This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Philippians” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, July 14, 1991.
About this sermon
Paul’s anthropology in this section assumes Adam’s fallen state as the honest starting point rather than a pessimistic exaggeration, and Romans 7 supplies the fullest description of what that state actually feels like from inside. Several passages describing believers as a new creation in Christ answer that same diagnosis directly. Paul’s own instruction to imitate him, in 1 Corinthians 11:1, only makes sense because he first points past himself to Christ.
Sermon transcript
We begin our scripture reading this morning in Romans 7. We begin reading at verse 18. For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. For to will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would, I do not, but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I find then a law that when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man, but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.”
Turning over to Philippians, the first chapter, beginning with verse 27. Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ, that whether I come and see you or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel, and in nothing terrified by your adversaries, which is to them an evident token of perdition, but to you of salvation in that of God. For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake, having the same conflict which ye saw in me, and now here to be in me.”
Pray with me now. Our Father, we recognize that all things are in your control, even our appearance here today. We ask that we might be strengthened in the knowledge of true worship That is the communion of our hearts with you, the hidden God, by way of the Word and by the Spirit. And now, Lord, as we would give our attention to your Word, we pray that we might be profited, that we might be well satisfied also, seeing that you give us eternal things, those things that last forever. Help us, our God, that we might focus well in Your Word, and upon our duty, our responsibility, which we ask You to make our joy. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
I’d like to tell the story of one of my seminary friends, who was a very astute fellow, very bright young man, much brighter than I. He was taken during his seminary years with the Apostle Paul, so taken that one night he decided that he would sit down and read all 13 of Paul’s letters.
Well, he did it. It took him quite a bit of the night to accomplish that, but yet he came in the next day to class and he was wide-eyed as I had ever seen him. He was just electric. He said to me, I read all of Paul’s epistles last night. It was great, but I didn’t understand a word I read. Well, of course, he was being a bit facetious there. He did understand a great deal that Paul can certainly have that effect on people.
They read him and they’re confused. They read him and they become upset. They even feel guilty about how upset they get. They say, after all, Paul is an apostle. He’s writing the inspired Word of God, and here I am getting upset with him. Well, there are a number of things in Paul that have caused confusion and left even the saints a bit befuddled.
We are focusing on one of those matters this morning as it comes to bear on the latter verses of Philippians chapter 1. But I did begin my reading in Romans 7, and I know that maybe some of you are thinking, aha, he’s going to wade into Romans 7 and he’s going to resolve all the complexities and difficulties of that text, and that’s something I’ve been waiting for all my life.
Well, I’m not going to do that. I’m not going to do that for you this morning. But I did read Romans 7 for you as a prelude to Philippians 1 for a reason, and that’s because I want to lay before you this morning something of a survey, an analysis of Paul’s anthropology. Don’t check out on me just yet. We’ve all heard the word anthropology. I know it’s not one that we use ordinarily. We don’t use it commonly. You have to go to university to study it, right?
Well, in this case, all that it means is Paul’s doctrine of man. Paul’s doctrine of man. Romans 7 gives us something of an introduction to that matter. You may recall the opening of that 18th verse, where Paul says, For I know that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing.
So here you have one of the sides of the dilemma that I am setting before you this morning, one of these conundrums in Paul, the fact that it seems that Paul has very low self-esteem. Now, I know that each one of you have been delivered from that curse, just as I have. In our day and age, entire corporations and businesses have been built around the idea of self-esteem. Whole educational philosophies have been constructed around the notion of self-esteem.
Here comes the Apostle, and he says, For I know that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. Obviously that man needs a couple of sessions with Dale Carnegie or Robert Shuler. So on the one side you have Paul speaking this way, rather disparagingly, of himself. It’s not very flattering when he considers himself.
On the other hand, if you were to turn to a passage like 1 Corinthians 11.1, you would find Paul there saying something like this, Be ye imitators of me. Wait a minute. On the one hand, he doesn’t seem to think much of himself. On the other hand, he seems to think too much of himself. I think that you can see how this is going to come to bear on Philippians chapter one.
Immediately after the Apostles prayer, which ends in verse eleven, he begins a mission report or a missionaries report to the church in Philippi. We’ve noted before just how full of Paul that missionary report is. There’s a lot of first-person singular pronouns as you run through that missionary report. There’s a lot of I in that missionary’s report. It’s not going to end as you get down there towards the end of that chapter. There’s going to be a lot of reference or reflection upon Paul’s person as he presents his case to these Christians in the city of Philippi.
