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Thom Keller: In New Testament redemption, the worshiper is never examined, only the sacrifice, only Jesus. When you finally come to accept Christ's finished work on the cross, your relationship transitions into a confident, beautiful, peaceful place of really knowing Christ and of being confident in his love for you. Everything changes, but that's the tipping point.

Guest (Male): Our salvation is complete in and because of Jesus, and yet many still strive for God's approval even though they already have it. What's the answer? Well, we'll hear all about it on today's Study the Word with Pastor Thom Keller.

That answer is found in Philippians chapter three, and we'll learn it's not by a change in location; something more is needed. Starting off by illustrating this very common way of thinking, here's Pastor Thom Keller.

Thom Keller: There was a small town located along the frontier between Russia and Poland, but no one was ever quite sure to which nation the town belonged. One day, an official treaty was signed, and not long after that, surveyors arrived to draw the border. Some villagers approached the surveyors who had set up their equipment and asked them, "So where are we? Are we in Russia or are we in Poland?"

"Well, according to our calculations, your village is actually located just 37 meters into Poland." The villagers immediately began dancing with joy. The surveyor said, "Why? Why are you dancing? What difference does it make?" They said, "Don't you know what this means? It means we'll never have to endure another one of those terrible Russian winters."

Sue and I have friends who live in Dillon, Colorado, a ski town where they have a ministry to ski instructors and lift attendants. He told me that many people would be surprised to find this, but there are a lot of really messed-up people living in the mountains of Colorado. When I asked him why, he said that people just move to the mountains because they think if they get to the mountains, everything will get better.

He said the problem is, just as those Poles discovered, it doesn't matter where you move; the same you and all your problems move with you. Paul offers us a solution to that this morning. So, let's dig in and take a look. Again, Philippians chapter three, verses eight and nine.

He says, "Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake, I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage so that I could gain Christ and become one with him. I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ. For God's way of making us right with himself depends upon faith."

Paul says, "So that I may have Christ and be one with him." Galatians 2, verse 20 makes this same point. "My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me." Again, to be one with Christ.

In John 17, we read this, Jesus speaking. "I have given them, his disciples, and in fact, all those who will ever believe in Jesus because of the testimony of these disciples, including us, I have given them the glory you gave me so that they may be one as we are. I am in them, Jesus in us, and you are in me. May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me."

God loves you as much as he loves his son, Jesus. But there, the point is he says that we would be one. I in them, Jesus in us, and you in me. This is called the exchanged life, and this is a key to living a victorious Christian life. First Corinthians 6:17 says this, "But the person who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him, one with Christ."

Galatians 5:24, "And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires." We crucify the old man. Romans 6:6, "We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin." And all that so that Paul could say this in Philippians 1:21, "For me, living means living for Christ, and dying is even better."

But how do we do this? How do we allow this new exchanged life to take hold of us? I've shared this before, but when I wake up in the morning, what I say many times when I get up in my prayer time, I say, "God, if Thom Keller goes in the streets today, there are going to be body bags everywhere because that's just how he deals with life in the flesh. I don't want him on the streets; it'll be an ugly scene."

So I pray, "Father God, that you would allow me to crucify my flesh, put the old Thom Keller to death. And instead, Jesus, you live your resurrected life in me and through me. You take these feet where you want to take them. You take these hands where you want them to go. You let these eyes look at what you want to look at. You let these lips say what you want to say. And Father, if that happens, this is going to be a very good day."

That's the exchanged life. And this is so important because you cannot redeem your flesh. There are so many Christians that don't understand this. You cannot redeem your flesh. You cannot make yourself into a better version of you. It can't be done. If you attempt to do that, it'll be flesh attempting to do it. You can't make yourself into a better version.

It's been said the solution to every relational problem in your life would be simply attending a good funeral—yours. "I no longer live, but Christ liveth in me." You attend your own funeral. Vance Havner said this: "The church has become an old Adam Improvement Society. Having begun in the spirit, we would perfect ourselves in the flesh. Old Adam is walking down the church aisle, rededicating himself."

But God does not accept the old nature and cannot use old Adam, no matter how much he rededicates himself. God uses only men and women who have died and have risen with Christ to walk in newness of life. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, that which is born of the spirit is spirit, and only the twice-born can serve God in spirit and in truth."

Philippians 3:9 says this, "And become one with him. I no longer count my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ. For God's way of making us right with himself depends upon faith." Paul says, "I no longer count on my own goodness or my own ability to obey God's law and earn his favor, but I trust in Christ alone to save me."

