Philippians: A Righteousness Not My Own

Text: “Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9 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 3:8–9, ESV)

Theme: The believer’s righteousness is an alien righteousness.

I’d like for us to revisit some of the same verses we looked at last Sunday night. Philippians 3:1-14 contains such a wealth of doctrinal truth, and practical application that it’s a passage easy to “camp out” in. Last Sunday we considered the theme “Going hard after God.” The Apostle tells the Philippian beleivers several times in the passage that his heart’s desire is to know Christ, to gain Christ, to be found in Christ. He is willing to consider anything that interferes with that passion as rubbish. A.W. Tozer tells us that Paul is an example of a believer going hard after God.

The passage also contains a concise definition of the Gospel. It is found in vs. 9, “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 3:9, ESV). Paul is writing to remind the Philippians of the truth of the gospel and that it must be guarded.

In the passage before us Paul is contrasting two kinds of righteousness—one that eternally saves, and one that is eternally fatal. The first depends upon the pride of ritual, the pride of relationship, the pride of respectability, the pride of race, the pride of religion, and the pride of reputation. These are all the things the apostle could boast of in vs. 4-6, if he chose to boast about such things. However, he refuses to boast in those things because he knows their emptiness. This is a righteousness that is eternally fatal because it is a self righteousness that leaves the sinner condemned before a holy God. The second righteousness Paul speaks of is a righteousness found in grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.

The first is a flawed righteousness that comes from our own works. The second is a perfect righteousness that is a product of what Christ has accomplished on the cross.

The first is a righteousness we make for ourselves—that's why we call it self-righteousness. The second is a righteousness that is imputed to us.

One is our own righteousness the other is God's righteousness.

Paul counted the first kind of righteousness as loss. The second kind of righteousness is gain.

The core of the gospel message is summed up in Philippians 3:9, "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 3:9, ESV). Here is the most important doctrine in all of Christian theology. It is the doctrine of justification by faith alone. It is frequently referred to as The Great Exchange.

I. GOD IS THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS

ILLUS. In the Old Testament one of the compound names for God is Jehovah-Tsidkenu (pronounced Sid-qah-new), and is translated as the Lord our righteousness. It is found in the Book of Jeremiah. The prophet has been berating Israel’s priests as careless shepherds who have scattered the sheep of God’s pasture. For this they will be judged. But the promise is that, one day, God will gather the remnant of his flock, and bring them back to His fold. When that happens he will rise up David’s righteous branch. This is God’s Anointed One—Messiah—and he will execute justice in the land. Jeremiah concludes saying, “In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called: ‘The LORD is our righteousness.’” (Jeremiah 23:6, ESV)

1. our God is a righteous God

“Your righteousness, O God, reaches the high heavens. You who have done great things, O God, who is like you?” (Psalm 71:19, ESV)

“As your name, O God, so your praise reaches to the ends of the earth. Your right hand is filled with righteousness.” (Psalm 48:10, ESV)

2. what does it mean when the Bible teaches that one of God’s primary attributes is righteousness?

a. it means that God always lives up to His own divine standards of morality, ethics, and behavior

1) our righteousness is a conformity to an outside standard—it can be a cultural standard, or a family standard

2) for the believer our righteousness is a conformity to God’s standard of holiness as found in the person of Christ Jesus

3) but God has no outside standard ... He is his own standard ... nothing exerts influence over God, but his own righteous consistency

b. it means everything God does, every action He takes, He does in harmony with His own character of holiness

1) this is why at creation God could pronounces everything He did as “good”

c. it means that God always acts righteously in His relationship to His creation

1) God reveals His righteousness through His common grace

2) God reveals His righteousness His judgment

3) God reveals His righteousness by fulfilling His promises

4) God reveals His righteousness through His revelation of His righteousness in saving sinners

3. when Jeremiah reveals God’s nature through the name Jehovah-Tsidkenu (pronounced Sid-qah-new) he reveals a transcendent truth that is realized only by faith of the believer ... that not only is God a God of righteousness, but He is the Lord our righteousness

II. HUMAN RIGHTEOUSNESS IN UNRIGHTEOUS

“We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.” (Isaiah 64:6, ESV)

1. our personal righteousness—our self-righteousness—is not the basis of God’s redemptive grace

a. it never has been, and never will be

1) Paul make this clear to his Jewish readers in his letter to the Church at Rome

“What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather 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 counted to him as righteousness.”” (Romans 4:1–3, ESV)

a) Abraham became a child of God just as we become children of God—by faith in God’s redemptive promises

2) Paul also make his position clear in Philippians 3:4-6 telling the Christians at Philippi that he has no confidence in the flesh

