Philippians 3:9

εὑρεθῶ. “Found,” at any moment of scrutiny, here or hereafter. Lightfoot (on Galatians 2:17, and here) remarks that εὑρίσκειν is very frequent in Aramaized Greek, and has somewhat lost its distinctive meaning. In the N.T. however it is seldom if ever used where that meaning has no point. Such a passage as 2 Peter 3:14 is a parallel here; σπουδάσατε … ἀμώμητοι αὐτῷ εὑρεθῆναι ἐν εἰρήνῃ, where the reference is to the Lord’s Coming.

ἐν αὐτῷ. Here the Christian’s incorporation with his Lord, for acceptance and spiritual life, is full in view. In the Epistles to the Ephesians and Colossians, written from the same chamber as this Epistle, we have this truth fully developed. See further above on Philippians 1:1; Philippians 1:8.

μὴ ἔχων ἐμὴν δικαιοσύνην. “Not having a righteousness of mine own” (R.V.). The ἐμὴν is slightly emphatic by position.

Δικαιοσύνη is a word characteristic, and often of special meaning, in St Paul. In numerous passages (see esp. Romans 3:5-26; Romans 4:3; Romans 4:5-6; Romans 4:9; Romans 4:11; Romans 4:13; 1 Corinthians 1:30; 2 Corinthians 3:10; Galatians 2:21, with context) its leading idea is of satisfactoriness to law, to legal judgment. “A righteousness of mine own” is thus a title to acceptance before God, on my own merits, supposed to satisfy the legal standard. See further, Appendix K.

τὴν ἐκ νόμου. “The (righteousness) which is derived from the law,” on the Pharisaic theory of law and law-keeping, or any theory akin to it. For though he has the Pharisee proper, and the Christian Judaist, first in view, he looks beyond them to the whole principle they represent; this we may surely affirm in the light of the Epistles to the Romans and the Galatians. From the special Mosaic code he rises to the larger fact of the whole Divine preceptive code, taken as a covenant of “righteousness,” of acceptance: “Do this, perfectly, and live; do this, and claim your acceptance.” Against this whole idea he places in its radiant simplicity the idea of “faith”; an acceptance procured for us by the Redeeming Lord, and appropriated by us by the single means of faith, that is to say, acceptance of Him as our all, on the warrant of His promise. Such “faith” unites us to Christ, in the spiritual order; and in that union, by no “fiction” but in fact, we receive His merits for our acceptance, and His power for our life and service. See further, Appendix K.

Here we infer (from the general line of Pauline teaching) that the primary thought is that of an acceptance for Christ’s sake, as against acceptance for any personal merits of the man. Then comes in the spiritual development of the accepted person, as he receives the Christ who has died for him to live in him.

τὴν διὰ πίστεως Χριστοῦ. “That which is through faith in Christ.” For the construction πίστις Χριστοῦ, with Χριστός for object not subject, cp. Mark 11:22, ἔχετε πίστιν θεοῦ: Acts 3:16, ἐπὶ τῇ πίστει τοῦ ὀνόματος αὐτοῦ: Galatians 2:20, ἐν πίστει ζῶ τῇ τοῦ υἱοῦ τοῦ θεοῦ. In such cases the genitive gives the idea of cohesion, nexus; it presents the Object as clasped by πίστις.

Here again, as with νόμος and δικαιοσύνη, St Paul’s writings are the best commentary; see esp. Romans 3:21-28, χωρὶς νόμου δικαιοσύνη … δικ. δὲ Θεοῦ διὰ πίστεως Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ … εἰς τὸ εἶναι αὐτὸν δίκαιον καὶ δικαιοῦντα τὸν ἐκ πίστεως Ἰησοῦ, κτλ. In that passage there comes out, what is only latent here, the thought that the “faith” has reference specially to Christ in His propitiation, and that the blessing which it immediately receives is the justification (acceptance) of the believer. See further Romans 4:5; Romans 8:33-34; Galatians 3:1-14; Galatians 3:21-24; Ephesians 2:8-9. As to the πίστις itself, at least its leading idea is personal trust in a promise, or, better, in a Promiser. Setting aside James 2:14-26, where the argument takes up and uses an inadequate notion of πίστις, namely correct creed (see Lightfoot, Gal., detached notes following ch. iii.), the word constantly conveys in Scripture the thought of personal reliance, trustful acceptance[5]. The essence of such reliance is that it goes forth from self to God, bringing nothing that it may receive all. Thus it has a moral fitness (quite different from deservingness) to be the recipient of Divine gifts. In faith, man forgets himself, to embrace his Redeemer.

