Paul is not speaking, in the above verse, of having a righteousness based on upright conduct. This is not at all what Paul is saying. Paul is not comparing godliness of character with belief in Christ. Paul is comparing gaining righteousness by keeping the Law of Moses with gaining righteousness by faith in Christ. "A righteousness of my own that comes from the law."

And what Paul means by faith in Christ is not only belief in the atonement but a life of renouncing the adamic nature and gaining the knowledge and Life of Christ.

In former days Paul had gained righteousness by keeping the Sabbath, observing the kosher laws of diet, doing no work on the Day of Atonement, and obeying all the other injunctions of the Law of Moses. Now Paul was gaining righteousness by seeking to know and gain Christ. This is not the same thing as saying we believe in Christ and therefore do not have to live a godly life, as is taught today in so many churches. Can you see the very great difference? Our current teaching has destroyed the testimony of the Christian churches. It is a tremendous error in doctrine and practice!

I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, (Philippians 3:10—NIV)

There is natural, adamic life that we have at the present time. Then there is resurrection life, the Life of God, the Life that raised the Lord Jesus from the dead.

These are two different kinds of life by which a person can live.

The natural adamic life is corrupt, prone to sin, subject to weakness and sickness, and is soon to return to the dust from which it came.

Resurrection life is not corrupt, is not prone to sin, is not subject to weakness and sickness, and grows stronger and fuller for eternity. It is the Life of the Lord God of Heaven expressed through Jesus Christ.

These two forms of life dwell in every true Christian. Eternal life has nothing whatever to do with residence in Heaven. Eternal life is the force by which we are to live. God did not give His Son to the world that we might go to Heaven but that we might change from adamic life, which spiritually is dead, to the eternal Life of God in Christ.

Our discipleship is to be a daily pressing forward into eternal life.

Adamic life was never meant to be our true life as children of God. Our present body is a vehicle to humble us and to test us to see if we are willing to obey God's commandments.

Every day eternal death and eternal life struggle for mastery over our personality. Every day we either yield to death or we yield to life. When we yield to death we do not move toward the first resurrection from the dead. We remain as a corrupt adamic creature.

When we yield to life, Christ grows in us. The resurrection grows in us.

To be continued.