Sermon Cloud

At the heart of biblical religion is the conviction that to know God is the apex of human experience. We were created to walk with God in the garden in the cool of the day. Sin has separated us from God. We are alienated from that One whom we were made to know, in whom life has meaning, and in whom we find fulfillment and satisfaction. Much of human activity is motivated by our futile attempts to fill the void left by God’s departure. Our false gods are numberless – false religion, success, wealth, power, pleasure, drugs and alcohol, athletics, and so on. Jesus came that we might be reconciled to God and know Him once more. This is eternal life: to know God (Jn 17:3).

When the Apostle Paul speaks of the “surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord,” he reflects the testimony of the rest of Scripture (Phil 3:8). It is in God’s presence that we find the fullness of joy (Ps 16:11). The one thing that the Psalmist desires is that he may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of his life and behold His beauty (Ps 27:4). Nothing in all the world can compare with this. His soul thirsts for God (Ps 42:1ff). He longs to partake of the fullness of His house and drink from the river of His delights (Ps 36:8). He delights in God (Ps 37:4). He earnestly seeks for God, his soul thirsts and yearns for God. God’s lovingkindness, he says, is better than life itself (Ps 63:1-3). His nearness is his good, and besides Him he desires nothing on earth (Ps 73:25,28). A day in God’s courts, he says, is better than a thousand outside (Ps 84:10). This is typical biblical language for the supreme value of a personal, experiential knowing of God. We are invited to “taste and see that the Lord is good” (Ps 34:8).

What, then, does it mean to “gain” Christ (v. 8b) or to be “found in Him” (9a)? How can we “know” Him? After all, He lived long ago and far away. We can read of Him in a book. We take these three terms to be speaking of the same thing. To “gain,” to “know,” to be “found” in Christ is to have a true experiential knowledge of God in Christ. This is the Apostle’s subject in verses 9-11. We may divide his answer into three parts. We gain Christ and know Christ through a faith which justifies, through His power which sanctifies, and through His promise to glorify.1

Justification

First, to “gain Christ” means to be justified by faith in Christ. This is the meaning of verse 9:

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, (Phil 3:9)

This whole passage, particularly the word “found,” recalls Jesus’ words in Matthew 16:24-26. Jesus said,

“For whoever wishes to save his life shall lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake shall find it.” (Matt 16:25)

The Apostle Paul had “lost” his life. He lost everything that he previously had valued (3:7,8). He lost all that he once had cherished, both in ancestry and religious accomplishment (vv 4-6). By so doing he had denied himself, taken up his cross, and followed Jesus. He found life in Christ, who is our life (Col 3:3,4; cf. Jn 10:18). This is what it means to be truly converted. “I surrender all,” the old gospel song says. I hold nothing back. I surrender all, with no strings attached and no conditions. I cast all my hopes, dreams, ambitions, loves, desires at His feet, and await His orders. This faith which justifies has two dimensions.

1. He repudiated all claims of personal, legal righteousness.

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 (Phil 3:9a)

He rejected the claim of “having a righteousness of my own.” Though a Pharisee in his high regard for and detailed observance of the law, and though “blameless” with respect to his conformity to the external requirements of the law, his religious accomplishments were all inadequate, even “rubbish,” to the Apostle. He has no confidence in personal righteousness achieved through law-keeping. He sees no possibility for righteousness “derived through the law.” Why? Because no one is able to keep the requirements of the law. Life, eternal life, is possible through law-keeping. “He who practices (the commandments) shall live” (Gal 3:12; Deut 21:23). The commandments were meant “to result in life” (Rom 7:10), but they must be kept, all of them, all the time. The verdict of the law is: “Cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law, to perform them” (Gal 3:10); “For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all” (Jas 2:10); “the soul that sins shall die” (Ezek 18:4, KJV); “the wage of sin is death” (Rom 6:23). For the law to save, it must be kept perfectly, and this, no son or daughter of Adam can do.

If I am to gain Christ, I must come to the point where I recognize the futility of trying to make things right with Him by my own efforts. It can’t be done. God is too holy. I am too corrupt. The gap is too great. I cannot bridge it by my good deeds. I cannot win God’s acceptance. I cannot secure His favor. All pretensions of self-righteousness must be repudiated. None of us is good enough to be received into the presence of God.

