Bible Study Series: The Book of Philippians
Philippians 3:9-11 Rags to riches in Christ's righteousness
By Fraser Gordon
Hello Saints. Last time we studied Philippians Chapter 3 up to verse 8. Philippians 3.7-8 says, But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ.
Here we have Paul summing up his whole life as a strict Pharisee wanting to do the will of God. He says it was all rubbish. He counted everything in the past as a loss that he might gain a person and that person is the Lord Jesus Christ. It was all dung except for the excellence of gaining Christ.
Found in Him
Php 3:9 and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness,...
Now we can't rush over these words. The end of verse 8 and the beginning of verse 9 read together say, “that I may gain Christ and be found in Him”. This is the wonderful truth about Christians they are in a risen Christ. We are found in somebody. Not only do we believe in somebody but we are found in that person in whom we believe. The followers of Islam never claim to be in Allah or in the Prophet Muhammad. Buddhists never claim to be in Buddha and Hindus never claim to be in any of their over 300 million gods. No other religion in the world can claim, as Paul is here, that they are in their God or in their Saviour. It's such a wonderful truth that Paul brings out. He has gained a person, the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus has included us in His death, His burial, and in His resurrection. Because of all those wonderful truths of our inclusion with Him we are then found in Him. God has placed us in a risen Christ that is our position and that is our standing before God.
At the end of the age the books will be opened and all mankind will be found somewhere. Either in your own righteousness or in Christ covered by His righteousness. People think they're going to be okay according to their own righteousness but no it’s one or the other. It's a wonderful truth that Paul says over and over again that we are found in Him. That is our position and our standing.
Like filthy rags
Paul goes on to say not having my own righteousness. Man has his own opinion of himself. He actually thinks he's okay and that he's good. All you have to do is go to a non Christian funeral, which I did the other week, to get people's viewpoints about that. Obviously they all talk about the good things the person did in their life and sometimes you'll get the rotten stuff as well. They all think that overall they're not too bad. They talk about them as being in heaven or wherever they desire to be. A man in his heart thinks he's pretty good unless he's a murderer or a rapist. However Isaiah 64 sums it up pretty clearly.
Isa 64:6 But we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; We all fade as a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, Have taken us away.
Isaiah is addressing the nation of Israel saying we are all like an unclean thing and our righteousness is all of our own works. All our attempts to please God, to live by the Law, to lead a holy life, to do the right thing are all like filthy rags. That is man's righteousness and man's attempts to be holy and to love God in his own ability. Like filthy rags before a holy, righteous and just God. Our problem is that we are so marred by sin since the fall of Adam that all our motives are self centred. All our attempts to do the right thing and live a holy life don't measure up to the standard of God's holiness and righteousness which is 100% perfection. That is God's character. Man puts himself on a scale. “Well, I sort of fit in here, I'm not perfect but I'm actually not that bad”. But the Bible says all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Every single one of us never meets the standard. We all fall short of 100% perfection because sin has marred our humanity. Paul wants to be found in Him not having his own righteousness. You see, Paul led a good life. He even said in verse 6 that he was blameless according to the law. But yet he threw all that aside to gain the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now let's say the standard of perfection was swimming to Hawaii from the seaside town of Mount Maunganui here in New Zealand. If I was to swim out from the main beach I might make it out past the rocks at the end of the point. Or if I was an exceptional swimmer I might swim to Mayor Island. There's no way that I would make it to Hawaii so it doesn't matter whether I make it just past the rocks or even into the water or whether I can swim to Mayor Island. It all falls short of the standard of Hawaii which is 100% perfection. So it doesn't matter how far you get, you still fall short. This is what sin has done. Many people live their lives and think well I'm not this and I'm not that but all our righteousness when it's all summed up, our own ability and our own efforts are filthy rags. They don't meet the mark.
Gal 3:10 For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them." 11 But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for "the just shall live by faith."
If you're trying to be a good Christian obeying all God's laws and earning your way to heaven by your works you have to be 100% perfect. If you miss one point of the law you're under a curse. Paul used to live like this. He thought he was a good person but he put that all to one side and now counts it all as dung so that he may gain Christ and be found in Him.
Currency
Romans 4 talks about the faith that is required.
Rom 4:1 What then shall we say that Abraham our father has found according to the flesh? 2 For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. 3 For what does the Scripture say? "Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness." 4 Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt. 5 But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness, 6 just as David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works: 7 "Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, And whose sins are covered; 8 Blessed is the man to whom the Lord shall not impute sin."