[5] Fides est fiducia, Luther. See this admirably developed by J. C. Hare, Victory of Faith, pp. 15–22 (ed. 1847). Below, Appendix K.

τὴν ἐκ θεοῦ δικαιοσύνην. “The righteousness,” the way of acceptance, “which has its origin in God.” Its source is the pure Divine love, flowing out in the line of Divine holiness.

ἐπὶ τῇ πίστει. “On terms of faith.” Cp. Acts 3:16, ἐπὶ τῇ πίστει τοῦ ὀνόματος αὐτοῦ.

On the doctrine of this verse see Appendix K.

K. “THE RIGHTEOUSNESS WHICH IS OF GOD BY FAITH.” (CH. Philippians 3:9)

THE following extract from the Editor’s running Commentary on Romans (Expositor’s Bible), p. 32 (on Romans 1:17), may be appended to the remarks in the notes above:

“This message of power unfolds first, at its foundation, in its front, ‘the Righteousness of God,’ not first His Love, but ‘His Righteousness.’ Seven times elsewhere in the (Roman) Epistle comes this phrase (Romans 3:5; Romans 3:21-23; Romans 3:26; Romans 10:3 twice); rich materials for ascertaining its meaning in the spiritual dialect of St Paul. Out of these passages, Romans 3:26 gives us the key. There ‘the righteousness of God,’ seen as it were in action, ascertained by its effects, is that which secures ‘that He shall be just, and the Justifier of the man who belongs to faith in Jesus.’ It is that which makes possible the mighty paradox that the Holy One, eternally truthful, eternally rightful, infinitely ‘law-abiding’ in His jealousy for that Law which is in fact His Nature expressing itself in precept, nevertheless can and does say to man, in his guilt and forfeit, ‘I, thy Judge, lawfully acquit thee, lawfully accept thee, lawfully embrace thee.’ … Thus it stands practically equivalent to God’s way of justifying the ungodly, His method for liberating His love while He magnifies His law. In effect, not as a translation but as an explanation, God’s Righteousness is God’s Justification.

“Then again we note the emphasis and the repetition here of the thought of faith.… Here, if anywhere, we shall find ample commentary in the (Roman) Epistle. Only let us remember from the first that … we shall see “faith” used in its natural and human sense; we shall find that it means personal reliance.… It is in this sense that our Lord Jesus Christ, in the Gospels, invariably uses the word. For this is its human sense, its sense in the street and the market; and the Lord, the Man of men, uses the dialect of His race. Faith, infinitely wonderful … from some points of view, is the simplest thing in the world from others. That sinners … should be brought so to see their Judge’s heart as to take His word of peace to mean what it says, is miracle. But that they should trust His word, having seen His heart, is nature—illuminated and led by grace, but nature still.… (Faith) is not a faculty for mystical intuitions. It is our taking the Trustworthy at His word.… Hence the overwhelming prominence of faith in the Gospel. It is the correlative of the overwhelming … prominence of Jesus Christ. Christ is all. Faith is man’s acceptance of Him as such. ‘Justification by Faith’ is not acceptance because faith is … a merit … a virtue. It is acceptance because of Jesus Christ, whom man, dropping all other hopes, receives.”

See this last point admirably explained by Hooker, A Disc. of Justification, § 31. And see Julius Hare, The Victory of Faith (1847), p. 21:

“It was with the fullest right that Luther and Melanchthon, when the true idea of Faith and of its power was reasserted at the Reformation, were anxious to urge again and again that faith is trust, that faith signifies trust: fides est fiducia; fides significat fiduciam. This was only to assert that the faith required in the New Testament is a feeling of the same kind with the trust enjoined in the Old Testament; as is proved—to take a single instance—by the passage in the Gospels, where the disciples are frightened by the tempest, while their Master is asleep …, and where … He rebukes them for their want of faith (Matthew 8:26), that is … for their want of confidence in Him.”

The Editor ventures to refer to his Tract, Justifying Righteousness (Seeley, 1885), for a discussion in some detail, with quotations.