3 Finally, my brothers , rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things again is no trouble for me, and it is a safeguard for you. ² Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of the false circumcision; ³ for we are the true circumcision, who worship in the spirit of God and take pride in Christ Jesus, and put no confidence in the flesh. ⁴ Though I myself could boast as having confidence even in the flesh. If anyone else thinks he is confident in the flesh, i have more reason: ⁵ circumcised the eighth day, of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the Law, a Pharisee; ⁶ as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to the righteousness which is in the Law, found blameless. ⁷ But whatever things were gain to me, these things I have counted as loss because of Christ. ⁸ More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them mere rubbish, so that I may gain Christ, ⁹ and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through Christ’s faithfulness, the righteousness of God on the basis of faith, ¹⁰ that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; ¹¹ if by some means I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. [Phil3:1-11]

I have bolded what I take to be the key points from this passage:

Firstly, Paul urges the Philippian church to be wary of the “false circumcision” (Greek  κατατομήν), the Christian being the true circumcision (Greek: περιτομή). There is an element of sarcasm in his use of the word κατατομήν, signifying those who mutilate themselves. The Christian on other hand is circumcised in heart. But actually, that was intended to be the case for God’s people of the Old Testament. Yes, they were to be circumcised in the physical sense but that was to be a pointer to something more internalized as the following texts indicate:

“Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiffnecked” (Deut10:16)

“The Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul” (Deut30:6)

“Circumcise yourselves to the Lord, and take away the foreskins of your heart, ye men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem” (Jer4:4)

Secondly, in terms of righteousness as defined by the Law (Torah) Paul declared himself to be blameless. That was hardly making the point that the Law was impossible to keep, as many have understood him. But Paul is here referring to the externals of the Law – circumcision, fasting, feast days and the like (cf. Gal4:10), which as a Pharisee he had perfectly observed. But he is making it clear that this is not what determines whether one is righteous in God’s sight.

So, what does count as the righteousness of God, being that of which God approves? It ultimately pertains to Christ and His obedience even to death – Christ’s faithfulness [Greek: τὴν διὰ πίστεως Χριστοῦ], usually translated as “faith in Christ”, whereas the genitive indicates it is referring to Christ’s own faith(fulness).

The righteousness that God requires of His people does not pertain to observing the externals of Torah but to faith, which in the case of the Christian is faith in Jesus Christ:  “that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death” (v10). And as Paul indicates in the following verse, and still more in the passage that follows (next post), this is to attain a goal that is by no means guaranteed or “all of grace” –  that “by some means I may attain to the resurrection from the dead” (v11) 😲This must be the first resurrection (Rev20:5-6), for everyone is to be resurrected at some point – there would be no need to “attain” to that (cf. Jn6:54).

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