What is more, I
consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ
Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage,
that I may gain Christ
Paul is sold out for Christ! He is all in, fully committed, and
completely dedicated. So much so, that he had given up the physical comforts
and luxuries that he had become accustomed to in favor of pursuing and
spreading the gospel message. Paul realizes that there is simply nothing greater
than being found as one of God’s chosen few through Christ. He acknowledges in
verse 9 that he can only be seen as righteous through faith in Christ…”and be found in him, not having a
righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through
faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith”.
Paul nails it…we cannot achieve righteous in the sight of the Lord on our own
merits. It is only through faith in Christ that we can be seen as good before
the Lord….it is only through belief that Christ died for us that we can have
the millions of sins we have committed during our lifetime washed completely away.
And therefore, Paul concludes that everything comes in second place compared to
knowing Jesus…everything plays second fiddle to knowing and believing in Christ.
It’s pretty unlikely that we will ever be called to give up absolutely
everything in our lives for the sake of the gospel. But there will be times
when God calls us to get a bit uncomfortable and follow a path that we might
not be used to in order to spread the gospel to the world. There will be times
where God leads us to serve him in a place that is outside of our comfort zone
and leads us to grow our trust in him. And when that time comes, may we warmly
welcome the opportunity to serve the Lord…may we embrace the chance to put
everything to the side and put serving God as our primary focus. To God alone
be the glory!
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