Philippians 3:8

... That I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of mine own, even that which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith. (Philippians 3:8b-9)

We agree with Monroe who flatly declared that "here is Paul's most concise statement of justification by faith";[18] and there is, therefore, all the more reason why people should take heed to the meaning of it. The undeniable fact is that the English Revised Version (1885), the RSV and most of the so-called modern translations pervert the meaning of this passage by rendering "faith in Christ" instead of "faith of Christ"; and for a justification of the rendition followed here, see under Galatians 2:16, and in the extended note 3 at the end of Galatians 3.

And be found in him ... The great Pauline expression "in Christ," or as here "in him," which is found more than one hundred fifty times in his letters, identifies the place of redemption as being "in the Lord." The New Testament reveals no way of being "in the Lord" except through being baptized "into him"; and, therefore, the conclusion is absolutely mandatory that Paul is addressing these words to people who have been baptized into Christ with the admonition that they strive to be "found in him," either when death overtakes them or the Lord shall come. The teaching of all of the holy New Testament writers agrees perfectly with this admonition. As the apostle John expressed it:

And I heard a voice from heaven saying, Write, Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from henceforth: yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors; for their works follow with them (Revelation 14:13).

Righteousness ... of the law ... That is, of the Law of Moses. The contrast here is not between obeying the ordinances of the gospel of Christ and being saved by "faith alone"; but the contrast is between trusting in the ceremonies of the Law of Moses for salvation as contrasted with believing and obeying the gospel of Christ.

That (righteousness) which is through the faith of Christ ... As Boice said, "The are two kinds of righteousness,"[19] that which comes of men, and that which is achieved by God. The righteousness which saves was not achieved by people, but by Christ; therefore, it is called here the "righteousness of Christ," or the "righteousness of God through the faith of Christ." One who wishes to be saved must become a participant in the righteousness achieved through the faith and perfect obedience of Christ. For five hundred years, the monstrous heresy has prevailed that people achieve that perfect righteousness merely through believing subjectively in Christ, Paul revealed how truly people become sharers in Christ's righteousness. They renounce self, deny themselves, believe in Christ and obey the gospel by being baptized into Christ, thus becoming Christ, in the sense of being "in him" and identified with Christ. The righteousness that saves is not theirs but Christ's; and even in the case of Christ's righteousness, it was not achieved by faith only but by faith and our Saviour's perfect obedience. Thus every man who will be saved shall not be saved as Joe Doakes, but as Jesus Christ. See extensive discussion of this in Galatians and Ephesians but also in my Commentary on Romans, Romans 3:22ff.

The righteousness which is from God by faith ... This clause, with its reference to sinner's faith, is the irrefutable denial that it is sinner's faith mentioned in the preceding clause. The comment of Hendriksen to the effect that it is here merely "repeated for the sake of emphasis"[20] cannot be allowed, because in several other similar passages there is a distinct differentiation between the saving faith and righteousness "of Christ," as distinguished from that of sinners. See under Galatians 3. There can be no doubt that the same distinction is evident here.

By faith ... Even here, the meaning is not the mere subjective faith of sinners; for, as Boice said: "The most common distortion of faith in our day is the attempt to make it subjective."[21] The usual theological jargon of the current era makes faith to be absolutely subjective; but nothing could be farther from the truth. George Howard, as cited earlier in this volume, has effectively proved that in the New Testament Greek, the word for faith almost never has the sense of subjective believing. The true meaning is nearer to our word "fidelity" or "faithfulness," meanings which Paul plainly included in the expression, "the obedience of faith," with which he both began and concluded the Book of Romans.

Faith of Christ ... Although this is translated "faith in Christ" by many versions and translations, it would be just as correct to translate "knowledge of Christ" (Philippians 3:8) and "cross of Christ" (Philippians 3:18) as the knowledge or cross "in Christ" as it is to make "of Christ" read "in Christ." In all these cases, the Greek word for Christ stands without the article; and, as a glance at the Greek New Testament shows, the preferable rendition is "of Christ."[22] The KJV renders this verse "faith of Christ"; and this student is simply unwilling to allow that any of the modern translators is in any manner superior in knowledge of the Greek to the translators of the Authorized Version, nor have their discoveries uncovered anything whatever that justifies perverting these texts by rendering them "faith in Christ." May the discerning student beware.

[18] Robert H. Mounce, op. cit., p. 771.

[19] James Montgomery Boice, op. cit., p. 200.

[20] William Hendriksen, op. cit., p. 166.

[21] James Montgomery Boice, op. cit., p. 208.

[22] Alfred Marshall, The Nestle Greek Text with a Literal English Translation (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 1958), p. 785.