In this thing called “life,” what do you have going for you? Well, someone says, I’m smart. My parents have money. I have connections who’ll get me places. I have this thing people are calling “privilege” – without trying I’m farther ahead than others. I have life experience. I have resources. I have style.
In this thing called “life,” what is taking it out of you? What’s against you? Well, I don’t have a good resume. I’ve never gotten a handle on my appetites/lusts. Etc.
But hold on: as we pointed toward last week at the conclusion, those questions – what do we have going for us? What’s against us? – have to be asked within a context wide enough to include God. Otherwise, the answers will prove shallow to the point of irrelevance. So, let’s try again: as you live in this creation heading toward a day of judgment presided over by the Creator – what do you have going for you? What’s against you?
Paul has just said that it’s a defining trait of those who are truly “the Circumcision” – those who have been marked at their core as belonging to God – they are defined by their not putting confidence in the flesh. When answering the question about what they have going for them they don’t appeal to anything connected to Adam, no matter how fabulous, virtuous, endearing, polished, seemingly productive, skillful, elite…
Then Paul takes the discussion out of the hypothetical and brings up his own situation. He claims that, as far as he knows, he’s got the most reason for boasting in the flesh. From a certain angle I don’t know anyone who could be as confident as I that I’m part of the good that God is doing in the world. Here’s why:
He then proceeds to list qualities all revolving around Israel and Torah. A Hebrew of the Hebrews… and wherever Torah directed that’s where he was headed, at the front of the line.
Let’s pick up in v. 7: But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss… Wow – those connections to Israel and proficiency in Torah and the great current of zeal in these things: at one time those gave him a confidence that he was in the right. But all that has been reconsidered, and now those advantages are deemed disadvantages. To the point that, the answer to “what do you have going for you?” is now the answer to “what is against you?”
Why this drastic change of mind? For the sake of Christ – a phrase that isn’t super transparent, could be taken in a couple of different ways. But one thing is clear: the difference between his evaluations then and his evaluations now is Christ.
In the first half of v. 8 Paul doubles down on what he just said – indeed. And then expands on it: I count everything as loss. Everything. Not just the so-called “religious” advantages, but every kind of benefit, anything that gave him an edge in life are now placed into the column of “liability” or “burden.”
Again we ask for an explanation of this change of mind and again Paul points to Christ, but now that’s expanded to the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. He seems to be saying two things: a) compared to knowing Christ Jesus my Lord everything else is so trivial as to be deemed a liability. And, b) even…especially the advantages in life get in the way of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, and so now I view those advantages not merely as positives, but also as liabilities.
In the second sentence of v. 8 Paul reminds the Philippians that all this talk about prizing a relationship with Christ above everything isn’t simply talk: For His sake I have suffered the loss of all things. When Paul was baptized into Christ Jesus, all that had been propelling his life, all his momentum, all the progress, the powerful connections, the status, the hush that would fall over the room when he walked in, his mapped-out sparkling future…it all vanished in a matter of weeks, maybe even days, as news spread of his allegiance to Jesus.
But it’s one thing to talk pious when things are going well. So, what do you say now, Paul, on the other side of admiration and success? I count them as rubbish. In one corner of my yard, I’ve got this heap of old stumps, poison ivy vines, branches that have fallen off…all awaiting a trip to the dump. Paul says, that’s how I view that whole existence outside of Christ.
But even more – he wants to emphasize something: in order that – this was a calculated choice. I chose the stance that would end up breaking with my old life…because I wanted something better. Someone. I wanted to gain Christ. I had to lose the world (as I knew it) togain Christ, and I did that, not because I’m a noble creature or a pretty spiritual boy…but because I wanted Christ.
But not only to catch up to Christ, to in a way acquire Him. But as Paul goes to on to say in v. 9 – and be found in him…. And be found in him. Imagine a grand tree in the prime of its life towering over the landscape. The tree draws in your eye and you walk toward it. Grand, leafy, gnarly, alive. Now you’re under its canopy and now by its trunk. Your eyes are open, and eventually you start to see this nest and that nest and this fungi… and you discern with aided powers to make this analogy work a whole host of micro-organisms. You suddenly realize: this grand tree is a whole ecosystem, it’s supporting worlds!
That’s kinda what Paul means by being found in Him. When you gain Christ you come up to something massive and complex and involved… and you’re enfolded into it. You’re still you, but you’re attached to Christ, living off Him. Drawing from Life Himself. Hallelujah.
Perhaps we’re a little surprised by how Paul specifies the advantage of being found in Christvs any other advantage, including connection to Torah. He speaks in terms of righteousness – not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law but that [righteousness] which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith…. The advantage of being found in Christ is a more secure, a radical, righteousness. The deep problem that Christ solves is the problem of righteousness.
Let’s say that another way: our problem is that of unrighteousness. To explain that, let’s try to glance over the big picture. God creates and what he creates is good. And by the end of day six, after he makes humanity, God turns up the dial and calls this world “very good.” The creation with humans made in His image, humans overseeing the rest of the creation by learning from Him, trusting Him, and then reflecting His wisdom and love into stewarding the creation in His place = VERY GOOD. Grass, color, smells, work, order, growth, music of the spheres, more music in the offing, roots, love, easy fellowship with God. All was right with the world.
Friend, do you belong in that very good world? In your speech, your work, your priorities, at your heart, are you fulfilling your role in it, reflecting God’s nature into the world as you dwell closely by him… are you part of what’s right with the world? Or not?
Of course, the first man – the head of the human race – sinned: his job was to bear the image of God into the rest of the creation, but he failed in the very first step: he doubted God instead of trusting Him. So instead of Adam cultivating life and developing God’s creation, causing it to flourish, he also released death into the creation and into his descendants. Failure and death – not the way things are supposed to be. Not right. Unrighteous.
