The Surpassing Value of Knowing Christ (Philippians 3:8–11) John MacArthur

Let's open our Bibles to Philippians chapter 3.  I call your attention to our text this morning   which is in verses 8 through 11...Philippians  chapter 3 verses 8 through 11. Here Paul writes:   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 in order   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, that I may know Him and the power of His  resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings   being conformed to His death in order that I  may attain to the resurrection from the dead. That's a very personal passage, by the way.  The word "I" appears a number of times,   the word "my" appears in it as well. He is  speaking very personally from the viewpoint   of a first- person testimony. This, in fact, is  Paul's testimony of what was going on in his heart   at the time of his conversion. But before we look  specifically at it, let me remind you of one of   the greatest statements that ever fell from the  lips of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is recorded for   us in a number of places in the gospels, it was a  significant enough statement that the Holy Spirit   recorded it in several different gospels. But for  us we'll look at Matthew 16 verses 25 and 26. Here  

is a familiar saying of Jesus, listen to it, "For  whoever wishes to save his life shall lose it,   but whoever loses his life for My sake shall  find it, for what will a man be profited if he   gains the whole world and forfeits his soul or  what will a man give in exchange for his soul?" Now Jesus was talking about an exchange. He was  talking about losing something to gain something.   What He said was that in order for you to gain  you would have to lose your life. If you want   to gain your soul it will cost you your life.  If you desire to save your life, it will cost   you your soul. In other words, if you hold on to  the things that to you are precious and reject   the things that to God are precious, it will cost  you your eternal soul. That's the exchange. And   Jesus said, "What good is it if you have gained  everything the world has to offer and lost your   eternal soul?" You would be much better off to  make some exchange of what you have in this life   for what God offers you in the life to come.  Whatever exchange you need to make to gain your   eternal soul, you ought to do that. That's  a very significant spiritual principle.

There is an exchange in salvation. There  is an exchange of all that I am for all   that Christ is. There is an exchange of  all my religious activities, ceremonies,   righteous works for the person of Jesus  Christ. There's a sense in which I may have   spent all my life in religious achievement,  but I have to lose it all in order to gain   Christ. Whatever it is that I have spent my  life accumulating, even if I gain the world,   it would mean nothing if I lost Christ. So I  will exchange it all for Him. That's what Jesus   is saying. The wise person looks at everything  in life, measures it against the value of the   loss of his eternal soul and says it isn't worth  it, I will give this up to gain my eternal soul. You see, the person who comes to God is the person  who is willing to pay whatever God requires,   whatever the price, whatever the cost, the person  willing to abandon everything for Christ. You see,   we're right back to Matthew 13, aren't we, the man  who found the treasure and sold everything he had   to buy it, the man who found the pearl and sold  everything he had to buy it and the treasure is   salvation and the pearl is salvation. The treasure  is Christ, the pearl is Christ and salvation   comes with Him. And the man who found the treasure  said, "This is worth more than anything I possess,  

I'll get rid of all of this to take that." And the  man who found the pearl said, "This is worth more   than anything I've ever possessed, I'll get rid  of everything I have and I'll take that." That's   essentially the same principle. What are you  going to give in exchange for your soul? That's   the issue. The rich young ruler was faced with  the same dilemma. Jesus came to him and said,   "This is what you have, this is what you possess,  are you willing to give it all up for Christ?"   And you remember, he was not. The price was too  high. And so he kept his possessions and lost his   eternal soul. He made a foolish decision, an  eternally costly decision which he even this   moment in hell is paying for. Every person  faces that choice when they confront Christ.   Here is Jesus Christ and He says I will save your  eternal soul if you will give up everything else   you're putting your trust in. Some people say  yes, some people say no. Their eternal destiny   is determined by what they say. One man who  said who said a resounding yes was Paul. And   we just heard that yes in this text. Paul is  saying here, "I looked at everything I had,   I said it's loss, I'll exchange it for Christ."  That's exactly what he said. And if you ask Paul,   what will a man give in exchange for his soul,  Paul? Paul says, "I'll give everything in exchange  

for my soul. My soul is that valuable." He was  willing to give up everything and that is what   he expresses here. The heart of the text is verse  7, "Whatever things were gain to me, those things   I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ."  I will exchange everything for the pearl. I will   exchange everything for the treasure. I will  give up everything for Christ. I will make any   transaction to save my eternal soul. And so, you  have the great record of the conversion of Paul. If you want the historic record, look with me for  a moment at Acts chapter 9. In Acts chapter 9,   Luke records the observable record of  Paul's conversion. That is to say what   actually happened. "Saul...verse 1 of Acts  9...was breathing threats and murder against   the disciples of the Lord. So he went to the high  priest and asked for letters, that is authority,   from him to the synagogues at Damascus so that  if he found any belonging to the Way...that's   what they called Christianity, cause Jesus  said He was the Way...both men and women,   he might bring them bound to Jerusalem." So Paul  went and got authority to go and kill Christians.   "It came about...verse 3...as he journeyed he  was approaching Damascus and suddenly a light   from heaven flashed around him, he fell to the  ground, he heard a voice saying to him, Saul,   Saul, why are you persecuting Me? He said, Who  art Thou, Lord? And He said, I am Jesus whom  