3) he could have boasted in the pride of ritual, the pride of relationship, the pride of respectability, the pride of race, the pride of religion, the pride of reputation

a) but Paul discovered that all those things are dung compared to gaining Christ, and the righteousness that comes through him

2. we rarely, if ever, see our sin as seriously as does God

a. humans look at human behavior on a sliding scale—Really, REALLY Good conduct on one end of the scale and Really, REALLY Bad conduct on the other end of the scale

1) men then compare themselves according to other lives on that scale

a) on the Really, REALLY Good end of the scale are people like Francis of Assisi, Mother Teresa, and Mister Rogers

b) on the Really, REALLY Bad end of the scale are people like Genghis Khan, Adolf Hitler, and Mao Zedong

c) on the sliding scale it’s almost always easy to find someone worse than you

2) as long as we don’t find our behavior creeping toward the “bad” end of the scale we assume we’re OK, and that, in the end, God will receive us into His heaven

b. God looks at human behavior on a balance scale—your righteousness on one scale vs. His own righteousness on the other scale

1) guess what? ... everyone falls short in that comparison

A. A MAN’S VERY BEST RIGHTEOUS BEHAVIOR CANNOT SAVE HIM

1. vs. 2 of Philippians chapter three identifies whom the apostle is referring to as he writes this passage—it's the Judaizers

a. they are the "joy-steelers" of the Christian faith

b. these men are the bane of Paul’s apostolic ministry

2. these are the same false teachers who had been causing problems for the Apostle Paul in the churches of Galatia

a. they are the same false teachers described in the Book of Acts chapter 15

b. it is in Acts 15 that we have the best description of who these Judaizers are

1) they were a sect led by some Pharisees who had professed faith in Christ and joined the Jerusalem church (Acts 15:5)

2) the external ceremonial elements of Judaism were so important to the Pharisees, that they insisted no Gentile could possibly become a true Christian without first embracing all the ceremonial elements of the Jewish faith—starting with circumcision

c. the Judaizers are still Pharisees at heart

1) they had taken all the errors of Pharisaism and had blended them with Christianity

2) they were corrupting the gospel with legalism—the idea that our righteousness is dependent on our personal good behavior and not the grace that comes from God in Christ

3. the apostle Paul uses three extremely offensive terms to describe these men

"Look out for the dogs, look out for the evildoers, look out for those who mutilate the flesh." (Philippians 3:2, ESV)

a. 1st, he calls them dogs

1) that was the Jewish name of derision for the Gentiles—they were "dogs"

2) Paul is putting the Judaizers on the same level as unbelieving Gentiles

b. 2nd, he calls them evildoers

1) again this is Jewish language describing the reprehensible practices of paganism

2) the Old Testament constantly speaks of wicked unbelievers and pagans as evildoers

c. 3rd, he refers to them as those who mutilate the flesh

1) the word Paul uses here that is translated as mutilators of the flesh is a word that described the pagan religious practices of cutting the body as an act of worship

ILLUS. We have an example of this in the Old Testament book of 1st Kings in the contest between the prophet Elijah and the prophets of Baal. "And they cried aloud and cut themselves after their custom with swords and lances, until the blood gushed out upon them." (1 Kings 18:28, ESV). The book of Leviticus forbade the Jews to do anything like this. In using this term the apostle Paul is ranking the Judaizers with the lowest form of pagan practices.

d. Paul is harsh ... not only does he not believe these men are Christians, he does not even consider them true Jews

4. the Philippians are to have no confidence in the flesh; their righteousness—their saving righteousness—does not come through their personal moral or ethical behavior

a. neither does ours

5. the Philippians saving righteousness comes through faith alone, in Christ alone

a. so does ours

III. GOD IMPUTES HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS TO THE UNRIGHTEOUSNESS

“I will greatly rejoice in the LORD; my soul shall exult in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation; he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.” (Isaiah 61:10, ESV)

1. Paul reminds the Philippian believers that there is only one way to measure up to God’s rigid standard of righteousness

a. and it is a rigid standard ... He holy as I am holy

1) that command doesn’t allow for much “wiggle room” in our behavior ... actually, it doesn’t allow for any wiggle room

2. we worship a God who is absolutely righteous, and who—through grace and mercy—has provided a way for His righteousness to become our righteousness

“But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction:” (Romans 3:21–22, ESV)

ILLUS. God never alters His robe of righteousness to fit the sinner. He alters the sinner to fit the robe.

3. in His grace God declares us righteous and does not treat us as our sins deserve

a. when you came to God in repentance and faith, God imputed His own righteousness to you

ILLUS. My brother, who’s a pretty decent welder, tells me that a good weld is actually stronger than the metal on either side of it. I think there is a good spiritual application in that. The reason a weld is so strong is that it actually bonds the molecules of the two pieces of metal to each other. They are fused together and cannot be separated.

