LESSON 22

Classroom Goals of this time together:
* here to see and meet and learn of Jesus; 
* to grow TOGETHER in our own personal lives/relationships with Jesus
* to grow in our daily day-to-day JOY IN Him
* to grow in our vision /understanding of Jesus as our SAVIOR and REDEEMER everyday in the midst of our lives in a pagan world

ROE: 
* all questions are encouraged all the time
* TO LOVE ONE ANOTHER THROUGHOUT OUR TIME TOGETHER, WHETHER WE AGREE OR NOT ON ISSUES OF VARIOUS THEOLOGICAL THOUGHT, WE MOST CERTAINLY MUST AGREE ON THIS: THAT WE HAVE BEEN BOUGHT BY THE PRECIOUS BLOOD OF A MOST LOVING SAVIOR AND BECAUSE OF THAT WE MUST LOVE EACH OTHER

SUMMARY:
1:1-11  Greetings and Gratitude
1:12-26  "Pauls Personal Circumstances: the Preaching of Christ"
1:27-2:30  "The Pattern of the Christian Life: The Humility of Christ"
1:27-2:4  The Exhortation to Humility
2:5-11  The Epitome of Humility 
2:12-18 The Exercise of Humility 
2:19-30  The Examples of Humility  Timothy and Epaphroditis
3:1-21  "The Hope of the Christian Life: The Knowledge of Christ"

We have been examining how Paul has been contrasting in this chapter what the HOPE of the Christian really is AS OPPOSED TO the false hopes that the world proposes;  
We've talked about that everyone wants to find SOMETHING that will give meaning and purpose and satisfaction to their life. This desire to have SOMETHING in which to place our HOPE is a legitimate one, AND a fundamental one as proved the world over by all the various human attempts to find and provide such a Hope; These human efforts have been called religions, philosophies, beliefs and what ever other names you can give to such deep and abiding activities of humanity; 
THEN we discussed how ALL such efforts are characterized by ONE overriding principle: ALL their hopes are BASED ON VARIOUS APPLICATIONS OF PERSONAL WORKS;
Here in this chapter, Paul is presenting to the Philippians and to us a DIFFERENT IDEA: he presented one of the fundamental distinctions that makes real Christianity TOTALLY OPPOSITE and ABSOLUTELY DISTINCT FROM EVERTHING ELSE PROPOSED IN THIS WORLD: He presented to the Philippian Christians ONLY JESUS AS THE SOLE WORTHY SOURCE OF HOPE FOR THEM (and US);


3:4-14  Here we come to the second big contrast of this chapter: a hope based on GENUINE and PURE form of Judaism vs a hope based SOLELY in Jesus Christ.
In vs 4-6 Paul presents himself as the prime example of one who had placed all his hopes in the strict and vigorous pursuit of true Judaism; He proved beyond all doubt his personal credentials as a honest and absolutely pious man UNDER THE LAW; 

3:7-14  And then he enters the 2nd half of this contrast of hopes; he says " compared to and because of who and what JESUS is in my life EVERYTHING ELSE IS A WASTE, not just a lesser priority" NOT just neutral, BUT a LOSS;
He apparantly wants to present this as absolutely as he can, because in vss 7, 8 and 9 he describes his self-perception of his experience in Jesus in the past, present and future tenses; 
Vs 7: He discusses his past; His choice of verb tense (KJV) "I counted..." implies NOT ONLY did he count it loss back then, BUT HE STILL DOES SO NOW; 
Vs 8: He discusses his present view point; He starts with what the KJV translates as "Yea doubtless"; a better trans is "even more"; as if to say "In case I left ANYTHING out - ALL THINGS - ANYTHING that might concievably be reckoned as meritorious and claimed to be acceptable to God by men "I [NOW] count...but loss" -NOW it's in the present tense; he's telling them that even now as a Christian (and a pretty high powered one at that) NOTHING MATTERS APART FROM JESUS; 
In the latter part of vs 8 and on into vs 9 he talks about the future, that he "counts" "all things" as but "dung",that IN THE FUTURE he "may win Christ and be found in Him"; 

NOW what was it Paul said he wanted in exchange for all that "loss"?? Starting in vs 8 and progressing on through vs11, he related a number of HIGHLY PREFERED alternatives, WHAT WERE THEY?

What were they in vs 8??
He described "the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord"; What did he mean by this?? 
[read the AMP as it really trans what that words "excellency" and "knowledge" really meant to them]; 
WHY did he say "Christ MY Lord"?? it's NOT enough to have heard ABOUT Him, it's NOT enough to have heard OF Him; One must know Him PERSONALLY; 

At the end of vs 8 and the start of vs9 he said he wanted to "WIN Christ and be FOUND in Him" 
What does he mean?? [HAVE THEM LOOK AT THE REST OF THE VS FOR EXPLANATIONS]
In the rest of vs 9 Paul makes three declarations in this verse that describe and define what it means and how it will be to "win Christ and be found in Christ";
FIRST: he hammers away again at that hated and insidious notion that by HIS DOING the Law HE can CREATE his OWN merit, that he could EARN his OWN righteousness with which to face God; 
THEN, second, he goes on to declare unconditionally that true righteousness DOES come ONLY AS A GIFT and ONLY FROM GOD THROUGH JESUS CHRIST; (KJV)...the righteousness which is of God"; As one commentator put it: "[Jesus] is the sole author of the saving righteousness imparted to sinful men." 
THIRD: The WAY that this gift is gained is FAITH; in this verse Paul says it is "through faith IN Christ" and then again that this righteousness from God is "on the basis of faith" or "BY" faith; 

