To understand the Bible passage we’re looking at today, you need to think of filling out an application for admission to a college or for a job you want.  Most of us have done that.  We tell the admissions office or employment office who we are, what we’ve done, and how we’ve had success. We tell those in charge why “I’m the right person for the job”.  We want the decision-makers to know why we are better than the other applicants.

            If you can understand that – and I think all of us can – then we can come to the big question of our lives, i.e., how can we be right with God?  So, here is the big issue:

The Big Issue:  How can I be right with God?  What do I need on my resume when I stand before him?  What should I include in my admissions application?

            Let’s review what Paul has written in the Philippians letter.  He has said that “for us to live is Christ.”  With that concise declaration, the Bible lets us know that trusting Jesus leads to life – life with God.  But some people – even those who believe in God and may claim to follow Jesus – find it hard to accept the teaching that the only admissions’ requirement God has on his application is that we have entrusted our lives to Jesus.  And the same was true in Paul’s day.  Some people said, “Yes, Jesus is good – but you also have to do other things to be right with God. This Christian faith cannot be, ‘Oh, being right with God is a completely unearned gift from God that you receive by faith.’” 

So, to understand this text today, you must know that people who felt that there are certain things we must do to earn admission to God’s presence followed Paul around telling people something like, “If you want to be right with God, believe in Jesus -- but also do this or that.  It’s Jesus… and…”  And mostly, they seemed to say, “The sign that you are in God’s people is that your males are circumcised” (something I won’t get into today).  And then they would add more – “And, of course you’ve got to follow all the Sabbath laws – and all the food laws – and, and, and…”  You can read about this happening in Paul’s letters to the Galatians, Colossians, and Romans.

            In Philippians 3, Paul declares in the strongest words he could use, “Watch out for them.”  Three times in v. 2, Watch out for these vultures (because by “dogs” he did not mean cute little pets like we have but coyotes on the prowl)!  Watch out for these evildoers! Watch out for these skin mutilators!”  The English translations cannot begin to capture how strong his warning is!  He’s shouting.  He’s calling them to be awake to a real danger.  He’s saying that there’s a danger in our world that, if we miss it, will keep us from God.

            And, I believe Paul talks about something that is a danger for all people – at any time and any place.  In his setting, the problem was that people said, “If God is going to accept you, you have to go out and have your males circumcised, and have to keep all the laws in the Books of Moses perfectly…”  We may not say those things today in Southern CA – but I hope to show us that we say similar things although we do it in much more up-to-date ways.

            So -- to get at that, let’s see how Paul responded to the issue.

Part One:  Paul’s Application for Admission (3:4b-6) If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more…

            Basically, what Paul says is, “OK – let me just accept that what you’re saying is right:  That Jesus isn’t enough and that we need to establish our own credentials to be right with God.  You’re wrong – but let’s just say for the sake of argument that you’re right.  Then, using your own criteria, I of all people, have good credentials.”  His credentials:

*Circumcised on the eighth day – “This circumcision thing that’s so important to you—I had it done and it was on exactly the right day (which often only the upper class Jewish people were able to do);

*Of the people of Israel –Meaning “no Gentile blood”. 

*Of the tribe of Benjamin -- Paul was saying, “And I come from the best tribe too.”

*A Hebrew of Hebrews -- By which he was taking on the fact that many Jewish people in the first century no longer spoke Aramaic or Hebrew (which many of us here understand as “second generation” people in the US) – but Paul’s first language was Hebrew.

*A Pharisee --  “Now,” he says, “let’s look at my life.  I’m a Pharisee.”  The Pharisees were made up of a minority of the people who were the most scrupulous about keeping every law in the “Old Testament” perfectly.  Jewish people were to give a tenth of their income to the Lord. But, a Pharisee tithed everything – even taking out his spices and making sure 10% went to the synagogue.

*As for zeal, persecuting the church --  “And, I was not passive but active in fighting anything that I thought opposed God’s people.  I didn’t just show up – I was 100% in!”

*So, to sum up:  As for righteousness based on the law, faultless – He’s saying that “using your own admissions’ criteria, I’m in.  I meet every possible admissions requirement – and in ways far beyond anyone.”  These were the things that led to Paul quickly becoming a leader among his people.

            This is like Paul applying for admission to a PhD program at Cal Tech and saying, “Hey, my mother is a widely published biochemist and my father discovered the cure for Alzheimer’s disease.  And, they’re rich!  So, let me in and you can count of big donations to the endowment. I did my undergrad degree at Princeton and my MS at MIT and already have published 17 articles in the best journals.  And I speak 7 languages and have been asked at JPL to participate in their latest project.  Anything you are looking for related to admissions, I have done – and more!”  As a former educator, I can assure that these kinds of credentials would lead to admission.

