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Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus… (Philippians 3:7-11)
I recall attending a Pentecostal meeting many years
ago and long before I became a Christian. It was certainly lively and
there was plenty to see and hear but something in particular about the
meeting, and that struck me as very odd at the time, has stayed with me
to this day. A young person seated near me seemed enraptured by something
and repeated the name Jesus almost like a mantra.
Since becoming a Christian I have come to understand something of what
Jesus must have meant to that person and find that the boot is now on
the other foot. Someone I know loaned a CD of Christian music to a non-Christian
of his acquaintance. The non-Christian enjoyed the music well enough but
remarked, "You do seem to make a lot of Jesus." Yes we do! And that is
what Paul does in these verses.
Whatever was to my profit I now consider loss
for the sake of Christ. What is more I consider everything a loss compared
with the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose
sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish that I may gain Christ…"
(vv7-8)
Paul deliberately uses accounting terms here - profit and loss. What he
once considered to his profit he now regards as a liability - loss. The
language he uses here to emphasise his utter rejection of his old life
is very strong, "I consider them rubbish". The word translated 'rubbish'
here literally means 'muck' or 'dung'. Paul once put his trust in religious
observances, his own righteousness, but has so thoroughly rejected his
old way as to consider it fit only for the dung heap. He sacrificed it
all for "the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus". What had Paul
discovered, what had affected such a radical change that he was able to
consider all he once knew and valued as 'rubbish'?
"I consider them rubbish, 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 is through faith in Christ - the righteousness
that comes from God and is by faith" (v9)
Paul discovered that the righteousness he strove so hard to achieve by
keeping the law was a free gift from God, obtained through faith in Christ.
He discovered that he could be justified, put right with God, through
faith in the finished work of Christ on the Cross.
"I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship
of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death" (v10)
Paul discovered that, through the power of Christ's resurrection, he could
become more like Christ. He discovered that he could be sanctified through
faith in the power of Christ working in him.
"And so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead" (v11)
Finally, Paul discovered that he could look forward with assurance to
that time when he will be glorified with Christ. That the work God had
begun with salvation continued through the process of sanctification,
ending in the full realisation of God's plan.
"In him we were also chosen, having been
predestined according to the plan of him who works everything in conformity
with the purpose of his will, in order that we who were the first to hope
in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory. And you also were included
in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation.
Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy
Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption
of those who are God's possession - to the praise of his glory." (Eph.1:11-14)
Paul had discovered the threefold process in the plan of God: Salvation,
Sanctification, and Glorification. A process that Scripture tells us,
once begun, is guaranteed to all those who trust in Christ.
Yes, we do make a lot of Jesus and is it any wonder? It may not always
be appropriate to go into raptures and repeat his name like a mantra but
certainly we might ask ourselves how this week we might express our love
for him who loved us so much. How we might convey to others who don't
know him our total rejection of what we used to be and complete devotion
to what God has planned for us because of Jesus.