The Pursuit of Righteousness

This morning, if you have a Bible nearby, please turn with me to the book of Philippians. This part of the Bible is a letter that was written by a servant of Jesus Christ named Paul. And he’s been giving instructions to the church which he had helped establish in the ancient city of Philippi. As we’ve seen over the past several weeks, Paul wants the Philippian Christians to keep living out their faith. He’s been urging them to them to live in a way that’s consistent with the good news of Christ they’ve received – to pursue righteousness. And this morning, we’ll continue to see what that means – and what that doesn’t mean – as we come to Philippians, Chapter 3, verses 1 through 11. So please turn with me to the beginning of Philippians, Chapter 3. But before I read the text for us this morning, please pray with me:

[Pray and Read Text]

Can You Improve Upon Christ’s Righteousness?

There are certain works of art that almost everyone knows about. Even people who are relatively ignorant about that sort of thing – many people have heard of Leonardo da Vinci’s portrait of The Last Supper, and of Mona Lisa. Or they’ve heard about Michaelangelo’s art on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome, or his sculpture of David. They’re considered to be classic pieces of art from the Renaissance. It’s widely recognized that these are pieces of art that are timeless and faultless. There’s nothing wrong that needs to be fixed. There’s nothing lacking that needs to be improved upon.

In fact, if someone presumptuously tried to add to these works of art, to apply additional paint, or to chisel out something extra on the statue of David, just about everyone understands that there would be no improvement! That would be vandalism. It would be an act of violence against a finished work that’s already complete. It would be a highly offensive act of dishonor against the original artist.

In a similar way, we should recognize that Christ has brought about our redemption from sin as the greatest of masterpieces. It’s a timeless classic. Nothing can be done to improve upon it. It’s perfect and complete. The work has been finished.

And yet there’s a temptation for us to imagine that our righteousness before God is still deficient somehow – that there’s still something we need to prove or some way we need to perform before we can really have God’s approval. And so we pick up our crayons and permanent markers, under the delusion that we can somehow go beyond Jesus, as though we need to add something to bring that work to completion. But let me make very clear: trying to add something to the work of Christ doesn’t honor God – it insults him! It doesn’t compliment the artist – it’s a crime against him. And it certainly isn’t a way of perfecting our redemption in Christ, but is instead a way of rejecting it.

Our salvation (our righteousness) is not produced by us. It isn’t something we can point to and say, “look what I did!” – or even “look what I helped Jesus to do!” But salvation is entirely a work of God – a gift of his grace. And when all is said and done, no one will be sitting around in the kingdom of heaven rejoicing in how deserving and worthy they were of paradise. Instead, the citizens of the kingdom will be rejoicing in the Lord, and what he’s done to save them.

You’ll notice, in verse 1 of Chapter 3, Paul says, “Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the LORD. To write the same things to you is no trouble to me and is safe for you.” He urges his fellow Christians, here, to delight themselves in Christ, with all his benefits. Because Paul recognizes here, if Christ alone is our confidence, and the song of our heart, we won’t be tempted to look for something else, apart from him. If we’re resting securely in the completeness of his work, we won’t try to add anything to his already-finished work. Delighting ourselves in Christ is safe for our soul.

But if we’re discontent in Christ, we’ll begin wandering away. That’s a spiritually dangerous place to be. If you’re thinking that Jesus’s sacrifice doesn’t feel like quite enough to bring you to God, or you’re insistent that you’ve cemented your place in heaven by something you’ve done for God, then I’m afraid you just aren’t in line with Biblical Christianity.

And in our text this morning, Paul essentially makes two arguments to clarify where our confidence before God must come from. First, he argues against putting our confidence in the flesh. That’s ultimately empty. And second, he asserts that confidence in Christ is everything. So these will be my main two points as I work through the text this morning: Confidence in the flesh is empty. And Confidence in Christ is everything.

Confidence in the Flesh Is Empty

So first, confidence in the flesh is empty.

At the time that this was written, there were a number of Jews who had responded to the Christian gospel. They considered themselves to be Christians. And yet this group of Jews – sometimes called Judaizers – they had a serious misunderstanding of the Christian good news. And a number of these Judaizers went about from church to church, teaching their distorted version of Christianity. These preachers agreed that people could be saved even if they weren’t ethnically Jewish. (People who weren’t ethnically Jewish were commonly called Gentiles.) But the Judaizers insisted that in order for these Gentiles to be saved, they first had to be physically circumcised.

