The Precious Gift of Righteousness

THE PRECIOUS GIFT OF RIGHTEOUSNESS

An Exposition of Philippians 3:9

By Pastor Brian Wilbur

Date:   October 7, 2018

Series: Philippians: Gospel Partnership on Mission in the World

Note:   Scripture quotations are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard   Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

INTRODUCTION

Philippians 3:4-9 teaches us that we must give up all other things as a source of spiritual confidence or as a source of meaning and joy, in order to gain the most valuable possession – our Lord Jesus Christ. If we are inclined to trust our own religiosity or morality as a basis for acceptance with God, we must give it up, count it as loss, and reckon it rubbish. If we are inclined to depend upon our possessions or relationships or mystical experiences as a good foundation for ultimate joy and meaning, then we must give it up, count it as loss, and toss it in the dumpster. Jesus is the most valuable Person in the universe: He is the Father’s eternal and glorious Son, He is the fountain of living water, and He alone is able to bring us into a right relationship with the Father. He is able to do so because He carried our sins upon the cross and died in our place so that we could be forgiven of our sins and thereafter walk with God “in newness of life” (Romans 6:4). If we “gain Christ and [are] found in him” (Philippians 3:8-9), then we have everything that truly matters. Knowing Him is of “surpassing worth” (Philippians 3:8) – knowing Him is life eternal, joy forever, hope that doesn’t appoint, and grace that transforms our entire life. Knowing Christ is of such incomparable value that once you have tasted the reality of Christ, you want to know Him more and live all of life in relation to Him.

As Christians, it is our privilege to continually focus our gaze on the loveliness of the Lord Jesus Christ and on the precious and profound gifts that He gives to us as part of our salvation. As we come to Philippians 3:9, we have an opportunity to behold one of these choice gifts – a gift that is foundational to being in a right relationship with our heavenly Father. How valuable is this gift? Well, without this gift you cannot be reconciled to God, you cannot have peace with God, and you cannot enter into the wonderful salvation that God gives to His people. So this gift has incalculable value, and it is only found in the Lord Jesus Christ.

The gift I am referring to is the gift of righteousness.

THE SCRIPTURAL TEXT

Our Scriptural focus is Philippians 3:9, but the line of thought that includes verse 9 begins in the middle of verse 8, so let’s start our reading there. Paul writes,

“For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith­–” (Philippians 3:8b-9)

THE KEY QUESTION: WHO DO WE TRUST?

One of the key questions in the first nine verses of Philippians 3 is ‘Who do you trust?’ or ‘Who is the object of your faith?’ Paul refers to “faith” and “faith in Christ” in verse 9, which is substantially the same thing as “[glorying] in Christ Jesus” in verse 3. To “glory [or boast] in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh” (Philippians 3:3) means that your confidence is in Christ, you are trusting Christ – Christ is the object of your faith.

Our fundamental problem as sinners, however, is that our natural tendency is to direct our confidence elsewhere, to have “confidence in the flesh” (Philippians 3:4), to have confidence in who we are and what we have done, to trust ourselves that we can do what needs done. One of the things that needs done is righteousness! At the very least, we want to be righteous in our own eyes, and preferably in the eyes of other people as well. We want to measure up and to be seen as measuring up. We want to be regarded as righteous. The question is: what is the basis of your confidence that you will be righteous – not so much in your own estimation or in the estimation of your peers, but in the estimation of the holy and righteous God.

