John Calvin Commentary Philippians 3:9

"and be found in him, not having a righteousness of mine own, [even] that which is of the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith:" — Philippians 3:9 (ASV)

And may find them in him. The verb is in the passive voice, and therefore all others have rendered it, I may be found. They pass over the context, however, in a very indifferent manner, as if it had no peculiar force.

If you read it in the passive voice, an antithesis must be understood: that Paul was lost before he was found in Christ. This is like a rich merchant who is lost, as long as he has his vessel laden with riches; but when they have been thrown overboard, he is found? For here that saying is admirably in point: “I had been lost, if I had not been lost.”

But as the verb εὐρίσκομαι, while it has a passive termination, has an active meaning—to recover what you have voluntarily given up (as Budaeus shows by various examples)—I have not hesitated to differ from the opinion of others.

For, in this way, the meaning will be more complete, and the doctrine more ample—that Paul renounced everything that he had, so that he might recover them in Christ. This corresponds better with the word gain, for it means that it was no trivial or ordinary gain, since Christ contains everything in himself.

And, unquestionably, we lose nothing when we come to Christ naked and stripped of everything, for those things which we previously imagined, on false grounds, that we possessed, we then begin really to acquire. He, accordingly, shows more fully how great the riches of Christ are, because we obtain and find all things in him.

Not having my own righteousness. This is a remarkable passage if anyone desires to have a particular description of the righteousness of faith, and to understand its true nature. For Paul here makes a comparison between two kinds of righteousness. The one he speaks of as belonging to the man, while he calls it at the same time the righteousness of the law; the other, he tells us, is from God, is obtained through faith, and rests upon faith in Christ.

He represents these as so directly opposed to each other that they cannot stand together. Therefore, two things are to be observed here:

1. The righteousness of the law must be given up and renounced, so that you may be righteous through faith.
2. The righteousness of faith comes forth from God and does not belong to the individual.

Regarding both of these, we have a great controversy today with Papists. For on the one hand, they do not allow that the righteousness of faith is altogether from God, but ascribe it partly to man; and, on the other hand, they mix them together, as if the one did not destroy the other.

Therefore, we must carefully examine the several words used by Paul, for every one of them is very emphatic.

He says that believers have no righteousness of their own. Now, it cannot be denied that if there were any righteousness of works, it might with propriety be said to be ours. Therefore, he leaves no room whatever for the righteousness of works. Why he calls it the righteousness of the law, he shows in Romans 10:5; because this is the sentence of the law: He that doeth these things shall live in them. The law, therefore, pronounces the man to be righteous through works.

Nor is there any ground for the cavil of Papists that all this must be restricted to ceremonies. For in the first place, it is a contemptible frivolity to affirm that Paul was righteous only through ceremonies;

and secondly, he in this way draws a contrast between those two kinds of righteousness—the one being of man, the other, from God. He intimates, accordingly, that the one is the reward of works, while the other is a free gift from God.

He thus, in a general way, places man’s merit in opposition to Christ’s grace, for while the law brings works, faith presents man before God as naked, so that he may be clothed with the righteousness of Christ.

When, therefore, he declares that the righteousness of faith is from God, it is not simply because faith is the gift of God, but because God justifies us by his goodness, or because we receive by faith the righteousness which he has conferred upon us.