Philippians 3:9 9and I may be found in him, not having my righteousness from the law but through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God by faith,
Verse 9 continues the thought of the closing of verse 8 with another verb in the purpose clause (hina). Paul expresses more of his life’s purpose and focus in this verse. He found the secret to life and preached this good news to whomever he could. Simply stated, the reason we have been created is to be found in Christ. If we find ourselves in any other place, we will be lost and not experiencing all the love, joy, and peace God has planned for us. The world offers these but can never deliver on its promise. We can find the fullness of God’s grace when we turn to Christ in faith. The verb found brings to mind the opposite of lost. Paul has already shown what he lost. When the lost and found are lined up, there is no comparison. The greatest achievements Paul could muster in this life are only garbage compared to being in Christ.
The only way Paul could be found in Christ is to give up his own efforts at being righteous. Righteousness (dikaiosynēn) has two general senses to it. We often think of it in its moral sense of living righteously by obeying the law. This is what Paul attempted to do in his former life as a Pharisee, but he found this to be futile. He tried to my this his own by assuming his special position and privilege would be adequate to be pleasing to God. He thought that by obeying God’s laws, this would be adequate. The problem, however, was must deeper than outside actions or ceremonies like circumcision. This was really a heart issue.
Since this was a matter of the heart, there needed to be a different view on righteousness. This sense of righteousness refers to a right standing and relationship with God. It is a restoration of what was lost because of sin. It bring reconciliation between God and humanity. This new relationship cannot come by human effort because of the problem of sin. This is one of Paul’s major arguments in Romans. There needs to be a solution outside of the human condition. That is why Jesus Christ came. Through trusting in what Christ’s atoning sacrifice (Romans 6:24-26) has done, we receive God’s gracious forgiveness. Our hearts of stone are replaced with hearts of flesh. God offers the gift of righteousness to everyone, but it requires faith to receive it. Grace stands behind Paul’s ideas in these verses.
The result is new creation. The moral aspect of righteousness begins to be experienced because the heart, representing the inner person, has been cleansed, forgiven, and restored to God’s holy purposes. From the changed inner person comes a new way of living. Paul just went about it all in the wrong way before he met Christ. This is same problem the opponents in Philippi and other places had and why Paul wrote many of his letters. He wants to correct this type of preaching because it ends up being out of selfish ambition (1:17).
To work out our salvation is to locate ourselves in Christ, not in the things we do or think we need to do. When he is in control, he will guide us down the right paths as our Good Shepherd. We need to have total trust that the Holy Spirit will lead us to the right types of behaviors that will be consistent with our knowledge of Christ. A new type of circumcision must take place in the heart and not the flesh. As Deuteronomy 30:6 says, “The Lord your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, so that you may love him with all your heart and with all your soul, and live.” This is the work of the Holy Spirit. Paul wrote to the Colossians in 2:11-12, “In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not done by human hands by the removal of the body of flesh with the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead.”
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