as to zeal, persecuting the church; as to righteousness in the law, faultless.concerning zeal, persecuting the assembly; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, found blameless.Concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.as touching zeal, persecuting the church; as touching the righteousness which is in the law, found blameless.
3 sermons cite this verse
neither is the one thing orthopraxy. The apostle Paul, as far as the law was concerned, was blameless. He says in Philippians 3.6, as to righteousness under the law, blameless. He kept the commandments, and yet he was utterly lost and continued to be lost until, as Luke describes in Acts 9, 18, that one day the scales fell from his eyes. and correct doctrines and correct moral practices do not a true Christian make. And when the scales finally fell from his eyes, then he came to see the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. That's Philippians 3.8. And then he goes on, he says, for his sake, I have suffered the loss of all things and count them rubbish in order that I may gain Christ. That's the same outlook as Psalm 27. It's the same outlook as Psalm 84. Look, in comparison with knowing Christ, the surpassing value, the surpassing worth of knowing Christ, everything, all things that the world has to offer, they're just like a load of rubbish. It's like a trash in your kitchen trash can in comparison with which knowing Christ Jesus as Lord. …
… Look out for those who mutilate the flesh, for we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God, and we glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh. How much confidence, church? Say it with me. No confidence in the flesh. Do I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also? If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more. 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, as to zeal, a persecutor of the church, as to righteousness under the law, blameless. But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord, for his sake. I have suffered the loss of all things and I count them as rubbish in order that I might gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ. …
So we're in John's gospel this morning, the fourth one, which is so different from the other three that it helps to keep a few things in mind. The first thing is that John was the last to write down what he had seen and heard a long time after those things happened. Children whose parents had brought them to Jesus for a blessing were great-grandparents by then, if they were still alive at all. John had been thinking about who Jesus was and what his life, death, and resurrection meant for a long time. If he had read any of the other Gospels, he did not feel compelled to harmonize with them. He had his own sense of how the story should be told, and he felt freed by the Spirit to tell it in his own way. So that's the second thing. John tells stories that none of the other evangelists does. Without him, no one would ever heard about Jesus turning water into wine, or talking to Nicodemus late in the night, or to the Samaritan woman at the well. …