Paul makes it clear that the misplaced confidence of his pre-conversion years, his former pride in his own portfolio of religious and moral assets, was directly related to a faulty foundation of righteousness. This faulty foundation was confidence in himself that he measured up to the requirements of the law. He was “circumcised on the eighth day” (Philippians 3:5) in accordance with the Old Testament law. He specifically mentions the law twice in verses 5-6: “as to the law, a Pharisee;” and “as to righteousness, under the law blameless” (Philippians 3:5, 6). Paul was sincerely and seriously devoted to ‘all things law’ in what was understood to be the noble tradition of Pharisaical Judaism, which itself was derived from the Old Testament. Within that religious tradition, he understood himself to be blameless, justified, righteous. If anyone could be on good terms with God as a result of good pedigree and performance, surely it was a man like the pre-converted Paul. The fatal problem, of course, is that Paul’s original “confidence in the flesh,” that is, confidence in himself that he was righteous and blameless “under the law,” was in flat contradiction to the way of true faith. In other words, confidence in one’s own self is directly at odds with the biblical instruction to put confidence in the Lord.

Do not think that obeying the law was the Old Testament way, and that trusting the Lord is the New Testament way. Nothing could be further from the truth. God’s call upon human beings, from our first parents Adam and Eve all the way down to the present day, has always been to trust Him. The first rule for relating to God has always been:

“Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD, and turn away from evil.” (Proverbs 3:5-7)

The great ‘hall of faith’ in Hebrews 11 tells us that the Old Testament saints Abel and Enoch and Abraham and Sarah and Isaac and Jacob and Joseph and Moses and David and all the rest were pleasing to God precisely because they trusted God. Trusting God was the foundational spiritual reality in their heart, and as a result they walked in obedience and accomplished the work that God gave them to do.

So, as we contrast ‘righteousness by law’ and ‘righteousness by faith’, don’t make the mistake of thinking that the problem is obedience. Obedience is not the problem. Not trusting God is the problem! Within the sphere of Christianity, as within the sphere of the Old-Testament-based-Judaism of Paul’s day, there is such a thing as faith-less obedience, faith-less religiosity, faith-less morality, faith-less zeal for spiritual things and churchy things, a faith-less-ness that is utterly void of true spiritual life. And when I say ‘faith-less’, I mean that there is an absence of faith in the Lord. There is a kind of faith, all right, but it is faith or confidence in one’s own self, in one’s own efforts, in one’s own works. In other words, you trust your obedience and you trust your good works. As John Calvin so helpfully says in his comments on Philippians 3:8, “Paul… divested himself – not of works, but of that mistaken confidence in works, with which he had been puffed up.”[1]

The mere fact of being devoted to the Bible, to the church, to your family, and to a righteous lifestyle, tells me nothing about your spiritual condition. Why? Because the question is: where is your confidence, where is your trust? If you think reading the Bible, attending church, taking care of your family, and staying out of trouble will make your righteous in God’s sight, then you are putting confidence in yourself and you are not trusting Christ. And if you are not trusting Christ to cover you with His righteousness, then you are under the curse of God’s judgment: “whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God” (John 3:18). On the other hand, if you are leaning on Jesus and loving Him as the most valuable possession in the universe, then this joyful confidence in the Lord will certainly manifest itself in godly conduct – but your confidence will not be in your godly conduct, but in God Himself and His saving mercies.

Therefore, as we contrast the two kinds of righteousness that Paul tells us about in Philippians 3:9, let us be clear that the fundamental issue here is not what we do but who we trust. Who we trust will obviously affect what we do, but even more fundamentally who we trust will transform why we do what we do. Even so, the fundamentally important questions are: Do we “rejoice in the Lord” (Philippians 3:1) or in something else? Do we “glory in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:3) or in our own achievements? Do we put confidence in God’s mercy or in ourselves? Do we have “faith in Christ” (Philippians 3:9) or in our own human associations and experiences? Are we banking on a good reputation or on sovereign grace?      

THE FAULTY KIND OF RIGHTEOUSNESS  

So, let’s spend a few moments contrasting the two kinds of righteousness that Paul mentions in verse 9.

First, let’s examine the faulty kind of righteousness. Paul refers to this house of cards when he speaks of “having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law.” That, of course, is the kind of righteousness that he has no interest in anymore, because it’s futile. He is quite happy to “not [have]” this façade of being good enough, this veneer of virtue, this masquerade of measuring up. We need to understand what this faulty kind of righteousness is, so that we can join Paul in rejecting it and reckoning it as the rubbish that it is.

