True and False Righteousness

3:1 Finally, my brothers and sisters,1 rejoice in the Lord! To write this again is no trouble to me, and it is a safeguard for you.

3:2 Beware of the dogs,2 beware of the evil workers, beware of those who mutilate the flesh!3 3:3 For we are the circumcision,4 the ones who worship by the Spirit of God,5 exult in Christ Jesus, and do not rely on human credentials6 3:4—though mine too are significant.7 If someone thinks he has good reasons to put confidence in human credentials,8 I have more: 3:5 I was circumcised on the eighth day, from the people of Israel and the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews. I lived according to the law as a Pharisee.9 3:6 In my zeal for God I persecuted the church. According to the righteousness stipulated in the law I was blameless. 3:7 But these assets I have come to regard as liabilities because of Christ. 3:8 More than that, I now regard all things as liabilities compared to the far greater value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things—indeed, I regard them as dung!10—that I may gain Christ, 3:9 and be found in him, not because I have my own righteousness derived from the law, but because I have the righteousness that comes by way of Christ’s faithfulness11—a righteousness from God that is in fact12 based on Christ’s13 faithfulness.14 3:10 My aim is to know him,15 to experience the power of his resurrection, to share in his sufferings,16 and to be like him in his death, 3:11 and so, somehow,17 to attain to the resurrection from the dead.