Philippians 3:9To: Philippians Main MenuTo: Grace Notes Home Page Philippians 3:9And be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith.Some people suspect they have committed some terrible sin that precludes them from an eternal relationship with God. By entertaining this anxiety they build their own purgatory. They lose the confidence of their tie to the family of God. AND BE FOUND IN HIM The person doing the finding in this verse is God. The question is how will God find the believer at death? If I have committed some horrible sin, will God find me a sinner who is not eligible for eternal life? Or, at least, will God have to take me to some divine woodshed to discipline me before he lets me into his heaven? Will I have to suffer before God permits me into his heaven? No, God will find the believer at the point of death "in Christ." The phrase "in Christ" is the believer's position before God. Our position is the same as that of Christ. When God looks at us it is the same as if he is looking at Christ. Christ has a perfect position before God so we have a perfect position before God. We hold the same status quo as Jesus holds before God. Jesus has perfect righteousness. Because we are in him, we have perfect righteousness. Jesus has eternal life, therefore, we have eternal life. Our position before God in Christ can never improve. It is perfect. It is perfect as Christ is perfect. At the moment of salvation we receive as much eternal life as we will have for eternity. We receive an absolute righteousness as perfect as Christ's absolute righteousness. Positional truth cannot improve. So at the point of death God will find us perfect in Christ. Some people think that when Christ comes they must be at their best or they will not be accepted by him. We are as complete in Christ the day we become a Christian as the day we die. God's acceptance of us at death is never dependent upon how we conduct ourselves in time. It does not depend upon works; it depends upon his grace (God's work in Christ). We do nothing to get God's blessing; we have God's blessing in Christ. The moment we receive Christ as our personal Savior we are placed in union with Christ, into his status before God. Our position never changes. We can never improve upon it. Everything depends upon Christ, not upon us, not upon our works. When we face God it will not be with our righteousness but with the righteousness of Christ. This issue in this verse is how is the believer to be found at death by God. It is one thing to possess positional truth; it is another to apply it to ourselves at the point of death or at the Judgment Seat of Christ. Our position before God is the same as Christ's before God. Our status quo before God is equivalent to Jesus Christ's position before God. We are "in Christ." We will be found one way at death--"in Christ." We cannot improve our position in Christ because it does not depend upon our works. It does not rest on how we conduct ourselves in time; it depends solely on our relationship to Christ. PRINCIPLE: Our status quo before God is the same as Jesus Christ before God forever. APPLICATION: Our confidence at the Judgment Seat of Christ is not our works or the perfection of self, it is solely based on the finished, complete work of Christ. That work satisfies God completely. Our confidence is in Christ, not self. NOT HAVING MY OWN RIGHTEOUSNESS WHICH IS FROM THE LAW At death we can never stand in our own righteousness. Our righteousness from trying to live up to the standards of the law will be consumed in the fiery judgment of God's perfection. Paul's "own righteousness" was his religion. He had all his religious bills paid (v.6) yet he was not right with God. Human righteousness is commendable in the eyes of men, not God. Good works, integrity, responsibility, honesty are all good in the sight of men. They are good on a horizontal level, but not on a vertical level. These things do not commend us to God. We cannot become a Christian by turning over a new leaf. Christianity is not a matter of dropping old habits and acquiring new ones. Becoming a Christian involves coming to God bankrupt of any self righteousness and depending solely on Christ's righteousness. "But we are all like an unclean thing. And all our righteousness are like filthy rags; We all fade as a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, Have taken us away" (Isa. 64:6) "Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit" (Titus 3:5) Good works are dependent upon the energy of the flesh. Paul previous to his conversion was a man weighted down with religion. In previous verses he recorded the things which he supposed would commend him to God. He listed seven of them. These things he thought were assets turned out to be liabilities. He had to reject them all. He replaced character, religion, success with Jesus Christ. In doing so, he did not trade religions. He traded in everything to receive a person. Christianity is a relationship, not a religion. "For Moses writes about the righteousness which is of the law, 'The man who does those things shall live by them.'" (Rom. 10:5) In other words, the righteousness which is of the law is summed up in the words "do." We never know when we have done enough. That uncertainty produces an anxiety which will never be satisfied. We never know whether the quality is good enough. We never know whether the quantity is large enough. We work and hope but never know for sure whether we have done enough even to the point of reaching death's door. PRINCIPLE: Self righteousness can never satisfy God's righteousness. Only