Paul’s statement about this faulty kind of righteousness has three parts: a goal, a source, and a method of obtainment.

The Goal of the Faulty Kind of Righteousness

First, the goal. The goal is to have righteousness. The word “righteousness” has to do with measuring up – measuring up to a particular standard of righteousness, of excellence, of goodness. To possess such a righteousness is to measure up and to be recognized as someone who measures up. The goal is to have a righteousness that has God’s approval; the goal is to be righteous so that you can have fellowship with God.  

The Source of the Faulty Kind of Righteousness

Second, the source. The phrase “of my own” – in the longer phrase “a righteousness of my own” – refers to the source of this faulty kind of righteousness. We could call this faulty righteousness a pseudo-righteousness or, even more to the point, we could call it self-righteousness, a righteousness that originates in self. To possess “a righteousness of my own” means that the righteousness I possess is a righteousness that I have produced on my own. By taking the raw material of my background and combining it with my own religious and moral performance, I produce something called righteousness. I see righteousness in my heart and in my lifestyle, I hold up my character and conduct for testing, and I am convinced that I pass the test. Righteous in my own eyes? Yes. Righteous in the eyes of other people? Of course. Righteous in the sight of God? Certainly so, the mind vainly imagines. In this faulty kind of righteousness, you are the basis of your righteousness, your performance is the basis of your righteous status, your track record is the basis of God accepting you. Having “a righteousness of [your] own” simply means that you are standing on your own two feet and trusting that you have what it takes to waltz into the presence of God.

The Method of Obtaining the Faulty Kind of Righteousness

Third, the phrase “that comes from the law” refers to the method of obtaining your own righteousness. I readily admit that one might just as well call “the law” the source of this righteousness, since Paul specifically says that this particular righteousness “comes from the law.” Even so, the “righteousness… that comes from the law” requires a certain level of performance on your part. This required performance is the method of obtaining the righteousness that the law confers. The law doesn’t confer righteousness on someone who breaks the law and asks for leniency, or on someone who merely knows what the law is. The law doesn’t dole out its rewards in the absence of good performance. The law only confers righteousness on someone who keeps it. Therefore “righteousness… from the law” points to the method – the way – of getting it: follow the law! The way that you measure up, the way that you produce your pseudo-righteousness, is by keeping the law.

This logic of law-keeping is present in any religious or moral system: if I keep the rules of my religion or my moral system or my social group, then I will measure up and be accepted as a righteous person. Whether you are operating within the sphere of biblical instructions (as the pre-converted Paul and other Pharisees were), or you are operating within the sphere of idolatrous worldviews, the logic of self-sourced righteousness through law-keeping is the same: if I adhere to the standards, then I will measure up and be recognized as blameless, justified, righteous. Or to use Tim Keller’s popular phrase that captures the spirit of self-righteousness: “Religion says “I obey therefore I am accepted by God.””[2] The problem, as I said earlier, is not the obedience per se. The problem is that the self-righteous person puts confidence in his or her obedience as the way to be justified and accepted in the sight of God.

Summary and Critique of the Faulty Kind of Righteousness

So when you put these three pieces together, what do we see? The goal is to obtain and possess “righteousness.” Who is going to get you to that goal? You are! What is your strategy to get yourself there? Keeping the law. In a single-sentence: the faulty kind of righteousness is the righteousness that you pursue in your own strength by following the requirements of the law. And if you happen to accomplish your objective and actually measured up to the righteousness that you sought after, who would you praise? You would praise yourself, because yourself is the one who got you there – and the one who gets you there is the one who is worthy of praise. All praise to me for reaching the finish line! What rightness and zeal and honor and strength belong to me! I know how silly it sounds when it gets articulated this way. But how many people live with a chorus of self-praise never far from their minds, who live as if it all depends on their resourcefulness and resolve, and who like to congratulate themselves on a job well done?

