From Very Religious to Faith In Christ

Transcript

GRM 1108
1/27/2013
From Very Religious to Faith in Christ
Philippians 3:1-17
Gil Rugh

I thought we would look into Philippians chapter 3 this evening. We just finished Paul’s letter to Philemon, a personal letter and you see something of the warmth of the apostle Paul. We noted it was a letter written while Paul was a prisoner in Rome and you see his concern for others during that time.

Philippians is another letter written during Paul’s Roman imprisonment written to the Greek city of Philippi where Paul, remember when he had crossed over from Asia Minor, was used of God and a church was established there. Now Paul writes to them from prison and shares his testimony and that’s what chapter 3 is, an extensive sharing of Paul of his own personal testimony of coming to salvation in Christ. It is in the context of trouble; those who were opposing the Gospel, those who were trying to lead believers in the church at Philippi astray from the truth. Paul writes to encourage them, to exhort them to the joy they should have in the Lord and to warn them about the danger of false teachers.

One thing that plagued Paul during his ministry and it plagued the church in its early days were those called the Judaizers. Judaizers were Jews who had professed to trust Christ as Savior but they had never let go of the Mosaic Law so they had never really entered into salvation and it becomes confusing. It confused even Gentiles. The church at Philippi is a Gentile church but the influence of the Judaizers come from an Old Testament background. What God was doing in Christ is what we have been seeing in the book of Hebrews based in what He had promised and prophesied in the Old Testament. The law was a preparation for the coming of Christ. Now that Christ has come, you have these Jews who said, “Oh yes, we have believed in Him as our Messiah as well.” But to really be saved you not only must believe in Him but you must continue to keep the Mosaic Law. It would be confusing to these new believers but the Gentiles who came out of a totally pagan background, this could make sense. Well God gave the law and He sent His Son to be the Messiah, but maybe He intends for us to do both for salvation. Trust in the Messiah and keep the law. Paul reserves some of his harshest statements in the Scripture for those kind of people pronouncing in Galatians 1 that they are cursed to hell because the more confusing the counterfeit the more damage it does.

So he is going to open up in Philippians, chapter 3, warning about these kinds of false teachers and then he’s going to move into his own personal testimony to show them how the Lord does work, how God brought him out of Judaism to salvation in Christ. So the chapter opens up, “Finally, my brethren as for the rest, (my brethren you could translated indicates Paul is moving to a new subject, a new area of emphasis and then he instructs them) rejoice in the Lord.” This becomes a key repeated emphasis in this letter. “Rejoice in the Lord.”

Look over to chapter 4, verse 4: “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice!” Then in verse 10: “I rejoiced in the Lord greatly, that now at last you have revived your concern for me…” and then in earlier chapters, chapter 1 and chapter 2 repeatedly he mentions joy. Interesting, here he is and we are reminded of the circumstances that God places you in doesn’t mean that He intends for your joy in Him to be diminished. Paul is a prisoner in Rome and he writes a letter from prison and talks about his joy and he wants them to have joy and so even when he is talking about difficult situations not to diminish the joy that we have because we know that our God is sovereign.

“To write the same things again to you is no trouble to me, and it is a safeguard for you.” In other words Paul is going to be telling them what he had told them on other occasions. Repetition, repetition, he says I don’t mind repeating and it’s good for you that I do it, a safeguard as we have it translated. It means something that gives stability and firmness so that it’s not overthrown. So for me to remind you, I don’t consider it a burden and it will help you to be more firmly established and give you stability so these false things that come won’t unsettle you or disturb you. And then he launches right in and sometimes we are surprised at the seriousness of the language that the Spirit moves Paul to use. “Beware of the dogs.” I mean, whoa. Is that a nice thing? Do you really want to call other people dogs? And the dogs of Biblical times are not our nice pets that we love so much and spend so much time and money on in these days. These were the scavengers of the street. They were despised animals and the Jews used it to describe Gentiles. Now here Paul says, “Beware of the dogs.” Beware, be on the constant lookout. Be watchful for the dogs.

