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Philippians 1.19-
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January 19th 2020
Okay, the last few weeks Paul has said that he prays always for the saints at Philippi, and last week we read some of the specifics that he prayed over them for.
Then Paul told us about some of the circumstances surrounding his imprisonment in Rome, how that some men were emboldened by His imprisonment so much so that they furthered the gospel, and he added that some did it in a way that was feigned and insincere and others did it from a pure heart – and he said that either way he rejoiced because Christ was preached.
At this point, he continues on this subject, and says at verse 19:
19 For I know that this (the things that were happening around him) shall turn to my salvation through your prayer, and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ,
20 According to my earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death.
21 For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
22 But if I live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my labor: yet what I shall choose I wot not.
23 For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better:
24 Nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you.
25 And having this confidence, I know that I shall abide and continue with you all for your furtherance and joy of faith;
26 That your rejoicing may be more abundant in Jesus Christ for me by my coming to you again.
Alright, some cumbersome passages there and some amazing ones as well. So lets go back to verse 19 and read:
19 For I know that this shall turn to my salvation through your prayer, and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ,
This first line, “for I know that this shall turn to my salvation through your prayer,” seems to be saying, interestingly enough, “for I know that this “will be a means of my salvation.”
The Revised version puts it this way:
For I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance,
Which seems to speak of his deliverance from jail and not the salvation of his soul but the literal translation says:
“For I have known that this shall fall out to me for salvation, through your supplication, and the supply of the Spirit of Christ Jesus”
The interesting thing is the word for salvation is the word for salvation and so either interpretation, based on the Greek alone, holds water.
What does not hold water is the idea that our salvation, our deliverance, comes by any other means that the shed blood of Jesus Christ, and so Paul could not possibly be saying that his ultimate salvation was going to occur through the situation around him. So in this we are able to see that the RSV presentation of the passage is superior to the King James or even the literal.
However, even though some scholars see this passage this way (Koppe, Rosenmuller, Clarke, and some others) some that I appreciate, like Barnes, believe that Paul is talking about his own actual heavenly salvation.
This is because of the totality of the passage which again is:
“For I know that this shall turn to my salvation through your prayer, and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ,”
(which is the line that makes some think this is not about his being freed from prison but being saved from end-time destruction and to heaven).
The interpretation of this, at least according to Barnes, is that all these dealings, including his imprisonment, and especially the conduct of those who thought to add affliction to his bonds, would be among the means of his own personal salvation.
But I cannot abide by this and believe that their prayers and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ was a reference to what would sustain him while imprisoned and what would see him through to a happy ending once the trials were over.
And he adds a passage that could support either view relative to verse 19, saying:
20 According to my earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death.
The word here used here for expectation occurs only in one other place in the New Testament – Romans 8:19 which says:
Romans 8:19 For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.
And the term best means a state of earnest desire to see an object when the head is thrust forward – sort of like a child who is used to seeing his father walking down the road toward home after work at a specific time because it is his birthday – when he sticks his head out of the doorway he earnestly hope and expects to see dad walking toward the house, as he has done hundreds of times before.
It’s an ardent anxious expectation and is assigned to the way a believer looks toward what she expects once her life has ended.
The question here and again is was Paul looking toward his release or toward the expectation of salvation at his death.
Perhaps he speaks of both?
From what he will say in the verses to come it appears that Paul’s mind was not focused on his comfort or physical release as much as it was in all circumstances to please God and honor the Gospel of Christ – whether he lived or died.
And this must underscore whatever our opinions are of these things. But lets read these first two passages together again:
19 For I know that this shall turn to my salvation through your prayer, and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ,
20 According to my earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death.
Doesn’t it sound like we could actually assign Paul’s words to both salvation from imprisonment and salvation in the heavens above? It does to me.
But what we can say is life or living for Paul was secondary at best – the main thing was to stand up everywhere as the advocate of the gospel. And so in all things, he says
“That in nothing I shall be ashamed.”
No matter what the trial, in life or in death – I will not be ashamed or have a cause for regret before Christ. I think that Paul is speaking of His call as an apostle to do what Christ send him to do. That is why, connected to this statement, he adds:
“but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life or by death.”
Paul the apostle had a call on his mortal life – and with mortality comes a body. And as a means to never be ashamed he say that he has endeavored to share the Gospel of Christ
“with all boldness,” a goal he appears to have accomplished in spades over the course of his life.