And yet, the whole thing of pursuing your own righteousness is a fool’s errand. Your best productions of righteousness always fall far short of the glory of divine righteousness (see Romans 3:23). You will never be accepted on the merits of your own performance. This is why Paul eventually came to the conclusion that his whole attempt at self-justification was a losing enterprise, that his pseudo-righteousness wasn’t true righteousness at all but was only rubbish. Self-confident, self-trusting efforts to be righteous according to the law, will never qualify you for a relationship with God.

Listen to what the Lord declared through the prophet Isaiah:

“Thus says the LORD:

“Heaven is my throne,

and the earth is my footstool;

what is the house that you would build for me,

and what is the place of my rest?

All these things my hand has made,

and so all these things came to be, declares the LORD.

But this is the one to whom I will look:

he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.” (Isaiah 66:1-2)

Humility, contrition, trembling, a sense of one’s own unworthiness, faith – this is the only proper way to relate to God. Anything else, any self-confidence, is offensive to the God upon whom you are totally dependent for even your next breath, your next heartbeat, your next meal. Do you actually think that you are going to present yourself to the Lord with a manufactured righteousness that you produced out of your own meagre resources? Forget about it! Go through that door and you will only find death waiting for you on the other side.  

THE BETTER KIND OF RIGHTEOUSNESS

It is a matter of profound joy to recognize that there is a better righteousness to be had, and a better way to get it, than the faulty kind that is rooted in self. This better kind of righteousness is, in fact, the only kind of righteousness that measures up to the divine standard.

Paul refers to this perfect righteousness when he says “[the righteousness] which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith.” Paul’s statement about this perfect righteousness also has three parts, and these three parts stand in contrast to the three things he said about faulty righteousness.

The Goal of Perfect Righteousness

As for the first part of Paul’s statement, righteousness itself clearly remains the goal. We are still talking about how to measure up, how to acquire and possess a righteousness that will endure and that will withstand the test of God’s scrutiny. How can a sinner become truly righteous in the courts of heaven?

The Source of Perfect Righteousness

Next, we come to another part of Paul’s statement, namely, the source of perfect righteousness. The source of the faulty kind of righteousness was self – “a righteousness of my own” (italics added). By contrast, the source of perfect righteousness is not self but God – “the righteousness from God” (italics added). Imperfect righteousness, which is no real righteousness at all, originates in us. Perfect righteousness originates in God.

The idea here in verse 9 is that God is giving, providing, supplying “righteousness” to the recipient. How do you get into the situation where you actually have and possess “the righteousness from God”? Note well that this is what Paul is talking about. When Paul speaks of “not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ” and then says that this righteousness which “comes through faith” is “the righteousness from God,” he means that in “[gaining] Christ and [being] found in him” (Philippians 3:8-9) he actually has and possesses “the righteousness from God.” How do you get this righteousness that God supplies? Well, the first thing we must say about this is the obvious one: this divine righteousness is a gracious gift to undeserving humans. There is no way we could force God’s hand to give it to us. We have no claim on it, no right to it, no currency with which to buy it, no bargaining power with which to strike a deal. Grace by its very nature is unmerited and undeserved – there is nothing we can do to make ourselves deserving of this precious gift.

So, the goal is to have righteousness – and the only kind of righteousness worth having is the perfect kind. God is the source of this righteousness. That He would bestow His righteousness upon anyone else is an act of grace – a free and generous gift. This brings us to the third part of the righteousness equation: we know what the goal is and we know where it comes from, but what is the method of obtaining it?

