Not My Own Righteousness

Please turn to Philippians 3, and we'll look at the first nine verses of this chapter. We'll try to follow the flow of the apostle Paul's logic in this difficult passage, building to verse 9. Verse 9 is the key verse in this section. Here's a quick summary of the section we're going to cover: Nine verses. Paul is giving his testimony as a way of refuting his chief theological adversariessome heretics and false teachers who insisted salvation was not possible for anyone who did not adhere strictly to all the Old Testament ceremonial laws, starting with the rite of circumcision. Paul, of course, was the apostle to the Gentiles, and as he planted churches throughout the Roman empire, most of the people who responded to Paul's preaching were Gentiles. And these false teachers insisted in order to become true Christians, these Gentiles first needed to become Jewish proselytes. They needed to submit to the ritual of circumcision, observe all the Old Testament feasts and dietary laws, and essentially live under the restrictions of the Mosaic Covenant. These false teachers are generally known as the Judaizers, because they believed membership in the church should be limited to Jews. In short, they said the Mosaic Covenant was the door to salvation, rather than Christ alone...

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