Part Two:  What most people think might be true (3:7-8)) Whatever were gains to me I now consider loss…

            Paul knew that, deep down, something was lacking on his application.  He was like the young man who came to Jesus in Mark 10 knowing something was missing:  “Jesus, what must I do to live.  I’ve kept all the rules given me since youth but I know something is missing.”  Paul is saying that, when we look at our own lives, no matter how much we do and how hard we try, we will still know something is lacking.  We know we’ve fallen short.  We know there are things in our lives that need to be forgiven – things that need to be different.

But Paul says in v. 8 that when it comes to being right with God, all those things on his resume are rubbish.  Please notice that these things Paul refers to are not bad.  In fact, other than persecuting the church, they were good.  His point is that there is nothing we can do “in the flesh” to earn our way to God.  We all have already fallen short of what God has made us to be.  We were made with a glory – the glory of God – but we haven’t live out that glory.  Romans 3:23:  “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”  That’s true of us all.  When we try to establish our own righteousness by our personal credentials – we will see what Paul saw, i.e., that something is missing.

But, our human tendency, our strong human tendency, is that there must be something we can do or something we can achieve to make everything right – and give us peace and sustain us no matter what happens in this world or what we gain or lose. This comes out in at least three ways:

#1:  Working harder or achieving more – This is especially true of perfectionists.  “If I can finish first in my class, then… If I can get that paper published… If I can get elected to that office… If I can get that role in the film… If I could get a CD made… If I can just please my father…”  So, we work and work and work and (usually) only get tired.  When we stop, we then discover that something is still missing.

#2:  Having more and ever-bigger experiences – We think there must be something in this world that is more fulfilling than what we’ve experienced so far.  “If I could just go to Hawaii…  If I could go to better parties… If I could have that drug more often… If I could go out with that guy… If I could live in Pasadena rather than Chicago in the winter…

            Then, when we experience those things for a while, we find they don’t fill us up!  Some of them – like the drugs or the ongoing partying -- often trap us and destroy us.  And, even the good ones leave us knowing there must be something more that we’re.

#3:  Comparing ourselves to others – We sense there is a God and, we know our own imperfections but many of us hope that we’ll be good enough when (or we may say “if”) a time of accounting comes.  “I know I’m not perfect but if I put all my good things on one side and all my bad ones on the other, I hope it’ll all balance out.”  In this, we especially look around us and think, “Well, I may not be perfect but I’m better than a lot of people.  I go to church a lot!  I should be OK.”

            This third point is what these people Paul was warning us about were doing.  They were saying, “We’ve gone to religious services our whole lives.  We’ve sometimes given to the poor.  We work in the community.  We’re not opposed to Jesus – but what really matters is what we do.”

            So, again – what is on your application form as you give your credentials to God? Paul put it in v. 4, “In what do you have any confidence?”  Most of us think, “There must be something I do that I can put on the application form!  I’m not Hitler.  I must be able to earn my way.”

            This is our strong, strong human tendency, i.e., to think that I have to establish my own right-ness with God.  But, I will tell you what Paul discovered – that won’t work.

Part Three:  The One Qualification (3:7-9) Not having a righteousness of my own… but that which is through faith in Christ…

            God’s admission form is very short!  According to his own admission, Paul had been living for himself his whole life – resting on his own credentials his whole life – and then one day everything changed.  Even when he was persecuting Christ-followers, he kept rationalizing his destructive acts and ignoring his emptiness.  Then, he met Jesus.  It’s all in Acts 9.  Paul was on the way from Jerusalem to Damascus to imprison and persecute Christians, when Jesus met him.  First, Paul was blinded by the radiance of Jesus and later his eyes were opened.  What he saw was a person so true and just and holy and kind and powerful that all he could do was fall before him and follow him. 

            It’s like the time I came back from Germany and saw Chris.  We had been going out for a long time  -- but then I had decided I’d stay single all my life (though my Dad had told me, “If you let her get away, you have a hole in your head!!”)  Well, God had to open my eyes and when I saw her again, I thought, “What’s been wrong with me?  I’m not good enough for her?  I don’t deserve her!”  Seeing her clearly changed my perspectives on everything.

            In an even more profound way, that’s what happens when we truly see Jesus.  We see the only one who lived life as it was meant to be lived.  We see the only one who did not fall short of the glory of God.  And, as we learn, we begin to know that we who are human were meant to know God and to live as Jesus lived.  But all of us – ALL of us – have gone astray.  We have turned to our own ways.  So, we have a God-shaped hole in our innermost beings.  We have sins that need to be forgiven.  We need God to come in to the center of our lives.  Paul found what had been missing in his life when he met Jesus.