So here’s the problem. On the one hand, you have Paul speaking disparagingly about himself, seemingly a victim of low self-esteem. On the other hand, you have him making statements that sound as if he thinks an awful lot of himself. The imitators of me, he says.
Paul’s doctrine of man, which is not played out theoretically, I might add, is Paul’s doctrine of man, something that is working itself out well within him. There’s not this bifurcation in the man between doctrine and life. Doctrine is life to him. There is this resolution and working itself out for the Apostle in his anthropology.
Now what shall we do with this first statement, this low view of the self that Paul expresses? I’m not going to elaborate on this at length, but just to make the statement, this low view of the self expressed by Paul emanates from his conscious awareness of his union with fallen Adam. He sees himself in union with Adam. Now, if you doubt that, all I do is challenge you to go back to the fifth chapter of Romans and read the end of that chapter from the twelfth verse on.
I might say that given this point of view, it’s not merely a matter, then, of Paul’s estimation of his own transgressions. We might hastily come to that conclusion from a superficial reading of Romans 7, where it seems as if the Apostle was concentrating on his own personal consciousness of sin brought to his attention because of the transgressions, the sins which he has committed. That certainly is serious, and that is impacting the apostle as he speaks.
He is certainly aware of that dimension of the reality of sin. But it’s something even greater than that. You see, this low view of self emanates from his conscious awareness of his union with fallen Adam. Even greater than any particular sin that he has committed, there is this relationship that he sustains to fallen humanity.
Do we need a lesson here? Are we having problems with regard to our own sins and personal transgressions? maybe simple faults, deviations here and there. Our awareness of sin, no greater than our personal experience with sin. And therefore, because we haven’t done this or that, or we haven’t been guilty of this particular sin or that particular sin, somehow we congratulate ourselves and declare ourselves innocent.
And the apostle’s sense of sin, expressing itself then in this low view of himself, is because of his awareness of his relationship to fallen humanity, to fallen Adam. And that carrying him beyond his own personal transgressions to the transgressions of all humanity, as if those transgressions were his own.
Now, how in the world are you going to save yourself from that burden? You can’t. Is it any wonder, then, that as the Apostle reflects upon his condition, he cries out at the end of that seventh chapter, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of his death?
The whole matter of sin and offense is much wider and more comprehensive than just personal transgression, as serious and as indicting as those personal transgressions are. Being a Jew, you might think that the Apostle Paul would find some relief in the law, but he tells us he doesn’t. It just makes matters worse. The coming of the law is not able to resolve the problem that is in place for Adam. Thus, the whole of the matter cries out for further resolution. And that further resolution then works to the advantage of the apostle in conferring upon him the high view that becomes expressed when he speaks well of himself.
You have to go down to go up. In fact, you have to go down so low that there is no lower to go. You have to descend with Adam. You must see yourself under the weight of the sin of humanity before there can be rescue. Not just your own transgression. but the full weight of the potentiality of evil. That’s why it’s a very dangerous thing to begin to throw stones. Well… to ascend then with the apostle in his consciousness of sin, because of union with fallen Adam, but then ascend with him in that conscious awareness of his union with the second Adam.
As it was with sin and our assessment of sin, our personal experience with sin being no gauge by which to judge its seriousness, so also now with righteousness. Our righteous deeds, our righteous works, our particular acts of devotion know. They know measure, the measure found elsewhere in the second Adam to whom we are joined. That is what is operative in the apostles’ anthropology, in his doctrine of man. There is only then one who can fully answer. the seriousness of the circumstance that has come upon us because of Adam, and that is the second man, the second Adam, the new head who is given to us of grace. That one does not come by the law. He comes by grace, gift from God.
Now it is, as new man is operative, as the new atom is at work in his administration, that we ourselves are renewed, that we ourselves are becoming new men and women ourselves. If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. And to Ephesians chapter 4 verse 24, put on the new self which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth. Think of Colossians chapter 3 verse 10. Put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him. There is that new man that is coming to expression then in us.
Put on the Lord Jesus Christ, Paul says in Romans 13 verse 14, and make no provision for the flesh. 1 Corinthians 15 tells us about the order that particularly belongs to the new man, the second Adam. It is essentially a heavenly administration. That is what is coming to expression now in the newness asserting itself in Paul and in those who are saving rejoined to Jesus Christ.