2. He received the righteousness of God by faith in Jesus Christ.

the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith (Phil 3:9b)

By “faith in Christ,” he says, he received “the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith.” This righteousness is not a personal quality but a status. By faith in Christ sinners are declared righteous. By faith in Christ righteousness is given as a gift. It is an “alien righteousness,” as Luther called it. The “righteousness from God” (ek theou) is a gift that God gives. It is an imputed righteousness. We are counted or reckoned righteous. It is not the virtuous who are justified because of their virtue, but the ungodly (Rom 4:5). We are simul jus et peccator, at once righteous and sinner. God declares and confers a status that we have not earned. It consists of a negative – our guilt is forgiven; and a positive – righteousness is imputed.

Here’s what I didn’t do in order to be saved. I didn’t participate in an ancient religious ceremony or an elaborate ritual. I didn’t complete a checklist þ of good works, like working in a soup kitchen, visiting prisons, or going on mission trips. I didn’t complete a checklist þ of religious disciplines such as tithing, Sabbath observance, daily prayer, weekly attendance at public worship, monthly communion, quarterly fasting, and an annual reading of the whole Bible. I didn’t lead a strict moral life of complete conformity to God’s ethical requirements. All of these things may be good in their own right: religious ceremonies, good works, religious disciplines, and strict moral conduct, but none of this will get us into heaven. Heaven is neither a hereditary kingdom nor a meritocracy.

What I must do to be saved is believe the Bible’s testimony about Jesus’ identity and the meaning of His death, believe that Jesus is the Son of God and God the Son, the Way, Truth, and Life, and that His death is a blood sacrifice that the Father accepts as sufficient payment for the guilt of my sin. If we believe this testimony God forgives our sin (a subtraction) and considers us as righteous, imputing to us the righteousness of Christ (an addition).

Do you want to be right with God? Do you want to be reconciled to God? All that God asks of us is that we believe.

Sanctification

Second, to “gain Christ” is not only to be justified, but to be sanctified by Christ. The word “sanctification” is not in verse 10, but that’s what the verse is about.

that I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; (Phil 3:10)

We also may read this as an elaboration on what it means to “know Christ.” Silva calls it “an expansion of the earlier phrase in verse 8.”2 If verse 9 has to do with the objective, verse 10 has to do with the subjective; verse 9 has to do with one’s status before God, verse 10 with one’s experience of God. He elaborates with three expressions which flesh out what it means to know Christ.

1. It is to know “the power of His resurrection.” Romans 6:1-11 is the obvious place to turn to find the Apostle Paul’s own explanation of the meaning of this phrase. Believers have entered into the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. Having died with Christ, we are raised up in “newness of life” or “to live a new life” (NIV) (Rom 6:4). This means that the power of sin and death have been broken. We are no longer in bondage to sin. We are no longer “slaves to sin.” We have been “freed from sin.” We are “dead to sin.” “Sin shall not be master over you,” the Apostle Paul tells us (Rom 6:6,7,11,14). Resurrection means there has been a definitive breach with sin.

Because of the “power of the resurrection,” applied to us by the Holy Spirit, there is real opportunity for sanctified living. The problem with the law is that it has no dynamic. It has no power. This is the problem with all moral schemes. They have no power. They may have wonderful moral teaching, but they cannot provide the dynamic that makes holiness possible. Resurrection power enables us to say no to sin and yes to righteousness; no to self and yes to service; no to hate and yes to love. Transforming power was released through the resurrection and is imparted to believers by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit enables us to grow the fruit of godly character (Gal 5:21ff). He enables us to mortify the flesh and get victory over sin (Rom 8:10-15).

Holy living becomes possible. Christ-like character becomes achievable. To know Christ is to know that one has been “born of the Spirit” (John 3:1ff). To know Christ is to know that one is a new creature in Christ, that the old is passing away and all has become new (2 Cor 5:17). To know Christ is to experience His power as a present reality, transforming one into the image of God (Eph 5:1ff).

2. It is to know “the fellowship of his suffering.” I think it best to separate the two words in this phrase. It is to know His “fellowship” (koinonian). Fellowship is what we enjoy through sharing, through participation. It indicates personal involvement. To know Christ is to know His personal presence, as He leads, guides, provides, protects, comforts, and encourages. He calls it a fellowship of suffering because suffering characterizes Christian fellowship. If we were to call it a “fellowship of grace,” we would mean that grace characterizes the fellowship. This is the case for suffering. “In the world you will have tribulation,” Jesus promised (Jn 16:33; cf. Phil 1:29). To know Christ is not just to know doctrine about Christ. Rather, it is to enjoy His fellowship. Granted this reality is subject to abuse. It can be off-putting to encounter people who seem to claim a hotline to the Almighty, who imply that their every move is infallibly directed by God. On the other hand, there are those whose Christian faith is purely theoretical, or abstract, or perhaps philosophical. Being a Christian, for them, involves the embracing of a worldview. They find Christianity intellectually satisfying. But their relationship to Christ is sterile, analytical, and impersonal. What do they lack? Fellowship. Fellowship means that we are able to turn to God in prayer and cast our anxieties upon Him (1 Pet 5:7). It means we are able to live without anxiety in the confidence that He will not fail to provide for us (Matt 6:31). It means that His Word is precious to us, more to be desired than gold, sweeter than honey, of inestimable comfort to us (Ps 19:10). It means that we sense His joy and peace as we draw near to Him in public, and private, and family worship. It means we know His shepherdly leading, as he guides us to the green pastures and the still waters.