            To quote Pastor Tim Keller (yet) again:  Jesus alone lived the life we were meant to live but have not and then died the death we should have to die but now do not have to.”  When we trust Jesus, he becomes the one who makes us right with God.  He’s the one credential necessary for admission to God’s family.  Look at Paul’s words in that light: I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord… My righteousness is not my own.. but that which is through faith in Christ – it is the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith.

Part Four:  The Difference Jesus Makes:  (3:10-11) I want to know Christ…

            When you meet Jesus as Paul did, everything changes.  And it’s all for the better – if you have the right view of things.  On one side, let’s face it – Paul’s life became much harder after he met Jesus.  Paul had been wealthy, deeply respected, and a person of enormous influence among his people.  After Paul gave his life to Jesus, he was repeatedly beaten, stoned, mocked, and run out of cities.  As he writes this letter, he’s sitting in a Roman prison.  Whew!  How can he say again and again as he says in 3:1 –“Rejoice.”  Or in 4:12, “At last I found what we’re all looking for.  I’ve found true contentment.”

            What did Paul find?  We need to know!

#1:  We discover that we (at last) are right with God.  If our world will be a moral world, evil must be punished.  Wrong cannot simply be said to be right.  Evil must be punished and good must be rewarded if the world will be moral. But, we’ve all engaged in many kinds of wrong.  How can we be right with God when there is wrong in our lives? How can God declare guilty people innocent?

            At last, I get to my sermon title:  The Audacity of God’s Love.  Paul knew there were many things not right in his life that needed to be dealt with.  How can God simply declare that an unjust person is just and still be just himself?  The audacity of God’s love means – Who is God to say that because of his love, the unjust is just and people who are not right are right? 

You and I should understand this after what happened this week in the Casey Anthony verdict.  A woman that many believe to be guilty in the death of her own little child has been declared “not guilty” and many, many people are appalled.

            A guest defense attorney made the point straightforwardly on CNN’s Piers Morgan program, “Let’s get over it – The court has declared that Casey Anthony is not guilty.”  A woman called in angry and said, “How can the court just say that the guilty is innocent?” The attorney argued, “Our American system is not primarily concerned with truth or justice.  Its main concern is to make sure that an innocent person is not punished.  Ten guilty persons may have to be deemed not guilty so that one innocent person will not be deemed guilty.”  Piers Morgan said, “Just hearing that makes my blood boil because we pledge that we are committed to liberty and justice for all.”  And another caller said, “A system that declares the unjust just is itself unjust.”

I’m not going to try to sort through whether this particular decision was good or wise or just.  There are many people in our congregation involved in law enforcement and the judicial process who can say much wiser things about this than I.  I simply want to settle in on this matter that we deeply feel that evil should be punished.  We rebel inside when someone callously says that a person we think is guilty is innocent or that something that is wrong is right.  And we who know the Bible also know that God has declared repeatedly that he personally will make sure that, when all is said and done, evil will be punished.

So, here I am today saying to you – from the Bible – that all of us here have engaged in wrong and God is ready to declare us right with him.  You see, Paul never got over the fact that he had persecuted people.  He deeply believed that he was the worst of sinners.  But, he also knew that God had found a way not to cover over or ignore Paul’s sins.  Even though both Paul and God knew Paul was guilty, God could say, “You are innocent before me.”  And Paul knew that the only way that could happen was Jesus.  Jesus alone both lived sinlessly – and then died in his place.  Sin is paid for.  What Paul could never done, Jesus did for him.  Paul’s only credential on his application form was, “My faith is in Jesus.”  And that’s all that was needed.

#2:  We long to know Jesus and to become like him (3:10-11) I want to know Christ…

            When there is something we love, we long to be there. I remember a young man who had hitchhiked all the way from Virginia Beach to Chicago to see his girlfriend play in a playoff game.  As he came into the gym sweaty and tired and told me what he’d done, I said, “You did what? And you have to g back tomorrow?”  He told me, “It’s worth it.  I had to see her. I love to be with her.”  Well, when you see Jesus as he is, you want to know him – be with him – and become like him. And, even if that means hardship, you are willing to go through it for his sake.  No, Paul says, it’s more than that.  You long to share in the sufferings he experienced if it means becoming like him.  It’s clear that whatever Paul might have give up for Jesus’ sake is no real loss.  Remember 1:21?  “For me to live is Christ – so even to die is gain!”

            Do you know him?  If you really do, you long to know him better.  In fact, every moment of life is set in the direction of becoming more like him.  “I want to know Christ.  I want to be like Christ.”  This is the longing of every person who truly has met Jesus and encountered the audacity of a love that is willing to declare that we who are guilty are now innocent because of his death – and his resurrection.