But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.
Summary: Paul declares that his entire life before Jesus was a waste. Is that true? The question makes us ponder the timing of Jesus’ birth.
Have you ever worked hard on something, only to get to the end of it and realize it wasn’t really what you wanted or needed to do?
It is like studying extra hard to prep for a test at school, only to find out the night before the test that you have been studying the wrong chapter.
Paul had poured his whole life into becoming a Pharisee. Everything about the Jewish religion was sacred to him. After all, he checked all the boxes. He was a Hebrew, a pureblood of the tribe of Benjamin; he had been circumcised according to the law, he became a Pharisee, and his passion for God demanded that he protect the faith by jailing people who questioned it.
Then he met Jesus.
Everything he had believed in suddenly shattered and fell to the ground.
In a flash of light, his entire world changed. It would never be the same again.
Paul still believed in God, and his passion remained in place. Yet, the logic of the law and all the effort to be righteous according to the law evaporated like water on a hot stove.
Did you ever see the ad on TV where a person is having breakfast and drinks ordinary tomato juice, only to realize that they could have had something better? They slap themselves on the forehead and say, “I could have had a V8®!”
Paul is saying something similar here. He is basically slapping himself on the head and saying, “I could have had Jesus!”
Was all his effort to be righteous really wasted?
That is an interesting question.
Before Jesus, human righteousness was all anyone could hope to attain. Atonement (at-one-ment) with God was a matter of animal sacrifices and following God’s law.
But something happened shortly before Paul was born — Jesus was born.
The Messiah had arrived on earth. The fulfillment of the law was at hand (Matthew 5:17).
Jesus changed everything.
When Jesus was crucified, the law was fulfilled. When he rose from the grave, God’s power was revealed. When Jesus responded to being killed with love, history was flipped on its head.
Had Paul been born a hundred years earlier, his righteousness might have meant something. Now, after Jesus, his righteousness was just “filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6).
Everything is about Jesus.
Application: Make it all about Jesus, because it is.
Food for Thought: If we can’t impress God with our own righteousness, what should we do?
Be impressed with His righteousness, repent and turn to Him. Take the gift of His righteousness for our own based on faith in Christ and the work of the cross.
As Paul is about to write in our passage: I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in a Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith.
Thank you, Rich!
The gift of Jesus’ righteousness is absolutely the best! 🙂
If we can’t impress God with our own righteousness, what should we do?
I reckon the simplest answer to that question is to live in the grace that God provides. We can never impress God with our works, but also we don’t have to perform perfectly in order for the Lord to delight in us. It is our heart that He looks at. Any “works” we do much come from a heart rooted in faith and love, and actions in obedience to Christ. Christ is righteous, and in faith and obedience to Him, He leads us to righteousness through Him.
Romans 6:16-19
16 Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, 18 and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. 19 I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.
Psalm 147:11
11 but the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him,
in those who hope in his steadfast love.
Thank you, Chris!
Nicely said! I like your point about God seeing our “Heart.” So true!
If we can’t impress God with our own righteousness, what should we do?
We are all eternal, spiritual beings created…born…confined within physical bodies for a time foreknown by God.
Isaiah 64:6, But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.
Without God, we live in an allusion, have it all wrong as we seek to elevate ourselves to what? What do we believe we will become? We are self centered beings seeking to feed the desires of these bodies of flesh. We exist in spiritual darkness thinking only we can see. Our priority becomes the accumulation of things of this world, which are in the process of decay. We seek the empty praises of others for our self worth, surrounding ourselves with distractions as we ignore the call of God.
The Son of God, Jesus Christ has given His life on the Cross so all mankind will have an opportunity for eternal life if they will simply, humbly receive His gift for all.
Believe in Jesus, trust in His promises, and receive eternal life, beginning NOW. Begin seeing God all around you and experience His love for all mankind as He leads each of us into LIFE.
Revelation 3:20, Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.
2 Corinthians 5:21, For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
1 John 1:9, If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
Thank you, Ron!
“Believe in Jesus, trust in His promises, and receive eternal life.”
Wow! Very concise and very true!