Philippians 3:8-14 – Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.  Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

I love this section of scripture.  It is the heartbeat of any true Christian.  If you ever wanted to know how you ought to think, feel, and act as a Christian who has been transformed by the gospel, surely this is it.  Change happens in this order:  Knowing, Feeling, Doing.  With your mind you perceived the Gospel.  By grace through the Holy Spirit, you felt the goodness of God in Jesus Christ to trust in Him alone for salvation.  Now you walk as a redeemed creation of God, led by the Spirit by your heart’s affections for Him, to obey Him, and live make His glory manifestly known.

I want you to see and feel the worth of Christ from this passage.  I want you to feel the weight of affection for Christ Jesus that was driving Paul to write this to the Church at Philippi, pleading with them.  Let’s step away for a moment to ask a question.  How captivating must Jesus be?  How glorious must He be, that literally everything that Paul had previously valued in life was seen not just as “less appealing” but as totally worthless garbage?  Do you feel that way about Jesus?

Would you eagerly seek out suffering if it brought you closer to Jesus?  Would you walk in His ways, even to your own death, joyfully secure in knowing your treasure in Christ in Heaven infinitely surpassed life in worth?  Not all of us will be called to be martyrs for Christ, but every one of us should strive to know Christ in this way.  To see and savor the unsurpassed worth of God in Christ Jesus so that we lose our lives, at least our own will for them.  We should have hearts that so delight in knowing Christ Jesus as Lord and Savior, that we eagerly discipline ourselves to lead lives that would manifest His worth to others, and share the hope we have in the gospel.

All this is from the gospel.  That we should make Christ our own, because He has made us His own.  It’s so important that you see the order in that.  We do not earn Christ, He has accepted us where we are, and made us His own through giving us hearts to believe the gospel.  Knowing the love of God is amazing.  The depth of love to know Christ died for us, even when we were sinners, to reconcile a hopeless people to a holy God.  This perfect life of sacrifice is credited to us.  Our righteousness and therefore our hope for salvation doesn’t rest on our laurels, but on the sufficiency of Him who died that we would live.

For some, my appeal is for you to press these truths beyond intellectualism into your heart.  For others I say this as a reminder and exhortation continue to be led by the love of Christ.  None of us should ever feel that we have “arrived” as Christians, because we’re not home yet.  I fall short, we all fall short, that is why Jesus came to die.  Do not lose heart, however, but as a brother in Christ, let me encourage you not to look behind, but continually look forward to Christ, who is our hope.  There will be a day where the anticipation of knowing Christ fully will be realized.  On that day, everything else will fall away, and joy in Him will be ours fully.

Philippians 3:20-21 – But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.

Grace and Peace,
Adam