Thursday | 15 October 2026
After the apostle Paul was converted and he was born again as a son of God, his perspective on life and on himself changed markedly. The good works, religious heritage and devout profile that he had formerly considered to be gain, were now counted as loss. Php 3:7. He testified that he counted all things as loss for the excellence of knowing Christ ‘and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, [he] may attain to the resurrection from the dead’. Php 3:10‑11.
Paul had been illuminated to see that he could only receive, and live by, Christ’s resurrection life each day as he was joined, by the Spirit, to the fellowship of Christ’s sufferings. These sufferings belonged to the death that Christ died for mankind as an offering for sin. Paul understood that every other pursuit, expression or endorsement was rubbish, in comparison with the treasure of receiving and living by the resurrection life flowing to him from Christ’s immortal headship. Php 3:8. His life and salvation depended upon his daily fellowship in the offering and sufferings of Christ, which was enabled by the Holy Spirit. This is a fundamental implication of baptism for a person who has been born again as a son of God and made a member of Christ’s corporate body.
Paul explained that a person who was baptised into Christ was also circumcised by ‘the circumcision of Christ’. The circumcision of Christ does not refer to physical circumcision. Rather, it belongs to the fellowship of Christ’s sufferings. It specifically refers to the process through which the motives of the flesh, which bring a believer into bondage to the law of sin, are progressively removed from their heart. Col 2:11‑13.
Further Study:
Romans 6
References:
Php 3:7-8
But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed, I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ.
Php 3:10-11
That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.
Col 2:11-13
In Him, you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses.