15  Giving Up  to Gain  (Philippians 3:4–11)

although I myself might have confidence even in the flesh. If anyone else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh, I far more: circumcised the eighth day, of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the Law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to the righteousness which is in the Law, found blameless. But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. (3:4–11)

This autobiographical passage introduces the most dramatic and compelling salvation testimony in the New Testament, that of the apostle Paul. It is also one of the most significant statements of the doctrine of salvation in Scripture, revealing the internal work of God in a truly repentant and believing sinner. The apostle relates what was going on in his mind when he met the risen Christ on the Damascus Road. Acts 9:1–9 provides the historical record of Paul’s dramatic conversion:

Now Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest, and asked for letters from him to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, both men and women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. As he was traveling, it happened that he was approaching Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him; and he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” And he said, “Who are You, Lord?” And He said, “I am Jesus whom you are persecuting, but get up and enter the city, and it will be told you what you must do.” The men who traveled with him stood speechless, hearing the voice but seeing no one. Saul got up from the ground, and though his eyes were open, he could see nothing; and leading him by the hand, they brought him into Damascus. And he was three days without sight, and neither ate nor drank.

But since Luke’s account of that amazing incident does not reveal the transformation in Paul’s thinking, in Philippians 3:4–11 the apostle himself provides those details of the Spirit’s work in his heart. Salvation is a sovereign act of God in which He invades sinners’ darkness with the glorious light of His truth, and redeems them. Paul describes the miracle from the inside that transformed him from the arch-persecutor of Christians into their most beloved leader. That day on the Damascus Road the living Christ broke through the spiritual blindness of the proud, self-righteous Pharisee, Saul of Tarsus. As a result, his trust in his religious accomplishments was shattered, and the root of his self-confidence was forever uprooted as conviction and truth flooded his darkened soul.

In this passage Paul speaks of salvation as a transaction or an exchange. He even uses business and accounting terminology in verses 7 and 8, which form the heart of the passage. Kerdos (“gain”) describes what is in the profit column; zmia (“loss”) what is in the loss column; hgeomai means “to count,” or “to reckon.” Paul spent his life accumulating what he imagined was personally earned righteousness that would achieve salvation. But when he met Christ, the apostle realized that all those things were actually in the loss column. He exchanged them all for the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. That exchange is the theme of this passage.

Jesus described salvation as an exchange or transaction; in fact, an exchange of all that the sinner is for all that Christ is. In Matthew 16:25–26 He said, “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?” In Matthew 13, Jesus told two parables that illustrate the exchange involved in salvation:

The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field, which a man found and hid again; and from joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. (v. 44)

Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls, and upon finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it. (vv. 45–46)

Both parables picture people who have accumulated earthly wealth. But they find in the kingdom of heaven (the sphere of salvation where God rules) a treasure far more valuable. They then gladly sell all they have to get that treasure. So must sinners abandon everything for Christ.

Paul interjects his testimony here to reinforce the point he made in verse 3, that believers “are the true circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh.” They do not trust in their self-righteousness to earn salvation. But as noted in the previous chapter of this volume, the Philippians were being assaulted by the heretical group known as the Judaizers. They were Jewish legalistic false teachers who taught that circumcision and obedience to the Law of Moses were necessary for salvation. Paul warned the Philippians against the Judaizers in no uncertain terms, bluntly denouncing them as “dogs,” “evil workers,” and the “false circumcision” or mutilation (3:2).

Having unmasked the Judaizers in verse 2 and defined Christians as the “true circumcision” in verse 3, Paul anticipates the Judaizers’ response. They would undoubtedly argue that the Philippians, being Gentiles, did not understand the rich heritage of Judaism. But the same could not be said of the apostle Paul. His Jewish credentials were impeccable, easily equaling or surpassing those of the Judaizers. He knew firsthand all that Judaism had to offer. Describing his life before his conversion, Paul wrote, “I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries among my countrymen, being more extremely zealous for my ancestral traditions” (Gal. 1:14). In today’s jargon, he had “been there . . . done that.”

If anyone could have achieved salvation by self-effort, it would have been Paul. His impressive credentials enabled him to declare emphatically I myself might have confidence even in the flesh. If anyone else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh, I far more. Paul did not make that seemingly prideful statement to boost his ego, or to claim spiritual superiority over others. He understood the foolishness of boasting, and did so only for the sake of argument. As he did in the situation in Corinth (cf. 2 Cor. 11:16–12:1), Paul sets forth his own credentials to counter his opponents’ foolish arguments.

Paul’s testimony may be divided into two parts, based on the accounting terminology in verses 7 and 8 noted earlier. The apostle first lists those things that he once imagined to be in the spiritual profit column, purchasing eternal life for him, but which in reality were in the loss column, damning him. That column might be titled “religious credits that do not impress God.” The true spiritual profit column might be headed “the surpassing benefits of knowing Christ.”

RELIGIOUS CREDITS THAT DO NOT IMPRESS GOD

circumcised the eighth day, of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the Law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to the righteousness which is in the Law, found blameless. (3:5–6)

Paul lists seven items that he once put in his spiritual profit column, but now places in his loss column. When he understood the gospel of Christ, the apostle realized that all of these credentials, achievements, privileges, and rights were worthless. Paul is not saying that they are of no social, cultural, educational, or historical value. Instead, he is saying that they are of no value salvifically; they could not save him or anyone else.

SALVATION IS NOT BY RITUAL

circumcised the eighth day, (3:5a)

Paul begins with circumcision because that was the major issue for the Judaizers (cf. Acts 15:1; Gal. 6:12–13). The apostle went through the defining rite of Judaism (Gen. 17:10–12; Lev. 12:3) when he was circumcised the eighth day after his birth. The Greek text literally reads, “with respect to circumcision an eighth-dayer.” Unlike some of the Judaizers, Paul was not a Gentile proselyte to Judaism. He was a Jew by birth and followed the Jewish rituals from the beginning. At the proper time, he had gone through the ceremony that initiated him into the covenant people. He, like most Jews, had long forgotten that circumcision was to depict in a dramatic way how sinful and in need of cleansing people are, and had made that surgery a badge of righteousness.

Yet Paul includes circumcision, the most essential rite in Judaism, in his spiritual loss column. Salvation does not come by any ritual or ceremony, whether Jewish circumcision, the Roman Catholic mass, infant or adult baptism, or the Protestant observance of the Lord’s Supper.

SALVATION IS NOT BY RACE

of the nation of Israel, (3:5b)

Paul’s declaration that he was of the nation of Israel supports the idea that some of the Judaizers were Gentile converts to Judaism. But Paul was by birth a member of God’s chosen people, of whom God declared, “You only have I chosen among all the families of the earth” (Amos 3:2; cf. Ex. 19:5–6; Ps. 147:19–20). He inherited all the blessings of being part of the covenant nation. Writing to the Romans, the apostle delineated some of those blessings:

Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the benefit of circumcision? Great in every respect. First of all, that they were entrusted with the oracles of God. (Rom. 3:1–2)

For I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh, who are Israelites, to whom belongs the adoption as sons, and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the Law and the temple service and the promises, whose are the fathers, and from whom is the Christ according to the flesh, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen. (Rom. 9:3–5)

Paul was a physical descendant of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—a heritage that the Jewish people relied on, along with circumcision, for salvation. But racial heritage, like circumcision, is unable to save anyone; no standing with God is gained by birth.

SALVATION IS NOT BY RANK

of the tribe of Benjamin, (3:5c)

Another of Paul’s seemingly impressive credentials was that he was a member of the tribe of Benjamin, one of the most prominent tribes in Israel. Benjamin was the younger of the two sons born to Jacob’s favorite wife, Rachel. He was also the last of Jacob’s sons to be born and the only one born in the Promised Land. Saul, Israel’s first king, was a member of the tribe of Benjamin (1 Sam. 9:21; 10:21; Acts 13:21). When the Promised Land was divided among the twelve tribes, the holy city of Jerusalem was included in Benjamin’s territory (Judg. 1:21). When the kingdom split after Solomon’s death, only Benjamin and Judah remained loyal to the Davidic dynasty. The great leader Mordecai, used by God along with Esther to save the Jews from genocide, was also from the tribe of Benjamin (Est. 2:5). Thus, the tribe of Benjamin was one of the most noble in Israel.

By Paul’s day, many Jews no longer knew what tribe they belonged to. Intermarriage during the years of exile had blurred the tribal lines. But Paul’s family had remained pure Benjamites. That again elevated him above some of the Judaizers, who probably did not know their tribal descent. But Paul’s privileged status as a Benjamite did not impress God. Family status has nothing to do with salvation.

SALVATION IS NOT BY TRADITION

a Hebrew of Hebrews; (3:5d)

Paul did not personally contribute anything to earn the first three privileges on his list, but inherited them from his parents. The last four are things that he himself achieved. The apostle’s claim to be a Hebrew of Hebrews is best understood as a declaration that as he grew to manhood Paul strictly maintained his family’s traditional Jewish heritage. He was born in Tarsus, a city in Asia Minor, not in Israel. But unlike many Jews in the Diaspora (dispersion), Paul remained firmly committed to the language (Acts 21:40), orthodox traditions, and customs of his ancestors. He did not become a Hellenized Jew (cf. Acts 6:1; 9:29), one who had been assimilated into the Greco-Roman culture. Instead, he left Tarsus for Jerusalem to study under the famous rabbi Gamaliel (Acts 22:3; 26:4). So tightly did Paul cling to his Jewish heritage that he could confidently declare, “So then, all Jews know my manner of life from my youth up, which from the beginning was spent among my own nation and at Jerusalem” (Acts 26:4). Paul’s zealous devotion to his Jewish heritage was widely known. Yet after he saw the glory of Christ, it became merely one more item transferred from the gain to the loss column.

SALVATION IS NOT BY RELIGION

as to the Law, a Pharisee; (3:5e)

Paul pursued his Jewish heritage to the extreme. He was so zealous for the Law that he became a Pharisee. To the Sanhedrin Paul declared, “Brethren, I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees” (Acts 23:6). At his hearing before Agrippa, Paul testified, “I lived as a Pharisee according to the strictest sect of our religion” (Acts 26:5). To become a Pharisee was to reach the highest level in devout, legalistic Judaism. The Pharisees were supremely devoted to the Law, including the Old Testament and all the traditions that had been added to it. In fact, the word Pharisee probably derives from a Hebrew verb meaning “to separate,” signifying that they were set apart to the Law. The term Law is not limited to the Pentateuch or the Old Testament, but includes the whole rabbinic system of prescriptions. Jesus said they had actually substituted those traditions for the Law of God (Matt. 15:1–9).

The origin of the Pharisees is not known for certain, but the sect probably arose formally during the intertestamental period. It had been developing since Ezra’s time when the concern for God’s law was revived (Neh. 8:1–8). Although relatively few in number (the first-century Jewish writer Josephus estimated their number at 6,000), they had the greatest religious influence on the common people. To be a Pharisee was to be a member of an elite, influential, and highly respected group of men who fastidiously lived to know, interpret, guard, and obey the Law.

Paul’s cherished status as a Pharisee was but one more item in his spiritual loss column. No priest, monk, theological scholar, or member of a devout sect can achieve salvation by such involvement.

SALVATION IS NOT BY SINCERITY

as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; (3:6a)

As further evidence of his zeal for his Jewish heritage, Paul confessed that he had been a persecutor of the church. The Jews viewed zeal as the supreme religious virtue. It is a two-sided coin; one side is love, the other hate. To be zealous is to love God and hate what offends Him. Paul’s zealous but misguided love for God caused him to hate and persecute Christianity.

