Paul hits the nail on the head in this tour-de-force of alien righteousness teaching.
“Impact” as a word is overused. It is a pet-peeve of mine, words that enter the mainstream and take on a life of their own, bedding down in a semantic domain without paying attention to their history. I am all for the living language concept and the unboundedness of my own language of origin (fearfully and wonderfully made is the English tongue!) but as a teacher who strives to open student’s worlds to more, diction is a note I invariably jot down for critique. Young writers too often produce material that suffers not necessarily from lack of skill or technique, but raw material in their own vocabulary. The cure for this is reading. Read all you can and read good stuff. Your vocabulary will expand. As far as this word “impact” goes, think carefully about meaning. There are lots of synonyms for “significance” or “importance” of which “impact” is (these days anyhow, from an anecdotal observation) among the top. I argue this should not be. Consequence (with its focus on result), moment (with its temporal nuance), gravity, or weight (with the valance of quantity, something measurable), and simply meaning (with its existential connotations) can be substituted in and often improve beginning writing, which can be hobbled by a too-facile satisfaction with what is, in some student’s colloquial habits, a devotion to the specific word “impact.”
“Impact” is verbal. It leaves an impression in a way that consequence, moment, gravity, and meaning are not. “Impact” should scare up an image of driving a nail with a hammer. “Impact” is what the hammer does to the nail, what the nail does with the wood. “Impact” is the effect a worker has when he hits the nail on the head. It is the thing that translates the Latin phrase rem acu tetigisti (“you have touched the thing with a needle”), spot on, bullseye, and it was loud, *BANG*, and drove the point home. That is “impact.”
Philippians 3 is one of the most impactful summaries of the Gospel in all of Pauline literature, not just the prison epistles. It is comical, down-n-dirty, surprising, faithful, and it is immediately applicable to every reader and hearer who cannot help but be persuaded by the argument that weighs the value of Christ in scales balanced by my own worth and is a great rhetorical gem of the scriptures. Listen to what Paul says! “I’m pretty Jewish, guys. More Jewish than any of you.” It is as if his boast has boiled down to, “I am soooo circumcised. Impressed?” But what is it worth? Not a bit. Nothing compared to the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord (3:8). Paul hits the nail on the head in this tour-de-force of alien righteousness teaching.
You are an informed reader and already hear the Gospel hook screaming from the page. You realize that the gospel we are talking about, the gospel Paul is arguing about in Philippians 3, has everything to do with the nails, with the death of Christ. Consider how the “nail” image will help devotionally and in your craft this week as you compose a message which delivers the alien righteousness Paul relies on for his identity. It is the mental, emotional, and ontological transfer of who he is in himself to who he is in Christ. Your sermon will impact your listeners as you deliver what Christ has done on their behalf. So, if you will indulge me, here is a suggested outline for study and for delivery.
If righteousness were a matter of what you bring to the table, Paul brought a feast. And then Christ happened.
The First Nail: The Rubbish of My Own Righteousness
Paul’s argument is devastating precisely because his résumé is so impressive. He is not some religious ne’er-do-well who has finally figured out he needs help. He has the pedigree, the credentials, the zeal, the whole shebang. If righteousness were a matter of what you bring to the table, Paul brought a feast. And then Christ happened. What had been gain became loss. What Paul could boast about has turned into shame. What had been something to brag about became skybala (the naughty word of the New Testament!) the stuff that will give Grandma Schmidt the vapors if you translate it literally. We pull the punch in our English translations by going basura instead of caca. We render it as rubbish, refuse, the stuff you throw out. But we all know it is brown and sounds like a bell. It is “dung” plain and simple! It is also funny, and Paul knows it. But the joke has teeth (it has impact!). All those things Paul once counted as assets cannot make him righteous before God. They cannot deliver what he needs. Neither can mine, and neither can your hearer’s. My religious accomplishments, my moral seriousness, my good intentions, my carefully curated identity, none of them can bear the weight of my sin. The first nail is driven home: My righteousness cannot save me.
The Second Nail: A Righteousness Not My Own
Here is where your study and your craft should expand this week. Spend time here because this is the nut of the whole kit and caboodle. Paul does not simply trade one résumé for a better one. He does not exchange a deficient righteousness for an improved version or add Jesus to the list of things that make him impressive. He wants to be found in Christ (that most important – impactful? – prepositional phrase of the scriptures), not having a righteousness of my own, but one that comes from God, through faith in Christ (3:9). This is alien righteousness. It is a righteousness from outside myself (extra nos), not manufactured within me. It is given, not achieved, received, not earned. Faith is not one, last accomplishment to put on the ledger. Faith is the empty hand which receives Christ, the dead hand of faith. And Christ is no abstraction. This righteousness has a history, a body, a cross. It is the righteousness of the one who was nailed to wood, whose hands and feet were pierced, whose blood was shed for sinners. The second nail is driven home: Christ’s righteousness is GIVEN to me. This does not happen because I have made myself worthy (no boasting allowed!), but because Christ has made Himself mine. Christ has given Himself for me.
The Third Nail: Christ Has Laid Hold of Me
Paul presses on. He wants to know Christ, the power of His resurrection, the fellowship of His sufferings. He has not arrived. Paul has not been perfected (as we will recall from chapter 1, I am not dead yet! Should I stay or should I go? For me to live is Christ and to die is profit, Philippians 1:20-26). But listen carefully to the order of his words. He presses on because Christ Jesus has made me His own (3:12). There it is, for Paul, for you, and for your hearers, dear preacher. The Christian life does not begin with my grasping after God, but with Christ’s grasping after me. Not grasping after equality with God (Philippians 2:6) but gripping the ones He came to save! Christ’s death and resurrection are not events to be admired from a distance. They are the saving work by which Christ claims me, and into which He draws me. Now, I live in the reality of His promise, not in the anxiety of trying to complete, as if the task remains unfinished. The third nail is driven home: Christ has made me His own.
I have to leave it to better preachers than me to weave those three nails into the drama of the Christ being crucified for me, for you, and for the world. One nail, *BANG*. A second nail, *BANG*. Nail number three, *BANG*. On a lonely hill, on a Friday afternoon, your salvation was accomplished. From a pulpit this week, that salvation is accomplished still. In the hearing of the Word, in the trust that relies not on our own righteousness but in the nails which were driven home for us, salvation is delivered.
Finally, let us return to “impact,” and not the word tossed about until it means almost nothing or a vague sense of importance, a fleeting moment, or some spiritual feeling that leaves me where I was. Preacher, the Gospel has impact. It strikes home because the Gospel is all about the nails. The nails are real. The wood is real. The blood is real. The death is real. And the resurrection is real. Christ has borne my, Paul’s, you, and your listener’s sin in His own body. Christ has risen from the dead. Christ gives me His righteousness. This is no achievement of mine, no improvement to my résumé, no weight I must somehow add to the scales. It is His gift, delivered to me. The hammer has fallen, and the nails have gone in. And by His grace, the thing you get to drive home this week is the simple fact: Christ Jesus has made me His own. Drive it home by the text, drive it home through the scriptures, and drive it home through the sermon you craft as you cobble together the message our Lord is calling you to deliver to His hearers this week.
Additional Resources:
Craft of Preaching-Check out 1517’s resources on Philippians 3:4b-14.
Concordia Theology-Various helps from Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, MO to assist you preaching Philippians 3:4b-14.
Lectionary Kick-Start-Check out this fantastic podcast from Craft of Preaching authors Peter Nafzger and David Schmitt as they dig into the texts for this Sunday!
The Pastor’s Workshop-Check out all the great preaching resources from our friends at the Pastor’s Workshop!
