“I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ. For God’s way of making us right with himself depends on faith.” Philippians 3:9
How easy it is to fall back into assuming our righteousness depends on us attaining a certain level of righteous behaviour. After all, we want to please God by the way we live. However, what starts as healthy motivation can become a compulsion where we feel obligated to obey a self-imposed regime of spiritual disciplines. Instead of accepting that we have God’s approval because of our faith, we try to impress God by the amount of Bible reading, prayer or service we perform. But God is only impressed by one thing – faith.
“But when the Son of Man returns, how many will he find on the earth who have faith?” (Luke 18:8).
Trusting God without trying to do something to gain his approval is much harder than obeying a set of rules. Our human nature longs to do something it can point to, which would make us worthy of salvation, but the Bible regularly reminds us we’re saved by faith.
Later on in this chapter, Paul writes, “forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead” (3:13). Paul didn’t literally forget his past. Towards the end of his life, he wrote to Timothy and described himself as the worst of sinners (1 Timothy 1:15), but he didn’t allow his past to affect his knowledge of his right standing with God.
It takes faith to believe we’re accepted by God, and our sins no longer affect our standing with him. “God’s way of making us right with himself depends on faith.”
Other posts on this topic here.
