The Surpassing Value of Knowing Jesus (Philippians 3:9-11)

Is Jesus you Pleasure and Treasure?

Where your pleasure is, there is your treasure.

Where your treasure is, there is your heart.

Where your heart is, there is your happiness.

Augustine of Hippo

Philippians 3:7–8 ESV

7 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 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

When I read Philippians, I am convinced that Paul took great pleasure in serving Jesus. That is because Jesus was Paul’s treasure. Paul’s heart treasured Jesus and therefore, even in a Roman prison, Paul found happiness. To Paul, Jesus was the treasured hidden in the field that he sold everything to gain it. Jesus is the pearl of Great price. In Paul’s theology, there is nothing more desirable on this earth, even in eternity, than Jesus.

The Surpassing Value of Christ’s Justification (Phil 3:9)

Philippians 3:9 says, “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.”

At the heart of this verse is the doctrine of justification. And beloved, justification is not a religious word to gloss over—it is the difference between heaven and hell.

Justification is a courtroom term. It means to be declared righteous, to be acquitted. As Moses writes, “acquitting the innocent and condemning the guilty” (Deuteronomy 25:1). God is the Judge of all the earth, and He judges according to His perfect law. That means this: to stand justified before Him, you must be perfectly righteous. Not mostly righteous. Not better than your neighbor. Perfect.

And here is our problem—our fallen condition. We are not righteous.

We have not kept His law. We have not loved Him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. We have not loved our neighbor as ourselves. And because of that, we do not walk into God’s courtroom as innocent men and women—we walk in as guilty sinners awaiting a verdict.

Now, here is where Paul’s story becomes our story.

In verses 3 through 6, Paul stacked up his religious resume. Heritage. Zeal. Morality. Discipline. If anyone had reason to trust in their own righteousness, it was Paul. But then something happened that shattered his confidence forever—he met the risen Christ.

On the road to Damascus, Paul did not merely hear about Jesus—he encountered Him. The crucified Christ was no longer in the grave. He was alive, radiant in glory. And in that moment, Paul saw something he had never seen before—the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ.

And when he saw Christ clearly, he finally saw himself accurately.

All his achievements, all his religious efforts, all his law-keeping—he says in verses 7 and 8—it is loss. It is rubbish. It is dung compared to Christ.

Why?

Because standing next to the risen, perfect, law-keeping Son of God, Paul realized his righteousness was not righteousness at all. It was filthy. It could not justify him. It could not save him. It could not withstand the judgment of a holy God.

And so Paul makes the greatest exchange a sinner can ever make.

He says, I do not want a righteousness of my own. I want His.

That is justification. God takes the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ—the One who lived without sin, who fulfilled the law completely, who died in the place of sinners—and He credits that righteousness to all who trust in Him.

And how do we know that righteousness is sufficient?

Because on the third day, God raised Him from the dead.

The resurrection is the Father’s declaration that the work of Christ is finished, accepted, and sufficient to justify sinners. The empty tomb is heaven’s verdict: “Paid in full.”

As Paul says in Romans, “He was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.”

So when you trust in Christ, you are not hoping God might forgive you—you are standing in a righteousness that has already been vindicated by the resurrection.

Now listen carefully—this cuts against everything in our hearts.

Because we still want to bring something to the table, don’t we? We want to contribute. We want to say, “Surely God will accept me because of this… because I tried… because I improved… because I did better.”

But the gospel says no.

As J. I. Packer said, justification is God’s act of declaring guilty sinners righteous—not because of their works, but because of Christ’s perfect obedience and blood.

Or as Spurgeon put it so plainly, if you bring your deservings, you will never have it.

And this is where Easter presses in on us.

You cannot stand before a risen Christ with a self-made righteousness.

If Christ walked out of the grave in perfect glory, then your righteousness must be just as perfect to stand before Him. And it is not.

So what must you do?

You must do what Paul did. You must abandon your righteousness and be found in Him.

And when that happens, everything changes.

When Satan tempts you to despair and reminds you of your sin, you do not look inward—you look upward. You see the risen Lamb, your perfect righteousness. The One who died for your sin and now lives to secure your standing before God.

And because He lives, your justification stands.

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Do you see the surpassing value of Christ’s justification?

Because Jesus lives, you can stand before a holy God uncondemned.

Because Jesus lives, your sin has been fully paid.

Because Jesus lives, His righteousness is yours.

And because Jesus lives, you can draw near to the Father—not as a criminal awaiting judgment, but as a child welcomed home.

So treasure Him.

Do not cling to your works. Do not trust your efforts. Do not rest in your morality.

Be found in Him.

Because the risen Christ is your only righteousness—and He is more than enough.

The Surpassing Value of Christ’s Sanctification (Phil 3:10)

Philippians 3:10 ESV

10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death,

To know Jesus is to know him personally, as your Savior and Lord. It is not only to be justified by Him but to be changed by Him.