The intensity of his zeal can be seen in the degree to which he persecuted the church. After Stephen’s martyrdom, Paul “began ravaging the church, entering house after house, and dragging off men and women, he would put them in prison” (Acts 8:3). So devastatingly effective was his persecution that the Jerusalem church was scattered: “There fore, those who had been scattered went about preaching the word” (Acts 8:4). Later, “Saul [Paul], still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest, and asked for letters from him to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, both men and women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem” (Acts 9:1–2). His persecution was so violent that after Paul’s conversion “all those hearing him continued to be amazed, and were saying, ‘Is this not he who in Jerusalem destroyed those who called on this name, and who had come here for the purpose of bringing them bound before the chief priests?’” (Acts 9:21). He reminded the angry mob in Jerusalem, “I persecuted this Way to the death, binding and putting both men and women into prisons, as also the high priest and all the Council of the elders can testify. From them I also received letters to the brethren, and started off for Damascus in order to bring even those who were there to Jerusalem as prisoners to be punished” (Acts 22:4–5). Describing his persecution of Christians in his defense before Agrippa, Paul declared,

So then, I thought to myself that I had to do many things hostile to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. And this is just what I did in Jerusalem; not only did I lock up many of the saints in prisons, having received authority from the chief priests, but also when they were being put to death I cast my vote against them. And as I punished them often in all the synagogues, I tried to force them to blaspheme; and being furiously enraged at them, I kept pursuing them even to foreign cities. (Acts 26:9–11)

The shame of what he had done stayed with Paul for the rest of his life. In 1 Corinthians 15:9 he said, “For I am the least of the apostles, and not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.” To the Galatians he wrote, “For you have heard of my former manner of life in Judaism, how I used to persecute the church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it” (Gal. 1:13). Late in his life he confessed to Timothy, “I was formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor. Yet I was shown mercy because I acted ignorantly in unbelief” (1 Tim. 1:13).

In terms of zeal, Paul went the Judaizers one better. They only proselytized the church; he had persecuted it. His zeal for God led him to relentlessly, unsparingly, and mercilessly try to stamp out Christianity. Paul was sincere, but wrong. The world is full of people who, like him, are sincere in their religious beliefs. They will make any effort, pay any price, and sacrifice anything in their attempts to please God. They may be devout, orthodox Jews, loyal Roman Catholics who attend Mass regularly, or even Protestants who are involved in church services and ceremonies. They may pray, fast, or live in poverty, and seek to do human good. But religious zeal guarantees nothing. Those people can be absolutely wrong. When Paul faced the reality of Jesus Christ, the zealous persecutor of the church realized that his misguided zeal was a spiritual killer and belonged in the spiritual loss column.

SALVATION IS NOT BY LEGALISTIC RIGHTEOUSNESS

as to the righteousness which is in the Law, found blameless. (3:6b)

Before his conversion Paul outwardly conformed to the righteousness which is in the Law. Again, Paul uses Law in the broad sense of the Jewish tradition, not just the Old Testament. Those who observed his life would have found his behavior blameless. He was not, of course, denying that he sinned. That would contradict both Jewish theology and his testimony in Romans 7:7–11:

What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? May it never be! On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, “You shall not covet.” But sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind; for apart from the Law sin is dead. I was once alive apart from the Law; but when the commandment came, sin became alive and I died; and this commandment, which was to result in life, proved to result in death for me; for sin, taking an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me.

But by all outward appearances, Paul was to the people who knew him a model Jew who lived by Jewish law. He was not, however, like Zacharias and Elizabeth, who “were both righteous in the sight of God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and requirements of the Lord” (Luke 1:6).

Paul seemingly had it all. He had undergone the proper rituals, he was a member of God’s chosen people, he was from a favored tribe in Israel, he had scrupulously maintained his orthodox heritage, he was one of the most devout legalists in Judaism, he was zealous to the point that he persecuted Christians, and he rigidly conformed to the outward requirements of Judaism. Yet he saw that as useless for salvation, and the reality of salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ was revealed to him. The apostle did not come to believe that those things were good, but Christ was better; instead, he viewed all of them as bad. They were deadly, because they deceived him into thinking that he was right with God. False religion deceives the mind and consequently damns the soul.

THE SURPASSING BENEFITS OF KNOWING CHRIST

But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. (3:7–11)

The statement but whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ sums up the dramatic change that took place in Paul’s perspective when he met Christ. All of the cherished treasures in his gain column suddenly became deficits. But by God’s marvelous grace, those things that he wrongly imagined would give him eternal life were replaced by five matchless benefits that were his in Christ.