In other passages it is related, this newness, to the Holy Spirit, so that the new man is the spiritual man. This new man in whom is coming to expression the heavenly and the spiritual dimension of that world which is above in the Holy Spirit, That new man who is expressing himself in the world, expresses himself as Christ Himself expressed the very realities of the Kingdom of Heaven while He was present among us. This means then, insofar as any man will speak well of himself, it will be by root of the work of Christ, by that re-creation that has occurred only through the power of God. The Apostle Paul will speak well of himself only insofar as he is related to Christ, only insofar as he can call attention to Christ’s life in him, only insofar as that life of Christ is coming to expression in him. He is determined that this will be the case.
So his anthropology is capped off with the statement in Philippians 1.21, for to me to live is Christ. Christ Himself coming to expression in me, and that is the end of the old man and his ways.
If you are looking for value, if you are looking for biblical esteem, It will be through Christ, and insofar as Christ is coming to expression in you. That is the seat of your self-worth and your value. Christ, the seat of the new humanity, and that new humanity now being expressed in you.
That, then, being the positive, the excellent, the marvelous features, for our lives. When the apostle then speaks well of himself, it is an expression of self-denial. That sounds like a contradiction, but it’s true. There is that union that exists for him. with his Savior, with Christ, so that for him to speak of himself now, in any way valuable to the Church, is to speak of Christ, to give expression of Christ. Christ is that which is of value in the man. The Apostle trains himself with respect to this matter, to the instruction of us all.
You see what he does at the end of Philippians 1? This is, only let your citizenship be worthy of the gospel of Christ, verse 27. So whether I come and see you or remain absent, I hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit with one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel, in no way alarmed by your opponents, which is a sign of destruction for them, but of salvation for you, and that too from God. Now, if you’re listening carefully to what the Apostle is saying there, it’s merely a compressed view of what he has already said with respect to himself.
What he is expecting in these Philippians is what is being worked out in him. He is matching them with himself. He is setting himself and his experience before them as the standard, and he’s asking them now to measure up. Is it not Paul, after all, who is standing affirm while he is in prison, in chains? Is it not he who is contending, striving for the faith of the gospel? Is it not he who is not being alarmed in any way by his opponents, saying, in fact, that this is a sign of destruction for them, but a working out of his salvation and his glory to his benefit? Isn’t that what he has been saying in the previous verses?
Yes! He’s established himself as a benchmark for them, and now he’s asking these Philippians to be conformed to his image. But that’s precisely the relationship that Christ bears to all that are His. Are we not called to be conformed to the image of Christ? Paul is calling these Philippians to be conformed to his image. How can he do this? He can do it because he is so utterly sensitive of the presence of Christ in him. And in calling attention to himself, he is calling attention to Christ.
Shall I complete 1 Corinthians 11.1 for you? Be ye imitators of me, even as I also am of Christ. But it’s deeper yet. For not only will Paul present himself as model and standard before the Philippians insofar as Christ is coming to expression in him, but he will actually see his ministry as conformed to the very pattern of Christ’s ministry, and that in all of its particulars. Did Christ suffer? Yes. Will Paul suffer? Yes. Will Christ come again? Yes. Will Paul come again? Yes.
He says, so that whether I come and see you or remain absent, the very pattern of Christ’s relationship to the Church is the pattern that the Apostle employs as he looks at congregation. And as there is to be for certain a second coming of Christ, the apostle now sees himself so united to Christ that he speaks of himself in language that applies the very categories of Christ to himself in that relationship to these particular people. So thorough is the identification of this man with Christ that all aspects of Christ’s life and ministry are being applied by Him to His own ministry. It is no wonder that the Apostle Paul remains a mystery to many, confusing. But I say to you, to the extent that you will follow Him this far, you will understand, it will be made plain to you. To the extent that you will grab hold of the fact that for Paul, Christ is absolutely central. For to me, to live, is Christ.
Death only reaps advantage for me, since then I will be with Him. It will not merely then be for apostles and ministers in relationship to congregations, it will be for congregations as they are in relationship, one with another, or within themselves. Have this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. who, although he existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a bond slave and being made in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Then, you, be incapable of saying, for to me to live is Christ, which means Christ-like service and sacrifice.
Let us pray. Oh Lord, help us in our struggles. If we battle with the word day in, day out, and we are confused by it, if we struggle with the apostles’ doctrine of man, we ask Lord for your help. May we see with him our union with Adam in his fallen estate And likewise, with the Apostle, may we see our union with Christ, which is full answer to the condition that is ours in Adam. And do bless us, our Father, insofar as we would speak well of ourselves, that it would call attention to Christ and to Christ alone. And let there be upon our lips, Lord, those words from the Apostle, for to me to live is Christ and to die is gain. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
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