Where do you stand in all that, child of Adam? Have you managed to crawl out of the miry pit of sin and death that your father dug?
As recorded in Genesis 3:15, after Adam’s sin almost immediately God announces two main ancestral lines that will populate the earth: the people formed into the character of the deceitful, destructive serpent and the people somehow connected to a great serpent-slayer to come. The great Restorer of right.
By your thoughts, speech, priorities, acts, inaction – do you present as the line of the destroyer or are you on the side of God making things right?
Thousands of years later God approaches Abraham and tells him that his blessing will be on him and his “Seed.” And the nations will be blessed through him. By this interaction we learn that the Restorer of “very good-ness,” the great serpent destroyer, the second Man who will make things right where the first Adam did wrong – this one and the blessing he releases will come through Abraham.
So, are you in the right? Are you a descendant of Abraham or otherwise are you a partaker of his blessing? Or are you an outsider to Abraham? Are you part of the program by which God is making things right or part of the ongoing problem?
500 years later to Abraham’s descendants God gave the Torah, “the Law.” A Covenant between God and Israel that would bind Israel together as a nation. Instructions and laws that when followed would set them apart from surrounding nations, that would teach them the ways of God and direct them in the way of righteousness, A WAY WHICH WAS FOUNDED ON A LOVING TRUST IN THE CREATOR GOD. Following these instructions sequestered them away from surrounding nations; through Torah something like a wall was built between them and the rest of the world.
Within this enclosure a great treasure was kept: a system of sacrifices and oracles pointing toward the future when at the beginning of the last days God would decisively make things right, not just for them but for the whole world. When the great Son of Man – one of Israel’s own – would be born. The great Crusher of the serpent’s head. A Servant who by His labors would release the creation from its long bondage to what is not right to be brought back under humanity who themselves have been saved from evil. With the giving of the Law, the Restorer of very-goodness is in the bullpen!
Well, how did all that go? What did Israel do with this gift of Torah? I’ll begin with a summary conclusion: Though provided with the great advantages of Torah and overall the special attention of the Creator, the history of Israel showed that Adam’s failure was rooted so deeply in them as to turn even these good gifts into instruments of destruction. Saying that shortly, ISRAEL IS ALL TOO HUMAN.
Let me fill in some details to that conclusion. The Law contained commandments THAT WERE FOUNDED ON A LOVING TRUST IN THE LAWGIVER, THE CREATOR. But what happened? Israel kept turning away from the Creator: He called them spiritual adulterers. God kept returning home only to find Israel with trousers pulled down canoodling with whatever was the god of the day.
The commandments of Torah were sometimes blatantly disregarded. Or more commonly, they were performed in a cagy way, so that Israel could tell themselves they had obeyed but while missing the whole spirit behind the commandment. All too human.
Or, the laws were performed with a scrupulousness in order to feed self-righteousness. How backward is that! The laws were given partly to keep Israel in mind of their sinfulness, as a kind of rototiller to keep their consciences churned up…they turned Torah into another way to harden their heart with pride. All too human.
The Law became a revered yet dead document, as perhaps is happening to the US Constitution. Everyone talked about it, everyone was glad to possess such a document…but it wasn’t directing the people.
Romans 2: 17: But if you call yourself a Jew and rely on the law and boast in God 18 and know his will and approve what is excellent, because you are instructed from the law; 19 and if you are sure that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, 20 an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of children, having in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth—21 you then who teach others, do you not teach yourself? While you preach against stealing, do you steal? 22 You who say that one must not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples?23 You who boast in the law dishonor God by breaking the law. 24 For, as it is written, “The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.”
Torah was intended to keep Israel separate from the nations, but that was for the sake of them serving the world. But Israel – being all too human – twisted the situation and possession of the Law became an end to itself. Circumcision and possession of the Law, instead of being signs and pointers until the coming of the Messiah who would redeem the world from un-rightness, became ultimate badges of their own special relationship with God.
The Law was intended to point to the future, to prepare Israel for the coming Son of Man, Serpent Destroyer, Restorer of very-goodness. It was a schoolmaster leading Israel to the birth of the One. But what actually happened? Israel under Torah wasn’t prepared for the Restorer. Rather, Israel, justifying itself with Torah, killed the Son of Man, the Serpent Destroyer.
Here’s a headline as old as time: “Man While Opposing God Shoots Himself.” Yes, this is classic Adam stuff. Israel, even with Torah, is all too human.
All of that background to bring us back to Philippians. Paul speaks of two main ways of being put right: a righteousness of my own that comes from the law (Torah). This is the way of I’m going to keep the commandments of Torah and thereby demonstrate that I’m part of the great plan of God making things right. I’m a Hebrew of the Hebrews. Come look at my well-lit, polished gass display case that contains…Torah! Look what I’ve got. Look who I am. Look who I’ve done.
But Paul says, when I met Christ, that whole construction shattered! For the first time I grasped this big picture. All the so-called gains associated with Israel and the Law I now see only made things worse, THEY ONLY HIGHLIGHTED MY STATE IN ADAM. I’M ALL TOO HUMAN.
But, hallelujah, there’s another way of being put to right: that [righteousness] which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith. That’s what we’ll look at next week.
All of this has been pretty heady. What can we lay hold of this week?
- We can know Christ even as He’s away.
- Knowing Christ is the great good in life.
- It’s only hinted at today, but next week we’ll hear Paul say it clearly: Certain types of weakness are an advantage in this great pursuit. Oh, brothers and sisters will you look differently, consider differently: your low finances, your learning disability, your illness, your living next to frustrating people, the uncertainty about your future, your handicap, your kids’ struggles. Weakness is where we find Christ. Weakness is where we find Christ.
AMEN.
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