you are persecuting." Now, here you have on the  Damascus Road, the Apostle Paul is confronted with   Christ...Christ. Up to this point he has counted  all of his religion as profit and Christ as loss,   that's why he's killing Christians. All of  his religious achievements assets-- Christ   liability. We've got to get rid of Christ. We've  got to get rid of Christianity. We've got to get   rid of Christians. But now he meets Christ. Luke  in recording this particular incident does not   tell us anything about what was going on inside  of Paul. Luke simply records what was heard,   what was seen, what took place. But in the process  of reading down through chapter 9 it is obvious   that Paul was converted. It is obvious because  by the time you get to verse 11 Saul is praying,   he's praying. By the time you get to verse  15 he is called to be an Apostle. By the   time you get to verse 20 he is proclaiming  Jesus everywhere saying He's the Son of God.   So we know he was converted but it doesn't ever  say anything about what he was thinking or what   was going on in his mind. And so you might  conclude...well, conversion is sort of this   supernatural event, you know, you're just  going along in life and whamo! you're saved,   all of a sudden you pick yourself up, spit  the dirt out of your mouth, you're blind,  

God saves you and you carry on as an Apostle. And  you might therefore conclude that somehow in the   sovereign act of salvation, human faculties  are obliterated, annihilated or bypassed and   that you have nothing to do with it, and I  have nothing to do with it. That's not true. The corollary to Acts 9 is Philippians 3.  What you don't have in Acts 9 you do have in   Philippians 3. You have the external observable  incident in Acts 9, you have the internal   response of Paul in Philippians 3. This is what  was going on in his heart when he ran into Christ.   You say, "Well, did he understand who Christ  claimed to be?" Yes, that's why he was killing   Christians. He understood clearly who He claimed  to be, He claimed to be the Messiah, He claimed to   die as a sacrifice for sin, He claimed to rise  from the dead. He knew the facts. He also knew   what Christians preached. He knew they preached a  gospel of grace, not a gospel of law, and that was   something he thought was heresy also. Factually  he understood who Christ was, he understood the   facts of His life, he also understood the facts of  the gospel that were being preached by Christians,   that's why he persecuted them because he  though it was heresy and he wouldn't have   persecuted a heresy that he didn't understand.  So he understood it. So he knew about Christ   and he knew the gospel. But that's different  than being confronted with Christ, isn't it?   And when on the Damascus Road Jesus stopped him  in his tracks and he was confronted by Christ, and  

the Holy Spirit began to illuminate his hard heart  and take the shield off of his understanding,   he began to consider Christ for the first time.  Please note this. Salvation is a sovereign act of   God by which He invades the sinner's darkness,  gives him light and saves him. But salvation   does not annihilate obliterate destroy or bypass  human faculties. It stimulates human faculties.   And so what you have in Philippians 3 is the  record of what was going on in Paul's mind,   and emotion, and will on the inside as  these days in Damascus were passing. What was he experiencing? What was he feeling?  Well he had always put all his confidence in   his flesh, that phrase back in verses 3 and  4. He had always put all his confidence in   his own human ability, his religion, his  sincerity, his race, his tribe, his rank,   his self-righteousness. And he had it all in the  profit column, all in the asset column. And that's   where all his confidence was for salvation.  He believed that he was saved because of his   religious privilege and his religious achievement.  And now all of a sudden he confronts Christ,   the Spirit of God gives him understanding and he  sees Christ for the first time as the true value,  

the real pearl, the treasure. And then he  sees the loss that is in this column he once   identified as assets and he's willing to  throw the whole thing into one bag and   trash it all and take Christ because Christ is  of surpassing value. He made the right exchange. What will a man give in exchange for his soul?  Paul gave everything. Paul sold all to buy the   treasure, sold all to buy the pearl. So this is  the personal internal description of what Paul   did when he gave his life to Christ. This is a  tremendously significant portion of Scripture.   As I said earlier, the key is in verse 7. He  said, "I counted as loss everything that I once   counted as gain when I saw Christ. Because God  showed me so clearly the glories of Jesus Christ,   because God showed me so clearly that  only Christ could save and only Christ   could provide the way into God's Kingdom  and only Christ could provide eternal life   and because God showed me that I could  receive that by faith only, not by works,   I am willing to trash everything else for Christ."  And, beloved, that's the message here. If you're   counting on anything for your salvation other  than Christ, you're deceived. Salvation isn't   in anything else but Christ. There is none other  name under heaven given among men whereby we must  

be saved than the name Jesus Christ...says  Acts 4:12. No other name...no other Savior. Now remember, Paul says..."Look, I've accumulated  a lot of things..." Go back to verse 4, he said,   "If anybody should be confident in the flesh,  I could...verse 5...I was circumcised the   eighth day, I'm of the nation Israel, I'm of  the tribe of Benjamin, the esteemed tribe,   I am a Hebrew child of Hebrew parents, I've kept  the tradition, as to the law I am a Pharisee,   I've gone to the limit, the ultimate commitment  to law keeping. As to zeal or sincerity,   I have persecuted the church that's how sincere  I am and as to righteousness which is in the law,   no one has ever found me externally  blame-worthy." And he says, "For all   these years my salvation has been built on  my ritual, my race, my rank, my tradition,   my religion, my sincerity, and my works. And then  I met Christ and I saw that it was all liability.   It was all loss and I gladly gave it up for  the sake of Christ...for the sake of Christ."

