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Introduction
Greeting
Barry Sanders retiring in 1998
He seemed to have it all - an uncanny ability to escape defenses, the power to run between the tackles
He was 1,457 yards shy of breaking Walter Payton’s all time NFL rushing record.
He averaged over 1,500 yards per season
But he left it all behind without explanation
In a recent documentary he admitted that if the Lions had seemed to have a future as a winning franchise he probably would have stayed
He traded in his career - not for something better, but just because
In Paul gives us a view into his life and into what it was like to have it all
He had the benefits of the right birth - circumcised on the eighth day, into the nation of Israel, into the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews
He’d made the right choices as an adult - becoming a Pharisee (the epitome of the Jewish religious system), persecuting the church out of zeal for the righteousness found under the Law, blameless as to that righteousness
And yet he walked away from all of that
Not inexplicably - like Barry Sanders - but for reasons that he says in verse 7
All of those items that Paul had counted as of import to him and his righteous standing before God were actually worthless - impeding his ability to measure up to God’s standards
He counted them all as loss for the sake of Christ
In the encounter on the road to Damascus he encountered the source of true righteousness and his life was forever changed
This week we’re going to see how Paul deepens the explanation of this concept of gain and loss
The slide background that I’ve chosen this week contain images of the Aurora Borealis
This was purposeful because we are going to ascend into the heights of Christian doctrine this week
In a brief three verses Paul is going to give the most concise statement of the Christian life in all of Scripture
Even though these are weighty doctrines, Paul delivers them is such a way that we could almost miss the depth of his teaching
It is eminently practical in explanation and personal in nature
This is the only passage in all of Paul’s letters where he refers to Christ Jesus as “my Lord”
He will call everything rubbish - dung for the sake of knowing Christ
He will give us a picture of justification through Christ
He will give us a picture of sanctification through Christ
Lastly, he will give us a picture of glorification through Christ
With that outline in mind, lets read
Read
Pray
It is all Rubbish
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In this one verse Paul drives a stake deep into the heart of the notions of the carnal Christian and the doctrine of infused righteousness
In verse 7 he says “those things i have counted” - this is the perfect tense of the verb meaning that the action is completed
In verse 7 he says “those things i have counted” - this is the perfect tense of the verb meaning that the action is completed
Anything he had counted as gain prior to that moment in time he had counted as loss
Here in verse 8 he says I count - the same verb translated in the present tense - meaning and ongoing action
Anything that he could do now or ever would do he would continue to consider as a loss - he recognizes that he brings nothing to the table in order to gain his righteousness
all the meritorious works that Paul had counted on to earn God’s favor, and any that he might do in the present or future, are but loss.
All the meritorious works that Paul had counted on to earn God’s favor, and any that he might do in the present or future, are but loss.
This is an attitude that is all too sorely missing in churches today.
We will go forward at altar calls and pray a prayer thinking that one moment in time makes us right
but with no real change in our lifestyle that demonstrates any real effect such as Paul demonstrates here
We approach the Gospel as a ticket to be punched and then think we keep ourselves saved by doing good works or attending church or reading our Bibles
Mind you these are good practices and ones that we should certainly practice
But they cannot save us - only in counting what we would consider our most righteous acts losses and relying solely on the blood of Christ can we be saved
Paul is saying that none of those things ever counted for righteousness and they are never going to count for righteousness
He’s saying that we cannot rely on ourselves - that we have to vigilantly kill our own tendency to revert back to our own efforts for salvation
In Paul discusses the duality of natures that lie within the heart of man after being saved
I think this tendency to rely on our own efforts for our salvation is built in to what he writes in
And again in
After we become Christians our fervent desire is to rely on Christ and serve Him alone
And yet we consistently try to justify ourselves through our own strength and our own actions
And again in Paul says
It is Paul’s perspective that helps him maintain his view of the cross and the power of the God-man who hung on it
He counts all things as loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus “my Lord”
Calls to mind the parables of Jesus found in
:
This knowledge is far more than just an intellectual knowing or assent to the truths of who Christ is.
It speaks of the intimate relationship that a believer can have with our Lord.
Christ says that the very essence of eternal life is to know the one true God and to know Jesus Christ.
Like the characters in both of Christ’s parables Paul would have had to give up everything for the sake of the call of Christ
He likely would have been disowned by his family
The Pharisees (his former colleagues) immediately sought to kill him following his conversion
Acts 9:
He had been severely persecuted throughout his journeys
2 corinthians 11:
He goes on to enumerate other perils
Yet he still considers everything to be loss - even to the extent of calling all things dung so that he might gain Christ.
2 Corinthians 11:24-
This is literally to call all of his own attempts at righteousness putrid, rotting flesh - something to be thrown to the dogs
For Paul the prospect of what he could gain through Christ was worth far more than anything he had experienced through his own efforts.
Though he had felt justified by his own legalistic actions - through Christ he actually would be justified.
Though he thought all of his righteous acts would bring him favor with God and closer to God - through Christ he actually could gain favor and grow closer to God (sanctification).
Though he thought all of his efforts would lead him to glorification - only through Christ could he truly attain the glory of a Christian’s resurrection.
Now Paul will turn his attention to each of these “gains” that could only be found in and through Christ
Justification
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The concept of being found in Him is a distinctly Pauline expression
This is an important concept for modern Christians to grasp.
- the fact that if we’ve been saved we have a new identity that is wrapped up in the person of Christ and the fact that we are His.
We confuse our roles with our identities - allowing the role that we fill to consume our identity.
Too often we confuse our roles with our identities - allowing the role that we fill to consume our identity
If I ever write a book I think it’s going to be on the identity crisis the modern church is facing
We fill roles in the body - mine would be as a husband, a father, a pastor - but all of those will fade when Christ returns
At that time I’ll only be a son of the Living God - my true identity
We need to learn how to move through our roles but live in our identity
Paul revisits the idea that we have no righteousness of our own making by adhering to the requirements of the Law
The Law can only bring the knowledge of sin and condemnation - and any attempts to gain righteousness through adherence to the Law are futile
Righteousness can only be found in one place - through faith in Christ Jesus
“faith,” in its strictest sense, therefore, is not intellectual assent to a series of propositions about Christ but the act of personal trust in and self-surrender to Christ.
Gerald F. Hawthorne, Philippians, vol.
43, Word Biblical Commentary (Dallas: Word, Incorporated, 2004), 195.
“Faith,” in its strictest sense, therefore, is not intellectual assent to a series of propositions about Christ but the act of personal trust in and self-surrender to Christ.
The righteousness Paul is speaking of here is not one based on the faithfulness or loyalty of Christ to the Father in carrying out His plan of redemption
It is a righteousness found in God Himself and given to a person to be appropriated through faith in Christ
This faith does have requirements - in that we now keep the Law and do good works not out of an effort to justify ourselves but out of allegiance and gratitude to the justifier
In this one verse Paul describes the entire doctrine of Justification:
Man is alienated from a relationship with God.
Man cannot do anything to restore this relationship through his own efforts.
God had to take the initiative to restore man’s relationship with Him.
God demonstrates His initiative through the life, death, and resurrection of Christ.
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