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Not Having My Own Righteousness (
Philippians #11)

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INTRODUCTION

We come now to a particular gospel “turn” that is extremely troublesome to the carnal mind. The square peg of “alien righteousness” goes not go into the round hole of any “righteousness of my own.” Consequently, a great deal of ingenuity has been expended on trying to make it fit. We might even go so far as to say that this problem, this tension, is the driving engine of almost all new developments in theology. And that is not a good thing. The challenge always comes down to the unvarnished gospel versus the “cold clatter of morality.” 

THE TEXT

“But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win 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: That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:7–12). 

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

In his previous life, prior to his conversion, Paul had been proud of his resume, proud of his heritage. All those things had been “gain” to him, but no more. He uses the same word that he used in Phil. 1:21 (kerdos), but showing a complete reversal of values. He counts all that a loss for the sake of Christ (v. 7). He goes on to extend the exchange to “all things,” considering the loss of everything to be insignificant when compared to the excellency of knowing Christ Jesus as Lord (v. 8). More than insignificant, he counts every possible honor as skubalon—rubbish, garbage, offal, dung, or refuse (v. 8). He does not just know Christ now, he also strains to win Christ at the last (v. 8). He rejects his own righteousness, that which is “by law,” and wants to be found in Christ by faith, not having his own righteousness, but rather the righteousness which is “of God by faith” (v. 9). He not only wants Christ now, and Christ at the last, but also Christ on the journey (v. 10). This refers to the koinonia of his suffering, lining up with His death, so that he might know the power of resurrection (v. 10). Experiencing the power of resurrection now means a promise of attaining to the resurrection of the dead at the last day (v. 11). Not that he has already made it, because he knows that he has not, but he pursues it nonetheless. He wants nothing more than to apprehend that for which he was apprehended. He wants to seize that for which he was seized (v. 12).  

ALL THE WAY IN

This is an area where we must pay close attention to the exhortation given by that great Puritan Richard Baxter, when he said, “screw the truth into men’s minds.” If we don’t take care to do that, this particular truth will always pop out again, rattle on the floor for a moment, and disappear into an obscure corner.

SUBMITTING TO THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD

There is another place in Paul where he summarizes this glorious truth, talking about how the exquisitely pious Jews, in all their zeal, managed to miss it. What went wrong?

“For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God” (Romans 10:3). 

The word for submit here is hypotasso, and is the same word that is used in a number of other places. Domestic servants, house slaves, are told to be subject to their masters (1 Pet. 2:18). Wives are commanded to be submissive to their own husbands (Col. 3:18). We are called to be subject to principalities and powers (Tit. 3:1). The young should submit to the elderly (1 Pet. 5:5). The problem that the Jews had was found in their unwillingness to submit to the righteousness of God. This is why the gospel is described by Paul as a message to be obeyed (Rom. 10:16), and why those who reject it are described as a disobedient people (Rom. 10:21). 

In our text, Paul says that he wanted to be found in Christ, not having his own righteousness (Phil 3:9). In Romans 10, he says that the Jews went around trying to establish their own righteousness, and refused to submit to the righteousness of God (Rom. 10:3). This means that what we are talking about is not acknowledging that God, over there, is righteous. We are not acknowledging that, but rather trusting in. The righteousness of someone else is imputed to me, and so it is that every form of ego-credit vanishes. 

POISONOUS PRONOUNS

The poison of autonomy is therefore found in the personal possessive pronouns—mine, ours, and so forth. It is not to be found in the external things we cook up to do, which may or may not be noble and right. If I give all my possessions to feed the poor, but have not love, I am nothing (1 Cor. 13:3). This is because I gave everything away except my own righteousness. As long as I cling to that, I am clutching at my own essential unrighteousness.

And this is why the deepest repentance possible is not of the things we are ashamed of, but rather of the things we are proud of. Men are not truly converted until their virtues humiliate them. This is why tax collectors and whores enter the kingdom first (Matt. 21:31). They know how valuable all their virtues are, which cannot be said for the theologians and scribes.  