That's so basic.   That day on the Damascus Road the living  Christ broke through the incredible blindness   of Saul of Tarsus who was a Pharisee, who was a  legalist, who was a works- righteousness worker   and shattered his confidence in all his religious  accomplishments. And the root of self-confidence   was forever plucked from his heart and he made  Jesus Christ his own, he sold all to gain Christ. May I note one other thing? He didn't say..."I had  something good, this is better." He said, "This is   loss, this is not asset, this is liability, that's  not neutral, that's not good, that's negative,   that's bad." Liabilities are bad. That's a loss  not a profit. What do you mean by that? I mean to   say that all of that stuff isn't good and Christ  is better, all of that stuff is bad. You say,   "Now wait a minute, is it bad to be circumcised  the eighth day? Bad to be a Jew? Bad to be of   the tribe of Benjamin? Bad to be a Hebrew of the  Hebrews? Bad to be religious? Bad to be zealous?"   Yes in this sense, if you count on that to  save you...then it's bad. Why? Because it  

is so self-deceiving. You know the hardest  person to reach in the world for Christ is   the person who is religious. And the more  religious they are and the more sincere   they are and the more stuck in tradition  they are and the more ceremonial they are,   the harder they are to reach. Why? Because all  their confidence is in that stuff and consequently   they count on that for their salvation. Paul says  that is not just good and this is better, that is   bad. Why? Because religion damns the soul. False  religion deceives the mind and damns the soul. So he said...When I saw the truth that all of that  wasn't good, it was bad, it was damning my soul,   it was a false assurance, a false hope, a false  salvation, I trashed it all and I took Christ. Now, what did he gain? Last week we saw what he  lost. Five things he gained. These are profound,   all encompassing truths, five things that you  gain when you come to Christ, when you jettison   all the other garbage and come to Christ.  These five: knowledge, righteousness, power,   fellowship, glory. Stay with me, we're going to  fly through these. Oh are they rich. In fact,  

they're so rich that they fill the New Testament.  We could spend a life time on these five. Number one, salvation begins with the knowledge  of Jesus Christ. That's the first thing he gained,   he gained the knowledge of Jesus Christ. He gained  the knowledge of Jesus Christ. By the way, God is   impressed with these things, He's not impressed  with verses 5 and 6. But God is impressed with   this, He's not impressed with our rank, our race,  our tradition, our sincerity, He's impressed with   this. First of all, the knowledge of Jesus Christ,  look at verse 8. "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 in order that I may gain Christ."   Right in the middle he says the surpassing  value of knowing Christ. That's the point   here. Knowing Christ so far surpasses those other  things. I'll gladly get rid of those to know Him.

In fact, he wants to make the point so  strongly that he starts out in verse 8,   your Bible and the NAS may say "more than  that," every edition says something different,   the reason is it's untranslatable. What you  have there is a strange sequence of five   little particles and if you read them actually  in Greek they would go like this...But rather   therefore at least even. Just a pile of particles,  looks like they were thrown together at random.   And what he is trying to do with those particles  is to make a strong point stronger. In verse 7   he said, "I have counted everything that was  gain to me as loss for the sake of Christ. But   rather therefore at least even..." You know, what  he's trying to say summing it up is..."But way   beyond that I count all things to be loss...not  only those things." He uses the phrase "those   things" in verse 7 and he refers back to what  he said in 5 and 6. It's not only those things   that I see as loss, but I see everything as loss  compared to Christ. You can't trust in anything,   not just those things, but your  own wisdom, your own intellect,   your own mind, your own religious instincts. You  can't trust anything. I count it all liability.

You say, "What does he mean by these `all  things'?" He means any kind of allegiance,   or any kind of act that one would think  is meritorious before God by which we can   earn God's favor in our own strength.  It's all loss, it's all liability.   Whenever a religious man thinks he can boast about  anything, that's a liability in his life because   he's claiming something that doesn't belong  to him, right? It could happen to a Christian,   get proud about your prayer life, or proud about  your Bible study, or proud about your witnessing,   or thinking God's pleased because of your human  effort. Do you know that if you pray and if   you study effectively the Word of God and if you  witness effectively, all the credit goes to whom?   God who did it through you by His Spirit. Paul  says..."Look, anything I achieved in the past,   anything I can do in the present is loss,  liability, if it is to be considered as a   ground for meritorious assumption...thinking  God then owes me for what I have done. It's   detriment." So he says, "Look, not only I have  counted," that's a perfect tense verb in the past,   but verse 8, "I am counting," present tense in  the present. I have counted everything loss that   I mentioned in 5 and 6, I now continually  count everything else in my life as loss.  

