In this passage, Paul focuses on the basics of the faith. What are the basics of the Faith? We trust in Christ alone for our salvation. We trust in Christ alone for our hope of heaven. We trust in Christ alone for favor with God. We do not trust in Jesus and something else. That is the temptation we can get into when we get complicated and confused. We start thinking that we are saved by Jesus and something else rather than Jesus alone. Or worse yet, without even realizing it, we start living as though we are saved by Jesus and something else rather than Jesus alone. So we go to the basics.

In v 2, Paul speaks of the judaizers who insisted that people become good observant Jews in order to come to the Messiah. He speaks with strong words against them: dogs, evil doers, mutilators of the flesh. He opposes them so strongly because they tend to reduce the gospel to a list of dos and don’ts. If you are circumcised, you will be approved by God. If you are kosher in your diet, you can be forgiven, etc. The truth is, these sort of religious observances impress men more than God.

In v 4 and following, Paul gives his own religious resume. In the things that these judaizers put such confidence in, Paul was the master. He was more religious than all of them at the time he was the enemy of God. None of those qualifications and human good works would get him to heaven. He knew that his righteousness was not enough to save him. He also knew that the righteousness of Christ was enough to save him. Nothing he could do would add to the righteousness of Christ.

When we become Christians there is a great transfer: all of our sins are transferred to Christ who paid for them by dying on the cross; and Christ’s righteousness is transferred to us so that when God looks at his child he sees the righteousness of Christ. There is nothing else to be added to this to effect our salvation. This is the heart and power of the gospel of grace. The teaching of the judaizers diminished the work of Christ by insisting that we add more to it by our own observances.

Don’t trust in something besides Jesus for your salvation. Don’t trust in something along with Jesus for your salvation. We are saved by grace through faith in Christ alone. We who trust Christ are part of the covenant people of God because we are in Christ. That is why Paul calls us the circumcision. In Colossians Paul talks about a circumcision not made with hands (and by that he means baptism). We do not have to become Jewish and follow all of the kosher ceremonial laws in order to be saved.

A version of this false teaching that Paul battles is still around in the church today. We think that we will be saved by faith in Christ and something else instead of faith in Christ alone. We talk of churches that get legalistic rather than preach the liberating Gospel of Jesus. There is a danger that we might teach or act as though we are saved by Christ and something else. We trust in the other supports to the point that we lose the power of the gospel. Is it good to do good things? Absolutely. Is it good to follow the commands of God? Yes. But unless our heart is open to know Jesus Christ, the savior, then all our efforts will be of no eternal value.

We all get tempted to live our lives as if we are saved by Jesus and something else. Perhaps it is something churchy like regular Church attendance that we think will give us the blessing of God. But perfect attendance pins will not get us into heaven. Perhaps we trust something secular for the good life: Jesus and our financial holdings; Jesus and our popularity; Jesus and our abilities. We need to lean wholly on Jesus.

Do we in the church teach our people (especially our children) in such a way that they think the Christian life is just keeping a list of dos and don’ts? That is not the way to heaven. We are saved by trusting Jesus the Savior alone. It is no trouble for me to say this again. It was no trouble for Paul to write these things again. This is the root of the Gospel. We need to know Jesus and the power of his resurrection in our lives. We trust in Christ alone and not Christ and something else.

Where is your focus? Where is your trust? Is it in something that you are doing or is it in Jesus alone? Paul says that he would lose everything that he might know Jesus. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection in my life. I will even be like him in his suffering so that I, somehow, might attain the resurrection from the dead.