Philippians 3:6 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Concerning zeal For the law and the Jewish religion, and for all those ritual observances which they so eagerly enforce, I myself was once so earnest, that I persecuted, and that even to imprisonment and death, those who did not observe them. Touching the righteousness which is in the law Which is described and enjoined by the letter of it; that is, with respect to external observances; blameless Quite unexceptionable in my conduct; so that those who knew me most intimately, could not have accused me of any wilful transgression, or of neglecting any of those expiatory rites and sacrifices, which were appointed to be used in case of involuntary errors. “The greatest part of the Jews firmly believed that the righteousness required in the law consisted chiefly in observing its ritual precepts. And therefore, if a person was circumcised, offered the appointed sacrifices, observed the sabbaths, and other festivals enjoined by Moses, made the necessary purifications, in cases of pollution, paid tithes of all he possessed, and abstained from crimes injurious to society; or if he committed any such, was punished for them according to the law, he was, as the apostle expresseth it, with respect to the righteousness which is by law, unblameable. Further, as the ritual services enjoined in the law were not founded in the nature of things, but in the command of God; and as, according to the law, atonement was made for some transgressions by these services, they were, on account of their being done from a regard to the divine will, considered as acts of piety more acceptable to God than even the performance of moral duties. In the third place, as these ritual services were both numerous and burdensome, and recurred so frequently, that they gave almost constant employment to the pious Israelites, the diligent and exact performance of them was thought equivalent to a perfect righteousness, and so meritorious, that it entitled the performer to justification and eternal life. All these erroneous opinions Paul entertained while he continued a Pharisee. But he relinquished them when he became a Christian, as he informs us, immediately.” Macknight.