So the question for you this morning: do you trust in Christ alone to save you, or do you trust in you? And once you're saved, do you trust in Christ to maintain your salvation, or do you trust in you to keep you saved? Because in verse nine, Paul says, "As for me, I trust Christ to save me." We know that's how our salvation starts, but what about in between our initial salvation experience and the day we die?

What about that period in between? Can I trust that faith alone in Christ can keep me saved? Romans 1:17 says this: "This good news tells us how God makes us right in his sight. This is accomplished, listen, start to finish, start to finish by faith. As the scriptures say, 'It is through faith that a righteous person has life.'" Start to finish.

But what if some event occurs after I'm saved and I really mess up bad, worse than any Christian that I know has ever messed up? What then? Romans 3:22, 23 says this: "The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe, for there is no distinction. For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. There is no distinction. God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe, for there is no distinction."

Now let me reverse the order if I may, because it still makes sense. This would say, "For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, for there is no distinction." Still true. In Greek, the word for distinction is diastole, and it means distinction or difference. So what Paul is saying is there is no distinction, there's no difference.

In what? There's no difference in how God sees me as compared to any other believer positionally. He doesn't see any difference. Any other believer, no distinction, no difference. And that's Paul's point here in verse nine. "I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ. For God's way of making us right with himself depends upon faith."

In my Bible, when I get to a passage that has significance to me or reads a certain way, I will circle the word that I think deserves emphasis. Now you've got to be careful when you do that because there are some times where, in another setting, another word might have emphasis. But there are some verses you read, and it's pretty clear which word should be emphasized.

In my Bible, I have "for God's way of making us right with him," because that sure isn't our way. Our way is earning our way. "For God's way of making us right with him depends upon faith," and faith is circled. Not on my own goodness or my works. And as Romans 1:17 says, our salvation is accomplished start to finish by faith.

From the day you receive Christ until the day you die, start to finish by faith. This is pure genius on God's part because it is by this means that God makes the ground level at the cross. God's way of making us right with him precludes any true believer out of any nation, any kindred, any tribe from saying to anyone else, "I am more deserving of God's love and acceptance than you are, than that person over there."

And conversely, it also refuses to allow a person to say, "I am less deserving of God's love and acceptance than that person over there." On either side of that scale, it doesn't allow comparisons, and God didn't intend it to. And isn't this how God would want his children to see one another? As completely equal in his sight.

How else could he have done that but by making our acceptance with him completely outside of anything we do? Because it would bring boasting. Because the alternative view based upon works is very ugly. Ephesians 2:8, 9 makes that point: "God saved you by his grace when you believed, and you can't take credit for this. It is a gift of God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so that none of us can boast about it."

We boast in what Christ has done for us, not what we have done. If my salvation hinges on my works to any degree at all, then I could boast, but I can't. And God goes on to tell us that if we get to judgment day and we discover that we're wrong about this, and we discover that we did need to maintain a certain level of righteousness in order to get to heaven, on our way to hell, we could turn around and say to Christ, "Jesus, I believed what the Bible said. I believed that I was saved by faith alone in Christ alone. And now, Jesus, I find myself condemned to hell because I believed and I trusted in you alone for my salvation. But now I find that trust in you alone has actually caused my damnation. Jesus, how can this be?"

And this is exactly the point Paul makes in Galatians 2, verse 17. "But suppose we seek to be made right with God through faith in Christ, and then we are found guilty because we've abandoned the law. Would that mean Christ has led us into sin? Absolutely not." I love the way the Living Bible puts this same verse.

"But what if we trust Christ to save us and then find that we are wrong and we cannot be saved without being circumcised and obeying all the other Jewish laws? Wouldn't we need to say that faith in Christ, faith alone in Christ, had ruined us? God forbid that anyone should dare to think such things about our Lord."

Listen, I have a quiz for you. It's a fill-in-the-blank quiz. Here it is. In order to become a Christian, if I want to be saved by my works, the standard is perfection, right? No other way. You can get to heaven without Jesus. You just have to live a perfect life. Not starting now—remember when you were 18, when you were 16? All those years. Perfect life, never one sin.

So, second quiz for you. Once I become a Christian, if I want to maintain my salvation by my works, the standard is perfection. Right. As you know, both are impossible. So who maintains my salvation once I'm saved? No one. No one maintains your salvation. Your salvation was completed the day you received Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. It was completed on that day.