Abraham did not receive his standing of being righteous before God by works. He had nothing to boast about before God but he believed God. He believed the promises that God had spoken to him and that belief was an act of faith toward God who could do something for him that he couldn't do for himself. Believing was an act of faith and counted to Abraham as righteousness. We've got two different types of currency here. You've got man's works which are like filthy rags and the other is the work that God does on behalf of mankind. It's a little bit like monopoly which is a great rainy day game to play with the kids. It can be absolutely ruthless at times because people get bankrupted. When you pass Go you get given $200 and you then try to buy houses with it. In monopoly the money is a real currency because you can buy and sell with it but if you took the currency down the road to a shop and tried to buy milk and bread they would laugh at you because the currency has no value in the real world. It's similar to spiritual things. Man's works, abilities, and attempts to be righteous have no currency in God's Kingdom. The only thing that counts in God's Kingdom is the work that he has wrought in the second person of the Trinity the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the only currency that counts. The work that God does for you and me. All we have to do is receive it by faith and take it. That's the currency that works in God's Kingdom.
A ledger
Php 3.9 …not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ…
So it's not by works, man's attempt to be righteous, that we are declared acceptable before God, it's by faith in another. It's like a ledger. On one side you've got man's good works and on the other side you've got Christ's works and His righteousness. One is done by us and our own self effort and one is done by the Lord Jesus Christ. One is done out of our effort and the other is done by faith in another. Now righteousness is obtained through faith in Christ. Faith is actually a very simple thing. It is allowing something or someone to do something for us that we cannot do for ourselves. Many of us are probably sitting in a chair and don't even think about it. When you put your backside in a chair you believe that it is made in a specific way so you can sit in it without any fear of falling. It's the same with spiritual things. We are looking to the Lord Jesus Christ for all the great work He’s done on our behalf, that’s faith. To look, to receive, and to say thank you for all His great work on the cross and His great work for us now as believers. It’s very simple.
Now Paul has been talking about righteousness that is imputed to every believer and we can't go past this great verse in 2 Corinthians Chapter 5.
2Co 5:18 Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, 19 that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. 20 Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God.
Before, Paul was found in his own works but he put them away and treated them as dung so he might be found in Him the Lord Jesus Christ. To be then found with a righteousness that was not his own a righteousness which is done by God through the second member of the Trinity the Lord Jesus Christ.
2Co 5.21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
The Lord Jesus Christ was made sin on the cross. For those three hours when everything was dark and for the first time in all eternity the Father was separated from the Son. Jesus was the sin offering He was made sin for you and me and judged with all the judgement of a holy and righteous Father. For the first time in all eternity they were separated hence why the Lord Jesus cried out My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Matt 27.46. Christ was the living sacrifice. He goes on to say that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. In other words God has done a work through the Lord Jesus Christ and you are found in Him. Because you are found in Him you are now clothed with the righteousness of Christ, that is your position and your standing. That is how God sees you from the moment you place your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. You have a completely new standing and a new position before God. You are now in a risen Saviour and you are clothed with the righteousness of Christ. What a wonderful thing God has done.
Php 3.9 …the righteousness which is from God by faith;
This righteousness is from God. He judged his only begotten son on our behalf, the just for the unjust, the righteous for the unrighteous that we might be brought near to God. You see sin has always been man's problem but through the Lord Jesus Christ it has been dealt with. The curse has been redeemed and we have been delivered from sins domain over us. The righteousness which is from God is His working that He did in the Lord Jesus Christ and by faith we take that and make it our own. God then clothes us and places us in the Lord Jesus Christ with a completely new standing. It’s wonderful. The other side of the ledger is you have to earn your way there and you'll never get there because you can never be acceptable or earn a position that is 100% perfect enough to be received into the presence of a holy God. So God acts on our behalf and through the Lord Jesus Christ. A wonderful truth.
Php 3:10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection,...
The greatest goal of every believer is here in verse 10. It's not just to know about Him we have a living Saviour with whom we can grow in relationship. Paul doesn’t just want to know about Him, he wants to know Him. Have you ever been around people that drop names? Some people may know important sports people or politicians or people in high positions. If you've ever been around someone who is a name dropper they always like to drop a name into the conversation. It makes them feel a bit more important because they know someone of great stature. Have you ever thought that we know the King of Kings? We know the Lord of Lords and the God who created everything. We could be the greatest name droppers around because the person who we know is the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul wants to know Him. Now this knowing is in everything. It's when He leads us in green pastures when things are good and comfortable and we know the fellowship of the Lord Jesus Christ drawing alongside. But it's also knowing the Lord Jesus Christ in storms and storms will come and persecution, and sorrow. It's knowing Christ in all of these aspects of life, not just when it's rosy. We want to know Him in all the things He wills for us.
