The life and work of St. Paul

602 THK LIFE AND WORK OF ST. PAttL.
The words are intensely severe. He implies, " They call ns dogs, but they,
not we, are the veritable dogs ; and we, not they, are the true circumcision.
Their circumcision is but concision a mere mutilation of the flesh. We serve
of God 1
by the Spirit they serve ordinances; we boast in Christ Jesus they
do but trust in the flesh." And why should they put themselves into rivalry
with him ? If the external were anything in which to place confidence, he
could claim it in even a greater degree than any one else. He had been
circumcised when eight days old; he was an Israelite, and of one of the
noblest tribes of Israel, and not a mere Hellenist, but a Hebrew aye, and a
Hebrew of Hebrews; 2 and to pass from hereditary to personal topics of
carnal boasting as regards Law, he was a Pharisee; as regards Judaic
enthusiasm, he had even persecuted the Church as ; regards legal righteousness,
he had proved himself above all reproach. Things like these were at
one time the gains which he reckoned that life had brought him, but now for
Christ's sake he had got to count them as a loss.
"
Aye, and more than that, I even count all things to be a loss for the sake of
the transcendence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whose sake I was
mulcted of all 3
things, and I regard them as refuse flung to 4
dogs, that I may gain
Christ, and may be found in Him, not having any righteousness of mine which is of
Law, but that which is by means of faith in Christ, that which comes of God, which
is based on faith, 5 that I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and
the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if so be I may attain
to the resurrection (I mean not the general resurrection, but the resurrection of
those that are Christ's) from the dead." 6
And yet, as he goes on to warn them though he had all this pregnant
ground for confidence in externalisms, though he had rejected it all for the
sake of Christ as mere foul and worthless rubbish, though his whole trust was
now in Christ's righteousness, and not in his own so far was he even still
from the secure and vaunting confidence of their adversaries, that he did not
at all consider that he had grasped the prize, or had been already perfected :
" But I press forward to see if I may even grasp for which purpose 7 I too was
grasped by Christ. Brothers, I do not reckon myself to have grasped ; but one
thing forgetting the things behind, and leaning eagerly forward for the things
before, I press forward to the goal for the prize of my heavenly calling of God in
Christ Jesus."
He is like one of those eager charioteers of whom his guardsmen so often
9, 70); In German, Beschnittenc, Zerschnittene. "Concision" means circumcision regarded
as a mere mutilation. Cf. Acts vii. 51 ; Rom. ii. 2529 ; Col. ii. 11 ; Ezek.
xliv. 7 ; Deut. x. 16.
1
iii. 3, Xarpevoire?, intr. Luke ii. 37 ; Acts xxvi. 7.
2 iii. 5. A proselyte, son of a proselyte, was called a Oer ben-ger, but Paul was
n n T. (Pirke Abhdth, v.)
3 '
May this refer to some sudden loss of all earthly means of living at his conversion ?
4 Ver. 8,