And what an important goal it was. Why? First, because of the time-crunch between the call on his life and the approaching end of the age because the Gentiles were prophesied to receive the Gospel going way back into the Old Testament before the end.
What is this relationship between the Gospel and the Jews and the Gentiles?
We remember that Paul wrote:
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God for salvation, for “everyone” who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek (meaning any and all who are not Jews).
There is a movement afoot called Israel Only. It suggests that the scripture and ALL that it contains is only for Israel and no other. But passages like this suggest otherwise.
But there is a caveat – did you catch it?
“The Gospel of Christ is the power of God for salvation for EVERYONE . . . who believes.”
That was the truth even when Jesus was alive – even though He came first to His own, the House of Israel.
What is the belief? That Christ died for our sins, and that he rose from the dead to open eternal life to all – not just Jews – to everyone who believes.
EVERYONE WHO BELIEVES. I trust that means then, a thousand years ago, on out to right now.
But when we read the scripture we cannot help but notice that the Jews THEN – not now – but then, had what we might call a priority.
Paul says here in Romans:
To EVERYONE (right) but then adds:
“to the Jew first and also to the Greek.”
And does this remain in effect today? Many people suggest that it does, and will again, because it was so then.
So, looking back to the Tanakh (or the Old Testament) we note that the Jews were God’s only chosen people. I mean the book was their history, their law, their commandments – and no Gentile, unless they converted, had any access to that life.
So we can say that the work of God to redeem the human race from sin and death began with the Nation of Israel. First Abraham, then Isaac, the Jacob, then Jacob (who was renamed Israel) and his twelve sons – who made up the Nation of Israel.
So, the Jews (the COI) had a priority over Gentiles as the chosen people of God. Do we just believe this or does God say it?
In Genesis 12, God chose Abraham and his descendants freely from all the peoples of the world to bless with his covenant and promise. Note that there were many other peoples on earth when God chose Abraham and his seed.
Nehemiah 9:7 says, “God . . . chose Abram, and brought him out from Ur of the Chaldeans.” And then Deuteronomy 14:2 says
“The Lord has chosen you to be a people for his own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.”
Then Amos 3:2 says, “You only have I chosen among all the families of the earth.”
Chosen them how? In a number of ways which we will cover momentarily.
So, the Jews had a priority over Gentiles
because of their special role as God’s elect or chosen people.
Why did God choose them in the first place? Deuteronomy 7:7-8 says:
“The Lord did not set his love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any of the peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but because the Lord loved you and kept the oath which he swore to your forefathers.”
In other words, the choice was God’s not the merits of the people.
In choosing them, the Jews became the producers and then the gaurdians of sacred scripture.
Paul affirms this when he writes in Romans 3:1-2
1 What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision? 2 Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God.
In other words, God gave or entrusted the revelations of his plans and will and purposes to them. Paul adds, speaking of his kin the COI in Romans 9:4-5:
4 Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises;
5 Whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen.
From this we see that the COI pertained to a number of things Christians benefit from, including, Paul says:
adoption,
and the glory,
and the covenants,
and the giving of the law,
and the service of God,
and the promises;
whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came
That is quite the list of provisions the Nation provided and a sound reading of the Old Testament brings forth a real appreciation for each of these things.
Because of these things, Jesus – who came out of them in the flesh as their promised Messiah – went to them first.
We know from the Gospels and Romans 1:3 that Yeshua, the Messiah, was a Jew, a Son of David. His earthly physical ministry was to His own and they had a stated priority in his work.
We also remember that in Matthew 10:5–6, Jesus said to the twelve apostles as he sent them out during his life, “Do not go in the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter any city of the Samaritans; but rather go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”
And in Matthew 15:24, Jesus said, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”
So, during his earthly life, Jesus was focused on the Jews. They had priority in his ministry because they had a physical religion, He was in the flesh, and they were the first to have access to Him.
In large part because salvation is from the Jews. And these were the very words of Jesus in John 4:22, which he said to the Samaritan woman at the well. Remember he said,
“You worship what you do not know; we [Jews] worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews.”
Another way to see that salvation is from the Jews is found in Romans 11:17–24 where Paul compares the Jewish nation to an olive tree. He says that natural branches were broken off of the tree and unnatural branches were grafted in.
This pictures the fact that those who were Jews by birth were unbelieving in Him and so they were cut off from the covenant of promise and the Gentile nations who believed were grafted in and saved by the covenant of promise given the Nation first.
