6. and I was so zealous that I persecuted the church. As far as a person can be righteous by obeying the commands of the Law, I was without fault.
7. But all those things that I might count as profit I now reckon as loss for Christ's sake.
8. Not only those things; I reckon everything as complete loss for the sake of what is so much more valuable, the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have thrown everything away; I consider it all as mere refuse, so that I may gain Christ
9. and be completely united with him. I no longer have a righteousness of my own, the kind that is gained by obeying the Law. I now have the righteousness that is given through faith in Christ, the righteousness that comes from God and is based on faith.
10. All I want is to know Christ and to experience the power of his resurrection, to share in his sufferings and become like him in his death,
11. in the hope that I myself will be raised from death to life.
12. I do not claim that I have already succeeded or have already become perfect. I keep striving to win the prize for which Christ Jesus has already won me to himself.
13. Of course, my brothers and sisters, I really do not think that I have already won it; the one thing I do, however, is to forget what is behind me and do my best to reach what is ahead.
14. So I run straight towards the goal in order to win the prize, which is God's call through Christ Jesus to the life above.