Listen to the audio of today’s Reflection:
https://soundcloud.com/hapearce/reflection-for-april-3-2023
Philippians 3:4b-14
If someone else thinks they have reasons to put 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; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; 6 as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless.
7 But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.8 What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, 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 is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith.10 I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.
12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.13 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
You might remember that I’ve said in the past that Paul’s Letter to the Philippians is my favorite of all the apostle’s writings. It has several passages that express important theological insights and others that communicate Paul’s joy in his relationship with God in Jesus. I can’t help being inspired and fed by this letter, and I often use it in home communion services.
Our reading for today is a passage that has some very important ideas in it – ideas that are a part of the foundation of the Christian faith as we understand it. So they’re probably especially worthy of our reflection during Holy Week.
Paul starts out the passage by saying that if anyone had the credentials to be regarded as a true leader among the chosen people, it was him. He was descended from a prestigious tribe. He was circumcised on the eighth day, just as the laws of Moses prescribed. He was a Pharisee, who had taken a vow of extreme obedience to every detail of the Hebrew laws. (In fact, I can’t help thinking that Paul was probably more fanatical about keeping those laws than Jesus himself.) And if anybody still doubted Paul’s credentials as a religious superstar of the Jewish faith tradition, he could point to the fact that he had been a leader in the persecution of the followers of Jesus.
So from the traditional Jewish perspective, which is what Paul means by “legalistic righteousness,” Paul can confidently declare himself to be “faultless.”
But encountering Jesus changed everything for Paul. Now, he says, he regards all his former ‘righteousness’ – which he earned by following the law of Moses – as a bunch of “rubbish.” Super-strict obedience to all those traditional laws, with their dietary restrictions, purity rules, rituals and sacrifices and festivals – Paul now sees those things as a waste of time. After his encounter with Jesus, Paul’s life of faith has been re-oriented toward living by his master’s teachings and example. Now Paul says he’s come to believe that growing closer and closer to Jesus – even sharing in his sufferings – is the way to share in his resurrection, too.
There’s an element of Christian thought that isn’t that far from Paul’s old mindset as a leader of the chosen people – a sense that ‘being a good Christian’ is a way to earn God’s favor so we can “go to heaven.” But notice that Paul says, even though he’s already sacrificed a lot in following Jesus, he doesn’t think of himself as having earned a preferred status in God’s eyes by his personal righteousness.
Paul’s understanding of faithfully following Jesus involves always looking ahead, never looking behind. The sins of the past are forgiven when they’re sincerely confessed. But Paul also understands that his accomplishments have also been forgotten. They don’t really mean anything to our future relationship with God in Jesus. The life of faith is lived forward, never looking backward, aiming to know and serve Jesus more and more every hour of every day.
Paul uses the metaphor of a runner focusing all his attention and all his energy on the finish line, aiming to give every ounce of his energy in pursuit of victory. Paul wants us to run our race of faith that way, trusting that for followers of Jesus, the kingdom of God lies just beyond that finish line ahead of us.
It has to be said that there’s a kind of tension here. Paul is clear that our new life in Jesus is a gift of God’s grace, not something we earn by our own efforts. But Paul also wants to make it clear that this gift of new life in Jesus obliges us to live as God would want us to. We’re adopted into God’s own family, and we’re invited to join the family business of building God’s kingdom. Playing our part in that project is how we can express our thanks to God for the great gift we’ve been given.
Let’s pray. Lord, we thank you for the gracious gift of our new life in Jesus, which we could never hope to earn by our own righteousness or religious activity. But move us to live in a way that pleases you, as a way of saying ‘thank you’ for that great gift you have given us. Amen.
Grace and Peace,
Henry
(The other readings for today are Psalms 121 and 145; Jeremiah 11:18-20 and 12:1-17; and John 12:9-19. Our readings come from the NIV Bible, as posted on Biblica.com, the website of the International Bible Society.)
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