Title: The Way to God
Contents
2004. 7.4 of
Philippians 3:2-9
Based on today's text alone, Paul who wrote this letter seems like a very radical person. As you can see in verse 2, "Beware of the dogs," he speaks profanely against a subject, and he puts himself in a context where he should avoid personal comments if possible. It would be far more desirable to logically spread the truth without losing your composure, but it is not necessarily wrong to express your feelings in such a blatant way for some reason. This does not only mean that we must take into account the limitations that an individual can only expose when dealing with an issue, it also means that these emotional expressions can explain the original truth much more directly. In this respect, today's text should be seen as much more effective in explaining the fundamentals of the Christian faith than in revealing Paul's human weakness.
circumcision hall
According to Paul, these circumcision and legalists were secular people. Look at verse 4. "Well, even in the worldly way, I have something to show off. If anyone wants to brag about the world, I have more to brag about." The word worldly is translated as 'corporeal' in the Revised and Lutheran versions. Whether it is secular, a paraphrase of the Greek word 'sarx', or a literal translation of the word, the meaning is the same. Secular, or physical, here does not mean unreligious or unholy. Usually we have a habit of saying that the church is holy and the world is secular, based on the dualism of the Holy Spirit. But Paul did not use this sarx in that sense. Rather, it is rebuked for showing physical and secular behavior within the religious realm. To Paul, he is speaking this to those who are in the church and who are not at all Christian, rather than those outside the church.
obstacle
Paul criticizes the secular achievements that everyone so desperately desires to be, and yet is dedicated to doing all of their lives. Are we denying these social norms and values because Paul's personality is on the verge of collapse? Or is it to fall into religious zeal and fundamentally abolish human culture and history? Guys, don't misunderstand Paul. He is the smartest man of all minds. He is a very rational and logical person. As a student of Gamaliel, he had reached a high intellectual level. Even in Paul's eyes, the art and culture that humans have built up must have been beautiful and worthwhile. In Romans, Paul did not deny the Roman civilization itself, but rather acknowledged the power of the Roman regime.
right relationship with God
Paul's logic of treating other values as garbage in order to become one with Christ lies in the fact that in the absolute world, everything else is almost equally relative. People rank elements under the kingdom of God. The church is much closer to the kingdom of God, followed by community service, followed by the arts. But Paul didn't think so. Except for being one with Christ, everything is only a small thing. Just as a person who has fallen into the passion of love looks equally trivial to anyone other than the other person, just as a person who enters the absolute world of a painting sees all other things alike, to Paul who entered the world of oneness with Christ, Things that are considered useful are bound to become boring.
Paul's statement that the worldly values based on human self-fulfillment are so trivial can be easily understood, but it is not easy to grasp accurately and to understand it greatly. The fact that being one with Christ is an absolute event for us and an absolute world also sounds abstract in our daily lives in some ways. In this state, no matter how hard we try, it is difficult to agree with Paul's perception. It's just pretending to believe it, but it's hard to actually experience such a world.
Let's look at Paul's remarks: “It is not that I have a right relationship with God by keeping the law, but that when I believe in Christ, God sees my faith and places me in a right relationship with you” (verse 9). That's right. Paul realized that the right relationship with God that he had been trying to achieve with all his might was not obtained through his own efforts, but was given elsewhere. It means that you do not achieve the world of absolute life through your own efforts, but that you come from the world of absolute life. Through his past life, Paul realized that no matter how hard he tried, he could not attain the absolute world. It means that nothing could be accomplished with the law. His realization is correct. Not just on a religious level, but in all human life. Take science, for example. Humans today have made tremendous scientific advances compared to the ancients, but that doesn't guarantee that they've come close to the reality of life. This will be the case even in the next 100 million years.
The same applies to the life of the church as well. No matter how many religious achievements we accumulate, it is not the way to the absolute world of God. Building churches and sending missionaries are also worldly values that Paul considers trash today. This is not to say that such things are meaningless, but that no matter how many these achievements are, we cannot bring about the kingdom of God out of them. You cannot experience absolute peace and joy through these things outside the church and inside the church. It will only be intoxicated with self-satisfaction, or another desire or emptiness will come.
Then, is it realistically possible to have a right relationship with the absolute God through faith in Christ? Unfortunately, that seldom happens. Even Jesus Christ cries out on the cross, "Why have you forsaken me?" Therefore, complete salvation is impossible on this earth. But such salvation is given to us as a promise. A person who is convinced of this promise is a person of hope. In this respect, in life on this earth before the absolute world is yet complete, such hope can be called salvation. After death, or when Jesus returns, that hope becomes a reality. For those who live with such hope, the achievements of human beings in this world, moreover, boasting about such work is useless, so it is like garbage. I hope that we will participate together in the depth and mystery of Paul's faith. Then true freedom will come to you.