Straining Forward, through Righteousness of Jesus Christ

Philippians 3

Living as Heavenly Citizens 

by 

Straining Forward, through Righteousness of Jesus Christ

     When I was 14 my parents moved us from Dallas Texas to Montello Wisconsin.  We moved there to plant a church.  It was December 17, 1998.  As a family we were super excited to be back in the cold and snow for Christmas.  That year for Christmas my parents got my brothers and I snowboards, little did they how much that would change our lives.  We became avid snowboarders, spending time (for a few years, 3-4 times a week), money , energy, and injures on the slops and terrain parks.  This gift that our parents gave us shaped our future and direction we went in life.  This is similar to what Paul is talking about in Philippians 3.  Through faith (and salvation) we are given Jesus Christ’s righteousness, and this gift should shape our future and give us both goals and direction for our life.   

Philippians 3 (ESV)

[3:1] 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. [13] Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, [14] I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. [15] Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. [16] Only let us hold true to what we have attained.

[17] Brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us. [18] For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. [19] Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things. [20] But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, [21] who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.

     Before we go on we need to define righteousness.  When are talking about this word we are talking about an attribute of God, the right and just character of God.  One of his many facets.  Just like a diamond that has many facets, when you put all those facets together you get a whole diamond.  The same is with God you have all his facets or attributes, and when you put them all together you get who God is.  His righteousness is part of his perfection, it is the truth that everything he does is right and never wrong.  He is perfect.  His righteousness is why we as a human race are condemned to hell, because we are not righteous.  Everything we do is tainted by sin, and is unrighteous. Because of this we are desperately in need of salvation,  a savior, and a righteousness that is not our own!   

     In verses two through six we see that during the time of Paul, there where people trying to tell Christians that for them to be truly saved they needed to have the gospel of Jesus and follow the law of the Jews. But Paul said no no, the only thing we have is Jesus Christ.  There is nothing of the flesh that can save us.  Paul makes the statment “For we are the circumcision,”  what he is referring to is the tradition of the Jews that marked them as God’s people.  The act of circumcision was cutting way some extra flesh off of new born boys when they were eight days old.  In this passage Paul is saying that now, through the spirit of God we are the circumcision, our flesh has been cut away, we no longer are of the flesh or things of this world.  But people still tried to bring the flesh back into being saved, Jesus and something else.  We do this a lot of times “My hope is in Jesus... and sports.”  “My salvation is Jesus... and my friends.” Or “I am righteous because of Jesus ...and how many times I read my bible a week.”  And last but not least “I know I’m righteous because of Jesus... and because I am better then that person.”  But we cannot put our faith in fleshly things, if anybody could it was Paul but he did not!  Paul did it all and had it all when it came to finding salvation through works but Paul did not hold on to that.

     In fact he counted it as lost.  Looking at verses seven and eight Paul shows us his view of the gain he did have.  Any gain, ANY TYPE OF GAIN we have in this world needs to be counted as loss, not worth a heavenly dime (or worldly dime for that matter).  The gain that Paul is talking about here is a salvation type of gain.  Anything we try to do to find salvation, any “gain” that we use for a type of salvation from the emptiness that sin has left in our lives.  Even though there is nothing in this world that can save us, we still try to find things that will.  There are two types of gain we try to find a lot.  One is work types gain to get us in better with God.  It is the right object of our salvation, God, but the wrong way to him.  We have to be this good to be “in” with God.  If we sin we better do something good to offset it.  To be a good Christian we have our “do and do not” list.  The gain we are getting here is a salvation through works.  The second type of gain is by having something all together different from Jesus Christ be our savior.  A job, home, boyfriend/girlfriend, spouse, vacation, schooling, the weekend, drugs/alcohol, sports, anything that we put our hope in, trust in, and faith in instead of finding our salvation in Christ Jesus.  Both of these “gains” are sin and need to be repented of and then put Christ in his proper place in your life.  All of these different types of gain need to be counted as loss. 

     Why do we count all of this loss? Because of the worth of knowing Jesus Christ as our Lord and savior.  This is freedom from sin, hope in the future, receiving the love and the grace of our Creator.  None of these other gains have any hope for the future.  In the end they will leave us empty and hopeless, never satisfying.  If your salvation is the weekend, there is always Monday.  If it is a boy/girlfriend, they will let you down, hurt you, and in the end they will die.  If it is drugs or alcohol it will leave you with a hangover and needing more.  But a lot of times still the worth of knowing Christ dose not out way the things and gains of this world (the things of flesh), making it hard to count these things as loss.  We need to strive to live in the gospel everyday, understanding and moving toward Jesus Christ.  We need to know the worth of Christ in our lives.  We need to understand sin and what it has done to us and in us.  According to Romans, it leaves like walking dead people, but it is Christ, who in the end, bore that sin for us and has made us alive, we HAVE TO know the worth of Christ in our life. 

