The Surpassing Worth of Knowing Christ: Philippians 3:1-11

Sermon Idea: The gain of knowing Christ through faith surpasses whatever gain may come from confidence in ourselves.  

Introduction: On the evening of May 24th, 1738, a young man living in London recorded the story of his conversion in his journal. That young man was John Wesley, the father of modern-day Methodism. He had gone to what we might think of as a bible study meeting, what he calls a society, and when he arrived, someone was reading Martin Luther’s preface to his commentary on Romans. Here is the most famous portion of that entry. 

In the evening I went very unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate Street, where one was reading Luther’s preface to the Epistle to the Romans. About a quarter before nine, while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.

What strikes me about this story is that Wesley wrote it not as someone living a life of sin and debauchery but as an Anglican minister with great zeal for his ministry. By this time, Wesley was well-educated and ordained as a priest. He had a reputation for strict habits of Bible reading, prayer, and even mercy ministries, such as caring for the poor. 

Wesley’s testimony is powerful because it is not his great works of piety that give him confidence and assurance before God but Christ and Christ alone. He says I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.

The Lord often uses the power of Christian testimony to draw people to Jesus Christ and to demonstrate that the gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes (Rom. 1:16). Of course, by the word testimony, I mean recounting one’s conversion, the story of how someone became a Christian. 

Throughout church history, God has used not only the testimony of John Wesley but also Augustine, Martin Luther, Charles Spurgeon, and countless others to evangelize the lost and edify the church. 

Undoubtedly, many of you have benefitted from hearing the testimony of family or friends. Perhaps you’ve even had the opportunity to share your own testimony before the church. To hear a sincere Christian testimony is a powerful experience. They are powerful experiences because they testify to the gracious working of God in Christ by the power of the Spirit. 

You see, the best Christian testimonies are those that testify to the work of God in Jesus Christ in such a way that the sinner’s testimony becomes a testament to the surpassing worth of knowing Jesus Christ. 

Philippians 3:1-11 is such a testimony. After providing Timothy and Epaphrodtius as Christ-like examples, Paul offers his own story as a means to encourage the Philippians to have the mind of Christ. Like Wesley long after him, Paul does not put his confidence in his flesh but in Christ and Christ alone. 

This morning, I want us to hear from God and believe that knowing Christ through faith surpasses whatever gain may come from confidence in ourselves. 

We’ll do that in two primary ways. First, I want to encourage you to beware of basing your relationship with God on confidence in yourself. Second, I want you to believe that a true relationship with God comes from knowing Christ through faith.

I.) Beware of basing your relationship with God on confidence in yourself (Philippians 3:1-6)

It seems that Paul may have wanted to conclude the letter and then decided it was important to interject his own to further point the Philippians to Jesus Christ. We do this all the time in our own speech. Just think of how often you begin a sentence only to switch gears because something important comes to mind. Paul might have done that here. 

Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you is no trouble to me and is safe for you. ² Look out for the dogs, look out for the evildoers, look out for those who mutilate the flesh. ³ For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh (Php 3:1–3) 

As a long friend should do, Paul warns the Philippians about teachers and teachings that are contrary to the gospel. These teachers are unlikely to be prominent in Philippi, but their teachings are becoming popular enough for Paul to warn the Philippians about them. He describes them as dogs, evildoers, and those who mutilate the flesh. 

In other words, there are most likely Jewish Christians who claim to believe that Jesus is the Messiah but who teach that Gentiles must be circumcised to be right with God and a part of God’s covenant people. 

God gave circumcision as a sign of the covenant God made with Abraham (Gen. 17). Israelite males were circumcised on the eighth day after their birth. It served as the entry sign into the covenant community and set the community apart from the nations as God’s people. It was an important symbol of Israel’s national identity. 

One of the major questions the early church had to answer was what it meant for Jews and Gentiles to be one people of God in Christ. Many groups argued that the Gentiles needed to become Jews through circumcision and adherence to the food laws to be right with God and part of God’s people. 

Much of Paul’s ministry is spent dealing with this question, and his answer is always the same. Jesus Christ has fulfilled the law perfectly, so the only thing required of a person to be made right with God and be made a member of God’s people is faith in Jesus Christ. 

