Philippians, Rightly Divided, Verse-by-Verse

Session 12 | Phillippians 3:4-7

Philippians 3:4-14 | Paul's Journey

• Verse 4 -- Black

  • This verse begins a section in which Paul recounts his Judaism. It is dispensationally important because it displays that by this time Paul places no credibility in his Jewish qualifications. When Paul recounts Judaism before Agrippa in Acts 26:4-8 (recounting events of 25 years earlier) he gives no hint of not trusting his Judaism.

    
    In short, this verse begins a short testimony of the dispensational transition.
    

• Verse 5 -- Black

  • “life under the Law" testimony, Paul begins with the eighth day of his life, on which he was circumcised according to the requirements of the covenant (compare Gen. 17:12). He comes from the stock of Israel (Greek γένος [genos], from which we get genus and genes), thus not a proselyte but a true child of Abraham. He was of the tribe of Benjamin, one of the two faithful tribes (along with Judah) in the Southern Kingdom, and a tribe known for its strong defense of the nation.

  • When Paul says he is an Hebrew of the Hebrews“I'm the picture of the perfect Hebrew." If taken literally rather than figuratively, he is speaking of both his mother and his father, both being Hebrew.

  • Concerning the law, he was a Phariseein free will. The Pharisees held to the oral interpretation of the Law, believing that the Law was “owned" by the *congregation*, based on Deuteronomy 33:3, Every one shall receive of thy words. It was likely the Pharisees who created the synagogue system, and especially its role in the study of Torah.

    
    

• Verse 6 -- Black

  • The word touching (v. 5 and v. 6) and the word concerning are the same in the underlying Greek.

    
    Concerning Paul's zeal, he went about persecuting the church (see Acts 8:3). This use of the word church displays the broad usage of the word ἐκκλησία [ekklesia]. The church which Saul persecuted was Jewish in every form and doctrine. His contention with them was not that they were not being obedient to Jewish Law, but rather that they believed Jesus to be the Messiah, a premise he flatly rejected.

  • Paul boldly says that touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless“New City Cathecishm“Can Anyone Keep the Law of God Perfectly?" and then provides this answer: “Since the fall, no mere human has been able to keep the law of God perfectly, but consistently breaks it in thought, word, and deed."

  • Paul disagrees. In fact, he said in Romans 10:5 that there is a righteousness which is of the law and that the man which doeth those things shall live by them, a quote of Leviticus 18:5.

    
    I will side with Paul. If he, as an apostle of God writing under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, claims to have been blameless in the righteousness which is in the law, then I will take his word for it.

  • In fact, there are others who claim or were attested to having attained this righteousness. For example, in Mark 10:20 the rich young ruler claimed to have followed the law, and Jesus did not deny it. Even more powerful, the Holy Scriptures claim that Zechariah and Elizabeth were righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless (Lk. 1:6).

    
    “standard evangelical answer" that tells us the Law was unattainable and given to show how sinful and needy mankind is. Rather, we see the Law as the righteous standard which God gave to Israel, expecting her faithful to live according to its righteous standards to be right with Him. Later God would stop dealing with Israel directly and would offer a grace-gift to any who would receive it in faith. In the future, after this dispensation of the grace of God (Eph. 3:2) ceases, God will deal with Israel under her original covenants once again.
    

• Verse 7 -- Black

  • Now, displaying the dispensational change, Paul notes that these things that were gain to me (and we must assume that they were), he has now counted loss for Christ. Paul had mentioned seven things that were gain in the previous two verses. Now, on account of the Messiah, he counts as loss.

  • Paul has certainly undergone a personal change of trust; from Law to Christ*. How did he come to this personal change? Was it from the teaching of Peter or the other apostles? Was it from a reconsideration of the teachings of the Hebrew Scriptures? Nothing of any of Paul's writings would support either conclusion. His change of belief systems came when he received the mystery* of our new dispensation (Col. 1:25-26).