He regarded as trash all the good he had ever done all the things that had impressed people and caused them honor to him as a man of God. Paul had discovered that the only goodness that counts is Christ s goodness. Imagine that instead of your every real or imagined sin you had done something exceedingly noble. Suppose you had committed none of the offences, the memory of which still haunts you, but instead of each you had given everything you own to the poor, witnessed to gangs of thugs who beat you to a pulp for uplifting the name of Jesus, resisted the severest imaginable temptations, frequently devoted 40 days to prayer and fasting, read the Bible from cover to cover 100 times, and so on. You have the righteousness of Christ.
Nothing can add to that.
Christ s perfection is yours by virtue of your union with him. No one can improve perfection. If your past had, in fact, been filled with outstanding acts of devotion, you would be in spiritual danger because of the great temptation to place your faith in your own goodness, rather than in Christ s. They were totally different. One was an outstanding citizen, a man renowned for his lofty moral standards and devotion to God.