It's an ongoing thing. It's all loss. It just  can't compare with Christ. There's nothing in   life that can. No achievements, no religious  activities. So he's really saying I continue   to resist the recurring temptation to rely on my  works rather than God's grace for my standing. You say, "Well, Paul, how can you make such a  total statement? This is selling all." It is,   it is selling all. I have counted it all  loss, and I continue to count it all loss.   I continue to sell everything for the pearl, sell  everything for the treasure. "Why do you do that,   Paul? How can you make such a total wholesale  break with everything?" I'll tell you why,   because, verse 8, "Of the surpassing  value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord."   Because of the fact that knowing Christ surpasses  everything else. I give it all up to know Christ.   You see, that's what overwhelmed him on the  Damascus Road. When the Lord stopped him and   talked with him and the Spirit of God began to  illuminate his heart about the gospel, he began to   see in his heart under the Spirit's illumination  the surpassing value of knowing Christ and he   realized that all his religious credentials  were manure and knowing Christ was everything.

Now the word here, "the surpassing value," just  means that. Some Bibles translate it "excellency."   Some translate it "all surpassing greatness."  That's what it means. The word for "knowing   Christ" is actually a substantive, not a verb, it  is the knowledge of Christ...the knowledge. And   the word is gnosis...gnosis. Very important word,  let me tell you what it means because it implies   very very strong things in this text. Paul  says..."Look, I would count everything trash   compared to knowing Christ." What do you mean  knowing Christ? We've got to find out. The   surpassing value of knowing Christ....do you  mean knowing intellectually about Christ? No,   that is not the verb that means to know  intellectually. It is from ginosko which means to   know experimentally, or to know experientially,  or to know personally or to know by personal   involvement with. That's what he's saying. Now  it's very basic to Christianity that being a   Christian is called "knowing Christ." Right? Those  who are Christians know Christ. John 10 is the   great chapter on the Good Shepherd, Jesus says, "I  know My sheep and they know Me." Knowing Christ.   When Jesus prayed in the high priestly prayer of  John 17 and verse 3, his prayer for the believers,  

those who were alive and those who were yet to  be born and redeemed is very simply summed up in   that concept. It says this, "This is eternal life  that they may know Thee, the only true God and   Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent." Eternal life  is connected with knowing God by knowing Christ. In 1 John there is a tremendous statement made in  1 John chapter 5 right at the end of the epistle,   verse 20, "We know that the Son of God has  come and has given us understanding in order   that we might know Him who is true, even Jesus  Christ." Salvation is knowing Christ. It's not   knowing about Him intellectually, it's knowing Him  experientially. In 2 Corinthians 4 verse 6 Paul   says, "God is the one who has shown in our  hearts...that's illumination...to give the   light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the  face of Christ." In other words, Paul is defining   the gospel and the work of the Spirit, he says  God comes into the heart, shines the light that   reveals the knowledge of Jesus Christ. Again  knowing Christ is synonymous with salvation.   Ephesians 1:17, Paul prays that we might have the  spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge  

of Him. Second Timothy 1:12, you know what it  says, "I know whom I have...what?...believed." Now we could go through a myriad of other  Scriptures but to suffice it to say salvation   is a relationship in which I know Christ. Not  I know about Him, I know the facts about Him,   I know when He lived, when He died, I know a  few other facts about what He taught...not that,   but I know Him...very different than knowing  about someone. There are a lot of people I   know about that I don't know and you can  know about Christ and not know him at all. Now let me give you some...some filler for  the word gnosis to pack it in a little bit   so you'll understand it. Among the pagans, they  referred to this gnosis or this knowledge as the   elevated secretive cultic mystical apprehension  of communion with a deity. They would have a   drunken feast, a bacchanalian feast and they  would drink and drink and drink and drink.   Paul refers to that in Ephesians 5, their  drunkenness. And they believed that in   their inebriation they ascended to a height by  which they perceived their deities in intimacy.   Timothy Leary used to say that if you take  drugs you will ascend to a higher plain and   commune with God. That's not new, that's what the  pagans have done for centuries and centuries and   centuries. So paganism said there is an ascended  knowledge, there is a transcendent knowledge,  

there is an initiatory knowledge that those  few enter into by which they have ascended   beyond the mundane to apprehend the truth of their  deity. That's still true today in pagan religions.   That's what gurus claim. That's what Buddhist  monks claim. That's what the strange cultic and   occultic religionists of the world claim as they  sit and go through the strange bizarre activities   that their religions prescribe in order that they  might ascend out of the mundane into the divine   realm to perceive the gods. That's the gnosis,  the deep mystical transcendent knowledge of a god. Even in Christianity the Gnostics developed from  the same word. You've heard that, haven't you?   They were people who claimed to know the true  God through an ascended transcendent kind of   elevation they alone had experienced. Everyone  else was on the low plain, the low level,   but they had found God accessible to them  because of their elevated knowledge. By the way,   Paul writes against the Gnostics. John directs his  attacks against the Gnostics in the New Testament.   At least what later became Gnosticism. Colossians  is a good illustration of a letter that deals   with this kind of Gnostic assumption. First John  would be another one where it is even alluded to.