Christ's righteousness can satisfy God's righteousness. APPLICATION: Some people try to earn God's favor. They try to bribe God by tithing or witnessing. Some business types feel that if they tithe God will bless their business. To do that is to depend upon self-righteousness to gain God's approval. In effect it is a bribe to get God's blessing. "If I live up to some standard then God may give me what I want." Yet there is nothing we can do to get blessings from God. This passage teaches us that we have blessing from God. There is not enough money in the world to bribe God for anything. God does not bless us because he is impressed with us; he blesses us because he is impressed with Christ. If God uses any of us it is because of God's provision, not because of who we are. BUT THAT WHICH IS THROUGH FAITH IN CHRIST "But" here is a strong conjunction of contrast. In contrast to the law there is another righteousness. There are two kinds of righteousness. First, there is a spurious righteousness, a counterfeit righteousness, a man-made righteousness, a synthetic righteousness, a righteousness of man's endeavor. In God's eyes self-righteousness is a spurious righteousness. This is human righteousness. The other righteousness is a righteousness whereby nothing in my hands I bring, simply to the cross I cling. It is a righteousness that is a gift from God through Christ. These two righteousnesses cannot commingle. They are mutually exclusive to each other. It is impossible to mix them; it is an either/or situation. One is man's righteousness and the other is God's. This is human righteousness verses imputed righteousness. God's righteousness rests on revelation, on God's provision solely. "Through faith" means through the instrumentality of faith. The word "faith" bears the emphasis here. Parallel to this expression is the phrase "the righteousness from God." This places the emphasis upon God as the object of faith. This person gives himself up and takes refuge in God's provision. This is self-surrender. Faith is the collapse of every effort of human capacity. We can only take comfort in God's righteousness. God in his righteousness takes the sinner's part. To believe is to view God as the effecting subject. We give God the glory by self-surrender. If God does the doing then God gets the glory. If we do the doing then we get the glory. The issue is a contrast between the glory of the flesh verses the glory in Jesus Christ. These exclude each other. PRINCIPLE: When we view God as the effecting subject of giving us his righteousness, we give him the glory. APPLICATION: When we yield to God's gift of imputed righteousness through Christ, he is glorified by that acknowledgement. Are we humble enough to admit that we have nothing to offer God? THE RIGHTEOUSNESS WHICH IS FROM GOD BY FAITH This is the other kind of righteousness differing from man's righteousness (3:9a). First there is the righteousness which we produce. Then there is the righteousness which God's produces. The great issue in salvation and in the Christian life is God's righteousness, not our righteousness. "For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes." (Ro. 10:3,4) "There is none righteous, no, not one" (Ro. 3:10). There is none righteous in reference to God. No one measures up to God's righteousness. People are righteous in reference to one another but not in reference to God. "But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe" (Ro. 3:21,22). We can receive God's righteousness apart from keeping the law. "But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness" (Ro. 4:5). In order to become a Christian a person must stop working for salvation. Work is a result, not a cause, of salvation. Man cannot manufacture God's righteousness. God's righteousness must be given to him. God gives his righteousness by imputation (God "puts" his righteousness to the account of the believer). Imputation means that God reckons to our account the righteousness of Christ. That is God's arithmetic. That is the way God counts. God does not count human righteousness. He counts divine righteousness. These two righteouenesses are mutually exclusive; they cannot mix together. God does not take 50% of our righteousness and 50% of his and mix them together to give us eternal life. He imputes only his righteousness. God demands perfection. If God advances to us his righteosness, we can properly stand before him in eternity. He does not tolerate imperfection. He must live with himself, a perfect being. To do otherwise would compromise his perfection. This knocks the religious props of our righteousness out from under us. Our effort and righteousness cannot stand under the intolerable scrutiny of the laser white heat of God's holiness. God's perfect righteousness precludes human endeavor. PRINCIPLE: God is the source of his own righteousness given to the believer. APPLICATION: It is a great blessing to rest in God's gifts for us. We cannot earn or deserve God's favor; we cannot measure up to his absolute righteousness. All we can do is rest in the provision of God's righteousness through Christ. ---------- Copyright © 1995, Dr. Grant Richison. All rights reserved. There is no charge for Grace Notes Materials. You can help further this work by your prayer and by sending a contribution to: Grace Notes 1705 Aggie Lane Austin, Texas 78757 wdoud@bga.com Grace Notes Web site: http://www.realtime.net/~wdoud/ Anonymous FTP site: ftp://ftp.bga.com/vendors/wdoud/ Grace Notes is a ministry of Village Missions International. |
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