Isaiah 56 – we won’t go back to some of these passages because we want to survey a larger portion of his testimony, but in Isaiah 56, Isaiah refers to false prophets as dogs. Matthew 3:7 Jesus referred to false teachers as what, a brood of vipers, poisonous snakes. Chapter 7 and verse 15 in the Sermon on the Mount, ravenous wolves describing these who would corrupt the truth of God. In Acts 20, verse 29 Paul warned the elders at the church of Ephesus about savage wolves that would come in. The picture was as the Jews familiar with the sheep and these wolves had come in to tear the flock apart. That’s how it is used to describe the false teachers. That’s what Paul here now is saying, “Beware of the dogs.”

Peter uses some graphic teaching. He said these false teachers are like dogs that return to their own vomit, rather unpleasant description. He’s not trying to make friends with them. He’s not trying to play down the difference. This is serious business when we get to the Gospel and one of the dangers facing the church at Philippi is that they not see it as seriously as they should and that opens the door to the influence to get ahold there and then the church will be in trouble.

“Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers.” (Philippians 3:2) They are workers. We know what it is like. Sometimes we are impressed by the zeal and determination and work that false teachers and false religions do. It seems like they are willing to pour themselves into it. Paul refers to them here as evil workers. They are workers. We have to be careful that we don’t give credibility to them because they are so enthusiastic and passionate and energetic about what they are doing. They are evil workers, not accomplishing the work of God.

Again, this is not unusual for them to be referred to this way. In Luke chapter 13, verse 27 they are called workers of iniquity. 2 Corinthians 11:13, they are deceitful workers so the devil’s slaves work hard for him and promote his cause.

So, beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of the false circumcision. And as many of you are aware, the word translated false circumcision literally means mutilation. It’s not the circumcision that marked a Jew off as part of God’s covenant with Abraham and his descendants. This is a pagan rite that would be forbidden in Leviticus 21:5. Any cutting on the body and since this is false teaching either promoted by Jews who were using something from the Scripture that for the Jews had a positive indication. It marked them off as part of the covenant God had made. It’s a pagan mutilation which would be forbidden by God. He gives no credit to it at all because they are saying “you have to be circumcised to be saved.” Acts 15 gives some of this detail on these Judaizers as well when they had the conference there to try to resolve the issue in the early church. Oh yes, but they must be told to be circumcised and to keep the law of Moses.

Now he draws the contrast in verse 3. They are false and what they are doing is nothing connected to the genuine. “We are the true circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh.”

The real circumcision, the circumcision that has to be of the heart and Paul is a Jew. He is going to go on to talk about his testimony as a Jew. But to have circumcision be meaningful to a Jew physical circumcision didn’t do anything for him if it was not to be accompanied by faith in God and His provision for them that resulted in the circumcision of the heart. The removal of sin, the cleansing from the defilement, the Old Testament prophets were used of God to say what? You must have circumcised hearts. Deuteronomy says the same thing. The heart must be circumcised and without that it is just a physical rite that becomes offensive to God,

The pattern is always the same. We can see it around us today. We gravitate as fallen people to the external and to the physical and we begin to identify that. In our day baptism becomes that and we want to identify that rite of physical baptism as what? That brings you salvation but does it? No, physical activity can never save you but we move toward that. We see an emphasis in the church today about going back to the ancient ways and trying to implement and candles are brought in and certain practices are done. So wait a minute. We have lost our focus. It’s the spiritual reality that God requires.

Come back just to Romans 2. There is a whole list of passages but we don’t have time to do those in a survey but Romans 2, verse 28: “He is not a Jew who is one outwardly; nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew who is one inwardly and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; (referring to the Mosaic Law) and his praise is not from men, but from God.”

