But whatever former things I had that might have been
gain to me, I have come to consider as one combined loss for Christ’s sake.
Yes, furthermore, I count everything as loss compared to the possession of the
priceless privilege, the overwhelming preciousness, the surpassing worth, and
supreme advantage of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord and of progressively becoming
more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him, of perceiving and recognizing
and understanding Him more fully and clearly. For His sake I have lost
everything and consider it all to be mere rubbish, refuse, dregs, in order that
I may win (gain) Christ the Anointed One.
And that I may actually be found and known as in Him,
not having any self-achieved righteousness that can be called my own, based on
my obedience to the Law’s demands -- ritualistic uprightness and supposed right
standing with God thus acquired -- but possessing that genuine righteousness
which comes through faith in Christ the Anointed One, the truly right standing
with God, which comes from God by saving faith.
For my determined purpose is that I may know Him, that
I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him,
perceiving and recognizing and understanding the wonders of His Person more
strongly and more clearly, and that I may in that same way come to know the
power outflowing from His resurrection which it exerts over believers, and that
I may so share His sufferings as to be continually transformed in spirit into
His likeness, even to His death, in the hope that if possible I may attain to
the spiritual and moral resurrection that lifts me out from among the dead even
while in the body.
Not that I have now attained this ideal, or have
already been made perfect, but I press on to lay hold of, grasp and make my
own, that for which Christ Jesus the Messiah has laid hold of me and made me
His own. I do not consider, brethren, that I have captured and made it my own
yet; but one thing I do… it is my one aspiration: forgetting what lies behind
and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the
supreme and heavenly prize to which God in Christ Jesus is calling us upward.
So let those of us who are spiritually mature and
full-grown have this mind and hold these convictions; and if in any respect you
have a different attitude of mind, God will make that clear to you also. Only
let us hold true to what we have already attained and walk and order our lives
by that.
CONTINUALLY TRANSFORMED
IN SPIRIT
INTO HIS
LIKENESS
(Phil. 3:7-16,
Amplified Bible)
No comments:
Post a Comment