AND MAY BE FOUND IN HIM: kai
heuretho (1SAPS) en auto:
May be found (2147)
(heurisko) means to learn the location of something, either by
intentional searching (as in the present context) or by unexpected
discovery.
In Him - Speaks of union
with Christ. Paul's union with Christ was possible only because God
imputed Christ’s righteousness to him so that it was reckoned by God
as his own. The believer is in
Him which is to be
intertwined in an eternal, unbreakable covenant bond of intimate love
and knowledge with Christ. Paul loves that concept. Paul refers to
this great truth of a believer's new position in Christ
(86x -- see discussion of
in Christ
and also
in Christ Jesus) or
"in Him"
(uses
by Paul 31x) over 100 times in his epistles. Believers are inextricably
intertwined with Christ in an unbreakable bond of covenant oneness and
identity. It is a grand truth Paul wants all
saints to take in and then live out. Union with Christ is real, vital,
and fruit-bearing and one is either in Christ or out of Christ.
Spurgeon comments...
Oh, what a precious place to be
found in, “in Him,” trusting in Him, hidden away in Him, a member of
His body, as it were, losing myself in Him!
To gain Christ means to be
completely united with Him. In Him (in Christ), as noted
above, points to the closest possible union between Christ and the
believer. This truth is beautifully expressed in the Paul's
declaration "to me, to live is Christ" (see notes
Philippians 1:21)
which means that Paul derives all meaning for his life in Christ . In
Colossians he declares "Christ (is) our life" (See note
Colossians 3:4).
The same truth is expressed in his proclamation that
"it is no longer l who live, but
Christ lives in me and [the life] which I now live in the flesh I live
by faith in the Son of God" (See note
Galatians 2:20)
Dearly beloved of the Father, can
you truly say that Christ is your life and that you find your true
meaning and purpose in this life in Christ?
Another aspect of the importance of
this truth of the believer being in Him
is shown in the Genesis flood for God
blotted out every living
thing that was upon the face of the land, from man to animals to
creeping things and to birds of the sky, and they were blotted out
from the earth; and only Noah was left, together with those that were
with him in the ark." (Ge
7:23)
We too are safe "in the ark" Who is
Christ and He is our life! Lay down your will and surrender to His
good and acceptable and perfect will.
Spurgeon comments on be
found in Him writing that Paul ...
...longs to be hidden in Jesus, and
to abide in Him as a bird in the air, or a fish in the sea; he pants
to be one with Christ, and so to be in Him as a member is in the body.
He desires to get into Christ as a fugitive shelters himself in his
hiding place; he aspires to be so in Christ as never to come out of
Him; so that whenever any one looks for him he may find him in Jesus,
and that when the Great Judge of all calls for him at the last great
day he may find him in Christ. It would be ill to be found where Adam
was, shivering under the trees of the garden with his fig-leaves on;
but to be found beneath the tree of life, wearing the robe of God’s
righteousness, this will be bliss indeed. We are lost out of Christ,
but we are found in Him. Once met with by the Great Shepherd, we are
found by Him, but when safely folded in His love, we are found in Him.
Do notice how Paul sticks to what
he began with, namely, the unrobing himself of his boastings in the
flesh and his arraying himself with Christ. He desires to be found in
Christ, but he adds, “not having mine own righteousness, which is of
the law.” No, he will have nothing to do with that; he has already
despised it as loss, and thrown it overboard as dross, and now he will
not have it or call it his own at all. It is strange for a man to say
“not having my own,” but he does say so; he disowns his own
righteousness as eagerly as other men disown their sins, and he highly
esteems the righteousness which Christ has wrought out for us, which
becomes ours by faith. He calls it “the righteousness which is of God
by faith,” and he sets great store by it; yea, it is all he desires.
My brethren, this is the thing we ought to be seeking after, to be
more and more conscious that we have Christ, to abide in Him more
continually, to be more like Him, even in His sufferings and in His
death, and to feel the full power of his resurrection-life within
ourselves.
May God grant us grace to do this,
and the more we do it the more we shall coincide with the apostle in
his slight esteem for all things else.
This matter is like a balance,
if one scale goes down, the other must go up. The weightier Christ’s
influence, the lighter will be the world and self-righteousness; and
when Christ is all in all, then the world and self will be nothing at
all. (Full sermon
A Business Like Account)
F B Meyer
adds that
You will have to be found by the swirling tides of sorrow,
by some supreme temptation, by the final test of death; you will have
to be found in the Judgment; you will have to be found in the
dissolution of the Heavens and the Earth. When God comes to find you,
where will you be found? In the cardboard of your own goodness,
or in the completed Righteousness of Jesus Christ, which He wrought
out on the Cross in tears and blood, and which is yours directly you
look with penitent trust towards Him? God grant that when you are
found, it may be with the Pearl of great price in your hand, and
with the Righteousness of Jesus Christ upon your soul!
