Lesson for March 22, 2020
The Book of Philippians
Chapter 3:9-11
“And may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith,that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.”
There is no greater demonstration of grace than positional sanctification at salvation through the ministry of God the Holy Spirit. Sanctification is the Greek word “hagiasmos” and means “separation unto God” or “to be set apart to God.” It is the same word used for “saint” and “holy.” Therefore, all believers are saints and all believers are holy. However, sanctification is in three stages for the believer and these stages must always be distinguished in order to accurately interpret the Word of God. The first is positional truth, the second is experiential truth and the third is ultimate truth. Each is a separate and a distinct stage in the life of the believer.
Positional sanctification is our standing before God. God the Holy Spirit placed us into union with Jesus Christ at salvation and we received His righteousness. This was accomplished by the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The baptism of the Holy Spirit is neither seen nor felt. It is a fact stated in the Word of God for us to believe. We must always distinguish between the indwelling, the baptism and the filling of the Holy Spirit. These are all separate and distinct ministries of the Holy Spirit. Once again, none of these ministries is seen or felt. The indwelling is God the Holy Spirit permanently residing in the body of the believer. The baptism of God the Holy Spirit is placing the believer into permanent union with Christ. And the filling of God the Holy Spirit is His control and guidance of a believer, which is temporary, depending on the volition (free-will) of the believer.
God’s own righteousness has been imputed (credited) to our account. (II Corinthians 5:21) This is the only way we can be set apart to God. We have been separated unto God by our faith in Jesus Christ. We have been given at least 40 spiritual assets, which includes being made the righteousness of God. This position in Christ sets up the potential for each believer to fulfill the Christian Way of Life.
Our position in Christ and our “walk” with Christ must always be distinguished in order to avoid confusion and inaccurate interpretation. When the Bible says that we are dead to sin this is positional truth. When the Bible says to walk in the Spirit and you will not fulfill the lust (desire) of the flesh (sin nature) it is not referring to positional truth, but to experiential truth.
The word righteousness is translated from the Greek word “dikaiosune,” which means a principle that would lead one to the correct thought and action based on a standard (God’s integrity or holiness). In other words, righteousness in the New Testament means adjusting to God’s integrity, first in thought then followed by attitude and action. Righteousness is an attribute of God that denotes His perfect character. Originally it was spelled “rightwiseness,” which clearly expresses its meaning.
Righteousness is one half of God’s holiness and justice is the other half. Many times in the Scriptures God’s righteousness and justice are interchangeable because they are so closely associated. Righteousness is the standard or principle of God’s integrity and justice is the function or action of God’s integrity.
Because God is righteous, he must condemn sin wherever it is found. God’s justice carries out that condemnation. And God always does the right thing, whether condemning sin or providing salvation in the Person of Jesus Christ. Justification is the theological term for declaring the believer to be righteous before God. Christ was judged in our place. God’s righteousness was satisfied (propitiated) on the Cross, as His justice carried out the sentence of spiritual death. (Romans 3:26-27)
Jesus Christ is the personification of God’s perfect righteousness and the Gospel reveals this perfect righteousness. Prior to Christ coming to earth, God’s perfect standard of righteousness for Israel was the Law of Moses. Christ, of course, fulfilled the Mosaic Law by keeping it perfectly (the only human being Who ever has). By fulfilling the Mosaic Law, Christ in sinless perfection revealed God’s standard of holiness. Christ is the standard to which the Church Age believers should compare themselves.