William Evans explains,

In justification we are declared righteous, that in sanctification we may become righteous. Justification is what God does for us, while sanctification is what God does in us. Justification puts us into a right relationship to God, while sanctification exhibits the fruit of that relationship.

—William Evans

When Paul was a Pharisee, he did his best to reform his life by the law. He was a Pharisee. He lived his life in strict devotion to the details. This was a life he chose, by the way. He was zealous for the temple and the nation of Israel, and he surrendered himself to the strictest teaching of the Law, being a student of Gamaliel. Paul testifies in

Acts 22:3 ESV

3 “I am a Jew, born in Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up in this city, educated at the feet of Gamaliel according to the strict manner of the law of our fathers, being zealous for God as all of you are this day.

So, Paul tried to use the law to sanctify his life, or in other words, Paul tried to use the law to be holy. Somewhere in his thinking, Paul thought that holiness was achieved from the outside in. If he could reform his life, he could be sanctified before God.

Religion is really good at reforming a broken life. If you are a liar and you begin to obey the commandment, thou shalt not lie, you become an honest person. If you are a murderer at heart, and you obey the commandment to not murder, you become a peaceful person. If you are an adulterer at heart and you choose to obey the commandment to not commit adultery, you become a faithful person, even outwardly pure person. If you are a drunkard or drug addict and you choose to practice temperance, sobriety brings better living and more flourishing in this life. Religion can bring a reformation to your life, but it cannot bring transformation. God honoring, Spirit-empowered, faith pleasing sanctification that transform the sinner into saint cannot happen by the merits of morality. The Puritan George Swinnock explains,

Morality and Christianity differ especially. The moralist works from nature, a little refined by study or education; the Christian from nature, thoroughly renewed by the Holy Ghost. Where this spring is wanting, no motion can be true. Be the fruit never so fair to the eye, if the root whence it grows be not good, it will be unpleasant and distasteful.

George Swinnock

What does he mean? He means that just as a tree might look good on the outside, it could be rotten on the inside, so a moral life could look alive and good on the outside, but be corrupt and dead in sin on the inside. There lies Paul’s problem. He was what Jesus called a whitewashed tomb, that outwardly appeared beautiful, but within was full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanliness (Matthew 23:27).

When Paul came to Christ he not only needed Jesus’ justification, he needed Jesus’ sanctification.

Paul says in verse 10, that he wanted to know the “power of Christ’s resurrection” and to “share in his sufferings.”

To experience the power of Christ’s resurrection is to experience the power that became Christ’s at his resurrection. When Jesus was raised from the dead, he became Lord, the Savior of the world. He conquered death and sin. Paul wanted to know and experience the power of the resurrected Christ at work in his life. The power of Christ’ resurrection destroys the power of sin in your life. It is the power to give new life and enable you, believer to live the new life in Christ. Its the power of Christ sanctification, the inward work of the Holy Spirit to conform you, transform you, into the image of the Son.

Paul alludes to the transformation when he says, “and fellowship with his sufferings, and become like him in his death.” (Phil 3:10) To share in Jesus’ sufferings is to experience the dying of yourself in order to live in Christ. To be conformed to his death is to take up your cross and follow him. You die to yourself so that you can express to the world a joyful love for Jesus through obedience to Jesus. You strive to put your sinful nature to death so you can live in your new nature that honors Christ. This process is called sanctification, and its progressive-happens over time. God uses His Spirit and His word to sanctify you, to mature your holiness as a testimony to His work inside of you. Sanctification does not happen from the outside in. God honoring, Spirit-empowered, faith pleasing sanctification happens from the inside to out.

When you are justified before God, God gives you the Spirit of Christ to live inside of you, to testify of Jesus (John 16:12-15), and convict the world of sin (John 16:4-11). His Spirit reveals Jesus to you and works to conform you into the image of His Son. This is God’s grace to justify you and sanctify you. The Puritan Richard Sibbes beautifully notes,

Grace gives a Christian his form and being, his work and his working, for all working is from the inward being and form of things. By grace we are what we are in justification, and work what we work in sanctification.

Richard Sibbes

Sanctification is a means of Jesus grace in your life. He transforms your brokenness into something God sees as beautiful and celebrates. jesus takes what the world sees as worthless and disgusting, and He justifies them as righteous and sanctifies them as holy and acceptable before almighty God.

I don’t want to leave you with the impression that your sanctification is a one sided effort. Keven DeYoung wrote a book called Hole in our Gospel.” The premise of the book is that we are not passive in our sanctification. We are called to be holy and we must act holy.

Peter says we are saved

1 Peter 1:2 ESV

2 according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood: May grace and peace be multiplied to you.