Flannery O’Connor describes this principle wonderfully at the conclusion of her potent short story Revelation. Mrs. Turpin has been given a vision of a procession into Heaven. 

“Upon it a vast horde of souls were tumbling toward heaven. There were whole companies of white trash, clean for the first time in their lives, and bands of blacks *** in white robes, and battalions of freaks and lunatics shouting and clapping and leaping like frogs. And bringing up the end of the procession was a tribe of people whom she recognized at once as those who, like herself and Claud, had always had a little of everything and the given wit to use it right. She leaned forward to observe them closer. They were marching behind the others with great dignity, accountable as they had always been for good order and common sense and respectable behavior. They, alone were on key. Yet she could see by their shocked and altered faces even their virtues were being burned away.”

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No Confidence in the Flesh
 (Philippians #10)

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INTRODUCTION

Everyone here has an inner life and an external life. If there had been no fall, no rebellion, there would have been a true unity between the two. But the entry of sin into the world made it possible for us to dissemble and to play the hypocrite. When this happens, a person takes advantage of the separation—he can now present one appearance to the world, a holy appearance, and he can keep a lozenge of diseased unholiness under his tongue. 

THE TEXT

“Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you, to me indeed is not grievous, but for you it is safe. Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision. For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. Though I might also have confidence in the flesh. If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more: Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee; Concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless” (Phil. 3:1–6). 

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

Remember that one of the themes of this letter is the necessity of rejoicing in the Lord. This is stated again here (v. 1). Paul does not mind repeating himself, which he certainly does here, and he regards the repetition as being a safety for them (v. 1). Sound doctrine is the foundation of all true joy, and so it is crucial that they be warned away from the false teachers. These false teachers he calls dogs (v. 2), evil workers (v. 2), and the party of mutilation (v. 2). They call what they are doing “circumcision,” but that honor actually goes to the orthodox Christians (v. 3). They are the ones characterized by three things—they worship God in the spirit, they rejoice in Christ, and they put no confidence in fleshly work (v. 3). If it were possible for any man to have confidence in the flesh, Paul could certainly outdo him (v. 4). Paul then pulls out his resume—circumcised on day eight, Israelite stock, a Benjaminite, a Hebrew of Hebrews, a Pharisee concerning the law, a zealous persecutor (v. 6), and blameless if you wanted to call this kind of thing blameless. 

TWO KINDS OF BLAMELESSNESS UNDER THE LAW

Throughout the book of Psalms, we see petitions lifted up on the basis of the psalmist’s innocence or blamelessness—“Judge me, O Lord; for I have walked in mine integrity . . .” (Psalm 26:1). 

Zecharias and Elizabeth were blameless in this way:

“And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless.” (Luke 1:6). 

But they were not sinless, as can be seen in how Zecharias was disciplined for his failure to believe Gabriel (Luke 1:19-20). If God were to mark iniquities . . . (Ps. 130:3). But they were nevertheless conscientious believers, and they were faithful to the covenant of their God—a covenant that made ample provision for sin.  

But prior to his conversion, Paul was not at all like this. He was blameless in the sense that all his papers were in order, but he was also a blasphemer (1 Tim. 1:13), and an insolent man (v. 13). His was an external blamelessness. Internally, he was a rat’s nest of corruptions (Rom. 7:19-20).

One time I asked a leading theologian in a movement that is called the New Perspective on Paul whether or not he believed that Zecharias and Elizabeth, on the one hand, and Paul, on the other, were all basically in the same category. Sure, Paul was something of a hothead, but were they all “blameless according to the law” in the same basic way? He said they were. But this is obviously false. Zecharias was regenerate and Paul, prior to the Damascus road, was unregenerate. The distance between them was the distance between Heaven and Hell.  

MY BIBLE IS MORE UNDERLINED THAN YOURS

The easiest thing in the world is to disparage the external markers of holiness that other traditions or religions hold as precious. In the Middle East, men can buy make-up that will mimic a callus on your forehead, the kind of callus that forms when you pray toward Mecca the way you ought. The bishop wears a mitered hat in order to accentuate his dignity. A pop evangelical preacher wears a Daffy Duck t-shirt to accentuate his relevance and approachability. Funny hat, funny shirt, tomayto, tomahto.

