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The greatest accomplishment we have in life is the one we didn’t even do ourselves, but that which Christ has done for us.

When I was in the third grade, my teacher would use a marble jar party to manage the classroom and promote good behavior. For every good deed or rule obeyed a marble would be added to the jar, any disobedience and a marble would be taken out. The joy would come when, after a few months, we would have a full jar of marbles and enjoy a pizza party. For most people, their hope to ever please God (if they believe in a god) is to try to have more good works and deeds in the jar than bad things. The thinking is that as long as I do more good than bad, I’m a good person and worthy of God’s love.

The apostle Paul shows us in Philippians 3 that the gospel works in the other direction. If there was anyone who could boast of all their “religious” deeds and works, it was him. And yet, Paul says in that passage that all his religious pedigree and resume are nothing but rubbish. Paul did not rely on having an active religious life or being a good person to know that he was righteous in God’s eyes. He knew that being declared righteous only came by faith in Christ’s righteousness. Paul didn’t have to prove himself to God or to others because he knew that through faith in Jesus Christ he had already been declared righteous before God.

The world continually offers us different ways to establish our worth through what we accomplish, possess, or become. And yet the gospel says we can rest; we can trust in what Jesus accomplished for us on the cross. Christians know that Jesus stood in our place by living the righteous life we never could and taking the punishment for our sin. The joy of this truth means knowing that the greatest accomplishment we have in life is the one we didn’t even do ourselves, but that which Christ has done for us. When the world continues to tell us to prove ourselves through our hard work, intellect, looks, or anything else, the gospel tells us you’re already accepted in Christ. I want to encourage you to take a moment and read Philippians 3:1-11 and rejoice in Christ’s accomplished work for us. Because Christ is our righteousness, we can stop treating our lives like a resume. We can pursue holiness, obey, and serve not to prove ourselves but because, in Christ, we have already been accepted.