But you have then this concept of gnosis  which means a mystical elevated transcendent   knowledge of the deity in intimacy that  most people will never experience. When   Paul then says to these Philippians who  come out of that pagan culture, he says,   "I give up everything for the surpassing knowledge  of Christ Jesus my Lord," they understand what   he means by the word gnosis. That he's not  talking about some facts, but he's talking   about a transcendent experience of communing with  Christ the Lord. And in that sense it's accurate. But there's more. There is an Old Testament  context for that word, too. The word gnosis   is a word from ginosko, it is used to translate  the Old Testament word yadah(?), that word in the   Old Testament speaks of a union of love. When you  see yadah in the Hebrew Old Testament it can be   ginosko that's translated in the Greek, it means  to know. But it expresses a bond of love. For   example, it says, "Adam knew his wife and she bore  a son." It doesn't mean he knew who she was. He   knew who she was all right, but he had an intimate  love relationship with her. It says in Amos 3:2,   "Israel only have I known." And what God means  is they're the only people I know about? No. I   have an intimate love bond with them, there's an  intimacy there. The word know implies the union   of love. In the case of Israel it had to do with  election and grace. It was a bonding together in  

intimate love. Jesus said, "My sheep hear My  voice and I know them. I have a bond of love."   Jesus said, "Depart from Me, I never knew you...I  had no bond of love with you." So there's a Jewish   intent with the word as well as a sort of Gentile  one. The Gentile intent is to speak of a deep   surpassing mystical intimate communing love with  Christ. And the Hebrew one expresses that union   of love, that bond of love that extricably ties  people together. And all of that is in the word. So when Paul says I would give up everything for  the surpassing knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord,   he is filling up that word knowledge with all of  that rich meaning. He is saying it is a knowledge   of love, it is a union of love that is intimate,  that is supernatural, that is transcendent,   that is mystical. It is something way beyond you  can experience...anything you can experience in   this life...in this world. And then to add warmth  to it he adds the personal pronoun "my Lord." He   sees his Lord as Lord, that's sovereign,  that's kingship. He sees Jesus as Jesus,   that's the Savior, that's the priestly role. He  sees Christ the prophet, the messenger of God,   he sees Him as prophet, priest and King,  Christ being prophet, Jesus being priest,   Lord being King. All three names emphasizing  all three offices. And as he sees Him in that   fullness he yet sees Him in intimacy, he's  my Lord...personal. That's what Christianity  

brings. That's gain, see. Your race won't  bring you that, your rank, your tradition,   your ceremonies, your sort of sincerity. The  only way you'll ever come in to deep knowledge   and intimate love bond with Jesus Christ is  through salvation by grace through faith.   So he says I count all that loss to gain the  knowledge of Christ, the deep knowledge of love. F.B. Meyer wrote, "We may know Him  personally intimately face to face,   Christ does not live back in the centuries  nor amid the clouds of heaven, He is near us,   with us, compassing our path in our lying down  and acquainted with all our ways. But we cannot   know Him in this mortal life except through  the illumination and teaching of the Holy   Spirit. And we can surely know Christ not as  a stranger who turns in to visit for the night   or as the exalted king of men, there must be  an inner knowledge as of those whom He counts   His own familiar friends, whom He trusts with  His secrets who eat with Him of His own bread.   To know Christ in the storm of battle, to know  Him in the valley of shadow, to know Him when   the solar light radiates our faces or when they  are darkened with disappointment and sorrow,   to know the sweetness of His dealing with bruised  reeds and smoking flax, to know the tenderness of   His sympathy and the strength of His right hand,  all this involves many varieties of experience   on our part. But each of them like the facets  of a diamond will reflect the prismatic beauty   of His glory from a new angle," end quote.  That's to know Christ. Salvation begins with  

the knowledge of Christ for which Paul says  I'll exchange anything for that privilege. What does he mean by that? How deep is the  knowledge? How deep is it? Follow his thought,   look at what he says, verse 9, "And may  be found in Him." That's how deep it is.   You are so intertwined in a bond of intimate  love and knowledge with Christ that you are in   Him. Paul loves that concept. He refers to it at  least 164 times in his epistles. We are in Christ.   "I am crucified with Christ nevertheless  I live yet not I but Christ lives in me,   and the life which I now live I live by the  faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave   Himself for me." In other words, it's not I but  Christ. I don't know where I end and He begins and   where He ends and I begin. We are inextricably  intertwined, that's how intimate the bond is,   that's how deep the knowledge is. He moves  through me. I have the mind of Christ. That's   deep knowledge. So he says I count everything  in my life trash. I count all my religious   achievements rubbish for that deep intimate  love relationship with the living Christ.

So, for Him I have suffered the loss of the all  things. Puts in a definite article. And count them   but dung, manure, excrement, garbage, rubbish, in  order that I may gain Christ. I've suffered the   loss of all things, he says. And I don't mind  one bit, it's all skubalon. Like Isaiah 64:6,   filthy rags which is an Old Testament term for  menstrual cloths. I count it as something that is   to be trashed like human excrement. I'll exchange  any of that for Christ...the knowledge of Christ,   in order that I may gain Christ. Gain means win.  The verb means personal appropriation, make Him   my own. You see, knowing Christ, making Christ my  own outstrips everything, absolutely everything.

Second, salvation involves the knowledge of  Christ, secondly, the righteousness of Jesus   Christ...the righteousness of Jesus Christ.  Verse 9, "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." You know what he had spent his whole   life doing? Whole adult life? Doing what he  says in the first half of verse 9, trying to   gain a righteousness of his own derived from the  law. That's what he spent his whole life doing,   that's why he was a Pharisee. He was one of  the elite 6,000 Pharisees, small number, who   believed they could attain salvation by perfect  adherence to the law of God. What a burden,   what an unbelievable burden, what a guilt trip,  what a deception. And he said, "I give it all up,   I'll give all that stuff of having a righteousness  of my own derived from the law up gladly."   What kind of righteousness is that? It's the  righteousness of self- control...the righteousness   of external morality, the righteousness of  religious ritual and ceremony, the righteousness   of good works, it's self-righteousness. It's the  righteousness produced by the flesh. Righteousness   simply means doing right. It's doing the best you  can do. Like the Army commercial says, "Be the   best you can be," well from God's viewpoint it's  not good enough. You see, Romans 3:19 and 20 says,  

"By the deeds of the flesh or the deeds of the  law shall no flesh be justified." By the deeds   of the law shall no flesh be justified, or made  righteous. You'll never be righteous by what you   do. But he spent his whole life trying, his whole  life. And he wasn't alone. In Romans 10 his heart   breaks for Israel. It breaks for they are not  knowing about God's righteousness and they're   seeking to establish their own. That's their  whole problem....life-long effort to establish   their own righteousness by works, tradition,  sincerity, ceremony, ritual, going to worship.   He says, "Look, I'll gladly exchange all  that hassle of law keeping Pharisaical   righteousness which I've tried to keep up all  these years for Christ." Why? Because, verse 9,   "From Him through faith in Christ comes the  righteousness which comes from God on the basis   of faith." I'll take the righteousness which  is through faith in Christ, not works. "For   by grace are you saved through...what?...faith,  not of works lest any man should boast." See,   it's a matter of faith. You say, "What is  faith?" Believing...but more than believing   it's not just intellectual assent, it's personal  trust and complete surrender. That's what it is.  

It...someone said it's the yes of the soul to  God. It's placing all complete confidence and   trust in Christ. That's how you're saved. And  when you put your faith in Christ, God gives   you His righteousness, that's verse 9. I want the  righteousness which is through faith in Christ,   the righteousness which comes from God on the  basis of faith. Not human righteousness on the   basis of works that doesn't please God. God's  not impressed. Because the best you can do is   filthy rags, the best you can do is dung. The best  you can do is to come short of the glory of God. How you going to gain righteousness? What is  righteousness? It's right standing with God.   It means God accepts you. How are you going  to be accepted by God? By your own effort?   No. You're going to be accepted by God when  you take by faith the righteousness He gives   you because Christ paid the penalty for your  sin. When you take Christ, God gives you in   Christ righteousness. In other words, He accepts  Christ in your place and since Christ perfectly   satisfies God and you are in Christ, God is  satisfied with you. See, Paul is willing to   lose the thin fading robe of reputation for the  heavy glorious robe of righteousness which comes   in Christ. A right relationship to God is not by  works, it's by faith. Boy, that's the key to this  

whole passage. You say, "What is this faith?" Let  me give you a definition, listen very carefully.   Faith is best described this way, faith  is the confident continuous confession of   total dependence on and trust in Jesus Christ  for the necessary requirements to enter God's   Kingdom. Did you get that? Faith is the confident  continuous confession of total dependence on and   trust in Jesus Christ to provide the necessary  requirements for entrance into God's eternal   Kingdom. It's not just believing that Jesus lived  and died. It's trusting in Him and depending on   Him to meet the requirements in your behalf to  give you entrance into God's Kingdom. It's the   surrender of your life in trust to Him...to do  what you can't do. It's saying I can't do it.

Paul had a life of trying. And for a while it was  all in the asset side, now he says it's liability,   trash, garbage. I don't want a righteousness of my  own derived from the law, I'll fall short of God's   standard that will damn me. Self- righteousness  is so damning because it's so deceptive.   It meets man's standard and exceeds it but  it falls infinitely short of God's standard.   That's the deception. So he says Christ is gain  to me for two reasons, because in Christ I have   the knowledge of Him, deep mystical rich  union of love with the living Christ in   which our lives are intertwined. Secondly, I  have the righteousness of Christ, O bless God,   He became sin for us that we might be  made the righteousness of God in Him.   He took on my sin at the cross that  I might take on His righteousness. Thirdly, salvation provides the power of Jesus  Christ. What else is gain to me, Paul says,   the power of Christ, verse 10, "That I may  know Him...this is an ongoing knowledge now,   he already started in that direction already  with the deep knowledge of Christ from verse 8,   but there's a longing to know more and  that's how it is in a deep and intimate love   relationship...that I may know Him and the power  of His resurrection." That's what he means by this   deeper knowledge. Paul says, "I give up everything  so that I can know His power." What do you mean,  

Paul? "The power of of His resurrection." You see,  because I know Christ intimately, because I have   the righteousness of Christ, I have available the  dynamic spiritual energy that comes from Him. Like   in Daniel 11:32 where the prophet says the people  who know their God will display strength and take   action. Paul says I take Christ because of the  power. You know something? There's no power in   the law. There's no power to overcome sin in  my flesh. There's no real power for spiritual   service in my flesh. There's no power for victory  in my flesh. There's no power for witnessing in my   flesh. He says I've been operating without power  and now I see all the power in Christ. You say,   "How do you see it?" In His resurrection. Why does  he say the power of His resurrection? Because it   was in His resurrection that He most graphically  demonstrated the extent of His power. What other   work of Christ is as powerful as that? None.  Raising Himself out of the dead showed that He had   power over the physical world and also over the  spiritual world. He had power over the human realm   and death and He had power over the demonic realm  and all the demons who wanted to hold Him captive.   You see the greatest display of power Jesus ever  accomplished was His resurrection from the dead   and Paul says that's the kind of power I want to  experience. That's what he's saying. Why did I  

trash this stuff and take Christ? Because of His  power...His power. He knew His resurrection power   in two ways...the first way it was resurrection  power that saved him. When he was saved according   to Romans 6 he was buried with Christ in His death  and he rose with Christ to walk in newness of   life. So he's already experienced resurrection  power in his salvation. Everyone who comes to   Christ in a spiritual sense, we die with Christ,  we rise again. So resurrection power is in us. But   more than that, he wanted resurrection power to  continue to be his resource. He wanted that power   that he talks about many times in the epistles,  the power, for example, to conquer temptation,   the power for service to Christ, the power  to overcome trials that makes you strong   when you're weak, the power for witnessing and  boldness. He wanted to be strengthened by the   spirit in the inner man, he wanted to know  Colossians 1:11, the great might of Christ.   He wanted the expression of that power of which  he spoke of in Ephesians 3:20 when he said,   "Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding  abundantly above all we can ask or think   according to the power that works in us."  He said why did I take Christ and say no to   this? Because in Christ there's power, there's  power over sin, there's power over temptation,   there's power for service, power for  witness, power over trials. There's  

power in my otherwise impotent life. That's why I  count it all loss for the power that's in Christ. To the believing soul, the power of the life  of Christ pours into us, rises out of us to   give us victory in this life. Paul says what am I  going to...what am I going to exchange for that?   That's the only way I can conquer sin. That's  the only way I can have an effective life. What   did he gain in Christ? The knowledge of Christ,  the righteousness of Christ, the power of Christ. Fourth, salvation also brought him fellowship  with Jesus Christ...fellowship with Jesus Christ.   He says in verse 10 there's something else that  I consider gain, the fellowship of His sufferings   being conformed to His death. He had already been  conformed to His death in the saving sense that   when he believed in Christ he was buried with Him  in baptism and rose to walk in newness of life as   we saw in Romans 6, or noted a moment ago. He  had already fellowshiped in the sufferings of   Christ in a saving way. And I don't want you to  misunderstand that. When you're saved somehow   supernaturally God puts you in Christ and you die  in Christ and you rise with Him. He had already  

experienced that kind of suffering, that kind  of suffering. But what he has in mind here is   something more. Not a saving union with Christ  in His death and resurrection, but a fellowship,   a partnership, a deep communion of suffering.  What do you mean, Paul? What are you talking   about? I'm talking about this, I'm talking about  the fact that one of the things I gain in Christ   is somebody to fellowship with when I suffer. Did  you get that? Somebody to fellowship with when   I suffer, somebody who has suffered far beyond  any suffering I will ever know, far beyond any   suffering I will ever feel or experience and I  need a companion in my suffering. Any Christian   on the face of the earth will tell you that the  deepest moments of spiritual fellowship with the   living Christ are the direct result of intense  suffering. No question about it. Suffering always   drives us to Christ. Why? Because we find there  the succoring sympathetic merciful high priest   who cares...the friend who feels our pain who is  in all points tempted like as we are, who knows   our weakness and our infirmities. And he is saying  how blessed I am to be persecuted and to know that   I am simply following the one who was persecuted  before me and in whose fellowship I find comfort.

Christ was rejected. Christ was mocked and  despised and hated and killed and Paul went   through that too. And he said, "I tell you, the  greatest thing about suffering is that I have a   companion in my suffering." Paul says, "You know,  when I'm very weak I go to Christ," 2 Corinthians   12, "and I find in Him my strength." And that's  what he means. Hey, it's a sad world we live in,   isn't it? It's only a question of when your  pain is going to come and how intense it's   going to be. We all suffer it. And where do  you go? Well most of the world goes to the   bottle or goes to the psychiatrist or goes  to the mall, I guess. Where do you go when   you want real comfort? When you want partnership  in suffering? Where do you go to have somebody   feel what you feel? You go to Christ, don't  you? That's the fellowship of sufferings.

One last thing. Salvation results in the glory  of Jesus Christ...in the glory of Jesus Christ.   Verse 11, "In order that I may attain to the  resurrection from the dead." You know what else   I count gain? The attaining of resurrection. And  by the way, the way he phrases this in the Greek,   "in order that I may attain," it almost sounds  like he feels a little insecure about it. That's   not insecurity, that's humility...that's humility.  It never left him that he was unworthy. It never   left him that he didn't deserve it. But  he says I long for the glory of Christ,   the resurrection from the dead. He uses a word  for resurrection never used anywhere else in the   Bible. It's the out resurrection, it adds the  preposition ek, it's the out resurrection, it's   graphic. Then the phrase "from the dead," it means  from the corpses, from among the corpses. This is   the way it reads literally, "I want to attain the  out resurrection from among the corpses." What's   that? It's the Rapture. That's the time when he  goes to be with the Lord and he gets a new body,   that's what he's talking. He's talking about  that moment, that twinkling of an eye when the   dead in Christ shall rise and be changed in to  incorruptibility. He's talking about that moment   when the dead in Christ rise and those that are  alive caught up together to meet them in the air,   1 Corinthians 15, 1 Thessalonians chapter  4, he's talking about resurrection day,  

the out resurrection from among the corpses, when  believers are taken from among the rest of the   dead corpses who aren't raised until the end of  the millennial kingdom. But believers are taken   out and transformed into the image of Christ. He  talks about it in verse 20, our citizenship is in   heaven from which we also eagerly await for the  Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform   the body of our humble state into conformity with  the body of His glory. That's what he wanted. He   hated the flesh as weakness, he groaned with those  in Romans 8 who groaned waiting for the glorious   manifestation of the children of God which meant  the resurrection, the out resurrection from among   the corpses. That's what he wanted. He wanted the  end of the conflict of the flesh and the spirit   that he wrote about in Galatians 5. He wanted the  end of the groaning of Romans 8, the redemption of   his body. That's what he wanted. And he said  I get that in Christ. I gain that in Christ.

Ask yourself a question, what will you give in  exchange for your soul? You see, Christ offers you   union with Him, righteousness, power, fellowship,  glory. What are you going to hold on to that's   equal to that? And what good is it going to do  if you gain the whole world and lose your soul?   That's the question. What do we gain in Christ?  The knowledge of Christ. Theologians call that   identification...identification. We gain  the righteousness of Christ. Theologians   call that justification. We gain the power of  Christ. Theologians call that sanctification.   We gain the suffering with Christ.  Theologians call that participation.   And we gain the glory of Christ. And we all  call that glorification. That's the pearl,   that's the treasure. The wise people sell  all to make it theirs. Let's pray together.

Thank You, Father, again for the great richness of  truth which has come to our hearts. Thank You for   the dear precious saints who love You and whom You  love, who know you, who have Your righteousness,   who are the possessors of Your power, who  fellowship with You in the deep things of   life and who will one day be glorified with You on  Your very throne. Thank You for them. Thank You,   Lord, for all that they mean to all of us as  we share the richness of their life in the   fellowship of this church. We thank You, Lord,  for saving us. We thank You for the day when we   too had our Damascus Road, maybe not as dramatic  historically but equally dramatic internally for   we too had to turn from all the rest of the stuff  that we had accumulated in securities thinking   that this would make us right with You and we  said it's trash and we took Christ. Thank You   for that day. We pray that this might be that  day for those who have never come to Christ,   for those who are still trusting in their profit  column, their assets, their human achievements,   their sincerity, their morality, their religion.  O God, may they see it for what it is, liability,   dangerous damning deception and may they give  themselves to Christ who is to us knowledge,  

righteousness, power, fellowship and  glory. We pray in His dear name. Amen. You've been listening to John MacArthur,  Bible teacher with Grace to You. For free   access to all of John's lessons and a listing  of study Bibles and books available for sale,   visit Grace to You's website at gty.org.  John MacArthur and Grace to You reserve   all copyright protection under applicable  law. Our copyright policy is available at   gty.org. And it includes instructions for and  limitations on duplicating this digital file.