Philippians 3: 7-11
(7) But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ.
Repeating the verse we ended with yesterday, we will continue Paul's conversation.
(8) More than that, I count all things to be loss
Everything that comes between him and Christ is drawing him away from Christ, whether they are things that benefited him in the past or not.
in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord,
There is no comparison between material, physical things and knowing that Christ Jesus has redeemed you. Nothing of this world has any value against the eternal, magnificent future He has planned for us.
for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ,
Everything that gave Saul of Tarsis standing and respect has been lost to Paul the Evangelist, and he now sees all that as no more valuable than garbage. He now has standing and respect with the Son of God Himself!
(9) and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law,
All the righteousness he had been able to claim before was according to what he was able to do in following the Law of Moses, which is earned and not acceptable to God.
but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith,
Because of his faith, his belief that Jesus took his death for him on the cross, he now has a righteousness that Jesus earned for him, placed on him by God the Father as a gift, on the basis of his trusting Christ.
(10) that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection
To know Him, not just know about Him; and to experience the power of Jesus' rising from the dead, the power to also raise us from the dead, with a spiritual body that is fit to live in the presence of God.
and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death;
Everything Paul had to suffer, and everything we have to suffer in this life, is participating in the sufferings Jesus went through for us, human suffering and death.
(11) in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.
Now Paul is again considering that he may be put to death. As Christ died for us and was resurrected first, He showed that we also will be resurrected after we die. And Paul was looking forward to it.
O my Father, please help us realize that this physical life on this material Earth will always produce suffering in its brokenness. Let us feel Your presence with us, and strengthen us in all the trials and troubles and sorrows we face here. May we all grow up in Christ, to attain the spiritual and emotional maturity to the full stature of the Son of God.
And every eye shall see, every knee will bow, every tongue will proclaim that Jesus is our Christ, the Lord God Almighty, sovereign King over all Creation; to the everlasting glory of Almighty God the Father, for ever and ever. Amen.
Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus!