4. when God imputes us with His righteousness a miracle takes place in the human soul

a. He welds our spirit to His Spirit

1) our personality in infused with the Holy Spirit

b. it is a bond which can never be broken

5. we need God's righteousness since our own righteousness can never satisfy God's demand for perfect holiness

a. by faith in Christ we are “ ... 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 3:9, ESV)

A. GOD’S RIGHTEOUSNESS COMES THROUGH CHRIST JESUS

"This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference." (Romans 3:22, ESV)

1. faith is simply taking God at His word

2. it is through a simple act of belief that God offers unimpeachable righteousness to all

a. just as ALL men have sinned, so ALL men have the opportunity to be made righteous

ILLUS. Martin Luther was saved while studying the Epistle to the Romans. Listen to part of his testimony: "I greatly longed to understand Paul's Epistle to the Romans, and nothing stood in the way but that one expression, 'the righteousness of God,' because I took it to mean that righteousness whereby God is righteous and deals righteously in punishing the unrighteous ... Night and day I pondered until ... I grasped the truth that the righteousness of God is that righteousness whereby, through grace and sheer mercy, he justifies us by faith. Thereupon I felt myself to be reborn and to have gone through open doors into paradise. The whole of Scripture took on a new meaning, and whereas before 'the righteousness of God' had filled me with hate, now it became to me inexpressibly sweet in greater love. This passage of Paul became to me a gateway to heaven."

3. Martin Luther discovered what Paul had experienced in his own life—that obedience to moral codes and a pure and conscientious way of life cannot justify a man before God, but faith in Christ can

4. we can be justified because Jesus Christ became our sacrifice of atonement

Romans 3:25 (NIV) "God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, . . ."

a. here is the grace of God at work which ought to bring every believer to his or her knees everyday in humble gratitude, and worshipful adulation

1) sin must be atoned for—it cannot be overlooked

2) the moment you and I crossed the line and knowingly sinned, we forfeited our lives to the rule of iniquity and the penalty of hell

b. but "through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus" God has bought us out of the slavemarket of sin and adopted us as sons and daughters

"But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ. 14 For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, 15 by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, 16 and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility." (Ephesians 2:13-16, NIV)

1) God looks at us as though we have never sinned

B. GOD'S PLAN OF SALVATION LEAVES NO ROOM FOR BOASTING IN OUR LIVES

ILLUS. Luther stated that our sinful state is much like the piles of manure. It is ugly, repulsive and offensive. There is nothing in it that would commend it to anyone, especially God—but justification is like the first snowfall in winter. It covers the sight and smell of the manure piles with a blanket of pure white. The pile is still inherently a manure pile, but now it is covered.

1. if ever there was a man who could boast in his moral and religious accomplishments, it was Paul

2. but on a dusty road between Jerusalem and Damascus, Paul discovered that personal pedigree and religious zeal do not merit saving righteousness

a. only faith in Christ can and that leaves no room for boasting

IV. APPLICATION

1. our God is a righteous God

2. if you have been born again, you have the righteousness of God covering you

3. since you have the righteousness of God in you, how should be live?

A. THE RIGHTEOUS SHOULD LIVE A LIFE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS

1. in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness"

2. the righteousness that Jesus demanded involved a dramatic shift of focus

a. rather than seeing righteousness in terms of outward behavior, Jesus shifted the issue to within the human character

b. righteousness involves motives and thoughts and desires

3. righteousness is not simply doing what God says, but actually being like Him

4. let me end by asking you two questions:

a. how many acts of sin did you commit yesterday?

b. how many acts of righteousness did you commit yesterday?

1) the average church crowd will come up with ten times as many sins as they will acts of righteousness

2) most Christians don't have any idea what an act of righteousness is

3) we think its something done down at the church house on Sunday morning, and during a pilgrimage to a holy site (which for Baptists would be 1st Baptist, Dallas)

c. what are acts of righteousness?

1) every Christian father who goes off to work each day to support his family is committing an act of righteousness

2) every mother who lovingly cared for a child who came to them with a scraped knee committed an act of righteousness

3) every believer who offered a kind word to friend or stranger committed an act of righteousness

Do you want the righteousness of God in your life? Ezek 33:14-16 "And if I say to the wicked man, 'You will surely die,' but he then turns away from his sin and does what is just and right-- 15 if he gives back what he took in pledge for a loan, returns what he has stolen, follows the decrees that give life, and does no evil, he will surely live; he will not die. 16 None of the sins he has committed will be remembered against him. He has done what is just and right; he will surely live.”