When the Pharisee and the tax collector prayed in the Temple, and the Pharisee prayed like a good Reformed man—soli Deo gloria—“I thank thee, God . . .” he went home unjustified. But how many of us thank God that at least we are not like that Pharisee?

How many Reformed believers know that we cannot take any glory in the creature, none whatever, and somehow take glory in the fact that this is something we understand. Self-righteousness can feed upon doctrines as well as upon flowing robes and stoles. We are fallen and can take ego-credit for anything, and can be quite proud of our humility.

We have to keep an eye on all these twists and turns. As the Baptist minister once put it, with a twinkle in his eye, “We Baptists don’t believe in tradition. It is contrary to our historic position.” 

HEART RELIGION

What indicators can the devil duplicate? The devil can sign an orthodox creed (Jas. 2:19). The devil can quote Scripture from memory (Matt. 4:6). The devil can perform miracles (Matt. 24:24). The devil can conduct his temptations on the pinnacle of the Temple (Matt. 4:5). The devil can dazzle you the way a shining angel could (2 Cor. 11:14).  

What can’t the devil do? He cannot wash your sins away. He cannot usher you into joy. “Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord.” If you were wearing a beautiful cross around your neck, and I were to use that as an illustration in the sermon, as a thing that some trust in instead of Christ, you could not fix the problem by taking off the necklace. It fixes nothing to replace the “necklace” with “no necklace.” No, the thing must be replaced with joy. 

“For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.” (Romans 14:17). 

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Why “All of Christ for All of Life”

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INTRODUCTION

As God has called different ministries to various aspects of His kingdom work in this world, they have often been characterized by different tag lines or summary statements. William Carey, the father of modern missions, said, “Expect great things from God, attempt great things for God.” Desiring God says that “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.” Hudson Taylor is known for saying that “God’s work done in God’s way will never lack God’s supply.” And we have summarized the emphasis of our ministry here with “All of Christ for all of life.” Depending on the context, we might add for “for all of Moscow,” or “for all the world.”

THE TEXT

“And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen” (Matthew 28:18–20).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

The Great Commission can be divided into three parts. The first is the declaration. All authority has been given to me” (v. 18). The second is the commandment. “Go ye therefore . . .” (vv. 19-20a). And the third is the promise— “I am with you always . . .” (v. 20b).

Because Christ has been given all authority both in Heaven and on earth, this means that this commission trumps the wishes of all others. We are given this task on the basis of the authority that has been given to Christ. We know that He has this authority of the strength of multiple passages. He has been given the nations as His inheritance, the ends of the earth for His possession (Ps. 2:8). He approached the Ancient of Days and was given dominion, glory and a kingdom that will never be destroyed (Dan. 7:13-14). The government will rest on His shoulders, and of the increase of that government there will be no end (Is. 9:6-7). In short, He has the authority to issue this command. 

The command is to go out and to do so on this basis. He says “Go therefore.” The basic verb is matheteuo, which means to disciple. Disciple the tribes, the nations, the ethnoi. No civic unit is excluded. This is to be done by baptizing them in the triune name, and by teaching them to obey everything Jesus said.

Then there is the promise. Jesus says that as we engage in this task, He will be constantly with us, even to the end of the age (v. 20). And we see elsewhere in Scripture that this does not exclude the “age to come” (Eph. 1:21).  

CONSIDER ALL THE ALLS

The word for all in this passage is pas. It is used four times. Jesus here claims to have all authority (exousia). He tells us to disciple all nations. He explains that this involves teaching them to obey all the commands He ever gave. And He concludes by telling us that He will be with us all the time.