In fact, the New Testament identifies those who have placed their faith in Christ as true Israelites who have been circumcised not in the flesh but in the heart. That is, they have been born again through faith in Christ. Throughout the Old Testament, we learn that those circumcised in the flesh also needed the circumcision of the heart. 

 ⁶ And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live (Dt 30:5–6)

¹¹ In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, ¹² having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead (Col 2:11–12)

This is why Paul can say in verse 3, For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh (Php 3:3)

When Jesus comes, everything about what it means to relate to God becomes centered around him. Jews and Gentiles who place their faith in Christ are true Israelites who worship by the Spirit and boast in Jesus Christ. To boast or glory in Jesus is to put all your confidence in him, not yourself. 

Note the serious danger here. Paul identifies these false teachers as dogs and evil-doers. Jews would often refer to Gentiles as “dogs” because they were not members of God’s covenant community and so ritually unclean. In other words, Paul says by their obsession with requiring circumcision in addition to Christ, they have become the Gentiles by having confidence in the flesh. 

It is at this point where Paul’s testimony becomes especially powerful. Paul’s resume gives him reasons to boast in the flesh, but whatever gain comes from his confidence in the flesh pails in comparison to knowing Christ. 

— ⁴ 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: ⁵ 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; ⁶ as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. ⁷ But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. (Php 3:3–7)

This is an impressive resume of outward righteousness. Paul says he once put confidence in circumcision, his tribal lineage, and being a Hebrew of Hebrews. i.e., he could read and speak Hebrew and preserve Hebrew culture. He was a member of the Pharisees, a sect within Judaism known for its oral traditions and interpretation of the law. Outwardly, Paul was righteous according to the law. This is not a claim to sinlessness but a true claim of external righteousness from someone who followed the law, including its provisions for atonement and forgiveness. 

For all these reasons, Paul could have been confident in himself, but he considered it a loss for the sake of knowing Christ. The image we are given is that of a ledger. All that was once on the “gain” side of the ledge is moved to the “loss” side, leaving nothing but Christ as a gain for Paul. 

For pastoral due diligence, I want to mention four things that we should not put our confidence in. 

1. Put no confidence in your place. 

It’s a blessing to be born in America, but there is nothing inherently Christian about it. We praise that the gospel can be preached freely here and that it is more accessible here than in many other places, but God shows no partiality. Pride in place or believing America is a Christian nation is not a saving faith. 

2. Put no confidence in your parents. 

We praise God for godly Christian households, but your parents’ faith is not enough for your standing before Him. Every person is accountable to God and must be reconciled with Him through Jesus Christ. The question, friend, is, have you placed your faith in Christ and been baptized in the name of the Triune God? 

⁵ I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well. (2 Ti 1:5)

3. Put no confidence in your theological positions.

I love theology. I love confessionalism and conviction, but friends, we are not saved by our positions. We are saved through faith in a person, the person of Jesus Christ. Sound doctrine is important, but our confidence cannot be in our doctrine but in Christ and Christ alone.

4. Put no confidence in your practices. 

Despite what some people say, Christianity is a religion. It’s a relationship, to be sure, but it’s a religion that consists of spiritual practices, rituals, and disciplines, many of which happen in a particular place, i.e. the church. These are all good things and important parts of reverent worship. These practices in and of themselves cannot be the basis for our confidence before God. Our relationship before God is enjoyed in these practices, but we boast not in them but in Christ and Christ alone. 

Whatever external righteousness one can attain through one’s own efforts pales in comparison to the gain that comes from knowing Jesus Christ. That brings us to our next point: believe that a true relationship with God comes from knowing Christ through faith. 

II.) Believe that a true relationship with God comes by knowing Christ through faith (Philippians 3:7-11) 

⁸ 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 (Php 3:8)

Paul’s relationship with God in Christ proves to be so rewarding and rich, of such surpassing worth, that his former confidence in himself and the righteousness that came from it became nothing more than “rubbish.” That’s not nearly a strong enough translation. The word here has a really crude and gross meaning. It could be used to refer to garbage, excrement, and feces. It’s the latter that Paul seems to have in mind. 