KNOWLEDGE

More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, (3:8–9a)

The forceful phrase more than that is an untranslatable string of five Greek particles (lit. “but indeed therefore at least even”). It strongly emphasizes the contrast between the religious credits that do not impress God and the incalculable benefits of knowing Christ. In verse 7, Paul counted the religious credits in verses 5 and 6 as loss; here he expands that conviction and declares all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus. The verb translated “I have counted” in verse 7 is in the perfect tense; the same verb translated here I count is in the present tense. That indicates that all the meritorious works that Paul had counted on to earn God’s favor, and any that he might do in the present or future, are but loss.

Paul abandoned his past religious achievements in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus. The participle huperchon (the surpassing value) refers to something of incomparable worth. The word knowing in the Greek text is not a verb, but a form of the noun gnsis, from the verb ginsk, which means to know experimentally or experientially by personal involvement. The surpassing knowledge of Christ that Paul describes here is far more than mere intellectual knowledge of the facts about Him.

The New Testament frequently describes Christians as those who know Christ. In John 10:14 Jesus said, “I am the good shepherd, and I know My own and My own know Me.” In John 17:3 He defined eternal life as knowing Him: “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” To the Corinthians Paul wrote, “For God, who said, ‘Light shall shine out of darkness,’ is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ” (2 Cor. 4:6), while in Ephesians 1:17 he prayed “that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him.” In his first epistle John declared, “And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding so that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life” (1 John 5:20). Salvation involves a personal, relational knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.

To the Greeks, gnsis could describe secret, cultic, mystical communion with a deity. Those who were initiated into the mystery claimed to have ascended beyond the mundane knowledge possessed by the masses. They imagined that they alone enjoyed some personal experience of their deity. The Greeks often sought such an elevated state through drunken revelry. In the second century, the dangerous heresy of Gnosticism attempted to syncretize the Greek concept of gnsis and Christian truth. Like their pagan counterparts, the Gnostics claimed a higher, truer knowledge of God than the average Christian experienced. But Paul uses gnsis here to describe the transcendent communion with Christ that all true believers experience.

There is also an Old Testament context for gnsis. The verb form was used in the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Old Testament) to translate the Hebrew word yada. Yada often denoted an intimate knowledge, even a union or bond of love. It was sometimes used in Scripture as a euphemism for sexual intercourse (e.g., Gen. 4:1, 17, 25; 19:8; 24:16; Num. 31:17–18, 35; Judg. 21:11–12; 1 Sam. 1:19). It also described God’s intimate love bond with Israel: “You only have I known of all the families of the earth” (Amos 3:2 NKJV). Thus, the word can have the connotation both of a transcendent knowledge and an intimate love bond.

Adding personal warmth to the rich theological concept of knowing Christ Jesus, Paul describes Him as my Lord. That threefold description encompasses Christ’s three offices of prophet, priest, and king. Christ views Him as the Messiah, the messenger or prophet of God. Jesus views Him as Savior, emphasizing His role as believers’ great High Priest. Lord views Him as sovereign King over all creation.

Salvation comes only through the deep knowledge of and intimate love bond with Jesus Christ that God gives by grace through faith. Commenting on the believer’s knowledge of Christ, F. B. Meyer wrote,

We may know Him personally intimately face to face. Christ does not live back in the centuries, nor amid the clouds of heaven: He is near us, with us, compassing our path in our lying down, and acquainted with all our ways. But we cannot know Him in this mortal life except through the illumination and teaching of the Holy Spirit. . . . And we must surely know Christ, not as a stranger who turns in to visit for the night, or as the exalted king of men—there must be the inner knowledge as of those whom He counts His own familiar friends, whom He trusts with His secrets, who eat with Him of His own bread.

