Philippians 3:9

[arapahoepark]

Browsing through commentaries I have two questions:
1. The verse teaches were are united to Christ and subsequently justified, correct? We are found in him thereby receiving his righteousness? Some commentators have taken a Lutheran view that the opposite is the case.

2. What say you to a view that is talking about an 'eschatological' righteousness (taught by BW3) due to the subsequent verses having in view death and the resurrection?

 

[MW]

In Philippians 3 the apostle is speaking from an experiential point of view. This is not justification per se, but a continued application of it and appreciation for it, along with other benefits which flow from being in Christ. "Rejoicing in Christ Jesus" is the theme, not coming to Christ as a sinner. "Pressing on" is the message -- living in the "perfection" or "maturation" of what Christ has done and what the believer has in Christ. It would corrupt the doctrine of justification to make the experiential aspect the essence of justification. The ongoing experience presupposes justification as a completed benefit. Moreover, that complete benefit is increasingly experienced in conjunction with the full benefits which Christ brings to the believer. It would confound justification with those other benefits if the experience described in this chapter were made the essence of justification.

 

[arapahoepark]

So is this verse to be used in systematics for justification and union?

 

[MW]

So is this verse to be used in systematics for justification and union?

I don't see why not.

 

[arapahoepark]

Reading Colin Hansen's Philippians commentary he seems to say union with Christ comes after the gift of righteousness according to this verse.

Having...the righteousness that comes from God opens the way to gain Christ and be found in him and to know him....The gift of righteousness from God includes union with Christ.The way to be included in Christ is by having the righteousness of God.

It teaches the opposite doesn't it? Not the Lutheran view that justification is prior to union with Christ?

 

[MW]

It teaches the opposite doesn't it? Not the Lutheran view that justification is prior to union with Christ?

If the experiential perspective is ignored, and an ordo salutis is read into the passage, then justification will be prior to union with Christ. On this basis, however, "counting all things loss" must come before righteousness. At what point has one sufficiently done that? Such an arrangement would throw the ordo salutis into confusion and make the imputation of righteousness dependent on something within the believer. There are no grounds for one to ignore the obvious fact that the apostle is speaking of an ongoing experience related to the full realisation of the blessings of the New Testament church, which he calls "the perfect."

Romans 1-4 speaks clearly and sufficiently to the doctrine of imputed righteousness, that is, the justification of a sinner. This doctrine should not be compromised by integrating passages which speak from the perspective of believers being already justified. Those passages relate to the ongoing blessing of justification in a believer's experience, not to the foundational act in which a sinner is justified by faith.