Philippians: A Life in ChristSample

Before human eyes, Paul was the real deal – from the right kind of family, with the right education, meticulous attention to God’s law, and the zeal to back it up in action.

Religiously and morally, he’d done everything right. But when he met Jesus on the Damascus road, he understood that what he needed was a righteousness that wasn’t his own, but comes from God.

“If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless. But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.” (Philippians 3:4-7)

Paul now knows that at the end of his life, when he stands before God and God says, “Why should I accept you?” Paul will hand him his résumé and on it will be one word: “Jesus.”

It is only as we focus on Christ and continually rest in his finished work that we will indeed grow to be the people God has saved us to be. One of the dangers of becoming too familiar with the gospel of grace is that we start to lose sight of just how dependent on Christ we really are.

Does the message of the cross still fill you with as much wonder and thanks as when you first heard it? Or have you started putting your confidence in circumstances, your education, your family, your reputation, your moral decency? Have you started putting your confidence in religious things to make you righteous?