To know Christ in the storm of battle; to know Him in the valley of shadow; to know Him when the solar light irradiates our faces, or when they are darkened with disappointment and sorrow; to know the sweetness of His dealing with bruised reeds and smoking flax; to know the tenderness of His sympathy and the strength of His right hand—all this involves many varieties of experience on our part, but each of them like the facets of a diamond will reflect the prismatic beauty of His glory from a new angle. (The Epistle to the Philippians [Grand Rapids: Baker, 1952], 162–63)

For the inestimable privilege of knowing Jesus Christ, Paul gladly suffered the loss of all things by which he might have sought to earn salvation apart from Christ. The apostle went so far as to count them but rubbish so that he might gain (personally appropriate) Christ. All efforts to obtain salvation through human achievement are as much rubbish as the worst vice. Skubalon (rubbish) is a very strong word that could also be rendered “waste,” “dung,” “manure,” or even “excrement.” Paul expresses in the strongest possible language his utter disdain for all the religious credits with which he had sought to impress man and God. In view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ, they are worthless. Paul would have heartily endorsed Isaiah’s declaration that “all of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment; and all of us wither like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away” (Isa. 64:6).

The phrase in Him expresses the familiar Pauline truth that believers are in Christ, a concept found more than seventy-five times in his epistles. Believers are inextricably intertwined with Christ in an intimate life and love bond. “I have been crucified with Christ,” wrote Paul to the Galatians; “and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me” (Gal. 2:20).

RIGHTEOUSNESS

not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, (3:9b)

Paul had spent his adult life futilely trying to obtain a righteousness of his own derived from keeping the Law. That righteousness—one of self-effort, external morality, religious ritual, and moral works, all produced by the flesh—had been a crushing, unbearable burden (cf. Matt. 23:4; Luke 11:46; Acts 15:10). Although Paul did his best, he fell far short of God’s standard (cf. Rom. 3:23), which no one can meet: “Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, so that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God; because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin” (Rom. 3:19–20; cf. Acts 13:39; Gal. 2:16; 3:10–13; 5:4; Eph. 2:8–9). He was like the rest of his countrymen who, “not knowing about God’s righteousness and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God” (Rom. 10:3).

In Romans 7:9–13, Paul expands on the awakening in his heart:

I was once alive apart from the Law; but when the commandment came, sin became alive and I died; and this commandment, which was to result in life, proved to result in death for me; for sin, taking an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. So then, the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. Therefore did that which is good become a cause of death for me? May it never be! Rather it was sin, in order that it might be shown to be sin by effecting my death through that which is good, so that through the commandment sin would become utterly sinful.

Once, though devoted to the law of Judaism, he was living and thinking apart from the law of God. When he faced the true divine law, he saw himself as a sinner dead in sin and headed for eternal death. The law of Judaism gave him life, he thought. The law of God killed him. When he saw himself as utterly sinful, he renounced works of righteousness of his own doing and accepted the free gift of God’s righteousness by grace.

Paul gladly exchanged the burden of legalistic self-righteousness for the righteousness which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith. Faith is the confident, continuous confession of total dependence on and trust in Jesus Christ for the necessary requirements to enter God’s kingdom. It involves more than mere intellectual assent to the truth of the gospel; saving faith includes trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and surrender to His lordship. It is on the basis of faith alone that righteousness . . . comes from God to repentant sinners.

Righteousness is right standing with God and acceptance by Him. That repentant sinners have their sin imputed to Christ and His righteousness imputed to them is the heart of the gospel. In 2 Corinthians 5:21, Paul declared that God “made Him [Christ] who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” Paul gladly shed the threadbare robe of his own righteousness and stretched out his empty hands to receive the glorious royal robe of God’s righteousness in Christ. This doctrine is at the core of the gospel. On the cross, God judged Jesus as if He had personally committed every sin ever committed by every person who ever truly believed. When a sinner embraces Jesus as Lord and trusts only in His sacrifice for sin, God treats that sinner as if he lived Christ’s sinless life (cf. Isa. 53; 2 Cor. 5:21; 1 Peter 2:24).

POWER

that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection (3:10a)

Paul had already mentioned the deep, experiential knowledge of Jesus Christ that comes at salvation (v. 8). But still the cry of his heart was that I may know Him. That initial saving knowledge of Christ became the basis of Paul’s lifelong pursuit of an ever deeper knowledge of His Savior. Specifically, Paul longed to experience the power of His resurrection. He knew there was no power in the Law. He also knew there was no power in his flesh to overcome sin or serve God (cf. Rom. 7:18). But because he knew Christ and had His righteousness imputed to him, Paul had been given the Holy Spirit and the same spiritual power that raised Jesus from the dead.