NOT HAVING A RIGHTEOUSNESS
OF MY OWN DERIVED FROM THE LAW: me echon (PAPMSN) emen dikaiosunen
ten ek nomou: (Torrey's
Topic "Self
Righteousness)
(6;
1Ki 8:46;
2Chr 32:25
32:31;
Job 9:28-31;
10:14
10:15;
15:14-16;
42:5;
42:6
Ps 14:3;
19:12;
130:3
130:4
143:2;
Eccl 7:20;
Isa 6:5;
53:6;
64:5
64:6;
Mt 9:13;
Ro 9:31
9:32;
10:1-3,5;
2Ti 1:9;
Titus 3:5;
James 3:2;
1 Jn 1:8-10)
not having any [self-achieved] righteousness that can be called my
own, based on my obedience to the Law’s demands (ritualistic
uprightness and supposed right standing with God thus acquired)"
(Amplified)
Not having - Not possessing
a works works based righteousness based on the law but a
faith-righteousness which is from God through faith in Christ. (See
Romans 3:21;
22)
Spurgeon comments...
He does not say, not trusting it,
but not even having it, not counting it, not thinking it worth while
to put down among his possessions that which he once prized so much.
It must be more glorious to be
justified by God than by ourselves. It must be more safe to wear the
righteousness of Christ than to wear our own. Nothing can so dignify
our manhood as to have Christ himself to be “the Lord our
Righteousness.” This Paul chose in preference to everything else.
J Vernon McGee
notes that Philippians 3:9 was
the verse that came to John Bunyan (Puritan author of Pilgrim's
Progress) as he walked through the cornfields one night, wondering how
he could stand before God. He said that suddenly he saw himself—not
just as a sinner, but as sin from the crown of his head to the soles
of his feet. He realized that he had nothing, and that Christ had
everything. (McGee,
J V: Thru the Bible Commentary: Thomas Nelson
or
Logos)
A righteousness of
my own - Of my own "making", a result of my self efforts to be
"good enough" and to be obedient to the Law (neither of which is
humanly possible to the degree God demands - which is absolute
perfection!)
Righteousness
(1343)
(dikaiosune from
dikaios
= being proper or right in the sense of being fully justified
and in accordance with what God requires) conveys the idea of
conforming to a standard or norm. In Biblical terms it is that which
is acceptable to God and in keeping with what God is in His holy
character. It conveys the idea of being in right
relationship with God or of being rightly related to God.
The root word also means “straightness”
and so defines that which conforms to a standard, that standard being God's
perfect character. It is right standing with God. God is totally righteous because He is totally as He should
be. Righteousness
is rightness of character before God and rightness of actions before
men. The righteousness of God
is all that God is, all that He commands, all that He demands, all
that He approves and all that He provides (thru Christ). Righteousness
here stands for acceptance with God on the ground of his own supposed
merits in satisfying God’s legal requirements and so equates with the
self-righteousness
of external morality, religious ritual and ceremony, and good works,
all
produced by the flesh ("my
own").
As a Pharisee Paul was one of an elite corps of
6,000 Pharisees
who believed that they could attain salvation by keeping
the Law, basically a list of "do's and don'ts". Now
in
Christ
Paul had been set free from this onerous burden. Are are you still trying to prove to God that you are "good
enough" for Him to love you or good enough to save you? "Give it up"
Paul would say! If you are "found
in Him", you are
free in Christ!
Derived from
- This phrase is the single Greek preposition ek meaning out of
the Law as the source. Paul dealt with this same problem in Romans 10
writing of the Jews
not knowing about God's righteousness, and seeking to establish their
own...did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God." (see
note
Romans 10:3)
To the Galatians he wrote
if righteousness
comes through the Law, then Christ died needlessly. (Galatians 2:21)
Paul is not denouncing
the Law nor the righteousness demanded by it but he is denouncing his
former self-righteous confidence in his own merits. No amount of
law-keeping, self-improvement, discipline, or religious effort can
make anyone right with God. While those things may give a false sense
of righteousness, they will not withstand the scrutiny of a perfectly
righteous God.
Spurgeon writes
that...
When William Carey was about to
die, he ordered this verse to be put on his tombstone:
A
guilty, weak, and helpless worm,
On Christ’s kind arms I fall,
He is my strength, my righteousness,
My Jesus, and my all.
The psalmist declares that in the Lord's
sight no
man living is righteous." (Ps 143:2)
Spurgeon
commenting on this phrase writes that...