Other trans put the word "win" as "GAIN"; What did he mean by "Gaining" Christ? Again he is referring to his PERSONAL appropriation of salvation THROUGH HIS PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP WITH JESUS, THIS is what it means to HAVE JESUS!! To "win" Him is to "gain" HIS all-prevailing merit before a righteous God; as one man put it: to know Him in the intimacy of personal trust and surrender is to know His saving benefits; 
What about his being "found in Him..."??; the words used implying being "discovered" or "proved" to be "in Him"; Now Paul has already made it eminently clear that HE KNOWS he's saved and has his name written in that Book of Life; SO, it's NOT for Pauls OWN PRESENT reassurance, then, that this proving is made; so then WHAT?? 
Paul knows that ultimately he will stand before the throne of an infinitly righteous God having NOTHING of his own with which to gain acquittal of his sins, NOTHING of his own that can save him from the JUST penalty of his sins; that on his own and by himself he is lost; BUT IN CHRIST, COVERED BY HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS, HE IS SAVED; The possession of this righteousness is the KEY essential one MUST have when we stand before Him; 

One commentator summed it up well when he wrote: "The initiative is with God in His provision of a saving righteousness in Christ, and human faith is the grateful acknowledging of this provision and acceptance of it." 

What did Paul see in vs 10 as the infinitely greater exchange for all he "lost"?? [GET THEM TO ANSWER!!!]
He starts out AGAIN with "That I may know Him"; Lest we have lost track of this "excellency" he described in vs 8, he reiterates it here; He who knew the Law more intimately and more thoroughly than most any other man of his age declares flat out (NIV) "I WANT TO KNOW HIM INSTEAD"; 
The "AND" that follows here is an important connector; it actually is better trans as "that is"; This means that the following items are an elaboration on what it means to "know Him"; [READ THE PASSAGE WITH "THAT IS" IN PLACE OF "AND"]
"and the power of His resurrection"; The Gr word trans as "power" is dunamis; [What IS that power?? How is it expressed in a believer??] 
It is that power of Christ liberated by His victory over death, that power at work in the life of the believer, raising him from the death of sin into the new life in Christ (Tyndale/R.P.Martin)
"and the fellowship of His sufferings"; there's that word again: koinonia; [WHAT IS THIS FELLOWSHIP?? WHAT SUFFERINGS??]
It is a participation or sharing in Christ's sufferings; OUR experiencing at least a little bit what it was He had to endure here on earth for our sake; 
"being made conformable unto His death"; [WHAT DOES HE MEAN?? HOW DOES ONE CONFORM TO JESUS DEATH??]
This is really a continuation of the previous "fellowship of His sufferings"; that is, those sufferings result in a transformation in the believer who is sharing in them with the Lord; [READ THE AMP]; this transformation or conforming to "His death" implies much more than just suffering to the point of physical death; it rather points to that ongoing process of being made to conform to His likeness in character and person, to His spirit and temper of meekness and submissivness; [HAVE THEM READ ROM 8:29]; THIS is that sharing in Christ's death described by Paul in much greater depth in Rom 6:1-11 [HAVE THEM READ THIS PASSAGE OUTLOUD!!]; 

What does vs 11 offer in Paul's list of excellencies gained in exchange for his "losses"?? 
"If by any means I might attain" in the KJV is NOT an expression of doubt as to what he "might attain", it is really an expression of HUMILITY; It is better trans by NASB: "in order that I may attain"; "attain" WHAT?? [WHAT DOES HE MEAN HERE??]
Paul seems to be telling them that the completion of the above process described in vs 10 will ONLY occur in that FINAL resurrection; THERE is when that final resolution of a believers inner conflict with his own sinful nature will occur; 
Paul used a phrase here NOT often used in the NT concerning the resurrection; It lit trans "the out-resurrection from among the corpses"; It is apparantly a purposefully MORE vivid description of a rising from the earth; 
Some commentators feel that Paul used this phrasing because there might have been the same heretical teaching starting to circulate in Philipi as was mentioned in 1Co 15:12 and 2Tim 2:18, which taught that the only resurrection hope the believer could have had ALREADY been fulfilled in the experience of their new birth, hence there was no hope of a PHYSICAL resurrection into an ETERNAL CONSCIENCE LIFE WITH CHRIST after death; Interestingly, there was evidence of this heresy in Philipi as seen in the Early Church Father Polycarp's letter to the Philippians (7:1, for you early church father trivia buffs); 
Other commentators feel that the Gr phrasiology implies a different "resurrection" as expressed in the AMP [READ THE AMP VS 11]; They might go on to say that the next vs (12) reinforces this implication of a spiritual moral "resurrection" or sanctification process; 

vs14: to Paul, heaven is only a continuation of His life in Jesus NOW OCCURING; so he wants as MUCH NOW as he can get, knowing that to die is only to continue on the same course in which he is now going; he doesn't want to wait for ANYTHING, knowing that he can gain as much HERE as he can inleu of what heaven holds for him later;