THE REFORMED WITNESS HOUR
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prca.orgDear radio friends,
The apostle Paul, in
Philippians 3:8,
is
caught up in a personal confession
that he makes to the Philippian church. We read there: “Yea doubtless, and I count all things but
loss for the excellency of
the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord:
for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but
dung, that I may win Christ.”
This confession
comes as a result of his reflection on his own life prior to his
conversion. Paul was a Hebrew of the
Hebrews, a Pharisee in the strictest sense.
He had a name among the Jews and a title that he bore proudly. So zealous was he to maintain the outward
customs and laws of the Jews that he even persecuted the
After his
conversion on the road to
Therefore, he gives
the personal confession of the verse that we consider today.
We ought not fail to see this personal aspect of this passage. Paul exclaims: “I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of
Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I
have suffered the loss of all things.”
We cannot read this passage without noticing that Paul here is pouring
out the thoughts of his own heart. It is
this personal confession of Paul that is meant to be taken upon our lips as
God’s children.
As we repeat these
words of the apostle, we must be ready to make them our own. We must be ready to make them the course and
the direction of our own lives in this present world. We must confess that we count all things but
loss for the excellency of
the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord.
So we bear in mind the personal aspect of this passage.
Bearing these words
in mind, we will understand what Paul means when he tells us that we must lose
all in order to win Christ.
To understand the
meaning of our confession, we must take careful note of what Paul is doing here
in this verse. Twice in this verse, and
once in the verse prior to it, we find the word “count.” Paul is counting, or taking account. And what is meant by that is not merely that
is Paul considering something. The term
denotes a deliberate and a careful judgment that Paul makes. In other words, Paul means to say that he is
taking two different things and weighing them, one over against the other. He is comparing them. He is carefully scrutinizing the advantages
and disadvantages of both, the strong points as well as the weak points, and
making a deliberate judgment in order to come to a determined conclusion
concerning these two things. He lays
them in the balance, so to speak, in order to find which one of them is of more
value to him.
Furthermore, we
bear in mind also that this counting, this careful weighing and comparing, Paul
performs as a child of God, one in whom Christ has worked by His Spirit. He is one who has been enlightened by the
grace of God. An unbeliever would not
come to the same conclusion that Paul comes to in our text. The comparing he is performing is a spiritual
one that requires a heart and a soul capable of making such a value
judgment. The implication is that not
all men can make the careful counting that Paul does here.
But what is it that
Paul compares? On the one side of the
balance there are the “all things” that Paul judges over against, on the other
side of the balance, the knowledge he has of Christ Jesus the Lord. Obviously the “all things” of our text is
intended to be comprehensive and all-inclusive.
In fact, it includes anything and everything that stands outside of that
knowledge of Christ and of his salvation in Christ.
In other words,
Paul looked, first of all, at everything he had or that he was in this life,
whether that be his honor, his title as a Pharisee, or even his line of descent
in the generations of Israel, or the laws and traditions that were his as a
good Jew. Concerning these, he now makes
a judgment as to their real value when compared to the knowledge that he had been
given of Jesus Christ and his salvation.
We, together with
Paul, make this same deliberate judgment.
How much are all the things of this present life, its fame, its glory,
its prestige, its riches, in comparison to the knowledge that God has given to
us in Christ and our salvation?
But there is even
more yet in this comparison. We find
that to be the case in verse 9 of this chapter.
There Paul writes: “And be found
in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which
is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by
faith.” How much do I depend upon myself
in my own works and righteousness to gain salvation? Is my zeal for righteousness one that I have
in keeping an outward show of piousness, in keeping outward works, and not an
inner godliness of the heart? How much
are all these things worth to me? All
these questions we confront with Paul as we compare them with our knowledge of
Jesus Christ our Lord. These things are
placed on the one side of the balance and weighed over against those things
that are placed on the other side of the balance, which is the knowledge of
Christ.
