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The
True Righteousness
Philippians 3:4b-14
Good News Translation (GNT)
4b If any of you think you can trust in external ceremonies,
I have even more reason to feel that way.
5 I was circumcised when I was a week old. I am an Israelite
by birth, of the tribe of Benjamin, a pure-blooded Hebrew.
As far as keeping the Jewish Law is concerned, I was a
Pharisee,
6 and I was so zealous that I persecuted the church. As far
as a person can be righteous by obeying the commands
of the Law, I was without fault.
7 But all those things that I might count as profit I now reckon
as loss for Christ's sake.
8 Not only those things; I reckon everything as complete loss
for the sake of what is so much more valuable, the
knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have
thrown everything away; I consider it all as mere garbage,
so that I may gain Christ
9 and be completely united with him. I no longer have a
righteousness of my own, the kind that is gained by
obeying the Law. I now have the righteousness that is
given through faith in Christ, the righteousness that comes
from God and is based on faith.
10 All I want is to know Christ and to experience the power of
his resurrection, to share in his sufferings and become like
him in his death,
11 in the hope that I myself will be raised from death to life.
Running toward the Goal
21 I do not claim that I have already succeeded or have
already become perfect. I keep striving to win the prize for
which Christ Jesus has already won me to himself.
13 Of course, my friends, I really do not(a) think that I have
already won it; the one thing I do, however, is to forget
what is behind me and do my best to reach what is ahead.
14 So I run straight toward the goal in order to win the prize,
which is God's call through Christ Jesus to the life above.
Footnotes
Philippians 3:13 not;
some manuscripts have not yet.
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Commentary taken from
'The Applied New Testament Commentary' (Kingsway)
The True Righteousness
Philippians 3.4b - 14
The false Jewish teachers put their confidence in the flesh; that is, they put confidence
in the fact that they were natural descendants of Abraham and that they had been circumcised.
"We are the true Jews," they boasted.
If these false Jewish teachers thought they could put confidence in the flesh,
Paul could put even more confidence in the flesh.
In accordance with Jewish law, Paul had been circumcised on the eighth day of life.
Paul belonged to the nation of Israel, the Jewish nation.
Paul was descended from Benjamin, the youngest son of Jacob who was Abraham's grandson,
and he had twelve sons, from which the twelve tribes of Israel are descended.
He spoke the Hebrew language and followed Hebrew customs.
Not only that, Paul was also a Pharisee; the Pharisees were the strictest sect of the Jews.
Paul was so strict and zealous a Jew that he persecuted the church, that is, the believers in Jesus.
Paul says that as for legalistic righteousness, he was faultless; that is, outwardly he obeyed all the rules
and regulations of the Jewish law.
But whatever was to his profit - Paul now considers to be of no profit.
In fact, Paul now considers them loss; he considers them harmful, disadvantageous.
These things (being a Jew, Hebrew, Pharisee, etc.) were disadvantageous because
they had kept Paul from putting his confidence in Jesus.
Now, Paul has left all these old Jewish things.
There is nothing on this earth more valuable than knowing Jesus personally
Nothing else can give a person salvation and eternal life.
As an illustration, let us imagine a boat loaded with valuable goods.
It is crossing the sea when a great storm comes up, and it begins to sink.
The sailors in the boat must throw all those valuable goods overboard,
because of the weight of the goods, the boat is sinking and the men are about to drown.
In the same way, Paul has had to "throw overboard" all his old religious "goods" -
such as, his Jewish background, his circumcision, his legalistic righteousness
Paul has lost all these things so that he may gain Jesus -
so that he might be saved.
Paul does not want a righteousness that comes from obeying the law.
Rather, Paul wants to receive the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.
True righteousness is always a gift of God.
It is not given to us on the basis of our own work or effort;
it is given to us by God's grace.
Paul seeks also to know Jesus - to know Jesus and the power of his resurrection.
Paul wants Jesus to dwell within him, and to experience the power of the resurrected Jesus,
which is given through the Holy Spirit.
Paul, in short, wants to have a new life.
In order to share in this life and power, we must also share in His sufferings.
Paul wants to know the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings.
To know the fellowship of sharing in the sufferings of Jesus
means not only to outwardly suffer trouble and persecution for his sake,
but also to inwardly crucify the old sinful nature and its desires.
Having 'died with Christ',
Paul hopes to attain to the resurrection from the dead.
Pressing on Toward the Goal (3:12-16)
Paul is not yet perfect, but he presses on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus
took hold of him - that is, to take hold of holiness, perfection, and maturity.
Remember, Jesus first "took hold" of us.
Because of that, we can "take hold" of Him;
we can obtain Him and hold on to Him in a spiritual sense.
And even though, as we take hold of Him, our grip is weak,
His grip on us is strong; He will not let us slip out of His hands.
Paul is completely single-minded. He does not allow himself to be distracted
from his purpose, he doesn't mope over his failures, his mistakes and sins.
It is useless to keep thinking about these past things.
Paul is like a runner in a race: he looks only ahead.
A runner is slowed down if he looks back.
Paul is not a passive Christian; he is actively - strenuously -
pursuing the goal of becoming like Jesus.
Many Christians are confused about this point.
They say: "Everything is by God's grace. Not only our justification
is by God's grace, but also our sanctification.
Just as fruit ripens on a tree, so will we become like Christ.
We don't need to strive and struggle."
In saying this, these Christians are in part correct.
However, there is another side to the truth -
a side which Paul presents in these verses.
Men are not quite like fruit on a tree.
Fruits submit naturally to the ripening process;
men do not.
Men must actively submit to God and obey Him;
they must actively throw off everything that hinders
and run with perseverance the race marked out for them.
The Christian life is a race, and we must run it.
No one ever won a race by sitting on the side-line.
The prize that Paul wants to win at the end of the race
is full fellowship with Jesus.
footnotes
The Hebrews were Jews who spoke either the Hebrew or Aramaic languages.
In Paul's time, there were two main kinds of Jews:
those who spoke the Greek language, and those who spoke Hebrew or Aramaic (Acts 6:1).
Even though Paul could also speak Greek, he was himself a Hebrew.
The Hebrews considered themselves to be the purest and truest Jews of all.
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