The Most Valuable Possession

THE MOST VALUABLE POSSESSION

An Exposition of Philippians 3:7-9a

By Pastor Brian Wilbur

Date:   September 30, 2018

Series: Philippians: Gospel Partnership on Mission in the World

Note:   Scripture quotations are from The ESV Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard   Version), copyright 2001 by Crossway. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

INTRODUCTION

Every one of us lives for gain. I didn’t say sordid gain, as if to imply that our living for gain is necessarily of a dishonest sort. Nor did I say financial gain, as if to imply that we are all greedy materialists. I simply said that we all live for gain – to lay hold of advantages, to obtain benefits, to acquire and possess things of value that promise to bring us joy. We live in order to increase our happiness. As the famous mathematician, philosopher, and Christian thinker Blaise Pascal said,

“All men seek happiness. This is without exception. Whatever different means they employ, they all tend to this end. The cause of some going to war, and of others avoiding it, is the same desire in both, attended with different views. The will never takes the least step but to this object. This is the motive of every action of every man, even of those who hang themselves.”[1]

The pursuit of happiness in the acquisition and possession of valuable things or valuable experiences or valuable relationships is fundamentally healthy, even though as sinners the reality of sin regularly hijacks our desires and twists them down destructive paths. But this doesn’t change the fact that the human longing for meaning and significance, for peace and joy, for stability beneath us and wide-eyed wonder above us, is profoundly right.   

This pursuit of gain inevitably involves giving up some things so that we can gain other things. When you go the grocery store, you accept the loss of money for the gain of food. While you might prefer to experience the gain of food without the loss of money, faced with the alternative between more money in the bank accompanied by starvation, or less money in the bank accompanied by a satisfied stomach, most of us quite willingly choose the latter.

Although economic exchange helps us understand this concept of exchanging some things for other things, there are many other circumstances in which we simply have to give certain things up for the sake of more important things. When an honorable man goes to the wedding altar and vows lifelong fealty to his bride, he is ‘forsaking all others’. He is giving up the right ‘to have and to hold’ any other woman on the planet, because he is gaining this one woman called his bride.

It works the same way when we talk about priorities. As I have heard my Dad say on more than one occasion, you only have 24 hours in a day, and you are currently using all 24 hours (even if you’re not using them all well), and so if you’re going to add something into your schedule, the only way to do that is to take something else out. If you would gain a half-hour of Bible reading, or if you would gain some time to connect with your spouse or child, or if you would gain time for exercise, then something else will have to go – maybe less sleep, maybe less screen time, maybe less investment in one’s hobbies.     

I trust everyone is familiar with this dynamic of exchange, that we have to give up the lesser things in order to gain the better things. However, the point of today’s message goes way beyond the typical familiarity, and actually cuts to the issue of our supreme delight, of our most valuable possession.

Jesus addressed this very thing as He taught people what it meant to truly follow Him. We read in Luke's Gospel,

“Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.”” (Luke 14:25-27)

“… any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.” (Luke 14:33)

Jesus’ teaching is clear: anyone who would belong to Him must put Him first, far above all other loves and loyalties. If you would have Christ, then you must “renounce” every other thing, every other person, every other relationship, every other possession – nothing else can have an absolute claim upon your life. Further, you must “renounce” your own self – you must surrender any claim to define and direct the course of your life. Instead you must bear the cross, die to self, and lay down your life so that you can gain the incomparable privilege of being a disciple of Jesus.

This same principle of renunciation – of renouncing everything else – for the sake of gaining Christ, is evident in Philippians 3. In Philippians 3 Paul tells us that he has renounced the things that previously gave him a sense of pride and standing in the religious world that he inhabited. And it wasn’t just any religious world, it was a religious world that actually derived from the objectively true religion that God had revealed to His people, Israel, and is recorded in the pages of the Old Testament. Paul thought that he was everything that he was supposed to be: he had all the right boxes checked, and he thought that his religious heritage, religious education, religious experience, and religious conduct were sufficient to make him righteous in God’s sight. So he looked at his heritage, education, experience, and conduct as gain – as advantageous, beneficial, and profitable in terms of his standing with God. But these very things that he once regarded as gain, Paul came to renounce and reckon as loss in order that he might lay hold of the real treasure that is found in Jesus Christ.