Even under Old Testament law, it was the same. Think about it. When a worshiper took a sacrificial animal to the temple, the worshiper was never examined. It was implicit in the fact that the worshiper had to bring his sacrificial animal to the temple that the worshiper had sins that needed to be paid for. That's why he came to the temple.

It was only the sacrifice that was examined, never the one bringing the sacrifice. The worshiper knew that he was sinful; that's why he came. It was the sacrifice that needed to be spotless and examined in order to be accepted. So too in New Testament redemption. The worshiper is never examined, only the sacrifice, only Jesus.

When you finally come to accept Christ's finished work on the cross, his finished work on the cross, your relationship transitions into a confident, beautiful, peaceful place of really knowing Christ and of being confident in his love for you. Everything changes, but that's the tipping point. Philippians 3:10 says this, "I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I want to suffer with him, sharing in his death. I want to know Christ."

What does it mean to really know Christ? Let me give you an analogy. When I was in college, a good friend of mine told me about Sue Klein, and he showed me her senior picture and told me some things about her. Based on what I saw and what I had heard about her, I thought she was beautiful and a wonderful person that I'd like to meet.

But if you would have asked me to tell you something about her, I could only have told you what others had told me about her. I had no experience firsthand. Then I met Sue in 1973. And now, 48 years later, I can tell you almost everything about her. I know her many different laughs. I know her many different smiles. I know her gentleness, her compassion.

I know she loves me, miracle of miracles, and enjoys being with me, amazing. I know that she would never turn away from me. I know that she would never desert me. I know that she would never intentionally hurt me, never. But here's the question: how did that relationship come to be? How did I get to know her?

It's really pretty simple. It started with a desire to want to get to know her, which resulted in me spending time with her, hearing her heart, learning who she is. And how will you get to know Jesus better? In exactly the same way. It begins with a desire to want to get to know Jesus better, which results in you spending time with Jesus, hearing his heart, learning who he is.

How did I do that with Sue? Well, I walked up the sidewalk to 16 East Walnut Street in Lebanon and I picked her up and took her out and we spent time together. How do you get to know Jesus? The same way. You walk to a Christian bookstore, you pick up a Bible, you take it out, and you spend time together with Jesus, reading his love letters to you.

That's how you get to know Jesus. As his word speaks to you, you are sitting next to Jesus. Listen, literally. Anybody doubt that? When you're in the word, he's sitting right next to you. He is sitting right next to you. "I will never leave you or forsake you." Is that just fluff? He will never. He is always with you.

That's how you get to know Jesus better. Listen, if I would have never listened to Sue, never, how much would I know her today? Zilch. And what a loss that would be for me. So, do you really want to know Christ? Then the only way, folks, the only way is to spend time in this book. That's it. It's the only way.

A commentator, McLaren, says this, "Knowing Jesus involves becoming conscious of the riches of truly knowing Christ and counting its gains. As a man knows the bliss of a wedded love only by having it, or as he knows the taste of food only by eating it, or the glory of music only by hearing it, or the brightness of the day only by seeing it, we can know Christ only by knowing him."

McLaren makes a point that we first possess Christ on an emotional basis. Why? Because understanding someone requires an investment of time, and that takes time, an investment that our early days with Christ we have not yet made. So we begin our relationship on an emotional level. Again, it's the same thing with Sue.

When I first met Sue, I was in awe. I never knew anyone like her existed. I was smitten. I went home to my parents' house after that first date—my grandma was living with us at that time, she was in the kitchen by herself—and I went into the kitchen. I'm jumping up and down, I'm twirling around. I said, "Grandma, I met her. I met her. I met her. I met her."

Now that was an experience of emotion. Was that an expression of me understanding Sue? No, that developed over time. It's the same with Jesus. When we came to faith in Christ, for many of us, that was an event that was based on more emotion than it was understanding. We knew we were sinners, we knew we needed a savior, we didn't want to go to hell. I was in fifth grade and I only understood what I could understand. But over time, as I study the word of God, that relationship, as I get to know him better, that relationship deepens. On this concept, McLaren says this: "In knowing Christ, there must first be the perception and possession by sense or emotion, simply by believing. But as we spend time with Jesus, then the perception and possession occurs by way of understanding."

Guest (Male): Pastor Thom Keller with encouragement to begin a relationship with the Lord and then to grow in it. So glad you've joined us here on Study the Word as we continue to make our way through Philippians.

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