The Beauty of God’s Unconditional Love

Philippians 3:1-11

1Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord! It is no trouble for me to write the same things to you again, and it is a safeguard for you.

We are REJOICING for we are in HIM! Hallelujah! Problems and troubles may come but let’s REJOICE for we are in HIM! Amen!

In this letter, you could see that Paul never got tired of the Gospel! Some of you who have been greatly impacted by the Gospel of God’s Grace will agree with me on this one. Talking about how to become an effective evangelist… I think we could learn a lot from Paul ’s life, for He only has one message and that message is Jesus Christ and Him crucified. As humans, we often come up with different type of methods and steps which so often bring more failures than success. Praise God that He would never think you as a failure but He always lifts you up and gives you the better solution! Don’t you love that about God? For He only blesses.

Let’s look at Paul, what makes Paul so passionate and does not seem to get tired of the Gospel? And NO!! the answer is not Paul’s obedience to the Law although He called himself the Pharisee of the Pharisees and NO, it is not Paul’s zealousness towards the Law, but the answer is because Paul BELIEVES the GOSPEL for the Gospel only testifies the goodness of Christ and who we are in Him! Paul understood this and this has become the turning point of Paul’s repentance and has turned Paul’s life upside down. Paul was probably the worst sinner  there was as He prosecuted the church and was involved in killing those who believes in the Way. But by God’s Grace, Paul’s been radically changed and completely set free and become the most exciting, vibrant, and passionate preacher of God’s Grace for He got the revelation from Jesus Himself! What a revelation he must have received!

Verse 1 ends with ‘it is a safeguard for you’ – Paul believes that teaching the Gospel is more important than teaching anything else! Paul is so convinced that the Gospel is the only message that saves, because it only focuses on Christ alone and because of this reason, Paul spent His whole-life ministry for it. Such simple message yet is the most powerful message that God could ever come up with!

1 Corinthians 1:18-19 says”

18For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

19For it is written:
“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise;
the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”

It is the ultimate plan of God to send Jesus on earth and have Him crucified on the cross.

Then Paul goes on…

2Watch out for those dogs, those men who do evil, those mutilators of the flesh. 3For it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh— 4though I myself have reasons for such confidence. If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: 5circumcised 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; 6as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless.

Paul must have been quite ticked off with what is going on in Philippi for there are teachers that teach the Law. What do dogs and mutilators of the flesh represent? Paul used the word dogs to represent those teachers who teach Salvation by works and mutilators of the flesh means Circumcision as a requirement for Salvation. So there have been teachers who tried to teach that you must be circumcised to be saved. Circumcision of the flesh does not just mean that you are circumcised physically but it also represents your self-righteousness as a way of saying ‘I am qualified based on what I have done’.

Paul testifies that we are the circumcision for we worship the Spirit of God who glory is in Christ Jesus. Paul did not put the confidence in the flesh but in Jesus alone. This can be seen in what Paul wrote in verse 4-6, for He compared himself with those false teachers and Paul basically wrote that he has better “qualifications” based on works – Paul is “qualified” but He made no boasting to any of THEM! He could have easily boasted His self-righteousness and His achievements for He himself is a Jew, zealous for the Law, He was circumscribed on the 8th day, and based on legalistic righteousness, He was blameless!

If you think about it, IF the Gospel is about your obedience to the Law and your zealousness towards the Law, then WHY Paul never did once teach such teaching?  IF the Gospel is TOO simple then WHY Paul never stops talking about it? Not even death threats and beatings scared him.

Let’s read verse 7 – 11

7But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to 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 9and 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 and is by faith. 10I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.

Paul called those things that he is ‘mastered’ at – a LOSS! Imagine when you are a Jew who deep down in your heart you believe that you are required to follow the Law for that is how Salvation can be attained. But Paul considered that as a LOSS? That must be really hard to accept for most of Jews! The same thing goes for us, NEVER ONCE think that our obedience and our zealousness will make us more righteous or will make us more blessed. Because that is the message that Paul tried to get across!

The teachings (Salvation by works and Circumcision of the flesh) that these dogs (false teachers) taught you , I consider them all as a LOSS compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord! AMEN!

He did not just stop there, the word rubbish in verse 8 there actually means dog dung (a.k.a dog poo). Paul compared His zealousness and His Law keeping as dog dung (a.k.a dog poo) He basically says believing in Christ is the ULTIMATE! There is nothing greater than that! To God believing in HIS SON is such a big deal.

Let’s have our confidence and believe in the Gospel alone.

Shalom