Knowing יְהוֹשֻׁעַ Yehoshua, “The Lord Saves”

Last week, I read a really interesting article on The Gospel Coalition, a great online space for Gospel-centered content, about Jesus' Hebrew name. The article explained how the modern name Jesus is actually a transliteration of the original Hebrew name of Jesus, Yehoshua. I was amazed to learn that the name of Jesus combines two Hebrew words: Yeho, a shorter form of the word YHWH, Yahweh, the personal name of God, and shua, which means to deliver or rescue. God chose to name his only begotten son The LORD Saves. 

Today, as we dive into Philippians 3, I was reminded of this again as I meditated on these passages. 

Let’s read Philippians 3:1-11

Philippians 3:1–11 (CSB)

In addition, my brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord. To write to you again about this is no trouble for me and is a safeguard for you. Watch out for the dogs, watch out for the evil workers, watch out for those who mutilate the flesh. For we are the circumcision, the ones who worship by the Spirit of God, boast in Christ Jesus, and do not put confidence in the flesh—although I have reasons for confidence in the flesh. If anyone else thinks he has grounds for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised the eighth day; of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; regarding the law, a Pharisee; regarding zeal, persecuting the church; regarding the righteousness that is in the law, blameless. But everything that was a gain to me, I have considered to be a loss because of Christ. More than that, I also consider everything to be a loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. Because of him I have suffered the loss of all things and consider them as dung, so that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own from the law, but one that is through faith in Christ—the righteousness from God based on faith. My goal is to know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death, assuming that I will somehow reach the resurrection from among the dead.

This passage starts with two words, “in addition”. This connects the passage we’ve worked through before with chapter three. In chapter two, we start being encouraged to live in humility, honor, and lay down our lives for fellow believers, and be united in spirit. Now in chapter three, we’re commanded to rejoice in the Lord, and this passage tells us a bit about how to go about that rejoicing.

Interestingly, verse two tells us to watch out for the dogs, evil workers, and ones who mutilate the flesh. You may wonder, who are these people Paul is referring to? It seems that these are people who claim that our confidence is in something we do. These people were teaching that you must be circumcised to be saved, or do certain things to be saved, which aligned with traditional Jewish tradition in that timeframe.

For them, certain things made you more fit for righteousness. Things like being circumcised at the right time, being of the nation of Israel, being in a certain tribe, being born of the right people group, being strong in zeal for God, and many other things.

Here, we are instructed to watch out for those types of people. This somehow seems connected to our joy. This somehow seems connected to our happiness. 

Then, we’re told a reality about ourselves that we should take to heart. Although the dogs, the people who look to condemn us, think they are the circumcision, we are the true circumcision. The true set apart ones. For we worship by the Spirit of God, we boast in Christ Jesus, and we put no confidence in the flesh.

You may wonder what it means when it says we are the “true circumcision”. You would have to go deeper to understand all that circumcision signified in the Old Testament, but when God originally instituted the sign of circumcision, He said it was a sign of the covenant between him and his people.
Genesis 17:9–14 (CSB)
God also said to Abraham, “As for you, you and your offspring after you throughout their generations are to keep my covenant. This is my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you, which you are to keep: Every one of your males must be circumcised. You must circumcise the flesh of your foreskin to serve as a sign of the covenant between me and you. Throughout your generations, every male among you is to be circumcised at eight days old—every male born in your household or purchased from any foreigner and not your offspring. Whether born in your household or purchased, he must be circumcised. My covenant will be marked in your flesh as a permanent covenant. If any male is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that man will be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.”

An article by Nick Batzig on Ligonier Ministries goes more in-depth on the significance of circumcision, but we can know that this sign was and is important to God. When we are circumcised before God, we are shown to be a part of his covenant people.

So, here in this passage in Philippians, we are told that as believers in Christ, we are the “true circumcision”. We have come to grips with the reality that no outward act of obedience will ever make us part of the covenant family of God. We are only made righteous and saved by the LORD himself, and we put no confidence in our flesh.

Then Paul says something interesting about himself in Philippians 3:4-6. He states that for all the types of things the people he was saying to watch out for wanted, he had them all. He said that if anyone has the thought that they can place confidence in their flesh, he has more. He was circumcised on the eighth day of the nation of Israel, of the right tribe, a Hebrew born of Hebrews, regarding the law, of the top class of students of it, and followed it perfectly, and even so full of zeal for God that he persecuted those who were considered enemies of him, the church.

But at the end of the day, he says, all the things he once thought made him good are now counted as a loss to him.

Have you ever been there in your life? Where you feel like you have a laundry list of reasons why you’re a good guy, or maybe you feel like you have a laundry list of reasons why you’re not a good guy. Maybe you’ve been in a religious setting where you were supposed to do a long list of things to be truly set apart, to be truly in the right, and you felt yourself never quite measuring up to the expectations, or perhaps you were successfully checking off all the things you needed to do?

Let’s step outside of the religious for a moment and let’s consider the everyday. Maybe you were doing well in your career, maybe you were acknowledged, maybe you were doing well in other people's eyes.

For me, this is something that I have struggled with in the past and still struggle with daily. When I am not sure how we are going to do something we need to do financially, so often my first response is to worry, to think of ways to fix it, to try to make more, to work harder. The first response is so often to put confidence in my flesh. 

Or, with regards to faith, so often I think if I just did a little more, or tried a little harder, then I would get there. Or when I’m doing well, it is easy to start to have confidence in my performance, to say I’m good, I know I’m in the right.

Tonight, I want to echo emphatically the words of Paul, “More than that, I also consider everything to be a loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.” All of that worrying, all of that striving is a loss in comparison to knowing Jesus. In fact, there is nothing of more value, nothing of more worth than to know Jesus, the one called “The Lord Saves”.

We can say with certainty that those who would cause us to measure our worth and standing before God by the outward appearance are wrong. Our standing and worth are found in the knowing of Jesus. In Jesus, we are the circumcision. The ones set apart as part of the covenant family of God.

For me, this is a wrestling that I believe I may have to endure for the rest of my life. I find in myself the constant need to have the answers, to be performing, to have the means. And when I don’t, often fear comes, often anxiety. So, likewise I with Paul have to consider all of that dung, all of that need to impress, all of that checking off of boxes, all of that need to have the means, dung, so that I may gain Christ, and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own from the law, but one that is through faith in Christ—the righteousness from God based on faith. (Philippians 3:8,9)

A Christians goal, as is Paul's, is to know Jesus. And in verse 10, this knowing is connected to the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his suffering, being conformed to his death. 

So our confidence is in God. The one who saves. Our confidence is not in how well we do or don’t check off the boxes, but in how well Jesus checked off the boxes for us. Our trust is in God; the Lord saves.

And our goal is to know Jesus. That will entail both the power of his resurrection and the suffering of his death. When we know Jesus, our joy will be complete. We can rejoice. As we know that because Jesus rose from the dead defeating sin, he truly did accomplish our salvation. 

This knowing of Jesus is also one of conformity to his death and fellowship in his sufferings. In Jesus, we will war with sin. We will have struggles. And the struggles are the struggles of Jesus, and we can even rejoice in that.

Paul ends this section with Philippians 3:11, “assuming that I will somehow reach the resurrection from among the dead.” You may wonder at that verse like I did, “Is Paul saying that he might not reach the resurrection from the dead?” I found out that that verse simply means that he wasn’t sure how he was going to die in Christ, but whatever way he did, he wanted to be one who knew and was conformed by Jesus.

Don’t you want that to be your story too? To give up all other pursuits, in light of one pursuit? One of knowing Christ? God is the one who saves. He is the one worthy of our lives and confidence.