The Method of Obtaining Perfect Righteousness

The method of obtaining the faulty kind of righteousness was self-confident efforts to keep the law – “a righteousness of my own that comes from the law” (italics added). It should come as no surprise, after all the terrain we’ve covered, to learn that the method of obtaining perfect righteousness is the complete and total opposite of self-confidence. And the opposite of self-confidence is confidence in the Lord. Thus the method of obtaining the precious gift of divine righteousness is trusting the Lord – “[the righteousness] which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith” (italics added). We must abandon all efforts to make ourselves righteous in God’s sight, we must forsake all attempts at self-justification and self-righteousness, we must become thoroughly unimpressed with our own résumés and track records, we must own the sobering truth that our pseudo-righteousness is filthy rags and that our sins are too numerous to count. As we look away from ourselves and our own feeble efforts, as we learn that we have good reason to despair over our lost condition, it is then that we are enabled to see the Savior. It is then that the Lord Jesus Christ appears before our eyes and offers us a gift that we desperately need but don’t even remotely deserve. He offers us “the righteousness from God”!

Jesus Christ is the Righteous One (1 John 2:1)! Righteousness is His fundamental character, and when He came into our world as the God-Man, He lived righteously, He always did what was right – which is to say that He always did what was pleasing in the Father’s sight (John 8:29). Unlike Adam who disobeyed the Father’s word and thereby opened the door for sin and death to wreak havoc on our world, Jesus trusted and obeyed His Father’s word and thereby opened the door for righteousness and life to be granted to all who believe (Romans 5:12-21). Adam’s disobedience made all of his descendants unrighteous, but Jesus’ obedience makes all of His disciples righteous (Romans 5:12-21) – and this is because Jesus Himself is the righteousness of His believing people (1 Corinthians 1:30). Paul told the Corinthians that Christ Jesus is “our wisdom and our righteousness and sanctification and redemption” (1 Corinthians 1:30). Christ is the most valuable possession, and if we know Him and trust Him and belong to Him, then He is our righteousness.

Jesus Suffered and Died In Order To Give You Perfect Righteousness

Do you know that Jesus suffered and died in order to give you this precious gift? “For our sake he [God] made him [Christ] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21). The Righteous One bore our sins so that we the sinful ones could bear His righteousness. The great exchange! He takes responsibility for your liabilities, and He bestows upon you the privilege of sharing in His assets, assets like righteousness and resurrection and every other benefit that the Father has promised to us.

This wonderful salvation is not given to everyone, it is not given automatically, it is not given while you are absent-mindedly going through life. Instead, it is given in accordance with faith: this divine righteousness “comes through faith in Christ” and “depends on faith.”     

A Summary of Perfect Righteousness

So when you put these three pieces together, what do we see? The goal is to obtain and possess “righteousness,” and nothing less than “the righteousness from God” will do. Who is going to get you to that goal? Jesus. What is your strategy to get there? Trusting Him – trusting Him to get you there! The single-sentence summary of having pseudo-righteousness was: the faulty kind of righteousness is the righteousness that you pursue in your own strength by following the requirements of the law. By contrast, a single-sentence summary of having perfect righteousness is: the perfect righteousness that we need is the righteousness that is given by God as a gracious gift and it is received by trusting Jesus.

Merely affirming some basic information about Jesus isn’t the same thing as trusting Him. Treating Jesus like a boring but necessary ‘salvation dispenser’ isn’t the same thing as trusting Him. Trying to take the gift from His hand without having love for Him and His worth isn’t the same thing as trusting Him. True faith is a faith that leans into and loves the Savior. Genuine trust is a reverential trust, what Professor Daniel Block calls “trusting awe” or “awed trust.”[3] Putting confidence in the Lord means that you glory and boast and take pride in Him: “we… glory in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:3). If we succeeded at producing our own righteousness, then we could praise ourselves! But if we are debtors to grace and only receive the righteousness that we need as a generous gift from God’s hand, then we praise God! We praise Christ! The law of self-righteousness is ‘Do’, but the gospel of God’s grace is ‘Done’. Christ has done it, He has won the victory for us. The rule of religion is to achieve by trying, but the rule of the gospel is to receive by trusting – by trusting Christ.[4] Those who have “faith in Christ” are justified in God’s sight, are regarded as righteous in the courts of heaven, and are clothed in divine righteousness. In Christ, frantic efforts to measure up are ended, because Christ has measured up for us. All praise to Jesus!