His resurrection was the greatest display of Christ’s power. Rising from the dead (cf. John 2:19–21; 10:17–18) revealed His absolute power over both the physical and spiritual realms (cf. Col. 2:14–15; 1 Peter 3:18–20). Paul experienced Christ’s resurrection power in two ways. First, it was that power that saved him, a truth he affirmed in Romans 6:4–5: “Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection.” In salvation, believers are identified with Christ in His death and resurrection. But more than that, it is Christ’s resurrection power that sanctified him (and all believers) to defeat temptation and trials, lead a holy life, and boldly and fruitfully proclaim the gospel. Paul gladly exchanged his impotence for Christ’s resurrection power, and desired to experience its fullness.

FELLOWSHIP

and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; (3:10b)

A fourth benediction salvation brought Paul was fellowship with Jesus Christ. The apostle speaks specifically here of the fellowship of His sufferings. As he has just noted, Paul was conformed to His death at salvation (cf. Rom. 6:4–5). But he has something more in mind here, a deep partnership and communion with Christ in suffering. When he met Christ, Paul gained a companion to be with him in his suffering—One who endured far more intense persecution and suffering than anyone else who ever lived, all of it undeserved.

The deepest moments of spiritual fellowship with the living Christ are at times of intense suffering; suffering drives believers to Him. They find in Him a merciful High Priest, a faithful friend who feels their pain, and a sympathetic companion who faced all the trials and temptations that they face (Heb. 4:15). He is thus uniquely qualified to help them in their weaknesses and infirmities (Heb. 2:17). That blessed, comforting truth led Paul to exclaim, “Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Cor. 12:10).

GLORY

in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. (3:11)

A final and consummate benefit Paul obtained when he met Christ was the guarantee of his future resurrection, when he would share Christ’s glory. The Greek phrase the NASB translates in order that actually reads “if somehow.” However, that does not express doubt on Paul’s part, but rather humility. Paul’s sense of unworthiness never left him. In 1 Corinthians 15:9 he wrote, “For I am the least of the apostles, and not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.” In Ephesians 3:8 he described himself as “the very least of all saints.” Paul was confident that he would attain to the resurrection from the dead and share Christ’s glory.

The phrase the resurrection from the dead is unique in Scripture. It literally reads “the out resurrection from among the corpses.” Believers will attain to that resurrection at the Rapture, when “we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality” (1 Cor. 15:51–53). Believers will be taken out from among the rest of the dead corpses, who will not be raised until the end of the millennial kingdom, and transformed into the image of Christ.

Paul hated the weakness of his flesh and longed to be rid of it. Because he saw himself as wretched (Rom. 7:24), he wrote to the Romans, “We ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body” (Rom. 8:23). The redemption of the body at the resurrection is another of the surpassing benefits of knowing Christ.

What do believers gain by their union with Christ? The knowledge of Christ in their identification with Him; the righteousness of Christ imputed to them in justification; the power of Christ for their sanctification; participation in the sufferings of Christ; and sharing Christ’s glory in their glorification. No wonder Paul gladly exchanged the religious credits in his loss column for the surpassing benefits of knowing Christ.

Matthew 19 records the story of another man who came to the same crossroads as Paul. In reply to his question about how to obtain eternal life, Jesus told him to obey the Law. In response, “the young man said to Him, ‘All these things I have kept; what am I still lacking?’” (Matt. 19:20). He, too, had his spiritual profit column filled with self-effort, religious ritual, and works righteousness. But unlike Paul, he counted those things gain and rejected Christ. Paul counted them loss and gained Christ.

Everyone stands at the same crossroads. People can cling to their religious credits and follow the rich young ruler onto the broad path that leads to eternal destruction. Or they can forsake them in favor of the surpassing benefits of knowing Christ and follow Paul onto the narrow path that leads to eternal life.