The law of aerodynamics
Now the power of his resurrection is the life that He now gives us. He can raise us above what our carnal natural self would do. Every Christian wants power. We want to be effective in this world and in our walk. We want the Lord Jesus Christ to be proclaimed and seen through our Christianity. Remember Paul’s struggle in Romans 7? He’s trying to be a good Christian and do the right thing but he finds this other law at work in his members because sin holds us. He gets to the end of it and he cries out in Rom 7:24 O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?
But then he says:
Rom 7.25 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.
Rom 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, 4 that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
You see sin holds all men but the living relationship we now have with the Lord Jesus Christ is powerful enough to overcome it. I work at a golf course that backs on to an airport. Every day I watch these big planes thunder down the runway and take off and it never ceases to amaze me how something that big and heavy can get off the ground. The reason is that it has been made in such a way that it can through the law of aerodynamics defy the law of gravity. It defies gravity because the law of aerodynamics is greater. It's exactly the same in the Christian life. Sin will want to pull us down when we are carnal and living by our own will and in our own strength. Then we can expect and experience what Paul did in Romans 7. But there is another law at play and that is the Spirit of Life in our body which can raise us above the law of death. By faith we allow Jesus to live His life in us. We allow Him to control our will, our emotions and control the paths we take in life. In doing so we find that this new law comes in line and lifts us from the sin that so easily pulls us down. There is power in the Lord Jesus Christ, power to overcome as great then as it is now to lift us from sin and death.
Fellowship
Php 3.10 …and the fellowship of His sufferings,...
Make sure you underline the word fellowship. He doesn't just say ‘and His sufferings’ it's the fellowship of his sufferings. There is a union, Christ draws near and He is with us when we suffer.
Acts 9.13 Then Ananias answered, "Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much harm he has done to Your saints in Jerusalem. 14 And here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on Your name." 15 But the Lord said to him, "Go, for he is a chosen vessel of Mine to bear My name before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel. 16 For I will show him how many things he must suffer for My name's sake."
Suffering is part of the Christian life. Peter says the same thing.
1Pe 4:12 Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you; 13 but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ's sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy. 14 If you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you…
Both these scriptures say that suffering is part of the Christian life. In 2 Timothy 3:12 Paul says the same thing and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.
I'm glad Paul said fellowship because God is always with us in everything we go through. Yes we will suffer but there is fellowship and you're not alone. It's not all left up to you. Christ draws near and whatever circumstance we find ourselves in we find this truth which is brought out even more in 2 Corinthians.
2Co 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.
Difficult times will happen so that we can relate and bring comfort to others when they also go through hard times. God has a purpose for allowing suffering, hardship, and trial so that we may be a blessing to others when they also go through the same thing. There is a purpose and it's for others just as the Lord Jesus Christ suffered for others. We also will be called to walk in the paths He walked.
2Co 1:5 For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abounds through Christ. 6 Now if we are afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effective for enduring the same sufferings which we also suffer. Or if we are comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation.
Amazing. So I want to not only know Him but I want to know His power and also the fellowship of being included in the sufferings of Christ.
Your will be done
Php 3.10 …being conformed to His death,
Earlier in Philippians it says
Php 2.5 Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, 7 but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.
This is what it means to be conformed to His death. Just as Christ laid aside His own will and His own rights for you and me our will has to bend toward the will of the Father. Your will be done Matt 6.10. For us to be conformed to the death of Christ means that we need to be yielded and willing to lay down and allow God to have His rightful place and plan in our lives just as He did with the Lord Jesus Christ.
Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you that it's true and it's life to our flesh and to our bones. We thank you Father for everything Paul went through and that he is able to explain these things to us. We thank you that we can't earn our way to heaven and we thank you that you have made a way to make us acceptable in your presence. We thank you so much for the Lord Jesus Christ and for His work on our behalf. Father in all simplicity we ask you to open our eyes and make Christ real to us in our experience that we could say with Paul we want to know these things. We want to know Christ, we want to know the power of his resurrection, we want to know the fellowship of his sufferings, and we want to be conformed to His death. Lord Jesus our lives are yours and we give them to you this day. We thank you for all the blessings that you have brought upon us in Jesus name. Amen.
God bless saints.