Rubbish - Part 5

Garbage, trash, refuse, waste, or rubbish, we all have them in our lives. Some of the things are absolutely despicable, while others are normal and may seem appropriate. I am going to go through the list that Paul provides for us in Philippians 3:4-7 [T]hough 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: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.
Blameless – Paul considered himself righteous when it came to the law. There was no room for blame because he was righteous. But to whose standard? It is obvious that it was to his standards or the standard of the Pharisees. Paul was not righteous as Abraham was. Abraham was counted as righteous because of his faith. Paul counted himself righteous because of his works. Now, there are two areas we can find ourselves doing the same thing. One is thinking that good works can help you get to heaven. The other is thinking that doing good works keeps you in God’s favor. Let’s start with the first one. Works do not get you into heaven. If they did, then there would have been no need for Christ to die on the cross. Putting your trust in Christ as your Savior is what gets you to heaven. A person can do good works as Paul did before his conversion and not make it to heaven. Paul put his trust in Christ and he is now in heaven. Now this brings us to the second one. Since we are talking about Paul, let’s use him as a hypothetical. Let’s suppose that Paul trusted in Christ as his Savior and left it at that. Would he be in Heaven? Yes. Even if he never did a good work in his life? Yes. How? Well, we could ask the same question about the thief on the cross. He put his faith in Christ right before his death. What good things could he do? He was stuck on a cross. However, Jesus told him he would be in paradise that day. If you don’t believe that putting your trust in Christ alone is what gets you to heaven, then that makes Jesus a liar. The thief would have never gone to paradise. So what is the purpose of works and what does James mean by “faith without works is dead”? Well, works are valuable, and God wants us to do good works. If we don’t we are disobeying commandments. Paul told the jailor that all he needed to do is believe on the name of Jesus Christ and he and his family would be saved. Now to put this in movie terms, that is the ticket to get you in the theatre. What seat do you want? Do you want popcorn, pop, jujubes? The works you do determine that. Works put jewels in your crown and Paul makes it clear that all our works will be tested and if you don’t have any, you will escape as though through fire (1 Cor. 3:10-15). So Paul considered the works he did before his conversion as rubbish, because they were for the wrong reasons. They were for selfish, prideful reasons. When we serve, we need to do it with God’s intentions, with the other person’s needs and desires at heart. Don’t hold the door open so you can hear the thank you. Don’t get mad at someone because they didn’t thank you. If you do, then you are doing it for the wrong reason. Let us do works for the right reason, not for legalistic or selfish reasons. Obey the commandments of God because of your love and reverence for Him.