“…I could have confidence in my own effort if anyone could. Indeed, if others have reason for confidence in their own efforts, I have even more! I was circumcised when I was eight days old. I am a pure-blooded citizen of Israel and a member of the tribe of Benjamin—a real Hebrew if there ever was one! I was a member of the Pharisees, who demand the strictest obedience to the Jewish law. I was so zealous that I harshly persecuted the church. And as for righteousness, I obeyed the law without fault.”

‭‭Philippians‬ ‭3‬:‭4‬-‭6‬ ‭NLT‬‬

What a self-righteous bigot Paul was… in his own estimation! Yes, from all his external qualifications, he has every right to be confident about his standing before God. After all, didn’t he fulfil every requirement laid down in the Old Covenant?

He was a true Hebrew. According to him, he was not aware of any intrusion into his bloodline. He was of the tribe of Benjamin…Jacob’s second favourite son. He was born right inside the Mosaic covenant, circumcised in strict obedience to the law, and, what’s more, he was a Pharisee by training and persuasion. He could not have been closer to what he considered to be “righteousness” according to his own standard…the one he used to measure himself. 

The cherry on the top, for Paul, was that he did everything “religious”, including persecuting the people who were following this new “way” because they had forsaken Moses for some Galilean peasant. They were sell-outs, traitors, as far as he was concerned…and they had to be stamped out to keep Judaism pure. 

Until that shocking moment outside Damascus, when he saw a light so bright…and heard a voice so terrifying that he fell off his horse…Paul believed that he was “in” and safe inside his religion. 

He was in favour with God, so he thought, but…there was one person he resisted…Jesus…the very Son of God…and that was his greatest downfall. What had he missed? All Paul’s efforts were focused and concentrated on his beliefs and behaviour, but…his heart was full of the one thing that disqualified him…”hot air”, pride…that which God hated and resisted…

The first requirement to enter  God’s kingdom, said Jesus, was to be empty of pride. 

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭5‬:‭3‬ ‭NIV‬‬

“Poor” means “paupers”…those who have nothing inside. “Spirit” means air, breath, wind, or spirit…so, Jesus was saying, “Blessed are those people who are not windy, full of air…ie., full of nothing.”

When we truly have nothing inside, no hot air to inflate us, we have space for the Spirit of God to enter and reclaim what belongs to God. 

“As the Scriptures say, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”

‭‭James‬ ‭4‬:‭6‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Paul refused to bow to the one person who said…

“Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭11‬:‭29‬ ‭NLT‬‬

…and…

“Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.”

‭‭John‬ ‭14‬:‭6‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Yes, Paul had put a great deal of effort into trying to be accepted by God and trying to be vindicated by his own behaviour, his own “goodness” according to the law but…there was one thing he missed and one thing he could not do. He could not make his heart clean. 

This is what religion does. Religion cannot produce the life that comes from being reconciled to, and reunited with the only one who is the source of life. Sin, the expression of that disconnect, is an impenetrable barrier between the soul and God. There is only one who can remove that sin barrier…and He did it by sacrificing Himself as a sin offering on the cross. 

What Paul considered to be his greatest asset was actually his greatest liability…his religion! Only when we come clean with God can He make us clean by the blood of the atoning sacrifice. We must relinquish everything we consider an asset before He can do the one thing we can never do…a heart transplant that replaces our defiled heart with a new heart. 

“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.”

‭‭Ezekiel‬ ‭36‬:‭26‬-‭27‬ ‭NIV‬‬

…and that promise was fulfilled by the cross of Jesus. 

For Paul. It would take a drastic encounter with the one who saw and knew him perfectly on the inside…to transform him from a hate to a lover of Jesus. 

To be continued