be good and upstanding and moral.

But, as Spurgeon once put it so well, good morals can keep a person out of jail, but only Jesus Christ can keep a person out of hell.

Here's the gospel – For by grace you have been saved through faith – not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works so that no one may boast (Ephesians 2:8-9)

Salvation is a gift from God – a gift of grace. And you accept it, by faith – by believing that His gift of grace is for you.

Is Christ a sufficient Saviour for you?  This is the question. If you are trusting anything else but Christ, then you are damned already!

Henry Smith wrote "He hideth our unrighteousness in His righteousness. He covereth our disobedience with His obedience, He shadoweth our death with His death and the wrath of God cannot find us!"

 "Dost thou believe," asked Staupitz, the wise old monk, "dost thou believe in the forgiveness of sins?"

"I believe," replied Luther, reciting a clause from his familiar credo, "I believe in the forgiveness of sins!"

"Ah," exclaimed the elder monk, "but you must not only believe in the forgiveness of David's sins and Peter's sins, for this even the devils believe. It is God's command that we believe our own sins are forgiven us!"

"From that moment," says D'Aubigne, "light sprung up in the heart of the young monk at Erfurt."

"I believed," says Luther, "that my sins, even mine, were forgiven me!"

"I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for salvation," says Wesley, in his historic record, "and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine!"

 

You Have A New Priority of Intimacy With the Lord

10that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. 12 Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.

 

The Person of His Lord

Jonathan Edwards of the mid-1700's wrote "This is the only happiness with which our souls can be satisfied. Fathers and mothers, husbands, wives or children, or the company of earthly friends are but shadows; but enjoyment of God is the substance. Family and friends are but scattered beams, but God is the sun. They all are but streams, but God is the fountain; these are but drops, but God is the ocean."

 

The Power of His Life

the power of his resurrection

 

The Passion of His Love

and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death,

 

The Prime  of His Longing

11 that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. 12 Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.

Just one thing? Just one person!!!! The Lord Jesus. Do you live for Him? Do you long for His appearing?

John Wesley was taken very ill at Bristol and expected to die. Calling Mr. Bradford to his bedside, he observed: "I have been reflecting on my past life. I have been wandering up and down, these many years, endeavoring, in my poor way, to do a little good to my fellow creatures; and now it is probable that there is but a step between me and death; and what have I to trust to for salvation? I can see nothing which I have done or suffered that will bear looking at. I have no other plea than this: 'I, the chief of sinners am, But Jesus died for me.'"

Eight years later – fifty-three years after the great change at Aldersgate Street – he was actually dying. As his friends surrounded his bedside, he told them that he had no more to say. "I said at Bristol," he murmured, "that

'I, the chief of sinners am, But Jesus died for me.'" "Is that," one asked, "the present language of your heart, and do you feel now as you did then?" "I do."