Religion or Righteousness ?

Paul's Command: REJOICE. (Phil 3:1)

Paul's Concern: FALSE TEACHERS adding to the Gospel. (Phil 3:2)

Paul's Confidence: RIGHTEOUSNESS not Religion. (Phil 3:9)

Paul knew that a right standing before God could not be found within himself or achieved by the religious works that he had performed.

Paul came to understand that salvation came by Grace through faith in Christ's sacrificial death for his sins.

God doesn't want religious rituals he wants a real relationship with individuals and that only comes by faith through in Jesus Christ and His sacrificial death on the cross for our sins.

You can have religion and yet not have a relationship with Jesus. Christ.

When a person recognizes what the Word of God says about Christ dying for their sins and they accept His sacrificial death for them personally, understanding that their good works will never get them to Heaven, then they are born again.

Paul, the incredible missionary, near the end of his life, still has an overwhelming burden to KNOW CHRIST AND THE POWER OF HIS RESURRECTION AND THE FELLOWSHIP OF HIS SUFFERINGS.