Deuteronomy chapter 30, verse 6 – God back in the law said they must have the circumcision of the heart; Jeremiah chapter 4 and other Old Testament references. So he is not talking here about Gentiles becoming Jews he is talking about being a genuine Jew in the line of the promises of God as he will get into in chapter 4. You must be of the faith of Abraham.

So, back in Philippians, we are the true circumcision. Those who worship God in the Spirit, remember Jesus in John chapter 4? God is Spirit. We must worship God in Spirit. That doesn’t mean we can’t have a physical presence and so on but that’s not what genuine worship is. We can go through it, stand up at the right time, sing the songs at the right time, open our Bibles at the right time, but if our hearts and minds are not there, there is no true worship going on. God is not pleased. It becomes offensive to Him. Just like someone pretending to be something with you. It becomes offensive to you. It’s hypocritical and here people come and they think well I went through the routine. I went to church today and I did this or I went to confession, I went to this, I got baptized, I did all my things I should do. Well, that didn’t do anything.

So we worship in the Spirit of God referring to genuine worship. We glory in Christ Jesus. Those who are truly God’s children have their lives focused in Christ not in external rites. That’s what the book of Hebrews is doing, remember, drawing people back to the attention of what matters. It is the person and work of Christ, not these external things that give a seeming feeling of a sense of security and acceptance but they really do nothing. We glory in Christ, what Paul wrote to the Galatians as he had to deal with similar, same kind of issues in writing to the Galatians but he said what? “God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of Christ by which I was crucified to the world and the world to me.” “We put no confidence in the flesh,” the end of verse 3. You see how he pulls things together in a concise way. “We put no confidence in the flesh.” Paul would have been a circumcised Jew and he’s going to talk about other things that are characteristic of him. I have no confidence at all in any of these external things regarding my salvation. That’s where he’s going with this so he states it here. Then he’s going to now unfold it. We have no confidence in the flesh. Then the contrast in verse 4: “Although I myself might have confidence even in the flesh and if anyone thinks they have a reason to have confidence in the flesh I have a greater reason.”

Now he’s going to move into his own testimony and it’s in the context of those who are corrupting the truth and bringing confusion to the church so Paul’s testimony here and the point is, since the Jewish law is the issue these false teachers are trying to insert. Isn’t the devil amazing? What does he take? He takes something good. The law is good, Paul wrote in Romans 7, nothing wrong with the law. So he takes something good and something God has said, but he corrupts it and misuses it and brings confusion so people think well I am doing what God said, but they are totally confused. How many times you talk to a protestant or a catholic and you mention things from the Bible and they said, “Oh yea, I believe that too.” But you talk to them and hear them share and you know their confidence is in their church or in certain rituals and routines, rites they have gone through but they become difficult because oh no, I believe the Bible, we believe the Bible. This is in the Bible, that’s what we do. You can see the confusion the devil inserts, because it must be the truth of God properly understood. The devil quoted Scripture to Christ in the temptation in Matthew chapter 4, but he was misusing it and encouraging Christ to jump off the temple, because remember the verse? He will give His angels charge over you so you won’t get hurt when you hit the ground. Good verse. How many of us would have jumped off? But it is a misuse of Scripture so Paul wants to clarify here. We put no confidence in the flesh and he’s going to use himself as an example now. He is not writing like a Gentile was writing it and say oh yes, you write that as a Gentile because you really aren’t a Jew and you really can’t appreciate what God has provided for the Jews and the importance of obeying these things and you don’t understand Gentiles are going to have to convert to Judaism to be saved. Paul could write from the inside. Let me tell you. If anybody thinks he could have confidence in the flesh and that the flesh might add to something to bring about their salvation, I have greater reason to have that confidence so here he goes telling you about himself and we appreciate learning something about Paul’s life in Judaism.

Verse 5 picks right up: “Circumcised the eighth day.” Picks up with circumcision and then he’s going to go back and talk about the tribe he was from and so on because he puts circumcision right out front because that becomes as the issue, the focal point. On the eighth day the male child was circumcised, the sign of the covenant; marked them off in that physical way but it didn’t save him. It identified him with the physical nation of Israel but until that man came in his life to trust in God and submit himself to him he never experienced salvation so we end up with a nation that God says in Isaiah 1: “Don’t bring anymore sacrifices to Me and I am offended by our prayers” and so on. Why? Because you continue to do all the external but there is no real life there. There is no real faith in me.

Just a note on circumcision. We are not going to go there but Paul uses the argument in Romans 4. We have been through this a number of times but it’s good to use. In Romans 4 Paul uses Abraham as the example because Abraham is the father of the Jews. The nation begins with Abraham. In Genesis chapter 15 verse 6 God declares Abraham righteous. Abraham believed God. God credited it to Abraham’s righteousness. Then in chapter 17 Abraham gets circumcised. That’s 14 or more years later after God had declared him righteous. The argument in Romans 4: How could circumcision be necessary for being righteous before God and being credited by God with His righteousness when Abraham was credited 14 years before he was circumcised? I use that passage often with people who believe baptism is necessary. I asked them, when was Abraham baptized, before or after Genesis 15? The point is Abraham was never baptized. Then how can baptism be necessary for salvation? That is Paul’s whole argument. All that was necessary was faith for salvation so Paul brings right up here. I was circumcised the eighth day. I am of the nation of Israel.

He uses the name Israel here. I’m of the nation of Israel. Well if you’re circumcised the eighth day, you are obviously a Jew. But I am of the nation of Israel. He is genuine. It’s Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and Jacob was given the name Israel by God in the book of Genesis, Genesis 32:28 after wrestling with the angel of the Lord through the night. It’s important that we follow the line because we have those who claim to be descendants of Abraham through Ishmael and they are. They are the Ismaelites but they are not descendants of Abraham through Isaac through Jacob. Ishmael was the son of Abraham but not through Sarah. It wasn’t through the appointed way. He was by Hagar. Esau and the Edomites, I am of the nation of Israel which ties it to Jacob because that’s the only line Abraham, Isaac and Jacob that is the line of covenantal promise.

I am of the tribe of Benjamin, great tribe and Benjamin was not the only son of Jacob. Remember the 12 sons of Jacob become the 12 tribes basically without going into detail. Benjamin was the only one born in the promised land. He is a special son. He was born of Rachael who was Jacob’s favorite wife. The first king of Israel was a man named Saul. He was of the tribe of Benjamin. When the nations split into the northern and southern kingdom ten tribes in the north, two tribes in the south. We usually refer to the southern kingdom as Judah because it was the large tribe and the other tribe was small. It was Benjamin so Paul is in the line of some called it Israel’s aristocracy. I mean he was in a significant tribe, a little tribe but an important tribe. So I have good lineage. I was a Hebrew of the Hebrews and to be considered a true Hebrew of the Hebrews you had to know the Hebrew language and you had to observe Hebrew customs. Paul says you know I am a Hebrew, through and through.

Then I was a Pharisee. Relating to the law I’m a Pharisee. You are familiar with the Sadducees and the Pharisees and the word Pharisee comes from a word that means the separated ones who rose in the inter-testament period, the Pharisees and Sadducees. And the Pharisees took it upon themselves to adopt a very careful handling of the law. They were concerned that Judaism was being corrupted by the adopting of Greek ways and Greek practices. So the Pharisees held to a strict adherence to the law and not an openness to adopt outside thinking and ways. So a Pharisee. As to zeal, a persecutor of the church, you can’t doubt my passion for Judaism. I persecuted the church and of course we know Paul’s testimony. When God saved him on the Damascus road in Acts chapter 9 he was on a mission to persecute Christians and have them arrested. He was there when Stephen was stoned to death in Acts chapter 7. They laid their outer coats at the feet of the one named Saul, who was our Paul, so they would have more freedom to pick up the stones and stone Stephen to death. So I was a persecutor of the church. As to the righteousness which is in the law, I was found blameless. Where he’s going with this. That doesn’t mean he was righteous before God but what he is saying is with my lineage. With my devotion and passion and commitment to Judaism and the law of Moses, you couldn’t find fault with me. Remember the comparison that started in verse 4. If anyone has mind to put confidence in the flesh, I far more. Paul would put himself up against any Jew and say I did as good or better job in keeping the law than the other Jews did. He was a rising star in Judaism, remember. I referred to that. I mean he’s a young man named Saul but he was a young man going places in Judaism. So if the law could get you someplace before God, I was one that could make it as to the law, blameless. Here comes the transition. Whatever things were gain to me and all these things were gain to him in the physical realm. They provided opportunity for him to rise in Judaism, to be successful in that realm, to reap material benefits from that as someone higher up in Judaism and so on. It gave him recognition. There was a certain security that came with it. I mean whatever things were gain to me, all these things I’ve listed, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. I have counted, a word that denotes after careful consideration, perfect tense, I have counted and continue to view them this way. I have given serious consideration and I have evaluated them and I came to the conclusion that I still hold to. I have counted them as loss for the sake of Christ. What is he saying? All these things, circumcision, being a Jew, being of a good tribe, being a Pharisee, keeping the law the best I could, persecuting those who didn’t keep the law, who taught differently, I counted that to be all loss for the purpose, the sake of Christ.

The point is to come to salvation in Christ you have to let go of everything else you are trusting in. As important as Judaism was to me and everything associated with it, I had to come to realize that was nothing. I counted that as detrimental because as long as I held on to that, that would keep one from Christ. I have come to Christ and let go of everything and trust Him. Now Paul’s writing as a prisoner. He’s gone from being somebody, having influence from the world’s point of view. Having some honor and recognition and importance in the sphere, where he counted it important to be important in Judaism to being a prisoner in Rome dependent upon contributions from others. He says I counted it loss and I still do today, those things so I could have Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them but rubbish that I may gain Christ.

More than that – you see the depth of Paul’s conviction. I mean he is a man of conviction. He was a man of conviction when he was convicted wrongly; when he was persecuting the church. He’s a man of passion for Christ. More than that I count them and in verse 7: “Whatsoever things were gain to me, those things I have counted.” That is the perfect tense. Something you did in the past and the results continue to the present. Then he adds: “More than that,” I want to emphasize this. I continue to count, present tense. I am counting all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. I continue to have the same reckoning and the same evaluations.

Sometimes people profess to know Christ and after a while they begin to think well you know it’s cost me a lot, maybe too much, maybe…no. Paul said I continue to count all these things. What matters and the only thing that matters is the surpassing, overwhelming value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. That’s all that counts. You see everything else is not important. They are not of value to me. The circumcision that I would have died for is nothing, a physical rite. He could appreciate what it physically stood for in the line of the Abrahamic Covenant for true believers, but that had nothing to do with him becoming righteous. That would not enable him to come into a true experiential knowledge of Jesus Christ. I have to let go of everything else. I count it loss, not gain, not of value. And Christ is the One for them I have suffered the loss of all things. Not talking about, oh yes, I would give up everything for Christ. Paul has done it. Here he is in prison. What does he have? He’s a prisoner. I have suffered the loss of everything and I’m not telling you to bemoan it. I’m not telling you to get sympathy because I don’t count those things as value. I count them as rubbish; a strong word, garbage, dung. They have no value to me. I understand that it is Christ and Him alone that brings salvation.

Sharing the Gospel with someone this week, just to get through that you know. I believe in Christ too, yes… You understand, these other things. You can’t believe in Christ and these other things to get through. Paul is concerned here. I want you to understand. I count these things as well, I gave up a lot. He gave up nothing. It’s a garbage pile. It’s a dung heap as far as bringing anything to me that would make me more righteous in God’s sight, more acceptable in God’s sight. Oh yes, it’s important to trust Christ, but these other things are a help. No, they are not a help. They are a hindrance. It’s Christ alone; driving home, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things.

Come back to John 15. You know in the Gospels, Jesus never painted a false picture for people that oh yes, trust Christ and things will get better and your life will get better. You will probably do better at your job and you will probably do better in life. That’s never the approach. You trust Christ for the salvation He brings. Your life may, humanly speaking, go downhill as Paul’s did from there. I mean you just look externally, it went downhill. He’s writing from prison having suffered the loss of all things. He was somebody in the world before. You might have thought, well, if you work it right, you maintain that influence. Think of how good that would be to have a testimony and then we decide to do it man’s way, not God’s way.

Here’s what Jesus said, John 15:18: “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.” There is no getting along with the world, in that sense, for the believers. If you truly belong to Christ, if He has truly chosen you out of the world, the world hates you, period. I mean there is no agreement between God and the devil. It is a war. That doesn’t mean we have to be fighting with our neighbor all the time or he is going to be doing mean things. You know the more open you are with your testimony, what? The more difficulty it creates. We look at the world. They keep promoting things that what, that are contrary to what God says. So if we speak out and speak of marriage in the Biblical sense and these kinds of things, it’s offensive to the world. And we are viewed as narrow and bigoted, but it wasn’t denying the spiritual issue.

“Remember the word that I said to you. A slave is not greater than his master. If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also.” On he goes, but I will send the Holy Spirit to be your helper.

Come back to Philippians 2. So I would say, we are hearing Paul’s testimony. The Spirit of God had it recorded here not so we could hold Paul up for admiration, but he could be an example as Paul said, “Imitate me as I have imitated Christ.” So you see the work of Christ in a life.

Some of us have been blessed to trust in Christ and know His salvation. We haven’t been carted off to prison as Paul was. We have to have the same mental approach to it, committed to Christ. It may cost me my family, my friends, my job. I am committed to Christ. There is no compromise on this. I’m going to be faithful to Him. I am going to serve him.

We have a song, though no one join me, still I will follow. It’s easy to sing the song but now when my family gets split over it, oh well, maybe I don’t need to make this an issue or it becomes an issue among those I want to have a relationship with or it might be costly for me in my position in the world. We want to handle our testimony properly. We don’t need to be running around handling things in an ungracious, unkind way. The fact is, we must stand where Christ is. There is no compromise with the world.

That’s why Jesus said, “If you love father or mother, brother or sister, or your family more than Me, you cannot be My disciple. I must have your total complete allegiance.” I leave it in his hands.

That is what Paul is talking about. I have suffered the loss of all things and count them but rubbish. I love that point of it. I have lost all things and I sit and reflect on how much it has cost me often. I don’t count those things as valuable because they kept me from Christ. I was a persecutor of Christ and His church when I was holding on to these things. “I count them rubbish so that I may gain Christ and may be found in Him. Not having a righteous of my own derived from law but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith.” Stressed here, I want the righteousness that God gives. I tried so hard to become righteous by my own doings and I couldn’t do it. I want to gain Christ, have Him and His righteousness. That is my goal. I have given up trying to make myself righteous, keeping the law, keeping the Ten Commandments, doing these religious activities. I realize I can’t be saved by my works. I can only find righteousness though faith in Christ. That’s the righteousness that comes from God.

We think if we do certain things we will make ourselves righteous and that will make us acceptable to God. It is just the opposite. God says you can’t do anything to make yourself righteous. Isaiah 64 says all our righteousness is like a polluted, menstrual rag, literally, defiled before God. The best of my righteous acts God says they are polluted, they are defiling. They don’t make you righteous. They just add to your corruption. Because what? You are trying to do for yourself what I say you can’t do. You need My righteousness and there is an immeasurable gap between the righteousness that I can do and the righteousness that God provides. I have to have His righteousness.

The righteousness that comes from God is on the basis of faith. Eph.2: 8 & 9 “For by grace are you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, that no one should boast.” That I may know Him. I want to gain Christ, the end of verse 8, the middle of verse 8, the surpassing value of knowing Christ. He picks up knowing Christ. That I may know Him, the power of His resurrection; the fellowship of His sufferings. Being conformed to His death in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.

