Truth #189 - Our gains in righteousness are a loss; His righteousness for us is gain! Phillipians 3-4

Philippians 3:7-11
But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order 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 comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

Truth:  Our gains in righteousness are a loss; His righteousness for us is gain!

When we attempt to take our achievements and accumulated accomplishments to become the righteousness we need to please God, we lose!!   Anything that is a gain, for us, is a loss and rubbish.  That gain is a hinderance our being found in Christ.   The only way we can find Christ's righteousness is the righteousness that comes by faith in what Christ has done.  We attempt to live our lives and make our own righteousness.  Paul is telling us that anything we attempt to gain for our own righteousness is counted as a loss toward real righteousness.   We are not taught that.   We are programed that we gain achieve righteousness.  Some faith-based denominations even teach that we are to work to achieve a righteousness that gives us favor with God.  In the above passage Paul is telling us that we can't do anything by way of work that warrants God's unmerited favor.  The reason it is called "unmerited favor" is that it is "unmerited."  Paul, only through faith, wants to know the power in Christ's righteousness.  Faith in Christ is the avenue that we can achieve the sharing of His suffering and the power of His resurrection.   We not only can't achieve God's unmerited favor through our own achievements, we can't experience the power of Christ in our lives through our own work.   The power of His resurrection and the sharing in His sufferings can only happen through faith.   It is through this faith in Christ that we can "know" His power and share in His sufferings.  We are not programmed to want to partake in "sufferings."  Everything in our body wants us to avoid suffering.   Yet, through faith in Christ's work, that is what happens.   Faith in Christ allows us to partake in His suffering AND the power of His resurrection.