None can stand before God upon the footing of the law. God's sight is
piercing and discriminating; the slightest flaw is seen and judged;
and therefore pretence and profession cannot avail where that glance
reads all the secrets of the soul. In this verse David told out the
doctrine of universal condemnation by the law long before Paul had
taken his pen to write the same truth. To this day it stands true even
to the same extent as in David's day: no man living even at this
moment may dare to present himself for trial before the throne of the
Great King on the footing of the law. This foolish age has produced
specimens of pride so rank that men have dared to claim perfection in
the flesh; but these vainglorious boasters are no exception to the
rule here laid down: they are but men, and poor specimens of men. When
their lives are examined they are frequently found to be more faulty
than the humble penitents before whom they vaunt their superiority.
Solomon adds
indeed, there is not a righteous man on earth who
continually does good and who never sins. (Ecclesiastes 7:20)
(Comment: This verse is the OT parallel of
Romans 3:23 [note]
and is a good verse to share
with the Jewish friends God has providentially, sovereignly placed
into your life. Don't miss the opportunity God has given you to share
His Messiah with your Jewish friend. The gospel has always been to the
Jew first and also to the Greek - see note
Romans 1:16)
These truths help understand Jesus' statement
I
DESIRE COMPASSION, AND NOT SACRIFICE,' for I did not come to call the
righteous, but sinners.
(Mt 9:13)
F B Meyer
adds that it was their zealous pursuit of self
righteousness
that prompted Luther to fastings and scourgings, beneath which his
body was reduced to an extremity, and that encouraged Bunyan to hope
that an outward reformation would satisfy the outcry of his
conscience. But such men have always found their efforts unavailing.
However zealous they may be in going about to establish their own
righteousness, men discover that what has seemed a white and flawless
robe is only as filthy rags, in the searching light of the great white
throne." If one could keep the law in its entirety, he would be
acceptable to God, but the law must be taken in whole or not at all.
Breaking any part of it comes short of God's standard (see note
Romans 3:23;
Ja 2:10).
Only Christ fulfilled the Law (see note
Matthew 5:17).
When we resolve to drop the the pursuit of self righteousness, then we
may seek His righteousness and in making the choice, we find ourselves in Him,
arrayed in the spotless dress of Christ, for God
made Him Who knew
no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness
of God in Him. (2Cor 5:21)
BUT THAT WHICH IS THROUGH
FAITH IN CHRIST: alla ten dia pisteos Christou: (Dt
27:26;
Lu 10:25-29;
Ro 3:19,20;
4:13-15;
7:5-13;
8:3;
10:4,5;
Gal 3:10-13,21,22;
Js 2:9-11;
1 Jn 3:4)
but possessing that [genuine
righteousness] which comes through faith in Christ (the Anointed One)
(Amp)
This righteousness through faith is a description of the act of justification (being
declared righteous
Romans 5:1).
Righteousness
is the idea of being in right standing with God, accepted by Him.
Through faith in Christ -
Through is the preposition dia which means that through which the
effect proceeds and thus by means of faith.
Wuest explains that...
“faith of Christ” refers to
the faith which Christ kindles, of which He is the Author, which also
He nourishes and maintains. It is therefore the faith which is
furnished the believer by God and with which he appropriates the
blessings of grace.
(Wuest,
K. S. Wuest's Word Studies from the Greek New Testament: Eerdmans
or
Logos)
Faith
(4102)
(pistis) is a firm conviction (not just a mental assent
to truth) producing full acknowledgment of God's revelation of Truth,
a personal surrender to the Truth apprehended and a conduct
commensurate with one's surrender. The point is worth reemphasizing in
our day in which the definition of faith is very fuzzy -- faith is
essentially not a matter of intellectual assent (we of course do need
to apprehend it first with our intellect but that is not all), but of
personal trust, manifest by an attitude of constant and total
dependence on God, which reflects one's response to the
trustworthiness of God.
Faith, like grace, is not static.
It is critical to understand that genuine saving faith is more than just
and intellectual knowledge of the facts. True faith in fact is inseparable from repentance, surrender, and a
supernatural longing to obey. James makes it clear that faith without works is dead (non-saving)
faith. Do not be deceived.
Nothing before, nothing
behind,
The steps of faith
Fall on the seeming void, and find
The rock beneath. -- Whittier
THE RIGHTEOUSNESS WHICH
COMES FROM GOD ON THE BASIS OF FAITH: ten ek theou dikaiosunen epi te
pistei: (Ps 71:15
71:16;
Isa 45:24
45:25;
46:13;
53:11;
Jer 23:6;
33:16;
Da 9:24;
Jn 16:8-11;
Ro 1:17;
3:21
3:22;
4:5
4:6
4:13;
5:21;
9:30;
10:3
10:6
10:10;
1Cor 1:30;
2Cor 5:21;
Gal 2:16;
3:11;
2Pe 1:1)
which comes from God by
[saving] faith (Amp)
the righteousness
that is of God by the faith (YLT)
Righteousness...comes
from (ek - out of) God
