But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, 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 is through faith in Christ — the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. I want to know Christ — yes, to know the power of His resurrection and participation in His sufferings, becoming like Him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead. — Philippians 3:7–11
In this powerful passage Paul put on his spiritual accounting hat. He talked about profits and losses and assets and liabilities and account balances and transfers, but they have nothing to do with one’s financial standing and net worth and everything to do with our right standing before God and our self-worth. Paul’s Joy Challenge for us today is all about recalculating what really matters.
In this paragraph, Paul gave us his who’s who biography. He had the right pedigree and went to the right schools and got the right degrees. He graduated top of his class. He outwitted and outworked everyone and had the accolades to prove it. Paul was a big deal. For most of Paul’s life, he saw these things as gains in his ledger of importance and prominence. But then he met Jesus on the road to Damascus and did some serious recalculating on what really mattered in his life.
The things he thought were gains bankrupted him spiritually. No doubt the words of Jesus must have been ringing in his mind:
What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? — Mark 8:36 NKJV
The name of Jesus appears three times in the first two verses of this passage. The person of Jesus and a personal relationship with Jesus were what Paul now considered to be of great value. This was such a radical shift. He had despised Jesus, and now Jesus meant everything to Paul. So, Paul up and walked away from it all cold turkey. He cut his losses and moved on to what really mattered. He put all his investments into a single account: the life of a follower of Jesus.
Notice that Paul used the word consider twice in verse 8. You can’t see this in the English, but in the Greek he wrote the same word in two different tenses. The first time he used this verb, he was saying that on one particular day he settled things in his mind and made his final decision to shift his net worth from his performance to his position in Jesus. The second time he used the word he altered the tense of the verb. This time it meant he was continuously making this decision every day not to depend on himself, who he was, the things he possessed, or what he had accomplished.
He considered the things he valued in the past as “garbage.”
This is a pretty gross word in the Greek language. The transliteration of the word is skubala, and it refers to filth, a half-eaten corpse, excrement, or lumps of manure. I think this can be classified as onomatopoeia, a word that sounds like its meaning. Say it out loud a few times and see if you don’t agree. Paul was once again not mincing words. He was not holding back on how he truly felt.
When Paul referred to the “surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord,” he was careful in his selection of words. In the Greek he had several choices for the word knowing. He could have chosen a word that means “to comprehend mentally.” He could have chosen a word to describe his relationship with Jesus that means “to know by acquaintance.” He could have chosen a word that refers to facts: “Here are the analytics on Jesus.” But he chose a word that means “to know experientially.”1 The knowledge of Christ no doubt involves one’s thoughts and facts, but in its distinctive biblical usage, it may be said to involve primarily one’s heart.2 For Paul, this isn’t a religion, which he had just left, but a relationship. This distinction really mattered to Paul, as it should to us.
In verse 9, Paul declared that he wanted to
be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ — the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith.
He was referring to the time when we all will stand before God and be judged. He didn’t want to be judged on the basis of his own merits but on the merits of Christ. Here we have another accounting metaphor. It’s technically called “imputation” and refers to the charging of one’s account. Here God imputes or puts Christ’s record on my account and puts my record on Christ’s account. When we stand before God, we are given Christ’s record as though it were ours. Christ took our record and was issued the death penalty in our place. Now, that is a demonstration of grace that should increase our joy!
Paul wrapped up his thoughts in verses 10 and 11, reinforcing how much he wanted to know Christ experientially. Specifically, he wanted
to know the power of His resurrection and participation in His suffering, becoming like Him in His death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.
Paul wanted to experience Christ by entering into His suffering and death. This was symbolized spiritually when he was baptized. Going under the water represents our death and the end of our association with Adam, who got us into this mess. Coming out of the water represents our spiritual birth into our new relationship with Jesus, the Second Adam (Romans 6:2–11). When we believe in Jesus and are baptized, the same thing happens to us. In this way, we enter into His suffering and death.
But it doesn’t stop there. Paul also wanted to know the power of Christ’s resurrection and attain to the resurrection from the dead. In Ephesians 1:19–20, Paul told us that the same power that raised Jesus from the dead lives in us.
- When we align our lives with the will of God and yield our lives to the Spirit of God within us, it unleashes the power of God in and through us to do way more than we could do in our own strength.
That should certainly fire up our desire to walk with God and pick up our spirits and increase our joy.
Attaining to the resurrection from the dead carries the idea a step further. When Jesus returns to establish His Kingdom, all of those who have placed their faith in Christ will receive an imperishable, resurrected body like Jesus did three days after His crucifixion. When this happens to us who believe, we will reign with Him on the new earth forever and ever. There is no possible way this truth can do anything but fire us up with hope and joy.
No matter how difficult today seems, like sitting in prison for your faith, it pales in comparison to how our story ends — or rather, begins.
John, who was the first of the disciples to arrive at the empty tomb, wrote in his first letter,
We saw it, we heard it, and now we’re telling you so you can experience it along with us, this experience of communion with the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ. Our motive for writing is simply this: We want you to enjoy this, too. Your joy will double our joy! — 1 John 1:3–4 MSG
Paul’s message to us today is simply this: If we want to increase our joy despite our past, we need to recalculate what really matters. We need to cut our losses in the things we once trusted in and make a shift to a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. As Jim Elliot, a martyred missionary to the Quechua people, said, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep, to gain that which he cannot lose.”3
- John F. Walvoord, Philippians: Triumph in Christ (Chicago: Moody Press, 1971), 86. Walvoord mentions these four Greek words for knowledge: oida, epistomai, suniemi, gnosis.
- Gerald F. Hawthorne, Philippians, Word Biblical Commentary, vol. 43 (Waco, TX: Word Books, 1983), 138.
- Kevin Halloran, "Jim Elliot's Journal Entry with 'He Is No Fool...' Quote," Anchored in Christ, October 28, 2013, https://www .kevinhalloran.net/jim-elliot-quote-he-is-no-fool/.
Excerpted with permission from The Joy Challenge by Randy Frazee, copyright Randy Frazee.
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Your Turn
What matters to you? When all is said and done, what matter most? It’s not your house, car, or money in the bank. It’s not power, fame, or influence. What matters more than the Kingdom of God? ~ Devotionals Daily