In particular the Apostle Paul mentions “the fellowship of His suffering.” We are united to Christ in His resurrection. We also are united to Christ in His suffering and death. We are subject to persecution, trials, tribulations, disappointments, and frustrations. It is in the nature of things that the path of victory is the path of suffering. The crown, as we have seen, requires a cross. “Tribulations,” the Apostle Paul teaches, bring about “proven character . . . and hope” (Rom 5:3,4). “Trials,” says James, perfect and complete faith (Jas 1:2,3). Most dramatically, the Apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians, we are . . .

always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus' sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. (2 Cor 4:10,11)

Through our suffering and death the life of Jesus is made manifest to the world. Through our suffering we participate in Christ’s redemptive work, even “filling up that which is lacking in Christ’s afflictions” (Col 1:24).

The last phrase of verse 10 seems to summarize his view of the whole Christian life in general, and sanctification in particular. We are to be “conformed to His death.” The Christian life is both a once for all death to self, and an ongoing death to self. I die to my idols and lusts. I die to my dreams and aspirations. I die to my pleasures and comforts. I deny myself, take up my cross, and follow Jesus (Matt 16:24). I am crucified with Christ (Gal 2:20). I crucify the flesh and its lusts (Gal 5:24). I put to death the deeds of the body (Rom 8:13). I have the attitude that was in Christ Jesus (2:5ff). I follow in His steps (1 Pet 2:21). To know Christ is to be both justified and sanctified, it is to know His mercy, and to know His power.

Matthew Henry notes, “The apostle was as ambitious of being sanctified as he was of being justified. He was as desirous to know the power of Christ’s death and resurrection killing sin in him, and raising him to newness of life, as he was to receive the benefit of Christ’s death and resurrection in his justification.”3

Glorification

Finally the Apostle Paul concluded his brief description of what it means to gain Christ, if somewhat tentatively.

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

The ESV reads, “that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.” The NIV reads, “and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.” The grammarian Zerwick renders the sense as “somehow” or “if only,” and a literal rendering is “if somehow I may reach.” Is not our “glorification,” the original resurrection of our souls and the resurrection of our bodies in the last days assured? Indeed it is. The Apostle uses the past tense in relating both justification and glorification:

and whom He predestined, these He also called; and whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified. (Rom 8:30)

Our glorification is a completed event. That’s how certain it is. We have been “glorified.”

Yet he can also be tentative. For example, he says,

and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him. (Rom 8:17)

In this verse glorification is conditional. We are heirs “if indeed.” Our inheritance is dependent on our suffering with Christ (cf. 2 Tim 2:11-13). He also, at times, can be tentative about his own salvation, the classic example being 1 Corinthians 9:27:

but I buffet my body and make it my slave, lest possibly, after I have preached to others, I myself should be disqualified.

He holds open the possibility that he might be “disqualified.” He makes these sorts of conditional or tentative statements when he is battling presumption, or what the Westminster Confession of Faith calls “carnal presumption.” Remember our context. The Apostle Paul is dealing with Judaizing Christians, trusting in their works rather than Christ alone. He also is dealing with perfectionists, who think they’ve arrived, and they’re prepared to coast into heaven (see 3:12-16). The element of doubt is injected to differentiate the certainty of our salvation and our subjective apprehension of it. Self-deception is a real danger and self-mistrust is a virtue. Glorification is certain but not apart from perseverance.

In other words, there is no glorification without justification by faith alone: take heed legalists. There is no glorification without sanctification and suffering: take heed antinomians. Where there is both true justification and sanctification, glorification is absolutely assured.

To know Christ, to gain Christ, to be found in Him is to know objectively that I am justified, to know subjectively, personally and experientially that I am being sanctified and am enjoying His fellowship, and it is to have the assurance that I shall arrive safe in heaven, to be glorified with Christ and all the saints.