The only hope Paul said, the only hope that you have, the only hope that I have 2000 years after he writes this is the same. Any person in that 2000 year period that has ever been saved had to come to the same place as the Apostle Paul, to realize that there is nothing that I can do to make myself acceptable to God. There is no religious activity. There is no religious service. There is no self-punishment as we see in some sections where so-called holy men afflict their bodies to make the blood run. None of these things you can do. No one has ever been saved. There are multitudes of millions in hell who tried that way, but no one ever gets there. You have to believe in Christ and then he has here what he develops in Romans chapter 6 so beautifully. When you place your faith in Christ, you are identified with Him in His death, in His burial and in His resurrection so you have the fellowship of His sufferings, because as Romans 6 and Paul develop it, what? When I believe in Christ, the Spirit of God identifies me with Christ in His death on the cross. I died with Him, was buried with Him, because the penalty for my sin is death. So I experienced the power of His resurrection and that’s where Romans 6 goes. We are raised with Him to new life. “If any man be in Christ he is a new creature. Old things are passed away, new things have come.” The circumcision of the heart takes place to use a different analogy. The defilement of sin has been removed and now we have been credited with God’s righteousness.

So Paul says I let go of everything. The passion of my heart and life, to commit myself to Christ, trust in Him and that identification with Him brings salvation, brings God’s righteousness credited to me.

Now he says, “Not that I have already attained it (or have already become perfect) but I press on.” You want to be careful to say, well he’s already saved so he’s still working on getting saved. No, the point of Romans 6, maybe you can come back to Romans 6. Most of you are familiar with it. We have studied it many times. Romans 6 – you see where this goes. Romans 6, verse 5: “If we become united with Him in the likeness of His death, we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self (our old man) was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaved to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin.”

So now we go on, verse 18: “Having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.” And verse 22: “Having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, (a fruitful life) resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life.” Paul’s goal is complete conformity to Christ. That hasn’t happened. He says I haven’t arrived there. I’m not saying I am perfectly conformed to Christ in every way. Just like none of us can say that. I have been new in Christ. You have believed in Christ; you have been made new in Christ. You have received the righteousness of Christ. You are being mature, conformed more and more to His character, but the job is not done. It will be brought to fulfilment and completion; what and when we are glorified in His presence. Then that conformity will be complete and all sin will be gone.

So when you come back to Philippians chapter 3, Paul wants to make clear that he is not claiming perfection. Not that I have already contained it. He’s been resurrected with Christ but the fullness of what that resurrection is to bring about. I have new life and I am to live that new life 24 hours a day, seven days a week; but we all know, we stumble, and Paul is not saying I have arrived at the final destination. I haven’t been glorified yet but I haven’t given up on that pursuit. “I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus.” He let Christ Jesus take hold of him, choose Him as we read in Matthew 15 to belong to Him. So that he could be made like Christ in his character. So I don’t say I have become perfect, complete, mature in the fullest completest sense but “I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ.”

That’s why Christ took hold of us. That’s why someday He will glorify us. His intention is that we fully manifest His character, undefiled by sin.

And he repeats here: “Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet.” And again, what he is talking about is the perfection in verse 12. Not that I have already become perfect, mature, everything that I need to be yet. “I don’t regard myself as having laid hold of it yet but one thing I do; forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead. I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”

In other words I am not there yet, but I am not looking back to Judaism. I am not looking back to anything. I am driven by a passion to be perfected in Christ and every day I want to make progress, growing just like we see our children. Little by little, day by day, they are growing, they are maturing. The process goes on and that is what God is doing here. He is preparing us for glory as in Romans chapter 8: “All things work together for good to those who love God; to those who are called according to His purpose.” And then we start the process from when He calls us to, when He glorified us, and that’s the goal we are striving for.