THE SCRIPTURAL TEXT

Gain and loss, surpassing worth and rubbish, Christ and everything else – these are the realities Paul wants us to reckon with as we come to Philippians 3:7-9. Paul writes,

“But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 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 and be found in him….” (Philippians 3:7-9a)

LESSON 1: CONVERSION INVOLVES A RADICAL CHANGE IN YOUR VALUE SYSTEM

There are two lessons that we ought to ponder from this passage. Here is the first lesson:

Conversion involves a radical change in what/who you esteem as most precious and most valuable. This radical change includes a wholesale rejection of the things you previously regarded as most important. This is because your pre-conversion value system is fundamentally wrongheaded and was actually a hindrance to your coming to Christ. In coming to Christ, it is precisely the pre-conversion value system that must be discarded and replaced.

The emphasis of this first lesson is on the things that one must give up in order to know and follow Christ.

AN IMPORTANT CLARIFICATION

I assume that some people will trip over my phrase: a wholesale rejection of the things you previously valued as most important. Someone will object, ‘Are you saying that there is absolutely nothing good about a non-Christian’s value system?’ Well, that’s a good question and it gives me an opportunity to clarify what I mean. The key to my meaning is found in the phrases most precious, most valuable, most important. To be sure, if a non-Christian places value on family time before he is converted, it is not as if he is not going to value family time after he is converted. In fact, there is a sense in which he may come to value it more, although for different reasons.

But here’s the point: to borrow a metaphor from John Piper, just as the planets in the solar system are meant to orbit around the sun, so every part of your life is meant to orbit around the Lord Jesus Christ.[2] He is to be front and center, the supreme love of your heart and the sovereign Lord of your life. He defines and directs everything else. By definition, a non-Christian is an idolater and has put something or someone (quite possibly himself) in the place of god, and every part of the non-Christian’s life orbits around an idol or set of idols, which means that the whole system is convoluted, corrupted, misguided, out of whack, imbalanced, and wrongheaded. When a man or woman gets converted, Christ doesn’t become the polite re-arranger of a few things here and there that could use a little improvement. Instead Christ is the sovereign Lord who turns your life upside down, blows up the systems and idols and false gods and distortions that you previously embraced, and gives you an entirely new life. It’s like resurrection from the dead! And it’s all gain!

So to be clear, when the Bible speaks about renouncing all things, including all good things like family members, possessions, religious heritage, and moral conduct, it doesn’t mean that you renounce good things as a gift to be humbly received and stewarded. What it does mean is this: you renounce all things – including good things – as a basis for being in a right relationship with God, you renounce all things as a source of spiritual confidence and pride[3], you renounce all things as a source of ultimate meaning and ultimate loyalty and ultimate joy, you renounce all things in comparison to the “far better” (Philippians 1:23) reality of “knowing Christ” and “being found in him.”

CONVERSION INVOLVES A RADICAL CHANGE IN ONE’S VALUE SYSTEM

When Paul tells us about renouncing all things and counting them as loss, he is speaking about the change wrought in him because of the supernatural conversion that he experienced – and that every true believer experiences. We know this because Paul is discussing his transition – his transfer – from the world of lesser gains to the blessed kingdom of great gain. In Colossians Paul said that the Father “has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son” (Colossians 1:13). Here in Philippians Paul is giving us insight into the radical change in value system that takes place in the sinner-turned-saint who is being transferred from darkness to light, from the rubbish gains of the world to the real gain that is in Jesus.

There is no ‘no man’s land’ or neutral territory between these two worlds. That is not to say that you might not experience some sort of conflicted journey as you consider whether or not you will put yourself into the Lord’s hands and follow after Him. But in terms of your spiritual location, you are either living without faith in Jesus and therefore you look to other things as your source of ultimate gain, or you are living with faith in Jesus and therefore you look to Him as your true reward. When one is passing through the womb of conversion – and this may include counting the cost of following Jesus prior to conversion (see Luke 14:25-33, especially v. 28) as well as more fully understanding and embracing this cost after conversion – a profoundly different value system, a radically altered mindset, is being formed in your heart and mind. You start looking at things very differently. Before his conversion, Paul regarded his religious pedigree and performance as a source of confidence before God. Paul thought that he was pleasing in God’s sight because of all the credentials and qualifications that were on his résumé – he was “circumcised,” he was “a Hebrew of Hebrews,” he was devoted to the law (Philippians 3:5). If the pre-converted Paul was anything like the Pharisee in Jesus’ famous parable about the Pharisee and the Tax Collector (Luke 18:9-14), then Paul’s confidence was in himself that he was righteous.

But when Paul encountered the risen Lord Jesus Christ on the road to Damascus, he began to realize that his self-realized righteousness was fool’s gold, that his religiosity hadn’t gotten him anywhere in terms of a saving relationship with the Lord God, that his pride in his background and in his connections was actually a misplaced confidence that was actually keeping him from knowing God. As Paul realized this and desired to have Christ far more than the previous way of life that had gotten him nowhere, he had to renounce that previous way of life. It was bankrupt. It didn’t result in knowing the Lord. It didn’t produce the spiritual fruit that God desires. It didn’t lead to salvation. Therefore he counted these previous perceived gains as what they really were, losses – as unprofitable things, as misguided ways.

Paul’s change in outlook wasn’t a temporary flash in the pan, like pseudo-converts who appear to make a good start and then disappear in the darkness, but was a permanent and settled frame of mind: in verse 7, looking back to his initial conversion, Paul says that he “counted” [past tense] his religious résumé “as loss for the sake of Christ”; but in verse 8, describing his ongoing mindset, Paul says “I count [present tense] everything as loss,” so he continued to count all things “as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.” Then he takes it a step further: he actually counts his previous way of life, his previous religiosity and pseudo-righteousness, as “rubbish,” as the sort of thing that belongs over at the transfer station. Though this may seem harsh, it is in fact a realistic view of things: what value does any moral or religious system have if it ultimately keeps you from God and lands you in hell? It is worthless, unprofitable, good-for-nothing, fit only for a dumpster.

When I was a young teenager, I didn’t love the Lord Jesus Christ. I pursued gain – the gain of having joy and feeling good about life – in a number of places. Good grades at school was an important part of my identity, as was success in sports – particularly tennis and basketball. I also derived significant pleasure from cheering for my favorite sports teams – the Chicago Bulls and Dallas Cowboys, which combined won a total of 9 championships in the 1990s. As I progressed through high school I also began to place a high priority on social acceptance by my peers. In my growing up years I was neither the cool insider nor uncool outsider, I was kind of in the middle, liked and respected. But through certain circumstances I was able to enjoy a wider social acceptance, and I really liked this and wanted to keep it going. When I was a junior in high school, I also got foolishly caught up in a youthful romance – and in due course it all fell apart, as it usually does at that age. Looking to the future at that time, I knew that I wanted ‘the good life’ in terms of financial prosperity with a country club lifestyle, which is a bit laughable now if you stop and think about it. All this was accompanied by mostly respectable conduct most of the time, with consistent church attendance and other church involvement as well, so I must have thought of myself as one of the good people. And yet, at the level of my heart I wasn’t a true worshiper. I did not “worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:3). Instead, I put confidence for ultimate meaning and joy in all the other things I just mentioned: school, sports, social acceptance, a girl, money for the sake of comfort and ease, and good behavior in a Christian environment. Please understand that these things were not harmless interests; they were my life, my idols, the things that filled my heart and gave me purpose. Paul told the Colossians that “Christ… is your life” (Colossians 3:4). The tragedy is that in my youth, Christ was not my life, Christ was not my treasure, Christ was not my center. What had to happen? I had to realize the bankruptcy of my system, the reality of my sin, and the dead-end path that I was on. Whatever gain I appeared to have by worldly standards, was of no advantage at all. In terms of ultimate significance and ultimate satisfaction, my youthful life profited me nothing. It was a failing river about to dry up, a little building about to fall down. What value do all kinds of good things have if they ultimately keep you from God and land you in hell? By grace the Father revealed Jesus to my heart, and coming to know Him has changed everything. My life now bears little resemblance to my life then, because now I see the lesser things and rubbish gains of my youth in comparison to the greater thing and real gain of knowing Christ.