Listen to what Paul says to them then in verses 17–21:
17 And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert graffed in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree;
18 Boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee.
19 Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be graffed in.
20 Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear:
21 For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee.
In other words, Paul tells them that salvation came to the Gentiles from the root of God’s covenant with the Jews.
I think he said this to help settle the warfare between the Jewish converts and the Gentile converts that was alive and well in Rome.
Then, the Gentiles were simply grafted in like wild olive branches that have no historical claim at all on being God’s people.
Therefore, God saved them by reckoning the Gentile converts “as children of Abraham by faith,” which is supported by Galatians 3:7 where we read, “It is those who are of faith who are sons of Abraham.”
But because of all that the Jews had established in that day and age, Paul always evangelized Jews first when he brought the gospel to a new place.
This is not a practice that is carried out today, is it? Isn’t that interesting? Should it be? Not in the least. And there is a reason for this – that was a time them then and that specific time and setting.
But in Paul’s day, it was necessary for the Gospel to go to them first and LISTEN – that ended when the Age of Material religion ended.
Nevertheless we read in Acts 13:46, when Paul and Barnabas were preaching in Antioch of Pisidia but the Jews would not listen to the gospel, so they said,
“It was necessary that the word of God be spoken to you first but since you repudiate it and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles.”
And so it was for Paul – the Apostle to the Gentiles in that age wherever he went.
There are some pastors and preachers who teach that whenever missional efforts go out in the world that the Gospel should STILL be preached to the Jews in that area first.
I resist that notion.
Interestingly, and looking to the end of that age and the final judgment, the Jews would also be first in that setting as Paul writes in Romans 2:9-11
9 Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile
10 But glory, honour, and peace, to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile:
11 For there is no respect of persons with God,
Isn’t that fascinating? Not only that the Jews (then) would be first to be judge and the first to be rewarded, but that Paul adds in the face of this that there is no respect of persons with God, showing that the order has nothing to do with preference.
What is also interesting about those verses is that it’s a stretch to believe that the content of Romans 2:9-11 would have application today. Why would it, when everything about their economy was literally destroyed in 70 AD.
Now, having said this, I must admit that on earth, in the physical, the Jews continue to be blessed by the living God. I think that this is because this realm was theirs and it continues to be – really anyone who embraces Law as a means to please God. To me the rewards for such were in place then and continue to be in place now.
But that is just me and my observation of things.
Today – and quite frankly even then, the COI have no different merit before God than any other peoples. This is one of the central messages from Paul in the first few chapters of Romans where Paul writes
Romans 3:9 What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin;
10 As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one.
Paul reiterates this point in Romans 3:22–23, saying clearly
“There is no distinction; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
Similarly, the Jews do not have priority in how they are saved. They are saved exactly the way Gentiles are. This is clear from
Romans 3:29–30: “Is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also . . . God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith.”
And from Romans 10:12: “There is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on him; for ‘whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.’”
So neither Jews nor Gentiles have priority in how they are saved: both are saved by faith in Christ, not in any ethnic or religious distinctives.
That being said, I want to comment on what saved means – because I am of the opinion that saved means different things to different times.
To the Jews, when Jesus came to them materially, saved meant two things – it seems.
First and foremost, from the work of John the Baptist, Jesus and His apostles, “saved” meant from the coming material destruction – and I am of the opinion that this was the primary meaning of the word given to them then.
The second application was tacit because if they were saved from the coming destruction they would also have been saved to eternal life.
What is eternal life? To live with YHWH after this temporal life. How to obtain it? Faith in His Son – which also guaranteed escape from the coming destruction of all thing Nation of Israel.
What about people who died BEFORE the coming destruction?
First, prior to Jesus, anyone who lived by faith in the promises of God and died before Jesus ministry began were saved (by their faith) from the prison part of sheol (hell) and instead went to paradise part (or Abrahams bosom).
Anyone who died and lived by faith in God or Jesus as the Messiah and died from the start of his ministry up to His resurrection would aslo escape sheol prison and go directly to sheol paradise.
Then once Jesus overcame sin and death and ascended (all the way up to the 70 AD destruction), anyone who died and had their faith in Christ went to heaven and then returned with Christ at the 70 AD event.
Those who were alive at the 70 AD destruction were saved from it by their faith and were taken as His bride to the Kingdom above. Anyone who did not believe in Him lost their lives and were cast into hell (not saved from destruction, not saved from hell, (which later gave up her dead) not saved to eternal life, and not saved from a trip to the Lake of Fire – who were previously judged at the Great White Throne judgement and if so deemed, were cast into it (which was made for Satan and his angels and not man).