Verse 14: “I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” And I won’t be satisfied until I am completely matured in Him, glorified in His presence.

Verse 15: “Let us therefore, as many as are perfect (as are complete, as are mature) have this attitude.” That doesn’t mean they have arrived and Paul hasn’t; but it’s a mark of maturity as a believer. We talk about they are mature and there are immature believers. As many as are mature have to have this attitude. We don’t ease off. I’ve been a believer a long time. I know a lot of these things. I know a lot about Christ. I’ve served the Lord in a variety of ways. You know, you don’t expect me to have the same passion as a new believer. I mean it’s all new to them. Of course they are excited about it. Of course they want to be in Bible studies all the time and they can’t get enough of the Word but you know, I’ve been in it a lot so you know, you can’t expect me to be… Paul says I still have it. I mean here he is prison writing about that passion. I am driven by this. God is not done with me and I’m not done pursuing the goal He’s set before me, perfection in Christ. And if you are mature in Christ, this will be your attitude too. And if anything, you have a different attitude, God will reveal that also to you. Whatever area you need to grow, keep pursuing and God will reveal it to you.

“However, let us keep living by that same standard to which we have attained.” In other words, we are not going back, so I want to live up to the maturity I have acquired today. Tomorrow I want to be further along like our children. We say, “My, look how they have grown, look how they have matured. Look at the difference from kindergarten to 6th grade.” That is wonderful, but I don’t want them to stop at 6th grade. I want them to continue to the maturity of a 7th grader and then out of high school and into college, then to adulthood. I say you don’t stop and you don’t go back. Sometimes with our children, we tell them what? Stop acting like a 2-year old or a whatever. You can’t go back. Sometimes you have a younger child and a little older child and he wants to go back and act like the little one. You say, “You’re too big to act like that. You are too old for that.” What are we saying? You’ve grown beyond that. You can’t go back.

Now in Christ we are growing and we have to keep going. Why are we here tonight, to be in the Word, to allow God to take His truths and to build it into our life so that we understand Him better and live more in conformity to it by the power of His Spirit. So we are more mature tomorrow than we were yesterday. How do I measure? Well, you don’t see it in your kids. You don’t say goodnight and see them in the morning at the breakfast table and say, “My how you have grown since yesterday.” No, that’s not the point, but over time you do. I have grandkids and now I look as they grow past me. It didn’t happen overnight. Of course, they grew past Marilyn in 1st grade, but you know, over time the process goes on. But it inches in just little increments and in our spiritual life we are growing, we are growing. I am not satisfied with where I am. I want to be more like Him and more like Him and more like Him. If you have had the privilege of walking with the Lord for 80 years you won’t be done, but when you are brought into His presence you will say, “Wow, now I know what it is to be fully matured.” Glory is the ultimate goal. That is Paul’s testimony.

Now we are done, but note what he says in verse 17: “Brethren, join in following my example, and observe those who walk according to the pattern you have in us.” Look at more mature believers and they help to be a guide. Look at Paul. Follow my example. Not because I am perfect but because I have a passion for Christ and I want you to have the same. Pick out those believers that have that kind of zeal for the Lord, passion for the Lord and demonstrate that maturity of character in their walk with the Lord. Say yes, I want to learn from them. I want to imitate them and keep on going. May that be true of us as a church.

Let’s pray together. Thank You Lord for the greatness of Your salvation. Lord how difficult it is for us to accept the fact that we can’t do anything to make ourselves acceptable to You and conforming to certain external activities cannot make us acceptable to You. Being part of this church, getting baptized here, attending all the classes would not make us acceptable to You. Lord, it is a matter of coming to understand our sin, the guilt and that only Christ paid the penalty for that. Only by faith in Him, can we have Your righteousness credited to us, and Lord the reality of that manifests itself; as we faithfully pursue the goal of being conformed more and more to the beauty of the character of our Savior. May that be true as we walk with You in the days of the week ahead of us. We pray in Christ’s name, amen.