Have you been soundly converted in the way that Paul describes? Recall that in Philippians 3:3 Paul describes what true Christians are: “For we are the real circumcision [that is, we are God’s true people whose hearts have been circumcised, regenerated, and transformed], who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh.” Paul’s description implies profound change. Before you were worshiping and serving and letting your life orbit around idols. The only way that you can become a true worshiper and true servant of the true God is to renounce the idols and lies that previously governed your life. The only way that you can “glory in Christ Jesus” is to renounce all the things that you used to boast in and take pride in. The only way that you can “put no confidence in the flesh” is to renounce all fleshly sources of confidence. Whether you are relying on a religious and moral system to earn you righteousness in God’s sight, or whether you are relying on relationships or possessions to establish ultimate meaning and joy, you have to give them up for the better thing that God offers. Have you renounced all other things for the superior joy of knowing Christ?

Of course, if you’re going to renounce all other things, then you’d better make sure you have a worthy replacement, right? After all, you can’t live in a vacuum. This brings me to Lesson 2.

LESSON 2: CONVERSION IS TURNING TO A PERSON

Here is Lesson 2:

Conversion is the joyful discovery that one particular Person is the most precious and valuable possession in the universe. This particular Person’s name is Jesus Christ.

The emphasis of Lesson 1 was on what we must give up, on the renunciation of the old value system. The emphasis of Lesson 2 is on what we gain – and what we gain is not a what but a who, the precious Lord Jesus Christ.

It is virtually impossible to overstate the profound significance of all this. Paul gave up – “counted as loss” –  all the apparent gains that were listed on his résumé: his pedigree and circumcision as an Israelite, his devotion to the law, his zeal for what he understood to be true religion, and his exemplary conduct under the law as it was interpreted by the Pharisaical tradition. Paul had viewed himself as righteous under this system. But he gave it all up, he walked away from it, and embraced a replacement. What was the replacement? Notice that the fundamental gain – the glorious replacement of the discarded system – is not something but Someone: “for the sake of Christ” (v. 7); “because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ” (v. 8); “For his sake” (v. 8); “that I may gain Christ and be found in him” (v. 8-9).

In this regard, let me share a quote from the late Harry Ironside, an early 20^th century preacher and Bible teacher who is now with the Lord. In terms of Paul counting his former religious identity and religious conduct as loss, Ironside hits the nail on the head: 

“Note that he [Paul] did not count them “loss” merely for Christianity. In other words, he was not simply exchanging one religion for another; he was not replacing one system of rites and ceremonies with a superior system; he was not setting aside one set of doctrines, rules, and regulations in order to make way for a better set. Many people think that “changing their religion” is all that conversion means, all that God requires of them.

Paul’s experience was otherwise. He came into actual contact with a divine person, the once crucified but now glorified Christ of God. He was won by that person forever, and for His sake he counted all else as loss. If anyone does not comprehend the difference between Paul’s conversion and “changing religions,” he is missing entirely the point the apostle was emphasizing in Philippians 3:4-7. Christ, and Christ alone, meets every need of the soul. His work has satisfied God, and it satisfies the one who trusts in Him. When we rest in Christ, our confidence in the flesh is forever ended. All our confidence is in Him who died and rose again, and who lives to intercede for us.”[4]

Do you understand? In terms of what is at the heart of true conversion, Paul didn’t exchange the religion of Pharisaical Judaism for the religion of Christianity, he didn’t exchange an inferior religious system for a superior system, he didn’t merely exchange a faulty worldview for a faithful worldview, he didn’t exchange the outdated instructions of the Old Testament prophets for the cutting edge instructions of the New Testament apostles[5], he didn’t exchange passion about law-keeping for passion about spiritual disciplines or missions. To be sure, doctrine and worldview and spiritual practices and missions have their place as we follow after Christ. But the main point needs to be sounded forth with great clarity: at the heart of true conversion is exchanging all other things for a Person – indeed, for a Person who is the most precious and valuable Person in the universe. Religions don’t save people, systems don’t save people, worldviews don’t save people, instructions don’t save people, spiritual disciplines don’t save people, and ministry doesn’t save people. Jesus saves people! Jesus alone! Jesus saves every sinner who turns away from dead-end sins and dead-end systems and dead-end successes, and instead turns to Him and Him alone for salvation. Jesus alone is the chief gain, the supreme treasure, the highest joy, the most precious possession of the true convert’s heart: “I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.” Knowing Christ is of incomparable worth. And in comparison to the incomparable Christ, everything else is rubbish.

FOUR REASONS WHY JESUS IS THE MOST VALUABLE PERSON IN THE UNIVERSE

Why is knowing Christ of incomparable worth? Why is the Lord Jesus Christ the most precious and most valuable Person in the universe? Consider these things:

First, the Lord Jesus Christ made you. “For by him all things were created” (Colossians 1:16), writes Paul in Colossians 1, meaning that the Father created all things through the agency and active involvement of Jesus, His Son. As your Creator, the Lord Jesus is intimately acquainted with you, and He is your rightful Owner and Lord. If a baby needs his Mommy, and if children need their parents, how much more do we need the tender care of our divine Lord and Maker? Why would you trust your life to any other?

Second, the Lord Jesus Christ made everything. He made the stars above and the seas below, the mountains and valleys, the rivers and streams, the birds that soar and the wild animals that roam, the sugar maples and grape vines, the people you can see and the angelic beings that you can’t see, and everything else along with the ten thousand beauties that fill up the world – like sunsets over the ocean, or fall foliage on warm and sunny falls day when the air is peaceful, or a young horse that stays near its mother in the field, or the flowers on a lilac tree that smell as wonderful as they look. How brilliant and resourceful would you have to be to pull off the creation of this universe? How skillful would you have to be engineer the architecture of the natural world, how wise to establish eco-systems of interdependence, how beautiful to put so much beauty on display? As if this isn’t enough, He not only made everything, but also sustains everything and holds it all together. In Paul’s words, “in him all things hold together” (Colossians 1:17). The reason that the universe hasn’t fallen utterly apart, and the reason that you haven’t fallen utterly apart, is because He is there upholding the world, and you, by His powerful word (Hebrews 1:3). In Philippians 4 Paul writes, “And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19). Why would you try to journey through this world without knowing the One who made it, sustains it, and has an abundant storehouse of provision for your every need?

Third, the Lord Jesus Christ has abided in loving fellowship with the heavenly Father and the Holy Spirit from eternity. I trust you understand that when I say that Jesus is the most valuable Person in the universe, I am not comparing Him with the Father and the Spirit, who share equal divine status and glory with our Lord. Our Lord Jesus Christ has forever known love and joy and fellowship within the Holy Trinity, within the glorious Godhead. Everything else that exists, exists in dependence on God, and as such everything else is capable of change and decay (Hebrews 1:10-12). But in the incorruptible and unchanging Godhead, there is only fullness of life and perfection of righteous character. If you would have life, if you would behold true and lasting beauty, if you would stand on rock solid reality, if you would be enfolded into a holy love that never fails, if you would have the joy of an eternal fellowship that will prosper forever and never perish, then you must be connected to the Source, to the Author and Prince of life. Jesus alone can bring you to the Father, and Jesus alone can breathe His Spirit into you. Why would you ever turn away from this Fountain of living water?

Fourth, the Lord Jesus Christ demonstrated His love for you in the profoundest of ways. This one and only Son of God, the Lord of glory, made a personal visit to the world that He had made. Though the world was still beautiful in many respects, it was also terribly broken because of mankind’s rebellion and sin. Our sin separated us from God and made us deserving of His righteous judgment. Our sin also brought untold pain into our relationships with one another and caused all kinds of disorder and disruption in our everyday lives, with certain death for all who were born. But He came! He lived among people like us – He lived as Life-giver in a dying world, He lived righteously in an unrighteous world, He lived compassionately in an unkind world, He lived sacrificially in a selfish world. He healed the brokenhearted, restored sight to the blind, opened the ears of the deaf, made the lame to walk again, cleansed lepers from the curse of their disease, raised up the dead, proclaimed Good News to the poor, blessed the dear children, rebuked the religious leaders over their pseudo-righteous systems, taught His disciples how to truly live and serve, and forgave people their sins. Jesus, the breath of fresh air in a toxic world! Then he did the unthinkable: He purchased our forgiveness at the infinite cost of His own life, shedding His blood upon the cross. The consequence of sin is death, and death – spiritual and eternal death, forever cut off from the blessings of God – death is what we deserved. But Jesus the Savior stepped up and took upon Himself all the guilt and punishment for our misdeeds, and suffered the judgment that was rightfully ours. And why? So that He could give us the life and joy that were rightfully His. Someone has put it like this:

“I had a debt I could not pay,
He paid the debt He did not owe,
I needed someone,
To wash my sins away.
And now I sing a brand new song,
“Amazing grace” all day long,
Christ Jesus paid the debt,
That I could never pay.”[6]

Do you see the beauty of His sacrifice? Talk about gains and losses! He had it all, He had true gain – not that He ever actually gained it of course, it was already His by virtue of his divine nature. He had unequalled status before He entered into our broken world. But what did He do? According to Philippians 2:6-8, “though he was in the form of God, [he] did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:6-8). In a stunning act of love, He set aside the gain that was rightfully His, and for our sake He embraced profound losses: God becomes Man, the Lord becomes a servant, the Holy One carries our sins, the Life-giver enters into death – for our sake, that we might live, that we might share in the gain that belongs rightfully to our Savior.

He comes to us from the heavenly world of great abundance, but we can only come to Him from this earthly world of rubbish gains that we have made for ourselves. All we have are worthless pursuits, dead-end systems, multiplied sins, filthy self-righteousness, and coming up short on every side. But at the cross of our gracious Lord Jesus Christ, we have the opportunity to lay down all of our losses, and look at Him who is the embodiment of all perfection. Here is the Faithful One, the Gracious One, the Holy One, the Righteous One, the Sovereign King, His soul poured out unto death in order to bring sinners like us from death to life. And what is life? Knowing Him. To “gain Christ and be found in him” is to gain everything that matters. Remember what Paul said in Philippians 1: “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21) Christ was Paul’s life, and when Paul died he went straightaway into the presence of the risen Christ. To “be with Christ... is far better” (Philippians 1:23) which is why “[death] is gain” for those who love Christ.

On the other hand, to hold onto other things so that you don’t gain Christ and remain outside of him, is – in the end – to lose everything that matters. “For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?” (Luke 9:25)

STAY CLOSE TO JESUS!

Let me conclude with a brief application. Remember that Paul is cautioning the Philippians from false teachers who were claiming that they needed something more than Jesus in order to be complete, to be truly saved, to be first-class members of God’s family. When false teachers say such things, they are saying that Jesus isn’t enough; they are saying that you need Jesus plus something else. But after our reflection on Philippians 3:7-8, you should know better. If you’ve renounced all things in order to gain Christ, and if knowing Christ is of incomparable worth, and if by having Christ you have everything that matters, then there is nothing else to be had! I am not talking, of course, about our need to grow in Him and mature in Him, which involves Holy-Spirit-generated efforts on our part. What I am talking about are those false teachings, some subtle and some not so subtle, that tell us that we need to do something or feel something or have something or know something in addition to the gospel of Jesus Christ in order to be a beloved member of God’s family. Don’t believe the false teacher who comes along and says if you’ll just read this book, or if you’ll just receive this second blessing and start speaking in tongues, or if you’ll just practice this creative spiritual discipline, or if you’ll just join our little sub-group over here, or if you’ll just follow our made-up rules about how to be more holy than those ordinary Christians, or if you’ll just follow our guidelines for family life and educating children, then you’ll really be an A+ Christian, then you’ll be a first-class disciple, then you’ll be a real saint. Say, ‘Rubbish, that! Just like all the rubbish I already gave up in order to gain Christ.’  Then say, ‘I am not sorry to say that Jesus is my everything, my treasure and strength, my A+ righteousness and salvation. No add-ons are welcome here!’

J. B. Lightfoot, a 19^th century bishop in England, said it well:

“Though the Gospel is capable of doctrinal exposition, though it is eminently fertile in moral results, yet its substance is neither a dogmatic system nor a moral code, but a Person and a Life.”[7]

Brothers and sisters, stay close to Jesus, and savor Him as the greatest treasure of all. 

Let us pray.

ENDNOTES

[1] Blaise Pascal, Pensées. Quoted in David Mathis, “In and Out, In a Blaise of Glory,” on desiringGod.org, June 19, 2013. Available online: https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/in-and-out-in-a-blaise-of-glory.

[2] I may have first encountered John Piper’s solar system illustration through listening to one of his sermons. For a written version of Piper’s illustration, see: John Piper, “Sex and the Supremacy of Christ, Part 2,” on desiringGod.org, September 26, 2004. Available online: https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/sex-and-the-supremacy-of-christ-part-2. In this particular message Piper writes, “All the planets of your life — your sexuality and desires, your commitments and beliefs, your aspirations and dreams, your attitudes and convictions, your habits and disciplines, your solitude and relationships, your labor and leisure, your thinking and feeling — all the planets of your life are held in orbit by the greatness and gravity and blazing brightness of the supremacy of Jesus Christ at the center of your life. And if he ceases to be the bright, blazing, satisfying beauty at the center of your life, the planets will fly into confusion, and a hundred things will be out of control, and sooner or later they will crash into destruction.”

[3] John Calvin very helpfully comments: “Paul did not reckon it necessary to disown connection with his own tribe and with the race of Abraham, and make himself an alien, that he might become a Christian, but to renounce dependence upon his descent…. Paul, therefore, divested himself – not of works, but of that mistaken confidence in works, with which he had been puffed up” (italics added). Calvin, John. Calvin’s Bible Commentaries: Philippians, Colossians, and Thessalonians. Translated by John King. Forgotten Books: 2007 (orig. 16^th century): p. 78.

[4] Harry Ironside, “Ironside’s Notes on Selected Books / Philippians 3,” in the Bible Commentaries section at studylight.org. Available online: https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/isn/philippians-3.html.

[5] This is a rhetorical statement. To be clear, the instructions of the Old Testament prophets are NOT outdated!

[6] I took these lyrics from “I had a debt I could not pay,” on hymnal.net. Available online: https://www.hymnal.net/en/hymn/ns/172. After a brief search, my understanding is that this chorus – or at least the original version of this chorus – was written by Ellis J. Crum. For example, see: http://www.digitalsongsandhymns.com/songs/4203 , which indicates that this chorus is still under copyright – © 1977 Ellis J. Crum, Publisher (Admin. by Sacred Selections R.E. Winsett LLC).

[7] I was able to view this quotation via the Google Books online resource (books.google.com). The book itself is J. B. Lightfoot, Philippians (The Crossway Classic Commentaries). Alister McGrath and J. I. Packer, Series Editors. Wheaton: Crossway, 1994 (orig. 1868): p. XVIII.