I Want To Know Christ Series

I Want to Know Christ

Philippians 3:7-11

Online Sermon: http://www.mckeesfamily.com/?page_id=3567

Please look at the screen and tell me what all the people shown have in common. They all accomplished much in life and are written in the annals of history. Albert Einstein is known for developing the theory of relativity and his important contributions to the theory of quantum mechanics. William Shakespeare is known for the beautiful poetry he wrote. Elvis Presley is known as the “King of Rock and Roll.” Adolf Hitler is known as the dictator of Nazi Germany who initiated World War II and was responsible for the Holocaust. Christopher Columbus is known as the principal European who discovered the Americas. Thomas Edison is known for getting electricity directly into people’s homes and the inventing the light bulb. Walt Disney is known for his movies, parks, and cartoon characters such as Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck. And Mother Theresa is known for finding the Missionaries of Charity who devoted their time helping the poor of Calcutta, India. All of us have one life to live and want to make the most of our time here on earth. Your goals might not be as lofty as the people mentioned in the history books but as one sits upon one’s deathbed the last think one wants to experience are regrets! The Bible states money, fame, power, and beauty are fleeting and chasing after these things is pure vanity for each of the famous, historical people I mentioned have returned to the dust in which they were formed. In today’s passage, Philippians 3:7-11, we are going to hear how one of the most famous of Israel’s religious leaders, Apostle Paul, described the true meaning of life! He traded in his fame, power, and money for suffering and persecution in God’s kingdom because for Paul nothing mattered in life except knowing and living for Christ Jesus our Lord! As you hear the words of Paul, please ask yourself if you too will have peace, security, and assurance that your life mattered because you are filled with and look forward too meeting your Lord!

The Right Perspective on Human Achievement

Paul did a “heavenly audit” of his life and with boldness and humility stated, “whatever were gains to me I now consider a loss for the sake of Christ” (3:7). “Gain” and “loss” are accounting terms that Paul used to help us understand the source of a person’s righteousness. What does a sinful, albeit image-bearer, offer to a holy God to be accepted by Him? I am an CPA by trade. When sales are credited, they add to the profit. What does a person do to be credited as righteous in God’s sight? Before Paul was saved, he credited circumcision, being an Israelite, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, a Pharisee, zeal, and faultless in following the Mosaic Law (3:4-6) and felt he was “right” before God. Foolishly he thought, surely the “star hope for Gamaliel and the Sanhedrin” had a guaranteed ticket into heaven! Paul’s boasting and confidence in the flesh ended on the road to Damascus when he met Christ and realized he made a serious accounting blunder, “he had still fallen short of what God demanded” and as such his good works were truly to be seen as a loss in God’s sight! But how can this be true? How could one ever count trying to be holy by memorizing and obeying God’s word, Sabbath-keeping, Passover observance, or dietary scrupulosity” as a loss? Is Paul truly suggesting that our attempts at holiness by reading the Bible, praying, worshipping, and feeding the poor are to be considered irrelevant to our standing before a holy God? Yes, they are a loss when one places one faith in human effort rather than faith in a risen Savior! Since there is no one righteous not even one and “nothing that is unrighteous or defiling will ever enter heaven” (Revelation 21:27), there is no human accomplishment that can ever be credited to a person. After Paul met Christ, he soon came to realize that Christ alone is the only one that can ever stand in the credit column of our right standing before God! Paul is not stating that our attempts at living holy lives are irrelevant but merely that one must be born again, or one simply is not even running the race to win the prize (1 Corinthians 9:24-27)! Since all human effort is “fleshly and therefore fallible and due to be tainted with sin,” a person’s righteousness can only be imputed upon them through faith in the atoning sacrifice of God’s one and only Son, Jesus! In Christ alone there is no condemnation (Romans 8:1) because He paid the price for our sin by appeased God’s righteous wrath on the cross! So, Paul rightly said that if one was to boast in anything it would only be in the Lord (1 Corinthians 1:31)!