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For we are the circumcision, the ones who serve by the Spirit of God, boast in Christ Jesus, and do not put confidence in the flesh-
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although I once had confidence in the flesh too. If anyone else thinks he has grounds for confidence in the flesh, I have more:
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circumcised the eighth day; of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee;
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as to zeal, persecuting the church; as to the righteousness that is in the law, blameless.
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But everything that was a gain to me, I have considered to be a loss because of Christ.
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More than that, I also consider everything to be a loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. Because of Him I have suffered the loss of all things and consider them filth, so that I may gain Christ
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and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own from the law, but one that is through faith in Christ-the righteousness from God based on faith.
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[My goal] is to know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death,
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assuming that I will somehow reach the resurrection from among the dead.
Reaching Forward to God's Goal
12 Not that I have already reached [the goal] or am already fully mature, but I make every effort to take hold of it because I also have been taken hold of by Christ Jesus.
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Brothers, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead,