The Conversion of Paul

Jim ButlerPhilippians 3:4–8

Paul's pre-conversion résumé in Philippians 3:4–8 reveals that the 'chief of sinners' was not a libertine but a fastidiously religious man — circumcised, a Benjamite, a Pharisee, blameless by the external standard of the Mosaic law, and violently zealous in persecuting the church. This sermon traces that résumé through Acts, Galatians, and 1 Timothy to establish a single point: it is not one's sins but one's trust in one's own righteousness that keeps a sinner from Christ. On the road to Damascus, Paul counted every credential as loss, because acceptance with God is grounded solely in the active and passive obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ received by faith alone.