In light of Jesus Christ, he considered his former life as having the value of “crap.” The Bible is consistent in that our righteousness before God is vile compared to God’s righteousness and holiness. 

Isaiah compared human righteousness to filthy rags. But we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags (Is 64:6, NKJV)

The good news is that faith in Jesus Christ can secure our standing before God and knowing Christ of surpassing worth. Knowledge of Christ is so valuable it can’t be measured by any human standard. To what can the knowledge of Christ be compared? 

Is it like a treasure in a field that a man finds, covers up, sells all he has, and buys that field? Is it like a pearl of great value that a man sold all he had and bought?  In verses 9-11, Paul explains why knowing Christ is of surpassing worth. Each one could be given its own sermon. Indeed, books have been written in abundance just to articulate the salvation that Paul describes in just a few verses.

Why is knowing Christ as Lord of surpassing worth? 

1. Knowing Christ as Lord means union with Christ. 

 I may gain Christ and be found in him (Php 3:8–9)

The central and fundamental truth of God’s work of salvation is that we become united to Christ through faith and the indwelling of the Spirit. Our union with Christ is how we access all the gracious benefits that Christ secured for us on the cross. What is true of Jesus becomes true of us. As Christ has died, so we have died and been made new in Jesus Christ. This is dramatized at our baptism when we profess faith in Jesus. We are buried with him in Baptism and raised with him in new life. 

2. Knowing Christ as Lord means we have righteousness from God (Justification)

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 (Php 3:9)

This verse captures the glory of the doctrine of justification. This is a legal concept rooted in the Old Testament. To be justified is to be in the right, to receive the verdict of not guilty according to the law. 

Justification is God’s gracious declaration that those who place their faith in Jesus Christ are counted to be in the right before him. God does this not by sweeping away our sins but by counting us righteous in Christ. The righteousness God grants us is not our own but the righteousness of Christ. 

Notice how Paul makes a clear distinction not…righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but…the righteousness from God that depends on faith. 

The righteousness that we need to stand before God can never come from ourselves. We are lawbreakers. We are transgressors. All, without exception, are guilty before God’s righteous judgment. ²³ for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, (Ro 3:23)

This is what makes the life and death of Jesus such good news. Jesus lives in perfect obedience to God’s law. He is the righteous one. He then dies in our place on the cross—the righteous for the unrighteous (2 Cor 5:21). He takes our sin and disobedience so that we can receive his righteous obedience through faith. That’s how God justifies sinners; the righteous obedience of Jesus is attributed to our account by grace through faith.

It’s as if God covers us in such a way that he wraps us with the robes of Christ’s righteousness and obedience so that when our lives are taken into account, God considers Christ’s righteousness as ours. 

²⁴ and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, ²⁵ whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith (Ro 3:24–25.)

Knowledge of Christ as Lord is of surpassing worth because with comes the righteousness of Christ. 

It is this glorious truth that we proclaim when we sing, Because the sinless savior died, my sinful soul is counted free, For God the just is satisfied to look on him and pardon me.

3. Knowing Christ as Lord means sharing in the power of his resurrection (Sanctification)

¹⁰ that I may know him and the power of his resurrection (Php 3:10)

To know Christ Jesus as Lord is to experience the power of his resurrection. In a very real way, those who are in Christ have Christ’s resurrection power at work within them. It’s why we can grow, change, defeat sin, and be strengthened in the faith. 

Friends, do you know the great power that is at work within you? Have you considered how it is superior to the temptations and struggles that still hinder you? 

The power of his resurrection assures our sanctification, so we can slowly but surely become more like Jesus Christ. 

4. Knowing Christ as Lord means attaining the resurrection from the dead (Glorification)

and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, ¹¹ that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead (Php 3:10–11)

Christian hope is not political success, prosperity, or achieving all your goals. Christian hope is the promise that death will be undone, that sin will be no more, and as sure as Christ was raised from the dead, all who are in Christ will be raised to dwell with God forever.