There are only a few landmark times in life where must put together a list of reasons we should be accepted. We have to do this to apply to college and colleges usually require an essay submission. Essays are often written in response to a question proposed by the college, such as, “You’re required to spend next year in the past or the future. What year would you choose and why?” There are lots of stories about famous (or infamous) essays submitted. One year Harvard allegedly allowed applicants to submit their own question for their essay. One student proposed his own question, “Do you play the trombone?” His essay in full: “No.”
He was accepted.
Good resumes (or transcripts or applications, work. Resume-building is the stuff of life. We are always compiling reasons to prove we are acceptable, whether it is proving our worth to a college, employer, spouse, or someone you want to one day be your spouse. But Phil. 3:1-11 says without qualification: don’t you dare submit a resume to God for his acceptance.
Paul says clearly, don’t you dare submit a resume to God for His acceptance. But why not? Paul was known for saying radical things like that and had an inaccurate reputation of maybe loving sin. Perhaps Paul didn’t think we should submit a resume to God for acceptance because his resume was one of being a spiritual loser. Paul begins responding to this kind of idea in Phil. 3:4, writing, “though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more.” In other words, he isn’t coping out. He was of the religious elite. He had a better resume than you, whoever “you” was.
To prove this he gives us his resume. He was circumcised on the eighth day according to God’s plan, of the people of Israel according to God’s command. He was of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, as to the law, a Pharisee. As a Pharisee, he was known to have the highest devotion to sound doctrine, moral purity, and zeal for God. He goes on: as to zeal, a persecutor of the church. In other words, when Paul thought people were blaspheming God, he did not stand for it. Lastly and summarily, as to righteousness under the law, blameless. In summary, Paul was acceptable to God in himself.
We can’t miss this: Paul’s resume is full of biblical stuff. He is not thinking outside the box here. His resume is full of stuff God called for and valued, like circumcision, being an Israelite, devotion truth, devotion to morals, unwilling to compromise to the truth, and so on. It’s like Paul just said, “ I was born to Christian parents, memorized John 3:16 before my first birthday, have faithfully attended church every Sunday, have never missed a quiet time, my kids have the shorter catechism memorized, I spend so much time praying I am able to fit in prayers for my friend’s mother’s aunt’s sick puppy as well as up to 7 unspoken prayer requests daily, I tithe 13.5%, I have shared the Gospel with every one of my neighbors, and in the end, I am the kind of Christian you pretend to be on social media.
What’s wrong with any of that? Nothing! Which is precisely what makes what he says next so outrageous: “But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss…” How can Paul say that? His resume is full of things God commands and values. Three times he says his resume became a loss to him. He goes so far to say that he considers it “rubbish”. His resume was excrement, offensive to God, like showing up to a job interview with a trash can of used diapers.
So, what happened to Paul for him to think this way? :ook what he says in Phil. 3:9, writing that he wants to be found in Christ he says, “not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law”. This is what happened: Paul was trying to fulfill God’s Law for acceptance, then the Law broke him. Ironically, Paul was using God’s Law to convince himself, others, and God that he was righteous and then God used that same Law to confirm his unrighteousness, to confirm he was a sinner who wasn’t good enough. God’s Law demands personal, perpetual, perfection and it has no mercy. God’s Law demands personal, perpetual, perfection and therefore finds you and I to be sinners.
But Paul is saying something even more comprehensive here. He says, “whatever” gain he had he counted as loss. He counted “everything” as loss. Whatever Paul could add, revise, or tweak on his resume would be a failure. It was not just the content he found wanting. Rather, he abandoned the whole concept and system of submitting a resume to God for acceptance.
If Paul changed his entire approach to acceptance with God, where did go? Well, he said it over and over. He turned to Christ, which means something significant we must not miss. “But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him…”
This means that God is not in the resume-building game. This means Jesus didn’t come to bring you the Law so you could build a better resume. Remember, Paul abandoned resume-building entirely in turning to Jesus, which means Jesus isn’t in the resume-building game. Jesus is not a new Law-giver. He is not some better Moses. But we are so addicted to self-righteousness that even when we know we have failed the Law, we will move to Jesus as though he came to help us build better resume. We turn to Jesus as though he came to say, “Look I’ve come with some grace. I’ve come to lighten things up, to make it easier to be accepted. Just trust me, love God, love people, and that’ll be enough.”
As though anything could be harder than loving God and loving people to secure acceptance with God. I mean, sure, I love God, except for all the times he makes me extremely angry. Sure, I love people, except for all the people I (sinfully) hate.
Jesus isn’t in the performance, self-righteous, resume-building game. So, to seek to establish our own righteousness is to reject the person and work of Jesus altogether. The Bible is here saying there are two distinct options that do not mix and mingle. There is life by you performing the Law or there is Jesus. There is no – “Jesus and…”. There is only – “Nothing but Jesus”.
Trash your resume. Trash your resume because on your best day you deserve to go to hell forever. Your prayers alone contain enough sin to send you to hell forever. Your Bible reading alone is so littered with selfishness that it alone could send you to hell forever. Trash your resume as rubbish.
So, what did Jesus do for us? How does Jesus provide acceptance? It’s right there in the middle of Phil. 3:9 – Paul says I don’t want a righteousness of my own “but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—” Where is your righteousness? Not in you. When you look at yourself, you look at a sinner. Where is your righteousness? It is in Jesus alone, received by grace alone through faith alone. Jesus came to fulfill the Law personally, perpetually, and perfectly, for you. In Jesus you are not only forgiven but considered by God as someone who has fulfilled the Law because God credits Jesus’ righteousness to your account.
Right about now our self-righteous sinful nature is screaming. “I agree but I just don’t really feel bad enough for my sin. My repentance is so weak and unacceptable.” Or “I agree but I just don’t have enough faith. My faith is so weak and unacceptable.” And right there we try to hold on to one thing for our resume. We try to come to Jesus saying, “Jesus, look at my great faith! Look at my strong repentance!” And here the Bible says even your faith needs to be forgiven you. Paraphrasing the Valley of Vision, “my best prayers are stained with sin; my repentant tears are impure; my confessions are sinful; my receiving the Holy Spirit is flavored with selfishness. I need to repent of my repentance.”
The only way to come to Jesus is as sinner with nothing in your hands. Your righteousness and acceptance is not in yourself, in your works, your faith, or your repentance. It’s in nothing but Jesus. Jesus is for you, He is free, and His righteousness and grace is enough.