When a person believes in Jesus Christ as Savior, God the Holy Spirit imputes God’s own righteousness to that person. The Greek word for impute is “logizomai” and it means “to reckon” or “to take into account.” “Credit to one’s account” is another good rendering of the word from Greek. God’s righteousness is never achieved as a result of human effort liking keeping the Law of Moses and is completely undeserved. God does not credit His righteousness to the believer because he has earned it or because he deserves it. Like eternal life, God’s righteousness is a gift. (Titus 3:5)
It was the perfect humanity of Jesus Christ Who completely satisfied the righteousness of God by means of His substitutionary spiritual death on the Cross. In His humanity, under the control of the Holy Spirit, He was able not to sin and He fulfilled the righteous standard of the Mosaic Law. Christ, a sinless Person, willingly became sin for us, taking our place, being judged in our place. He is now sitting in the place of honor at the right hand of the Father, which signifies that God is satisfied with Christ’s death on our behalf. (II Corinthians 5:21)
Man’s righteous works fall well short of God’s righteousness. Man’s concept of righteousness is relative. For example, one person may think that his sin is not as bad as the next person’s sin. Therefore, he is more righteous (in his opinion). Normally this thinking falls into one of the two trends of the sin nature: self-righteousness or sensual pleasure. Both, of course, are wrong. Mankind is minus the righteousness necessary to enter Heaven and no amount of human effort can produce this righteousness. The Bible declares that “there is none righteous” and that “man’s righteousness is as filthy rags.” (Isaiah 64:6; Romans 3:23) Because of the lack of absolute righteousness, mankind cannot enter Heaven (a holy place) based on their own righteousness. God cannot have eternal fellowship with that which is sinful or falls short of His righteous character. Mankind, therefore, needs God’s righteousness in order to have a relationship with Him and to live forever in the holy place known as Heaven.
That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. To know the power/omnipotence of His resurrection is to have maximum knowledge of doctrine through the constant study and application of Bible doctrine. The more doctrine a believer knows the more he understands the power of Christ’s resurrection—the power that raised Christ from the dead, the power behind the Resurrection. This also means knowing the power of God the Father who raised Christ from the dead. (I Thessalonians 1:10; I Peter 1:2) This also means knowing the power of God the Holy Spirit who raised Christ from the dead. (Romans 8:11; I Peter 3:18) The power of resurrection is only one of many demonstrations of God’s unlimited and infinite power. So, the more doctrine a believer learns, the greater becomes his understanding of God’s power.
I Peter 4:1 says, “Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin.” In order to handle suffering, a believer must exhibit the same mental attitude that Jesus Christ exhibited when He suffered in His humanity. What was His attitude? Peace, joy, stability, single-mindedness, humility and obedience to the plan of God. (Isaiah 26:3-4; Hebrews 12:2; II Timothy 1:7; II Corinthians 13:11; II Corinthians 10:5-6; Philippians 2:5-8) Jesus Christ fully understood the plan for Him. This plan involved intense suffering, both physical, mental and spiritual. Knowing this, He was still willing to die for our sins. (Matthew 26:39)
We are given a command in this verse to arm ourselves with the same mental attitude as Christ had. The Word of God is the mind of Christ and there can be no orientation to suffering apart from Divine Viewpoint Thinking. When you are armed with the mind of Christ, then the suffering that comes your way will not be due to sin in your life. Christ has delivered us from the power of sin over us. Therefore, when we are under the control and power of the Holy Spirit and are thinking divine viewpoint, any suffering that comes our way is undeserved and is for our benefit.
Being conformed to His death is a positional truth based on our union with Jesus Christ. No human being has ever suffered or will ever suffer the way Christ did on the Cross. The spiritual and physical suffering of the Cross were above and beyond anything we will ever experience. So, the only way we could possibly be conformed to His death is based on the baptism of the Holy Spirt placing us into union with Christ at salvation.
In order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead means that Paul wanted to reach (attain to) the objective of ultra-super-grace before he died or before the Rapture of the Church occurred. The Greek word for attain is “exanastasis,” which means to reach or to arrive at. Paul was saying, “that I might cross the goal line as an ultra-super-grace believer at the Rapture.” In life believers and unbelievers are mixed together, but at the Rapture believers are separated from unbelievers. This separation is based upon belief in Jesus Christ.
As believers we have the potential of being conformed to the death of Christ and the potential of being conformed to the resurrection of Christ. Romans 6:4,10-13 in corrected translation, “We are placed in union with Jesus Christ by means of the baptism of God the Holy Spirit, identifying us with His death. And just like Christ was raised from the dead by God the Father, even so we should live our Christian lives as new creations in Christ. For Christ died for sin once, but now He is alive and seated at the right hand of God. In the same manner, we are to count ourselves to be dead unto sin and alive unto God by means of our faith in Jesus Christ. Therefore, because we are in union with Jesus Christ, we are not to let the lust pattern of sin control us. Neither should we allow our sin nature to use our body as an instrument of “unrighteous acts,” but rather allow God the Holy Spirit to control our thoughts, which will produce “righteous acts.” Make your life align with who you really are as royal family of God, which will be in keeping with the fact that you have been made spiritually alive by faith in Jesus Christ.”