Keven DeYoung notes, “Sanctification in this verse has two senses. The Spirit sets us apart in Christ so that we might be cleansed by his blood (definitive sanctification), and he works in us so that we can be obedient to Jesus Christ (progressive sanctification). Through the Spirit we are given a new position and infused with a new power. Or to put it in Pauline language, since we are no longer in the flesh but in the Spirit, by the same Spirit we ought to put to death the deeds of the flesh (Rom. 8:9–13) (DeYoung, Kevin. 2014. The Hole in Our Holiness: Filling the Gap between Gospel Passion and the Pursuit of Godliness. Wheaton, IL: Crossway.)

Deyoung goes no to say that the Spirit not only empowers us to live, but is light to our darkness. The Spirit exposes our sin so we can recognize it and turn away. He illuminates the Word so that we can understand its meaning and grasp its implcations. The Holy Spirit takes away the veil so that we can see the glory of Christ and become what we behold.

“Or to put it another way, the Spirit sanctifies by revealing sin, revealing truth, and revealing glory.”

Kevin DeYoung

Our part is to act in the power, to obey the truth. We are to put to death the deeds of the flesh, not by our own reform or refining of our life, but, through the means the Holy Spirit provides. The Holy Spirit provides the power to fight sin, and the light to recognize sin, recognize truth, and recognize Christ beautiful glory. When you recognize it, you must act on it. You cooperate with the Spirit to progressively sanctify you in this life until you go home to be with the Lord. It is important that you value Jesus’ sanctification.

If we don’t cooperate, the Bible says we close our eyes to sin, or we resist the Holy Spirit (Acts 7:51), or quench Him (1 Thess 5:19), or grieve Him (Eph 4:30). To close your eyes to sin is to prefer the darkness of evil rather than the Spirit’s light (John 3:19-20).

You cannot fellowship with the Father if you are not being sanctified by the Holy Spirit. Jesus compels you to be holy. He empowers you to be holy. He’s given everything of Himself to make you holy. There is no being on earth more committed to your sanctification than Jesus. Treasure Him. Value his sanctification work in your life. Because he sanctifies you, you can remain in God’s presence and fellowship with him.

The Surpassing Value of Christ’s Glorification (Phil 3:11)

Philippians 3:11 ESV

11 that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

Jesus promises every follower,

John 11:25 ESV

25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live,

He also said

John 14:19 ESV

19 Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live.

Jesus promises resurrection to all who believe in Him. Because Paul has been justified by Jesus’s atonement, is bing sanctified by His Spirt, he now looks forward to the day when he will be glorified by the power of Jesus’ resurrection. Because Jesus lives, Paul knew he would live. Because Jesus lives, Christian, you will live. Paul ends this chapter

Philippians 3:20–21 ESV

20 But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 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.

Paul was looking forward to the resurrection and the promise of glorification-when we receive our new bodies that are like Jesus’s body, a body fit for heaven.

We are promised new bodies that will be free from the affects of sin. Our bodies, Paul says, will be transformed to be like Jesus glorious body; referring to his body after his resurrection. What was Jesus’ body like after his resurrection?

Jesus’s resurrected body could be touched, “the disciples took hold of his feet (Matthew 28:9). He appeared on the road to Emmaus as a traveler walking on the road (Luke 24:15-18, 28-29). He took bread and broke it (Luke 24:30) and he ate a piece of fish to clearly demonstrate he was not a spirit. Mary thought he was a gardener (John 21:12-13). He invited Thomas to touch his hands and his side (John 20:27). He prepared breakfast for his disciples (John 21:12–13), and that he explicitly told them, “See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself; handle me, and see; for a spirit has not flesh and bones as you see that I have” (Luke 24:39). Peter said that the disciples “ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead” (Acts 10:41). its a physical body.

His resurrected body was also, however, supernatural. He was able to appear and disappear out of sight (Luke 24:31, 36; John 20:19, 26). He was able to walk through walls. Jesus came and stood among the disciples on two occasions when the doors were “shut” (John 20:19, 26). His glorified body defied our natural earthly laws.

When God raised Jesus from the dead He assured your resurrected body will be in the most part, like Jesus’s body.

Your transformation is a guaranteed renewal. We long for God to clothe us with our new glorified bodies, to restore us to how it was supposed to be like in the Garden of Eden. We long to be transformed into the image of our Savior. Through his life, death, and resurrection, God promises/guarantees we will be transformed.

Christ is God’s treasure, and God’s delight, and the storehouse of all God’s riches. God had that treasure in heaven, but sent it down to earth, and in the babe of Bethlehem. In that Jesus who had not a place to lay His head; in that Jesus as an earthen vessel, there was that heavenly treasure of God. The Jesus that went down into the grave, in that broken earthen vessel, was the treasure of God. He lifted Him up to the glory, and then the Holy Spirit came down to bring that heavenly treasure into the hearts of men. And the treasure in heaven, that God delights in, can be a treasure in your heart, that you can delight in.

Andrew Murray