The Righteousness of Christ
by Brent Gehman
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Key verse:
Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. (Philippians 3:7-8a)
Faith story:
Philippians 3:1-11
Faith focus:
Paul encouraged the Philippians to be happy and content with what they have in the Lord Jesus Christ and his grace. The more we rejoice and are happy in Jesus, the more we will have a desire to serve and obey him. Paul reminds us to be aware of those who are evil and who seek to gain only their own desires of the flesh. He says that if anyone has reason to be confident in the flesh, he does. Being born into a high-class Jewish family, being Hebrew and a member of the tribe of Benjamin, being circumcised just like the Hebrew law said, and being a Pharisee who kept the law blamelessly, Paul thought that if anyone could earn God’s favor, he could. But now Paul has regarded all these things as loss, because the value of knowing Jesus as Lord surpasses them all. He realized that he no longer has selfrighteousness that comes from the law, but righteousness that comes through faith in Christ. Paul states that if we want to know the true power of Christ’s resurrection and the sharing of his suffering, we have to become like Christ in death.
Keywords:
Philippians 3; Brent Gehman; Righteousness; Paul; gain; loss; faith