     Just as Paul did we have to suffer the loss of all things, and he did this by looking at them as a pile of poop (really) or rubbish (which is not worth much) compared to the gain we have in Christ.  He viewed the gains of this world as a pile of dung, compared to Christ! Just think if this was how we always lived our life, Jesus Christ would shout out from our lives and in our words.  Is this your view of Jesus?  Or is he just fire insurance? 

     In verses nine through eleven Paul shows us what this gain of Christ is.  The gain of Jesus Christ is his righteousness.  This is awesome, because it is completely of Christ.  We are found in Him!  We can have a righteousness that is not our own.  This is a huge pressure off of us, God views us is through Jesus and not through our works.  This righteousness that we get from Jesus is given to us through our faith in Jesus Christ and his work done on and through the cross.  It is that same faith that allows us to reject the things of this world as salvation.  This righteousness works because of what Jesus did for us, he took our place.  He died for us, taking our sin, our shame, and our guilt and bore it on the cross!  HE took our emptiness, hopelessness, and deadness and paid for it on the cross.  Then Jesus was put in a grave just to be resurrected from the dead, truly defeating death!  We then share in the death he took for us and then share in his great resurrection.  This is our hope, we do not have to fear death, Jesus beat that for us, and then made us righteous.  I no longer fear death, I know that when this body dies I will be resurrected like Jesus, to be with Jesus.  This is the gain of Jesus, this is what he does for us through his righteousness.  Allowing us to do what we were created to do, glorify God through the lives that he gave us. 

     So then what do we do with this righteousness?  In verses twelve through nineteen Paul lets us know.  We are to be straining forward toward the goal of Christ Jesus.  It is a processes to make this righteousness our own.  Even though at the point of salvation this righteousness is ours, and that is how God sees us, we have to make it our own in our everyday life.  It takes time for us to start living through this righteousness.  Just as a person who was a slave their whole life and then set free, has to work at living like a free person, so do we have to learn how to live like a righteous person.  We do this because Jesus Christ has made us his own.  This needs to be our attitude, a striving toward Christ, making his righteousness our own.  Putting behind us past failures and not letting them hold us back.  Not looking back at sins that we want to hang on to.  Moving then toward a goal, the prize that God has called us to through Jesus Christ.  Not only are we striving forward, but there is a goal that we are looking toward.  It gives us a direction to go for, a goal that puts guidelines on our life.  We can get a picture of this from Major League Baseball.  As Baseball is coming upon the playoffs we can start to see teams reaching the goals they have set before them.  Those goals have dictated theirs lives since spring training.  All players want to win the World Series and because of that they do not let anything get in the way of that goal.  We have a goal and that is becoming like Jesus Christ through his righteousness.  When we have a goal like this it affects every area of our lives.  Everything we do in a day is and should be focus on that goal, our schooling, how we hanging out with friends, when are playing sports,  or how we are living with our families. 

Paul then gives us a compare and contrast.  Paul encourages us to follow his and people like him’s example.  Part of moving forward is finding the right people to imitate.  We need to find God fearing, Jesus loving, gospel filled people to watch and learn from.  We do this in comparison with watching and imitating people who do not know Jesus.  Paul says that their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in the things that should bring them shame.  These people are enemies of the cross and they only have their minds on the things of this world (the flesh).  We should not imitate them, befriend them?  Yes.  Love them through the gospel?  Yes.  Follow their example?  No.   

     Paul leaves us with verses twenty and twenty one, which is the theme verses of this series.  Again in comparison with the people who have their minds on the things of this world, we are to see our citizenship in heaven.  God has us here on earth to complete the mission he started, but we know that we are not for this world or the things of this world, we are made for heaven and the glorification of God.  We are here waiting on and hoping in Jesus Christ, know that we will get our glorified bodies because of the righteousness we have in Jesus Christ.    

     So as we are kicking off another school year, how does this idea of “straining forward with the righteousness of Christ” play into that?  We need to be looking forward to this school through eyes that are covered in Christ righteousness.  This school year is not just about getting through another grade, and completing your goals.  It is about striving for the goals Christ has set for us. How are you getting your “righteousness” or salvation?.  Are you trying to get your own righteousness through things that you DO?  Are you putting your faith in Jesus Christ or are you putting it in the things of this world.  Are you counting the things of this world loss compared to the worth of knowing Jesus? 

     Are you moving? What direction? What goal?  Are making this righteousness your own? Are you moving forward toward the goal of Jesus Christ and your future with him?  Or are you stuck?  Are you looking to things of this world or things you once had? 

     Who’s example are you following?.  Are you looking to the example of Paul and other gospel filled people or the example of the world around you?  Are you getting more of an example how how your life should be lived from stars, athletes, musicians, non-believing friends, and the culture around you or from people who love Jesus and are making Christ righteousness their own?

Man I just get excited writing this,  God is so good!

Grace and Peace 

Jesse