Philippians 3:7-9 “But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith”, (NASB)
I haven’t gotten deep with you theologically in a while now but today this passage just sort of grabbed me. I couldn’t shake it so we’re just going to dive in and see where we go.
This passage comes from Paul’s letter to the Philippians and in Chapter 3 he gets to this bit of comparison in which he recaps all of his life. He puts all of his accomplishments on the line. Now we should remember that Paul is no derelict back alley bottle in a brown paper bag drunk living day to day begging his way through life contributing nothing. No, this is Paul, the well educated Roman citizen and high ranking Pharisee scholar of scholars among the elite of the Jewish community who was called by Jesus himself to become His own disciple and accomplish incredible work for Christ among the gentiles. Those high points don’t begin to describe the stellar life of service and accomplishment we can attribute to Paul yet he writes something much different here.
Paul says, “But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ”. What? And he says something parallel in verse 8, “…and count them but rubbish…”. Well, I’m not being fair giving you only a taste and picking and choosing here but the point being made by Paul is that all the things he’s accomplished in his life are trash. Okay – let’s also remind ourselves that above all the things I started my list with, Paul wrote under the influence of the Holy Spirit, most of the New Testament! Hardly Trash I’d say. You’d also say that Paul would agree, the New Testament, The Word of God isn’t trash. So, what then is he talking about? He is simply stating that in comparison to Christ in his life, all his deeds are rubbish.
Let’s put this in numerical terms, which by the way will illustrate the point effectively but will still not adequately reflect the true scale. If Paul’s good works were equivalent to my personal net worth it would compare as being in Christ does to the national debt. There is no comparison – they can’t be compared on the same scale. That’s Paul’s point – in comparison to Christ, you might as well count all his good works and everything he’s done of value as loss. There’s that much of a superiority to be found in Christ.
Now don’t miss the final and most important thought. For all of Paul’s good works which we have discussed, significant good works we must agree, in spite of him characterizing them as rubbish they were indeed good works. They earned him nothing towards his position in Christ. His position in Christ as he points out came by faith; “Not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith.”
That’s how it is for us. We are called into a relationship with Christ to which nothing can compare. It is superior to anything we can own or accomplish and it is nothing that we can earn. The relationship we are called to in Christ is by grace through faith alone. It’s value is without comparison. AMEN!
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