Phil 3:7-10 "That I May Gain Christ"

Why?

because the righteousness we receive from Jesus is far greater!

Philippians 3:8 NKJV

8 Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ

notice all the counting going on here

first we saw in verse 7 he counted his self righteousness as loss...

for Christ

now here in verse 8 it gets more detailed:

“count all things loss”

why?

for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ.

There has been a transformation taking place

Jesus has been a source of comfort, and joy

Paul knows Jesus not just intellectually

but relationally

He has experienced

He counts all things loss for this

relationship he has with Jesus.

I can only give you intellectual knowledge of Christ

its only between you and the Lord

that you can know Him by experience.

so he is saying that

all his self righteousness is counted as loss

for knowing Christ

because

to expeiencially knowing Jesus

far surpasses (more excellent) then his own righteousness.

because

The righteousness we receive from Christ is

is much better then trying to go by my own

2 Corinthians 5:21 NKJV

21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

So do we want the righteousness of God in Jesus

or do we want insufficient righteous in self?

not only is God’s righteousness better

but it is a free gift of God in Jesus

my self-righteousness takes hard work, and even then

its not even good enough

thats why the next count we see in this section

in verse 8 - counted (self righteousness) as rubbish

he counts his self righteousness as rubbish

in comparison in to the righteousness received from Christ.

rubbish is actually a nice translation of the word

Paul now saw his self righteousness in comparison

to knowing Christ as garbage

thats why we see Paul say here in verse 8

“I have suffered the loss”

this is an excellent suffering

because what Christ will cost you.

is the loss of everything

every righteous act, every sin.

it is loss

it is rubbish

the loss is: as paul said: I have counted my self righteousness as loss, then I am going on counting them as loss, then I have suffered the loss .... then and count as rubbish (dung, garbage)

but Paul is not sad at all about it

he said that the knowledge of Christ is surpassing

its a loss for Christ

a loss for the the excellence of Knowing Christ

a loss to gain Christ

so Paul at the close of verse 8 says

“count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ”

which brings us to a great point that

its us or its Him.

our next verse explains this better then I can:

Philippians 3:9 NKJV

9 and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith;

My own righteousness could never earn that

not then not now, not ever

We have what we have in God because of Jesus

He did all that was needed for us

we just have faith in Him

look at verse 9 its a loss to be found in Him.