But what have we
been given to know of Christ? This. In the first
place, that He is Jesus, the One who has accomplished our salvation, the One who, in His very person, is the revelation of Jehovah,
the faithful God of our salvation. This
Jesus saves us from our sins. That is
what His name means. And He does so by
going the way of the cross, paying the price of our sins, taking away our
guilt, and crediting to us His righteousness in the place of our guilt. This name of our Savior speaks to us of the
truth that our Savior has made us partakers of the highest possible good. He has redeemed us from corruption and
restores us to the favor and friendship of God.
He gives us, by means of this, a joy and peace unspeakable, a comfort
that will never be gained through the earthly possessions and a rigorous
keeping of the law. How
wonderful a gift—to be washed in the precious blood of Jesus and to know that
our sins have been forgiven us.
Secondly, the
knowledge that we have of Jesus Christ is found in that name Christ. Christ means that He is the anointed One of
God. He is the One who is anointed as
our Prophet, Priest, and King—a blessed Mediator who performs for us the
complete work of salvation. As our
Prophet, He reveals to our hearts our heavenly Father and makes us to taste and
to see the riches of God’s covenant established with us. As our Priest, He works in us by His Spirit
consecrating us for holy toil in the service of our Lord and renewing us and
cleansing us from all the filth and corruption of sin. And as our King, He alone hung on the cross
and fought the fiercest of battles and emerged as the victorious One. He has conquered sin and death for us and has
given us the victory.
And this Christ, in
the third place, is our Lord. That is
the other knowledge we have of Him. He
is our Lord who has purchased us by His precious blood. He is the One who now rules over all things
and directs them to our full and complete salvation. He is that Lord and Master who rules in our
lives, leading and guiding us to our eternal home.
That is the
knowledge, now, that we have of Jesus Christ our Lord. That knowledge is the knowledge of faith, a knowledge of the heart.
Our Lord and Savior, in all of His fullness and beauty, is not just
someone we examine at arms’ length, but who has no real effect on our
lives. If that were true of Christ, then
our knowledge would not be all that precious to us personally either, would
it? But our knowledge is one by which we
embrace Christ unto ourselves, and cling to Him, and trust in Him in time and
eternity. And we know Christ as our
Lord, as the only source of our salvation. We know that we have salvation in none other
than in Jesus Christ—the salvation that is to us the most precious possession
in the world. How we long to stand in
the presence of God and see Him face to face!
And we know, we believe, that the only way into
the presence of that living God is through the precious Savior.
Do you see the
value that we must find in our Savior?
If we do not know or understand all that He has done for us, and if we
do not fully understand the value of the cross, we will never be able to count
or make proper judgment between Christ and the knowledge of Christ on the one
hand, and all of the other things of this world on the other. We must know Christ spiritually. Then we are ready to make a careful and
deliberate judgment between our knowledge of Him and all other things. And when we do, we will find that this is the
outcome of our counting: I count all
things but dung in comparison to the excellency
of the knowledge of Christ Jesus.
Can you say
that? Can we say that concerning
our possessions? Can we say that about
our position and rank in this world? And
more, can we say that about all the works that we bring forth? They are but dung. They are nothing better than a big pile of
manure. Paul uses a term here that holds
nothing back. All things are but dung, they
are waste, they are refuse, having no value in
themselves whatsoever. All things are
worthless, even detestable. They are
ugly to the eye and they stink. That is
true of all things when they are compared to the knowledge that we have
been given by God’s grace of Christ.
That wonderful knowledge of Christ and salvation is of so great a value
to Paul that he finds it to be excellent.
He finds this knowledge superior, far surpassing anything else that he
knows in this life. It is of such
surpassing worth to him that everything else seems to fade into the
background.
Now, because of the
excellency of this knowledge
of Christ, Paul cares only about one thing:
that he might win Christ. That
was his goal. That was his aim in life: to win Christ. And yet he knew that this winning could come
only by losing, because winning Christ stands opposed to the things of this
world. He could either win Christ and
lose all things, or win all things and lose Christ. That is why he tells us in our text: “For Christ I have suffered the loss of all
things and count them dung, that I may win Christ.”
And when Paul
speaks of winning Christ he does not have in mind that Christ is the great
prize of some contest. Other passages of
Scripture may speak in this way, but not this verse. By this term “win,” Paul speaks of gaining
Christ, or acquiring Christ. Paul speaks
of a desire to gain Christ—that is, his goal in life, his purpose for living,
is to receive or to gain to himself Christ and all the benefits of salvation
that are found in Christ. You see, when
Christ went the way of the cross, He earned all these precious blessings that
come with our salvation. He is the
storehouse, therefore, of all these blessings.
They are of the richest value to the child of God. But in order for those blessings to become
ours, the Spirit of our risen Lord must work in our hearts. And, in order to experience those blessings,
we have to come before God in faith.
Since the knowledge of Christ was excellent to him,
and since all else was dung, surely Paul would reach out after the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ. And, in this way, he willed to win
Christ. In fact, looking upon the things
of this earth—his place, all that he had been given—he is bold to say that he
counts all of these things but loss. He
believes that the things of this world can only bring disrepair and cause
damage to his one true desire, his one true aim or goal. They are damaging, while the knowledge of
Christ is excellent.
And that is true,
too. It is exactly when we win Christ
that we will lose all things. For Him,
for Christ, Paul says, I have suffered the loss of all things. And I have suffered the loss of all things
exactly because I belong to Jesus Christ.
How did Paul lose all things?
Look at who he was. He had a name
in
Paul did not, of
himself, give up his Jewish excellencies, but Christ
made him lose them on that road to
Now, that does not
mean, of course, that we must dispose of all of our possessions or rid
ourselves of the titles that we have in this life. But we certainly must be willing to give them
up for Christ’s sake. Which would we
rather gain? Would we like the riches,
the fame of this world? Or do we prefer
the riches that are in Christ Jesus?
Which is more appealing to you and to me? That is the question that we confront in
connection with this personal confession of the apostle Paul.
Let us not forget
that this is a personal confession that the apostle makes. For you and me to join with him in such a confession
requires that we, even as he, live in faith.
Faith is always necessary in order for us to make such a
confession. With the heart we believe,
and with the mouth we confess. When we
doubt the excellency of the knowledge of Christ or
when, in unbelief, we are really not all that thrilled with the knowledge of
Christ, when our spiritual life is placed on a back burner and the things of
this world take priority for us, if Bible reading and prayer are not worth the
time of day to us, then this confession can hardly be ours. Then the balance, you see, begins to swing in
the wrong direction. Unbelief does not
bring such a confession to Paul’s lips.
And unbelief will not bring it to ours either. On the contrary, it will bring just the
opposite. We will wish to gain all
things and we will count the knowledge of Christ as dung. If you and I begin to place more value on the
things of this world, if you and I begin to place more value on our own works
rather than what Christ has done for us in this life, the balance will reflect
that. If we see the knowledge of Christ
as excellent, over and above everything else in this life, the balance will
reflect that, too.
So we examine our
lives and we ask ourselves, “Can we make the same personal confession that the
apostle Paul makes here?” “Yea,
doubtless,” we say. “Without a doubt I
count all things but loss for the excellency of the
knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord.”
That is our confession.
And we will always count these things but dung, because nothing is more precious to us as children of God than Jesus Christ our Lord. Is that our faith? And in that faith, do we make that confession? Then in that faith you and I have just won Christ.
Let us pray.
Father, we ask of
Thee that Thou wilt work in our hearts by Thy Spirit and grace so that we can
see the riches that are found only in Jesus Christ alone, and that, in finding
those riches, we can say in our own lives that they are of far greater value to
us than anything else in this life, and that we are willing to lose all in
order that we might gain Christ. Make
that the confession of our hearts in order that we might make that the
confession of our lips, too. Bless us
today by Thy Word, for Jesus’ sake, Amen.