This commandment is frankly staggering, and it is no surprise that the promise is attached to it. And even despite that promise, we still have a tendency to cook this commission in the reduction sauce of careful exegesis, and  

THE REASON WE ARE OVERWHELMED

The reason we are so often overwhelmed in our Christian lives, whether singly or when considering the church at large, is that we have reduced the monumental task to one that is bigger than we are, but one we still think we might be able to handle. But we can’t, because we are fighting in our own wisdom. The task is enormous. If we keep it that size, then we are going to have to look beyond ourselves to the power and strength of God. Christ gave the promise for a reason. After Isaiah said that of the increase of His government there would be no end, what else did he say? “The zeal of the Lord of hosts will accomplish this.”

And this is why the statement of the great Thomas Chalmers is so pertinent. “Regardless of how large, your vision is too small.”

INTO THE CORNERS

Now “all of life” includes absolutely everything, and that can be scary. This means family life, education, economics, resource management, divorce law, sacraments, warfare, moon exploration, word processing, AI, robotics, watercolors, and the cooking of soufflés. If you think I am leaving anything out, just throw that in. So where do we start?

Not surprisingly, we start with your own heart. Repent of your sins. Look to Christ. Trust in Him as your only possible righteousness. From there it should move out to your family, and the principal and characteristic note there should be godly kindness. Not push-over kindness, and not intransigent harshness. Kindness. From that position, consider your vocation—scholar, merchant, tradesman, or other—and in that vocation seek to combine high honesty and peerless competence. 

As we learn to excel in what God has called us to, what happens? “Do you see a man who excels in his work? He will stand before kings; He will not stand before unknown men” (Proverbs 22:29). Working quietly with our hands, on the task that is right in front of us, is God’s appointed method for getting us to fan out across the globe (1 Thess. 4:11). So the process should be heart > family > world. And you are equipped at every stage of this process when you appear before God, together with your family, on the Lord’s Day, in order to worship Him. 

Sin is off limits, naturally. But nothing else is.

CHRIST IS LORD

In a saner time, the word secular did not mean godless. Secular meant auto mechanics as distinct from singing psalms in worship—but secular did not mean godless. It did not mean unbelieving. The secular world was not an autonomous realm, but rather the realm of the kingdom outside the church proper. 

The sacred space is here, as we are gathered to worship God in the name of Jesus Christ. This is the day that is set apart, and this time is consecrated to sacred use. The bread that we break here is the body of God. But the bread that you break over lunch tomorrow is not polluted bread. You say grace over it. It is consecrated to secular use, in the name of Jesus Christ. And the same thing goes for everything you might touch. 

“Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31). 

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A More Excellent Way (Philippians #6)

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Introduction

As we consider the state of our Christian lives, some of the things we have to deal with are the knotted topics of desire, envy, competition, and ambition. Considering the next two verses in Philippians, we should pay some attention to competition, something dear to the heart of most Americans. But because of this we must guard our step. You have heard many times that we must learn to repent of our virtues, and here is a good place to start.

The Text

“Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others” (Phil. 2:3-4).

Summary of the Text

This passage is taken from the chapter in which the perfect humility of Christ was exalted to the highest place. This is not presented to us as a striking anomaly, but rather as being central to what we as Christians are called to imitate. So how many things are we allowed to do because of our striving (v. 3)? Nothing. How about vainglory (v. 3)? Nothing again. What should our mindset be toward others? The apostle Paul replies we should consider them “better,” that is, more important than we do ourselves. This is to be our central disposition. This is to be characteristic of the groove in which our mind runs. Paul then says that we are not to look on our own things (v. 4), but also on the things of others (v. 4). This word in the second half of the phrase helps us to understand what is meant in the first half. This is a comparative statement, not an absolute statement. It is similar to when Paul tells each of us to carry our own burden (Gal. 6:5), carry his own weight. This is fully consistent with his exhortation for us to carry one another’s burdens (Gal. 6:2). Only the mind of Christ can sort this out.

Devil Take the Hindmost? 