Circumcision is a custom that can be tracked back all the way to the first book of the Bible, Genesis Chapter 17. That part of the Bible explains that God entered into a special type of relationship with the Father of the Jewish nation, Abraham – he established a covenant with him. God made certain promises to Abraham and his offspring. And God then gave circumcision to be a physical sign to mark out Abraham’s descendants and to call them to faith in his divine promises. For nearly two thousand years, part of what it meant to belong to God, to be part of his special covenant people, was that you were circumcised.

But over time, the Jews imagined that physical circumcision itself automatically gave people some sort of special status with God. Even some of these Jews who had responded to the gospel – they still imagined that circumcision had some sort of important role to play in qualifying someone to receive God’s promises of salvation. Sure, Jesus was perhaps important, to some extent. But the Jews who preached circumcision were ultimately saying that the work of Christ wasn’t enough to bring Gentiles into a right position with God. They were teaching people to rely on their works, or on their works plus Jesus, instead of teaching them to rest and rejoice exclusively in the gift of Christ.

Now, Paul’s aware that this false teaching has been circulating. So Paul gives the Philippians a firm warning: “Look out for the dogs, look out for the evildoers, look out for those who mutilate the flesh.” Paul’s describing these people who are preaching the necessity of circumcision. And he describes these Judaizers in three ways, calling them dogs, evildoers, and those who mutilate the flesh.

The fascinating thing about this is, is that these three descriptions are the sorts of things that Jews would have ordinarily said about the Gentiles. Jews sometimes referred to the Gentiles as dogs, because dogs were considered unclean animals under the Old Testament law. Jews would have thought of Gentiles as evildoers, because most of them were idol-worshippers who frequently violated God’s law. And sometimes, in their pagan worship rituals, the Gentiles would cut themselves to get the attention of their gods – and so the Jews would have referred to them as “mutilators of the flesh.”

But now Paul is turning these words against the Judaizers, who are preaching a false message of salvation – salvation by circumcision. And he’s insisting that they are the ones who are unclean dogs – not the Gentile Christians. Because they’re relying on defiled works of the flesh. And it isn’t the Gentile Christians who are evildoers – but it’s these preachers of circumcision who are doing evil, because they’re denying the work of Christ. And it isn’t the Gentile Christians who are mutilators of the flesh – but it’s these Judaizers, who are insisting on cutting away the outward flesh in order to get their God’s attention and affirmation. These false teachers misunderstood the purpose of circumcision in the Old Testament, and had transformed circumcision into a new form of paganism. Instead of seeing circumcision as a sign to direct them to Christ, they were using circumcision as a way to deny Christ.

So Paul speaks strongly against this error. He wants the Philippians to understand that relying on works of the flesh – whatever form it might take – is equivalent to pagan idolatry. If we rely on how strong our emotions toward Jesus are, to make us right with God, if we depend on how strong our feelings of conviction are when we sin, if we look to how many times we help people out during the week – if we look to any of these things, anything in us, instead of looking to Jesus, we are living as pagans, and not Christians.

Belonging to God isn’t a matter of the flesh, but a matter of the Spirit. This is really what Paul gets at in verse 3. He says, “For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God, and glory in Christ Jesus, and put no confidence in the flesh.” Physical circumcision doesn’t bring Gentiles into the “in-group” to make them belong to God. But instead, Paul asserts that these Gentiles are already counted as part of the circumcision. They’ve already been spiritually circumcised, because they’ve received the promises made to Abraham by faith. They already belong to God, because their sinful flesh has been cut off through belief in Jesus, and they’ve been set apart to be holy by the Holy Spirit.

Now, Paul wants to make it clear that he has nothing to gain, personally, from making this argument. It would be easy to understand why Paul would be denying the importance of physical circumcision if he weren’t circumcised, or if he weren’t connected to Judaism. But the exact opposite is true. In verses 4 through 6, Paul makes it clear that he, of all people, would be the most motivated to preach the need for physical circumcision.

If being a law-keeping Jew outwardly resulted in any sort of special prize or status, Paul would be at the top of the winner’s podium. He was circumcised on the eighth day after he was born, in keeping with the Old Testament requirement. He was of the historical people of God – the nation of Israel. And his genealogy could be confirmed. It was traceable, back to the tribe of Benjamin. And in regards to the Old Testament law, Paul had once been a Pharisee – he had his doctorate degree in Biblical Studies. He was basically a professor of Jewish Law in the University of Jerusalem. And no one could question whether or not he was committed to the faith of his fathers. Back before he was a Christian, he had been a zealous persecutor of the church. And when it came to keeping the requirements and sin sacrifices of the law, Paul had a faultless track record. You would expect Paul to have every reason to place his confidence in the flesh.