THE REASON WHY THE GIFT OF PERFECT RIGHTEOUSNESS IS SO VALUABLE

Why is this gift of righteousness so precious and valuable? Because this gift is the very thing that enables us to gain Christ and, through Christ, to have fellowship with the Father. We are sinners through and through, and if we are left to ourselves, then our sinfulness clings to us and defines us. And if sin defines us – if ‘sinner’ is our name – then the door to the holy place is shut, we have a guilt of our own that comes from the law that we have broken, and we can never dwell with the Righteous God. The sin that clings to us needs to be forgiven, the guilt that we bear needs to be taken away, and our status needs to be changed from guilty sinner to justified saint, from condemned by sin to claimed by God. How can this happen? Not by anything that we can muster up! It is the gift of God!

God’s gift of righteousness is the gift of having a right relationship with Him, and therein lies the unspeakable value of the gift. This precious gift of righteousness is valuable precisely because of its relational significance: when God confers righteousness upon the sinner who repents, that conferral of righteousness means that from now on you have peace with God, now you can stand in God’s presence, now you are free to walk in His courts as a recognized member of His family. As an orphan who is adopted into a new family enjoys the privileges of that family’s name, status, and wealth, so every sinner who “through faith in Christ” is adopted into God’s family enjoys the name, status, and wealth of God’s family. God is our Righteous Father, and by His grace, through Christ, we have become His righteous sons and daughters, His saints, His holy ones. The filthy rags are gone forever, and now we are clothed with the garments of righteousness. This is our standing in the sight of God – everyone who believes in Christ has this standing – and it is impossible to improve upon this standing, so don’t try!

ARE YOU RESTING IN JESUS?

Let me ask you a question: Are you settled in Christ, satisfied with all that He is, secure in the gift of righteousness? Are you settled in the wonderful knowledge that the righteousness you so desperately need is conferred upon you once for all, full and free, through faith in Christ? Do you know that Jesus is the only basis for having a right relationship with the Father? Do you seek to know Christ more because you love Him for all the grace that He has given to you?

Or are you on the treadmill of your own performance, always trusting yourself and trying harder to get and keep something that is beyond your ability? Are you caught up in a pseudo-righteous spirituality where you are cranking out effort after effort – to no avail, because they are faith-less, love-less, and joy-less efforts? 

Listen to the words of Charles Wesley. He wrote in one of his hymns:

“No condemnation now I dread;

Jesus, and all in Him, is mine!

Alive in Him, my living Head,

And clothed in righteousness divine,

Bold I approach the eternal throne,

And claim the crown, through Christ my own.”[5]

Are you resting in Jesus? Are you rejoicing in Jesus?

Let us pray. 

ENDNOTES

[1] Calvin, John. Calvin’s Bible Commentaries: Philippians, Colossians, and Thessalonians. Translated by John King. Forgotten Books: 2007 (orig. 16^th century): p. 78.

[2] Keller, Timothy. Tweet on his @timkellernyc Twitter account, May 16, 2013. The full quote is: “Religion says “I obey therefore I am accepted by God.” Gospel says, “I am accepted by God through Christ therefore I obey.””

[3] I first encountered Daniel Block’s statements in spoken form. For a written version of these statements, I was able to view them via the Google Books online resource (books.google.com). The relevant book is Daniel I. Block, The Triumph of Grace: Literary and Theological Studies in Deuteronomy and Deuteronomic Themes. Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2017 p. 394. In context, Block is saying that “trusting awe” or “awed trust” is descriptive of fearing God (see p. 393-394).

[4] In terms of achieving vs. receiving, Hansen writes: “But, Paul says, there is another kind of righteousness, not a righteousness that he achieved, but a righteousness that he received: that which is through faith in Christ – the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith.” Hansen, G. Walter. The Letter to the Philippians (Pillar New Testament Commentary). Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2009: p. 239.

[5] Charles Wesley, “And Can It Be?”