There is a laissez-faire approach to competition that is very important for the civil magistrate to remember when it comes to the question of him restricting, regulating, organizing, or otherwise botching economic activity. But, as you have been reminded many times, there is a difference between sins and crimes. And just because something ought not to be criminal, with penalties attached, does not mean that it is spiritually healthy and automatically non-sinful. Lust ought not to be against the law, but that doesn’t make it okay. The civil magistrate is not competent to outlaw greed either, and all messianic attempts to do so have been disastrous. However . . . greed is a serious sin.

There are Christians who see this, and who conclude from it that a “let ‘er rip” attitude should be allowed everywhere. But the civil magistrate is not prohibited from addressing greed because it is an invisible sin. It is not invisible, and other governments that God established are required to deal with it. A family can see and identify what their problem is. “He that is greedy of gain troubleth his own house; but he that hateth gifts shall live” (Prov. 15:27). And the church is required to exclude from ecclesiastical office men who are greedy. “Not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre; but patient, not a brawler, not covetous” (1 Tim. 3:3; cf. 3:8). The civil government must not give way to this sin itself (Ex. 18:21). The Bible requires us not to elect officials unless they hate covetousness. We have taken this to mean that we shouldn’t vote for them unless they are steeped in it. Our political parties taken together constitute a Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Money.

Now the fact that even a good civil government is not competent to outlaw greed does not mean that no entity is competent to deal with it. The family and church must deal with it, and civil government must resist temptations to this vice itself.

Better How?

In our text, the word “better” is a rendering of hyperecho. What does lowliness of mind require of us in this? Remember we are trying to build the mind of Christ, which cannot be done out of two-by-fours. We tend to read the English here as requiring us to believe that the other person is better at doing whatever it is we might be comparing, which is obviously crazy. Having run into this superficial roadblock, we dismiss the entire problem from our minds. But this is dangerous. 

The word hyperecho can also be rendered as “to be above, to stand out.” That does not make the other person automatically right, or superior in his abilities. Remember that the one we are imitating in this is the Lord Jesus—when He became a man, He did so because He believed we were “better” (in this sense) than He was. This obviously has to means the sense of “more important, more valued.” Jesus did not die for us because we were better than He was in some moral sense. He died for us because He loved us more than He loved His own life. So the issue is humility and love, and nothing in this requires us to embrace absurdities.

Bearing Burdens

Now our task is to learn how to bear our own burden (providing for our own family, meeting our own responsibilities) at the same time we are careful to bear one another’s burdens (holding to a true fellowship of goods). The early Christians kept their own property (Acts 5:4) and they held all things in common (Acts 4:32-33). Here are a few basic principles as we pursue the mind of Christ, as we long for “great grace to be upon us all.”

Make sure you deal first with desire and envy, which run down the middle of every human heart. Deal with all the big problems there first. And don’t think that thirty seconds reflection or mere intellectual assent is going to do the trick. Mortify envy. Learn to hate it like nothing else.

Secondly, learn how justice fits into grace. Don’t go the other way, trying to fit grace into justice. Grace corrodes when stored in justice. Justices thrives and grows strong in the context of grace. It is better to be taken to the cleaners because you loaned money, expecting nothing back (Luke 6:35) than to have an evil eye, tight fist, and wary heart (Mk. 7:22).

Third, work hard and intelligently, expecting your work to not only provide for your family, but also to be a blessing to any brother who is “competing” for the same customers you are. That’s impossible, you say. Tell it to God, who traffics in impossibilities. Zero-sum thinking is the logic of unbelief—where more for you means less for me. That is not the world in which the kingdom grows. 

Living in a Cut-Throat World

Keeping ourselves free from strife and vainglory seems like an overwhelming task sometimes. What are to do about the outside world, which does not appear to be functioning with this calculus at all? What grasping and ravenous entities are out there? Besides Microsoft, the U.S. Government, assorted televangelists, the Republicrats, the United Nations, the Southern Poverty Law Center, and more? What should we do about all that? First, we must not envy them (Prov. 3:29-32; 23:17-18). Second, we must not imitate them or their ways (Matt. 20:25-26). And third, we should live in our communities such that we teach them a more excellent way (1 Cor. 12:31). As we do this, we are encouraging one another in that same “more excellent way.” That way is the mind of Christ.

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