But boasting in the flesh is the very thing that Paul denies. Notice how he speaks about his accomplishments in verse 7: “But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ” – verse 8: “Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.”

Even though Paul has mountains and mountains of things he could point to, to say, “Look at how godly I am. Look at how passionate my feelings are. Look at how much I know.” He doesn’t do that at all, but instead he says it’s all loss. It’s all empty. Even his greatest achievements and works never came close to the level of God’s righteousness. Those things didn’t advance him even one step closer to heaven’s gates! If anything, they got in the way. Because they hindered him from seeing his need for God! They hindered him from seeing his need for Christ.

But as Paul’s writing here, to the Philippians, he now understands what he really needs. He needs real righteousness before a holy God. What he needs isn’t just a manmade righteousness, produced by his own emotions, or his religious activism, or his observance of traditions – but he needs righteousness from God. He needs real righteousness, found in the completeness and constancy of the perfect, sinless righteousness of Jesus.

Confidence in Christ Is Everything

And so Paul insists, in verses 8 through 11 here, that confidence in Jesus Christ is everything. This is my second point. Confidence in Christ is everything.

Again, starting in verse 8, Paul has said, “Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord…” but then he goes on! “For his sake, I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order 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 comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith.

Paul’s saying a lot of things here, in how he’s looking to Christ for his righteousness. First, he’s making it clear, that human beings aren’t good. This is perhaps one of the most offensive parts of the Christianity. You and I should not think that we are “beautiful just the way we are.” We should not think that God will be pleased if we invent some sort of human standard of what it means to be a good person, and manage to keep that standard. Instead, we need to understand that human beings aren’t right with God. We do not have the right qualifications to be accepted by God, into the happiness of his eternal kingdom. Instead, we are unrighteous, contaminated with sin in our hearts, minds, desires, and flesh. Even our greatest works of rule-keeping and ritualism can’t bring us to God.

Second, Paul’s saying, because of this, that putting confidence in our flesh is rubbish. He wants us to come to terms with reality, that in our sinfulness, we cannot save ourselves! If our future with God rested on the performance of our sinful souls, no one would be saved! Arrogant self-reliance is the surest way to make sure that you will never enter into eternal life.

But third, Paul’s saying that there is still a way to be righteous before God. There’s a way in which you can receive righteousness from God himself! And it comes through faith in Jesus – accepting that He has done the work to bear the penalty for our sins, and to fulfill the law on our behalf. This is why Paul is so earnest about gaining Christ. Because if you’re presented before God in Christ, then you have a righteousness, not from the law that depends on your ability to keep it, but a “righteousness from God that depends on faith.”

And having righteousness from God himself means that it’s perfect. Never in a million years would we be able to improve upon it. This righteousness from God is what we need to qualify us for eternal life. We simply need to take hold of the gift of God’s righteousness, which is given to us in its freeness and fullness through faith in Christ.

But fourth, we need to understand in the context of what Paul’s saying here, that Jesus isn’t just one thing to be grabbed from a buffet line of options. He isn’t 50% of our righteousness, or 80% of our righteousness, or even 99.999%. Instead, we have righteousness from God in Christ alone. Our confidence should rest on Christ, and only Christ. We can contribute nothing.

Now from all this, I’m not saying that Christians shouldn’t exert themselves to obey God. After all, Paul himself, over and over again in this letter has been pressing the Philippians to pursue good character and conduct. It has an important place in the Christian life. But our obedience isn’t the cause of our righteousness before God. Instead, it’s the result. We don’t work to make ourselves righteous – that would be a way of rejecting the gospel, and denying Christ. Instead, we work because God the Father has declared us righteous in Christ, and is transforming our thoughts and desires to display His righteousness, by the Spirit. Our ability to obey is a gift from our salvation, rather than grounds for our salvation.

The righteousness we have from God isn’t earned or achieved. It is freely given, through Christ. And so Paul is eager to gain Christ. He’s humbling himself before God, putting aside all the foolish ways he used to boast in the flesh – because he recognizes that the greatest thing that he’ll ever be able to gain isn’t a high reputation, or a powerful position in the church, or ceremonial purity – but Christ! Christ is the greatest gain, because in him, we’re supplied with righteousness from God.

Are You Receiving Christ and His Righteousness?

But the question is – will you actually admit your spiritual poverty, and rely on Christ alone to receive God’s righteousness? That’s the question.

