-Nobody who aspires to be right with God and truly follow Christ ever has any ground for boasting about anything they have done or which is true about them as providing them with right standing with God. It is tantamount to trying to jump across the Grand Canyon. Nobody can do it (certainly not without some kind of outside assistance). Some olympic long-jumpers may jump further than the rest of us, but even they would fall short. Needless to say, there wouldn't be anybody boasting at the bottom about how far they may have gotten. Similarly when it comes to reaching God, nobody can even get close on their own (Romans 3.23), so there is no boasting about how good we are in a religious sense. Paul states that he would have far more reason to do so if anyone did. He’s already told us that nobody who follows Christ puts any stock in anything they have done or who they might be. But to exaggerate his point, he proceeds to list the things he had done and had going for him as part of his impeccable spiritual resumé. Anyone who might be tempted to trust in their deeds or identity will need to conclude that since even Paul’s great resumé didn’t gain him any connection or favor with God, theirs won’t ever merit them anything either.
-Paul’s spiritual pedigree is indeed impressive. He belonged not only to God’s chosen people by birth and covenant, but he was from one of the two more reputable tribes (the other being Judah - these two southern tribes alone had remained loyal to the kingly line of David after the reign of Solomon - cf 1Kings 12.21, 2Chronicles 15.8-9, 2Chronicles 25.5, 2Chronicles 31.1). The other ten northern tribes additionally had been conquered by the Assyrians who dispersed them and forced them to intermarry with other peoples (thus contaminating their bloodlines), whereas Judah and Benjamin had survived their later subjegation to the Babylonians with their bloodlines largely intact and untainted (cf Ezekiel 1.5, Ezekiel 4.1, Nehemiah 11.4).
-He was also a Pharisee, so he belonged to what was arguably the superior sect of those who in that day strictly observed and enforced the religious regulations of the jewish people. Paul in fact laid claim to being an exemplary Pharisee (Acts 22.3, Acts 26.5, Acts 23.6, Galatians 1.14).
-Not only did Paul have an impressive resumé, but his character was also exemplary. He observed the law of Moses as perfectly as was humanly possible, and he displayed unsurpassed zeal on behalf of his religion. The word is zélos, which gives us our english word zealous, as well as jealous. It means great energy or enthusiasm in pursuit of a cause or an objective. The root idea is to be heated or boiling with regards to something or someone, resulting in significant focus and expenditure of mental and physical effort on behalf of that person or thing. Paul's zeal was perhaps unrivaled - he was so hot spiritually that he was pursuing those he thought were enemies of God in order to put them in prison (Acts 8.3, Acts 22.4-5, Acts 26.9-11). God, in fact, is a zealous, jealous God (Isaiah 9.7, Exodus 20.5, Deuteronomy 4.24, Ezekiel 39.25) and He greatly desires this quality in His people, albeit directed towards Him (cf Numbers 25.11, Revelation 3.19, John 2.17, Titus 2.14). HOW WOULD YOU RATE YOUR SPIRITUAL TEMPERATURE? HOW HOT ARE YOU FOR GOD AND FOR THE THINGS OF GOD? WHAT ARE YOU PURSUING FOR JESUS’ SAKE?
-No need to be 'saved' - the Apostle Paul as Saul would have seen no need for a savior. He could 'save' himself. He thought that based on his own works according to the law of Moses that he was alright, all-right, in perfectly good standing with God. So his life-changing encounter on the road to Damascus was with the person of Jesus. Jesus arrested him, quite literally stopped him in his tracks. Saul came face to face with Messiah, One Who had suffered and died for him and Who now reigned on high as Lord and King. Saul’s feeble fleshy attempts at making himself right with a holy God dissolved in an instant, and though he was now blinded, he saw clearly - for the first time - that indeed all his best efforts to make himself right with God and clean in His sight were nothing more that filthy rags... (Isaiah 64.6)(akin to used tampons, to be precise, cf Leviticus 15.19-24, Ezekiel 36.17).
-In the end, there is nothing we can do in the flesh that can commend us to God or make us right with Him, nothing whatsoever we can do to earn His acceptance or His love. These are free gifts of grace. Showing up at the church or home group, reading the Bible and praying, rituals like baptism and communion, giving away my money and my time - all of these are good things to do, but they do nothing to make me right with God or to make God love me any more than He already does. If you or I think that somehow God might be more inclined to love me or accept me because of something we have done, then we are putting confidence in our flesh as opposed to Jesus. This is the true essence of all religion - man trying to work his way back towards God, vainly striving to earn right standing with his Maker. But the only ground I can stand on in the presence of a holy, holy God is that which is covered with the blood of His Son. It is all about Jesus. And this is what sets Christianity apart from all other religions.
-No doubt there is some strategic insight for Christ-followers to glean here as to how to approach the work of evangelism. We need to point people not to a creed or a building or a program but rather to a Person. We need to introduce them to Jesus. They need to trust in Him, and He will make them right with God. And the better we know Him, the better we are able to help others get to know Him.
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