From the destruction, faith in Christ continue to mean a few things. First, those who have it escape from the bondage of sin here in this life. Additionally, they are all saved to the Kingdom of God, which is synonymous with eternal life.
Those who do not believe or receive Him by faith are not saved from themselves here in this life and will not experience eternal life after this life – so long as they refuse the invitation. They will live outside of the presence of God.
So from beginning to end, from the Garden of Eden to the present day, salvation has always been by faith – always.
With the nation of Israel, for all the reasons mentioned, God made a covenant with them.
That covenant was not available to Gentiles in the day of Christ. But in and through the writings of Paul we learn that the covenant was extended to all nations and people thereafter.
So we know that the Jews have no priority when it comes to their participation in God’s covenantal blessings.
We know this because Paul refers to a “mystery of the gospel” and defines it as the fact that “the Gentile world was in His day full partners in the blessings of Jewish salvation.
This is what Paul describes in Ephesians two which we have already covered verse by verse but is worth repeating. Listen to his words”
Ephesians 2:11 Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands;
12 That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:
13 But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.
14 For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us;
15 Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace;
16 And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby:
17 And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh.
18 For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.
19 Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God;
20 And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone;
21 In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord:
22 In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.
And then again in Ephesians 3:4–6 we read:
Ephesians 3:1 For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles,
2 If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward:
3 How that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery; (as I wrote afore in few words,
4 Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ)
5 Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit;
6 That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel:
7 Whereof I was made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power.
In and through all of this, we have the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy that before the end of that or their age, that God would bring the Gentiles into the covenantal blessings he had promised the Nation of Israel.
Consider the following proofs supplied to us by the nation of Israel so long ago – they say so very much:
Daniel 7:13-14 says: As I watched in the night visions, I saw one like a human being coming with the clouds of heaven. And he came to the Ancient One and was presented before him. 14 To him was given dominion and glory and kingship, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that shall not pass away, and his kingship is one that shall never be destroyed.
Going all the way back to Genesis 12:3 we read God saying:
“ I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
Psalm 22:27 says: “All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord; and all the families of the nations shall worship before him.”
With a little more esoteric language, Isaiah 42:4 says:
“He will not grow faint or be crushed until he has established justice in the earth; and the coastlands wait for his teaching.”
Isaiah 49:6 adds, “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the survivors of Israel; I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”
(DON’T READ NOW)
And Isaiah 56:3-7 says: “Don’t let foreigners who commit themselves to the Lord say, ‘The Lord will never let me be part of his people.’ And don’t let the eunuchs say, ‘I’m a dried-up tree with no children and no future.’ 4 For this is what the Lord says: I will bless those eunuchs who keep my Sabbath days holy and who choose to do what pleases me and commit their lives to me.5 I will give them—within the walls of my house—a memorial and a name far greater than sons and daughters could give. For the name I give them is an everlasting one. It will never disappear! 6 “I will also bless the foreigners who commit themselves to the Lord, who serve him and love his name, who worship him and do not desecrate the Sabbath day of rest, and who hold fast to my covenant.7 I will bring them to my holy mountain of Jerusalem and will fill them with joy in my house of prayer. I will accept their burnt offerings and sacrifices, because my Temple will be called a house of prayer for all nations.
Isaiah 60:1-3: Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.2 For darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the Lord will arise upon you, and his glory will appear over you.3 Nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn.
Jeremiah 16:19-21: O Lord, my strength and my stronghold, my refuge in the day of trouble, to you shall the nations come from the ends of the earth and say: Our ancestors have inherited nothing but lies, worthless things in which there is no profit.20 Can mortals make for themselves gods? Such are no gods!21 “Therefore I am surely going to teach them, this time I am going to teach them my power and my might, and they shall know that my name is the Lord.”
Zechariah 2:11: Many nations shall join themselves to the Lord on that day, and shall be my people; and I will dwell in your midst. And you shall know that the Lord of hosts has sent me to you.
And finally, Malachi 1:11, the last book of the Tanakh, speaking of the coming of the Lord and the end of that Age says:
“For from the rising of the sun to its setting my name is great among the nations, and in every place incense is offered to my name, and a pure offering; for my name is great among the nations, says the Lord of hosts.”
We will stop there for today.
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