It’s as though you’ve been wandering through the wilderness. You’re hungry, you’re thirsty – and suddenly you come across a small restaurant. And when you step inside, there’s a man running the register who places a bag of food on the counter for you, and says, “I’ve already prepared your food. And the full cost has been paid. Go ahead, and take it!” It seems like we’d ordinarily have every reason to say “Yes! Thank you!” And to go enjoy a wonderful meal.

This is like the gift of Christ’s righteousness, that he wants us to enjoy. It should be obvious, that we’d want to receive the gift! But for some reason, it can still be hard to accept the gift from Jesus – and there are a few different reasons why this is.

For some of us, it’s a trust issue. As we’re called to the counter, to come receive the free food, we’re immediately suspicious. We suspect that someone is trying to trick us or exploit us somehow. And so we don’t go up and open the bag! We don’t even inspect its contents, to come to an informed conclusion.

For others of us, it’s an issue of our desires. Because of our sin, we often crave things that aren’t good for us. And so when we’re called over to receive the free food, and we find that this free food is actually good food – not twinkies and Cheetos, and cosmic brownies – we might be tempted to say no thanks. But the issue isn’t with the food – the issue isn’t with the righteousness of Christ! The issue is with our desires.

Others of us, though, will refuse to receive the food because of our pride. We can’t accept the food for free – as a handout – because we think that we’re better than that. And so we try to negotiate, to try to figure out some way that we can pay this guy at the restaurant back. You might say, “Well, I can’t just take all this free food from you. Let me work for a while and wash the dishes. Let me clean the bathrooms.” But, of course, he insists that it can’t be so – there’s no more work to be done. You just need to take the meal and eat. But still, you open up your purse or wallet, and insist, “Come now, I understand you’re a good giver and all that, but I need to give you something for your trouble.” And even though, in your sinfulness, you have no currency on hand that’s good for making payments of this sort, you stand there, starving yourself, because you can’t bring yourself to admit your poverty, and to accept what Christ has done. This is where many people are stuck, forever rejecting his righteousness because they’re forever trying to achieve righteousness for themselves.

But don’t let this be you. Come to terms with your moral bankruptcy. Make sure your confidence is in Christ. This is what we see in our text. Paul shows us that he himself is looking to no one and nothing other than Christ for his righteousness.

But even though righteousness is good and important, that’s not all that Paul has set out to gain. Instead, Paul’s great ambition is to gain Christ. Verse 10 – Paul wants to know Christ, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made like him in his death, that he might, himself, take part in the resurrection.

So notice Paul’s heart here. He doesn’t view his relationship with Christ as something that’s merely transactional. His goal isn’t just to come to the First Bank of Jesus Christ, to make a withdrawal, to gain righteousness. But he wants Christ. He wants to be found in Christ, having the righteousness of Christ, yes. But he isn’t looking for righteousness in order to puff up his ego, or to feel better about himself. Instead, taking hold of the gift of righteousness is simply part of what it means to gain more of Christ.

And that’s Paul’s great desire. He wants deeper fellowship with Jesus in his daily life. He wants to see the power of Christ’s resurrection at work, raising him up from sinful desires to sincere devotion. He even wants to share with Christ in suffering and death, as an opportunity to deepen his fellowship with him. Because Christ is everything to Paul! Jesus isn’t just the entry into life, but he’s the essence of life, itself.

Rejoice in the Lord

And this is the heart that every Christian is called to. As Paul says in verse 1, rejoice in the Lord. Be happy that your King has paid for your sins. Be glad that He has credited you with the perfect GPA of his righteousness. Be pleased in knowing that there’s no need for anxious fretting or extra performance, because the work to restore you to God is finished. Rejoice in the Lord, because he’s enough – and for as long as you’re satisfied in him, you won’t wander away looking for more.

You won’t be deceived into thinking we must have circumcision. You won’t be tricked into thinking that the showy traditions of Roman Catholicism will add something to your faith. You won’t be deceived into thinking that you first must speak in tongues, or hear direct messages from the Holy Spirit, before you can be truly spiritual. You won’t depend on following manmade dress codes or regulations to increase your righteousness. Christ’s righteousness is enough. In fact, it’s everything we need. Growing in the true Christian faith will only ever take you closer to the person and work of Jesus – never further away. And so we should remind ourselves, and remind each other to rejoice in the Lord, our whole lives long.

But please listen here: if you can’t do that – if Christ means nothing to you, or if his contributions to your life seem small and insignificant, then it may be that you still need to learn what it means to rejoice in Him – to know Him as your Savior and King. So let’s pray that we would stand firm in the true Christian faith, and that we would fight against falsehood by insistently rejoicing in the righteousness of Christ. Please pray with me: