Paul's Great Exchange

In Philippians 3, Paul speaks of the loss of his religious credentials. Bridges points out that any confidence in one's own religious attainments in the issue of salvation is not only useless, but down right dangerous.

Paul exchanged his righteousness through keeping the Law for Christ's righteousness that comes by faith. In 2 Corinthians 5:21, God exchanges our sin for Christ's righteousness. We see that our own efforts at righteousness are, at bottom, only sin because they fail to measure up to the perfect righteousness required by God's Law.

Bridges states that he believes that human morality, rather than flagrant sin, is the greatest obstacle to the gospel today.

One thing I struggle with at times and I know many people do is, I tend to have a natural drift toward a performance-based relationship with God. We know we are saved by grace through faith -- not by works. We need to learn and remind ourselves every day that God's favor -- His blessings and answers to prayer 00 comes to us not on the basis of our works, but on the basis of the infinite merit of Jesus Christ.

I pray that we may clearly see that in the unsearchable riches of Christ and in the right standing with God that comes from those riches, we have both the assurance of eternal life and God's favor in this life.