In Philippians 3:4-8, the apostle Paul has been detailing all that he had given up of this world in order to gain Christ as his personal Lord and Saviour. In verse 9, he is appreciating the place of assured blessing and eternal acceptance before God to which he had been brought in Christ: “And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith.”1 His past life of law-keeping in the weakness of the sinful human flesh had given him no assurance of an accepted position before God. But he was now confidently looking to Christ as the object of his faith and the only basis for that perfect, righteous standing before God.
Positionally In Christ
Note that Paul writes, “and be found in him,” not “by him”; we are so intimately linked with Christ that when God looks upon us, He, in fact, sees Christ. The perfect standing and righteousness of Christ is given to us before God. In the list of spiritual blessings we have in Christ in Ephesians 1, the apostle includes, “To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved” (Eph 1:6). To be accepted before the holy God of heaven in the blessed person of God’s only well-beloved Son is truly evidence of the riches of God’s grace. We are so undeserving of this place of nearness, but God graciously delights to bless us in this way. The hymn writer most fittingly expresses the truth of this precious blessing: “So near, so very near to God, I cannot nearer be. For in the Person of His Son, I am as near as He.”2
There is a blessed eternal security associated with being found in Christ, with all our blessings and ultimate salvation bound up in Him. In Philippians 3:9, Paul is comparing the self-righteousness of the Law with the perfect righteousness obtained through faith in Christ. With Israel under the Law, their blessings from God were locked up in a covenant, “If thou wilt, I will,” and therefore were conditional; they could be lost, taken away or given to others. The Jew was only blessed under Messiah as an earthly people; their portion was never to be blessed in Messiah.
But in the Church we are blessed unconditionally in Christ through our union with Him where He is now, seated in the heavenlies. We have nothing outside of Christ, but we have everything securely and eternally in Him. Our righteous standing before God in Christ is eternally secure; it can never be taken from us. Israel will yet be blessed with New Covenant blessings when they accept Christ as their Messiah, seated upon the earthly throne of David. The blessings for the Church are secure in the unfailing One who is today seated upon the throne of heaven, exalted at God’s right hand, “far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion” (Eph 1:21).
Righteousness By Faith of Christ
Paul now fully understood that self-righteousness availed nothing: “not having mine own righteousness, which is of [ek, out from] the law” (as to source). He has just elaborated all his self-righteousness as a law-keeper in verses 5-6. “But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags” (Isa 64:6). Paul understood that all those things he had thought he excelled in as a man in the flesh were, in relation to the works of the Law and law-keeping, just filthy garments of unrighteousness that gave him no righteous acceptance or standing in the brightness of the presence of a holy God.
But he now had a fully righteous acceptance before God by faith in Christ: “but that [righteousness] which is through [dia, by means of] the faith of Christ,” i.e., to have the person of Christ as the unique object of my faith. This is “the righteousness which is of [ek, out from] God by [epi, on the basis of] faith.” The righteousness which is out from God as to source and origin has become my standing before Him, by means of my faith in Christ, and resting upon that basis I have a righteous acceptance before a holy God: “even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe” (Rom 3:22). This is the blessing of justification: “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (5:1).
Honouring the Cross of Christ
This wonderful blessing of righteousness in Christ is only because of Calvary, where He who knew no sin was made to be sin for us, “that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (2Co 5:21). Paul has warned of those deceitful “evil workers” (Php 3:2) who were perpetuating law-keeping and circumcision. In the parenthesis section of verses 18-19, he calls them not just “enemies of Christ” but, more specifically, “enemies of the cross of Christ” (v18). His cross ended all that they were seeking to perpetuate in terms of law-keeping and works. Their wicked, false teaching was honouring man in the flesh; it was a denial of what Christ had accomplished at the cross when He ended man after the flesh before God. They were therefore robbing God of the glory of the all-sufficient sacrifice of Christ. Any today who similarly give place to man’s working in the flesh for salvation are likewise deceitful workers, “enemies of the cross of Christ” (v18), to whom the clear warning of the apostle still applies, “Beware …” (v2).
To “be found in him” (v9) is primarily a doctrinal positional truth, a consequence of the work of the sovereign and gracious God in each individual believer. From the moment of my salvation, I am securely positioned in Christ, and every believer looks to Christ as their perfect righteousness. But there should always be the practical expression of positional truth, and so there should be the evidence that we are found in Christ. There ought to be that reality in our lives, demonstrating by our manner of living that Christ is everything to us, and that we are resting confidently upon the righteousness that we have from God on the basis of our faith in His Son. The following verses (10-14) elaborate further on the expression of this positional truth of being found in Christ.
1 Bible quotations in this article are from the KJV.
2 Catesby Paget
