We have described the dangers of trusting in our own so-called righteousness, and adding it to Jesus' perfect, finished work for us. It is either all our works, or all Christ. There is no middle ground permitted in Scripture. We dare not pollute the sacrifice of Jesus, by refusing to completely reject our filthy rags in the place of His robe of righteousness that God clothes us in by faith in Jesus.
Paul describes his own personal repudiation of his considerable works in Philippians 3. He dares the reader to top his own pedigree and his own track record. He was a Pharisee, he was an Hebrew of the Hebrews, he was zealous for the law.
And yet, he overthrows all that for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus! He writes off all his own works as worthless refuse, to be shoveled away onto the trash heap!
Paul's purpose is manifest: that he might completely clear the decks of his own works, and trust only in Christ's. He seeks to embrace only Jesus and only His righteousness.
Paul thirsts for the knowledge of Jesus: the power of His resurrection, that brings new life to poor sinners when law keeping never could.
Paul seeks the fellowship of Christ's suffering, and conformity to His death - by which the law has exhausted its sanction and judgment and power over sin in the body of Jesus, and in Paul's body too, which by faith is joined unto Christ's on the cross in death.
In Romans 3, Paul explains how the death of Jesus and His shed blood has been ordained by God as the satisfaction for our sin, so that God can justly adjudge His people as perfectly righteous by faith in Christ.
And the end is this: that all the glory is God's and none is ours!
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John Pittman Hey was born in 1961 in Jackson, Mississippi, to Godly parents who from the beginning raised him in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. With child-like faith he came to Christ on his fourth birthday at his mother's knee. He received his education at church...
