3. For it is we who are the circumcision, we who serve God by his Spirit, who boast in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh –
4. though I myself have reasons for such confidence.If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more:
5. circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee;
6. as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless.
7. But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.
8. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ
9. and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ – the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith.