Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you is no trouble to me and is safe for you.

Look out for the dogs, look out for the evildoers, look out for those who mutilate the flesh. For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh—though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. 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, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.—Philippians 3:1–11

Introduction

It’s the last Sunday of the year and it’s New Year’s Eve, eve. It is common and it is not unwise that at year end we take stock of our lives. Successes and failures. Gains and losses. Some of us will make New Year’s resolutions to achieve some goal that was elusive in the past year. Some of us will not feel the need to do because of a satisfied sense of accomplishment. Some of us won’t trouble ourselves to either reflect on the past year or to resolve for the new year.

Either way, I find this text fitting for this Sunday, because this text puts both our successes—and also our failures—into gospel perspective.

My aim is that you and I might also be joyfully captured by the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus—and that by so being satisfied in him, everything else is put into gospel perspective. When that happens, the all-surpassing worth of knowing Christ radically changes your view of everyone and everything—even your view of yourself. To put it another way, if you have an accurate sense of the super-value of knowing Christ, your sense of the value of everything else takes its rightful place as secondary by comparison.

Context

First, let me give you a sense of the context. From prison, Paul writes this letter to the church in the city of Philippi with much concern that the church may be deceived by false teaching and forsake the gospel of Christ.

When Paul writes, in chapter 3, verse 1, “Rejoice in the Lord!” he is saying that as a corrective to some false teachers who were teaching that all believers ought to be circumcised in order be acceptable to God. It’s as if the false teachers were saying, “Rejoice in your obedience to Jewish law” to be saved. Paul counters that with, “No, rejoice in the Lord!”

The issue strikes right to the core of the gospel of Christ. The good news of the gospel is this: Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures to bring you to God. The false teachers were perverting the gospel message into this: Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures to bring you to God … IF you will make yourself acceptable to him by your obedience to Jewish law (namely, circumcision).

Many of the believers that made up the early church were Jews. And many Jewish believers, even though they had received Christ, strongly adhered to the old covenant of which circumcision was a sign. If a Jewish man became a Christian, no one thought twice about his circumcision because he had already been circumcised as a baby as a sign of the old covenant.

And yet, as more and more Gentiles became Christians, the role of adherence to Jewish law became a clear theological issue—a gospel issue! When a Gentile became a Christian, should he be circumcised in order to keep the Jewish old covenant law?

Paul’s answer is “No, no, no.” If you put your faith in Christ PLUS your obedience to the law—you betray that you do not have faith that Christ is sufficient for your salvation. You are an enemy of the gospel. That false gospel of "Jesus + obedience” betrays that you are an enemy of the gospel of Christ.

Gains Are Losses

Now to our text. Paul writes a parenthetical thought using himself as a personal illustration to correct the false teaching in verses 4–9. The ESV tries to show it with the use of dashes at the end of verses 3 and 9. Here, Paul explains in personal terms how coming to know Christ through the gospel has destroyed his confidence of earning the love of Christ by his own obedience.

Paul says, “I, too used to think that way before I came to know Christ.” He says, in verse 7 ... 

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

Q: What is he talking about? Gain? Loss? It’s an accounting metaphor. The word translated “gain” is actually plural. In other words, when he added up all the gains—the things that seemed to be his rich personal life assets—item by item, he has now come to see they add up to a loss for the sake of Christ. He now sees that he is broke. He’s bankrupt.

Q: What gain did he have? What life assets? He had plenty. Paul’s list of gains are the kind of things that the false teachers of the time were promoting as great religious assets. If you had them, you could be confident before God and others. You could rejoice in them.

Detailed List of Former Gains (Verses 4–5)

Paul explains the list of gains he has in mind. This reads like a résumé that would impress any religious Jew in his day. You know what a résumé is. It’s a condensation of background, education, skills, achievements, qualifications, and competencies. It’s an argument that you are worthy.

Pastor Tim Keller observes this about human society:

Making lists of our merits, coming up with résumés as ways of getting in to places we are on the outside, is something we do at every level and even the most profound level. All of our emotions, all of our heart, all of human society, everything is structured on this whole system. The system is this: you must amass a résumé to be let in. Otherwise, you’re shut out.¹

This is part of the human experience. It’s how you get into a company, a school, a group of friends, a mortgage. Are you qualified? Are you acceptable? If so, then you will be accepted in. If not, you are out.

If the gains of your background, education, skills, achievements, qualifications, and competencies adds up to the standard, you will be let in. You will feel pride because you did it. You got in to the school, you got the job, you married the girl, you made the team, etc. And if your gains do NOT add up, you are a loser. You are less worthy and you feel guilty. You feel shame. You are defective. And you fear that you will never measure up.

Paul is saying that he used to have this résumé approach with God. And he had no fear or anxiety about himself.

He was proud of his resume. In verses 4–5, he lists six of his religious traits that he once counted as gain.

1. He had undergone the religious rite of circumcision when he was 8 days old as the law required
2. He had religious parents, a religious heritage. He was not a proselyte, but was born and raised as a Jew of the tribe of Benjamin, one of the best tribes of Israel. It’s the tribe of Saul, Israel’s first king, and likely Paul’s birth namesake, “Saul.”
3. He had a religious ethnicity. He was more than a true Jew; he was a Hebrew of Hebrews. A purebred, with a genetic pedigree.
4. He had a record of strict religious observance as a Pharisee, the strictest of the Jewish sects.
5. He was zealous to the point of supporting the killing of Christians in order to protect his religion.
6. He was righteous in terms of immaculately keeping the OT religious laws.  

Paul lists all these religious gains of his life. Before he met Christ, he valued these things. They shaped his life. People looked up to him. He could boast before others, and think highly of himself.

Everything As Loss (vv. 8–9)

But, Paul’s whole value system radically changed when he came to know Christ. He came to realize that what he once valued greatly—the gains in his résumé in verses 4–5—now added up to NOTHING. See verses 7–8 :

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 the present gain of knowing Christ has exposed the old “gains” as “rubbish” (ESV), or more literally, “dung,” or “excrement”—worthless because they could not do what he hoped they could do for him, namely, secure love and acceptance from God and others. Such things Paul views as garbage because of the danger of gaining confidence from them more than from Christ. What does he have left? Christ.

This is like saying, I count the light of my flashlight as nothing compared to the light of the sun. By contrast, my house and all the material things I valued and lost in the fire, I count as nothing compared to the fact that my wife and I escaped with our lives. All Paul’s gains in Christ are far outweighed by one single gain, namely “knowing Christ Jesus my Lord” (v. 8).

Surpassing Greatness of Christ: Treasure

At our church we talk a lot about Christ being our treasure. What is a treasure? A treasure is something you value highly above other things. This is the radical shift in values that Jesus taught in parable form when he said, in Matthew 13:45–46,

“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.”

In the classic book The Pursuit of God, A.W. Tozer writes of this of the surpassing greatness of Christ (p. 19):

The man who has God for his treasure has all things in One. Many ordinary treasures may be denied him, or if he is allowed to have them, the enjoyment of them will be so tempered that they will never be necessary to his happiness. Or if he must see them go, one after one, he will scarcely feel a sense of loss, for having the Source of all things he has in One all satisfaction, all pleasure, all delight. Whatever he may lose he has actually lost nothing, for he now has it all in One, and he has it purely, legitimately and forever.

A Parable (Luke 18:9–14)

Jesus warned of this very thing in the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector in Luke 18:9–14. The apostle Paul used to think just like the Pharisee in this parable.

He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

What is the résumé of the Pharisee in the parable? I am better than others. Negatively, I’m not an extortioner. I am not unjust toward others. I have never committed adultery. And … I’m not like the despicable tax collector. Positively, I fast twice each week. I give tithes on every penny I receive. I praise you God that I have such a good résumé and that he hears my prayers.

What was Jesus’s assessment? God is not impressed with his résumé. Those who rely on the righteousness of their own résumé will be turned away from God’s presence, forgiveness and favor. No one will be let into God’s grace by his or her résumé.

What Paul makes clear, and what Jesus makes clear, is this: In coming to God by the gospel of Christ, we need not only repent of our sins and all of the ways that we have fallen short of glorifying God in our actions, our attitudes and in our sinful state. But also, we need to repent of all our righteousness by which we think we can earn the love and forgiveness of God.

Saving faith is this: Trusting in Jesus Christ alone for the forgiveness of our sins and for the fulfillment of all God’s promises to you—even eternal life. It is repenting of your sins and receiving God’s forgiveness in Christ. And it is repenting of any and all of our goodness by which we think we might work for God’s favor.

Quite pointedly, Tim Keller puts it this way:

“I can’t repent just of my sins, but also of my best deeds.” Until you repent of them both, you’re not a Christian.²

We need both God’s forgiveness of our sins and God’s righteousness in order to be brought into relationship with him. So, Paul writes in verse 9,

[to] be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith.

To put it in terms of the resume metaphor. The promise of the gospel is this: Christ took our sins upon himself, suffered and died for us. And, Christ has by faith in him, given us his righteous résumé by which we have been let into relationship with God. His résumé has become our own.

Conclusion

When you come to know the surpassing worth of Christ by faith in the gospel, everything changes.  

Your Relationship With God Through Christ: By faith you have now come to know Christ as your all-in-all Savior and Lord. By faith, his righteous resume has been given you as a gift of grace. His death has paid for your sins. You are forgiven. Accepted by God. God is your Father; you are his child. God is for you and not against you. Christ will never leave you and will be with you always.

Everything else pales in comparison. Jesus has now become your treasure because by faith you now see “the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, [the] Lord.”

With Jesus as your savior and your Lord, you have in him all that God promises to be for us as his people now and forever. Therefore, in the words of Philippians, Paul would remind us, “Do not rejoice in your résumé. Rejoice in the Lord Jesus, our treasure.”

Your Relationship with the World: You no longer see the world as a playground or arena in which you perform to improve your résumé. There is no place for … “My ethnicity is better than ...,” “My family heritage is better than ...,” “The school I went to is better than ...,” “My job is better than ...,” etc.

Rather now, you realize that God has not placed you in this time and place and family to add to your résumé by making much of yourself in this world, but  to make much of him.

Your Relationship with Other People: You no longer see other people as pawns to be used to add to your résumé. There is no place for ... “I’m not as bad as that person …,” “I’m a better parent than …,” “my kids would never …,” “I work harder than …,” etc.

Rather, you now see other people as people, created in the image of God, yet sinners—just like yourself. And you move toward them, not to use them for your resume, but to love them as neighbor if they don’t yet know Christ, or as a brother or sister in Christ.

Yourself: You no longer see yourself as either so sinful and despicably unlovable that you are beyond hope of acceptance by God, nor so righteous that you deserve that everyone let you in—even God.

Rather now, you see God satisfied with Christ’s righteousness on your behalf. Because of Christ, God is rich in mercy and true to his promise to forgive all our sins according to the richness of his grace. AND, you also see that your righteous résumé—no matter how impressive it may be to you or to others—does not impress God. It’s rubbish. Dung. And because God has extended his grace to you, so also, you look to show his grace to others, not by demanding love from them, but in showing love to them. 

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¹ Keller, T..J. (2013).  The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive. New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church.

²Ibid.