Speaking to what is
very likely a largely Gentile congregation of Christ worshipers in this Roman colony,
Paul denounces any claim to privilege related to the covenant that would stem
from his Jewish,
work-of-the-law-as-badges-of-covenant-not-as-a-means-to-get-to-heaven-rooted
background, saying “more than that, I now regard all things as liabilities compared
to the far greater value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have
suffered the loss of all things---indeed, I regard them as dung---that I may
gain Christ” (3:8). Rather than here focusing on the suffering of loss
and the contrast with his gaining of Christ (though we will return to this), we
allow our attention to be focused on the “far greater value of knowing Christ
Jesus my Lord.” This knowledge of the Messiah, Jesus, as Lord of all, is
that upon which Paul’s participation in the covenant kingdom rests.
Though he could easily base his covenant status on the facts about himself that
are already on offer, he pushes those aside, continuing to identify wholly with
these Gentile believers, and bases his justification (for that is what he is
discussing, and we know this based on his introduction of circumcision and
righteousness, along with what is still to come) on the confession of his
knowledge that Jesus is Lord (the Gospel).
If we are not
convinced that this is the point that Paul is making, we need merely go on to
the next verse, as Paul highlights being “found in Him” (3:9a), which is the
standard language of familial participation. We are reminded that Paul’s
use of “my brothers and sisters” in verse one of this chapter informs us that
he is operating with ideas about the family of God in Christ. As
justification leaps to the fore, to that finding is added “not because I have
my own righteousness derived from the law, but because I have the righteousness
that comes by way of Christ’s faithfulness---a righteousness from God that is
in fact based on Christ’s faithfulness” (3:9b). Though Paul does not here
use the words that can be translated as “justified,” this passage can be placed
alongside the requisite “justification” passages from Romans three and
Galatians two, as Paul sets the contrast between covenant inclusion based on
the covenant marker of faith/belief in Jesus as Lord (I have the righteousness
that comes by way of Christ’s faithfulness), and covenant inclusion that is based
on the covenant markers of Israel (righteousness derived from the law).
When the statements
are properly situated and heard alongside Paul’s clearly demonstrated mindset
regarding justification and what is implied by righteousness, which is the
badge of identification in the people of God rather than an infusion of a
previously alien status that now precludes or supersedes the previous state of
affairs and the ongoing attempts to “earn salvation” (read: go to heaven) by
works (which was itself a way of thinking foreign to Paul and his
contemporaries), the fact that Paul here deals with justification by faith
stands out quite readily. To further make the point that the purpose of
covenant inclusion is not to escape to heaven at the end of one’s life, but to
engage with this world in a manner imitative of Jesus, Paul continues on to
write “My aim is to know Him, to experience the power of His Resurrection, to
share in His sufferings, and to be like Him in His death, and so, somehow, to
attain to the resurrection from the dead” (3:10-11).
This “resurrection
from the dead” was the hope of the people of God, as the resurrection of the
righteous at the consummation of His kingdom, in a world restored and set to
rights, was that to which the people of God looked as the ultimate
exemplification of God’s covenant faithfulness towards His image-bearers and
for His creation. What might it mean, for Paul, “to share in His
sufferings, and to be like Him in His death”? To answer that question, we
can look back to something that Paul has included earlier in the letter.
In the second chapter, as he cites what is believed to be an early Christian
hymn that would most likely have been quite familiar to the Philippian church,
we hear about Jesus “who though He existed in the form of God did not regard
equality with God as something to be grasped, but emptied Himself by taking on
the form of a slave, by looking like other men, and by sharing in human
nature. He humbled Himself, by becoming obedient to the point of death---even
death on a cross!” (2:6-8) If we want to find out what it may have meant
for Paul to share in His sufferings and be like Christ in His death, it is
here, with a divestiture of honor, an emptying out of self and status, a
humbling, and an obedience to God that could result in death, that we may have
our answer.
Amazingly, but not
surprisingly, this sounds a lot like what Paul had described in verses seven
and eight of chapter three, when, after describing his form of existence, which
was one of honor in relation to his standing under the covenant and as part of
God’s special, covenant people, he divests himself of that honor and lowers
himself---shaming himself in the midst of a culture that equated shame with
death, regarding all of those things as liabilities and even dung, and
embracing the suffering and loss of all things.
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