(Romans 3:21–31)

¹ Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. It is no trouble for me to write the same things to you again, and it is a safeguard for you.

² Watch out for those dogs, those workers of evil, those mutilators of the flesh!

³ For it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh—

⁴ though I myself could have such confidence. If anyone else thinks he has grounds for confidence in the flesh, I have more:

⁵ circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin; a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee;

⁶ as to zeal, persecuting the church; as to righteousness in the law, faultless.

⁷ But whatever was gain to me I count as loss for the sake of Christ.

⁸ More than that, I count all things as loss compared to the surpassing excellence of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ

⁹ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ,¹ the righteousness from God on the basis of faith.

1. Or through the faithfulness of Christ

¹⁰ I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to Him in His death,

¹¹ and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.

Pressing on toward the Goal

¹² Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.

¹³ Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead,

¹⁴ I press on toward the goal to win the prize of God’s heavenly calling in Christ Jesus.

¹⁵ All of us who are mature should embrace this point of view. And if you think differently about some issue, God will reveal this to you as well.

¹⁶ Nevertheless, we must live up to what we have already attained.

Citizenship in Heaven

¹⁷ Join one another in following my example, brothers, and carefully observe those who walk according to the pattern we set for you.

¹⁸ For as I have often told you before, and now say again even with tears: Many live as enemies of the cross of Christ.

¹⁹ Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and their glory is in their shame. Their minds are set on earthly things.

²⁰ But our citizenship is in heaven, and we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ,

²¹ who, by the power that enables Him to subject all things to Himself, will transform our lowly bodies to be like His glorious body.