Philippians 3:7-11: The Power of Christ’s Resurrection

Philippians 3:7-11: The Power of Christ’s Resurrection

The passage of Scripture we’ll be looking at today is Philippians 3:7-11. Hear now the words of the Living and True God:

⁷ But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 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 ⁹ and be found in him, 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— ¹⁰ that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, 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.

May God bless the reading of his Word.

Let’s pray: Father, we know it’s your will that we be conformed to the image of your Son, Jesus. And we also know that the way that happens is by your Spirit and through your Word. So, please, Holy Spirit, take this passage and use it to accomplish your purposes within each one of us. Lead us to Christ and conform us to his image. And it’s in his name that we pray, amen.

Whenever someone wants to become a member of our church, there’s one question in particular I like to ask them. It’s a very direct question, but I think it’s very revealing and therefore very helpful. I like to ask, “If you died today and were standing at the gates of heaven and God asked you why he should let you in, what would you tell him?” And if you all don’t mind, I’d actually like to ask you that same question this morning. “If you died today and were standing at the gates of heaven and God asked you why he should let you in, what would you tell him?” Take a moment and ponder that. What reason would you give God for why he should let you into heaven?

Would it be the fact that you often try to help people in need? Would it be that you’ve been baptized or have been affiliated in some way with a church? Would it be that you’re devoted to your family or that you try to pray each day or that you have a lot of Bible knowledge? What would you tell God as the reason he should let you into heaven?

In the verses that immediately precede today’s main Scripture passage, the Apostle Paul lists off some of his own religious credentials. He says in Philippians 3:4-6, ⁴ …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.

So, Paul’s essentially saying that he’s among the elite of the elite when it comes to religious credentials. If anyone has reason for confidence in their religious status, it’s Paul. He reminds his readers that he was “circumcised on the eighth day,” indicating that he was a Jew by birth rather than a Gentile convert to Judaism. He emphasizes this further by saying he’s “of the people of Israel.” More specifically, he says, he’s “of the tribe of Benjamin,” which was one of the most highly-regarded tribes of the Israelites. He then says he’s “a Hebrew of Hebrews”—meaning that, unlike many Jews of his day who had adopted various aspects of Greek culture, Paul remained staunchly committed to the Hebrew customs of his ancestors.

Paul also reminds his readers that he was “a Pharisee”—a member of the strictest sect of the Jewish religion who were widely revered for their devotion to the Old Testament law. Moreover, Paul says that he was so zealous for his religious heritage that he even became “a persecutor of the church.” And with regard to the kind of righteousness—humanly speaking—that could be obtained through adherence to the Old Testament law, Paul says he was “blameless.” No one who looked at his life would have been able to find anything blameworthy whatsoever. So, that’s Paul’s religious resume.

Yet look what he writes in verse 7: “But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.” Think about those terms, “gain” and “loss.” Those are accounting terms. So, imagine a financial ledger with two columns—one column labeled “gains” and the other labeled “losses.” Whenever you get more money, that’s a “gain,” and whenever you have to pay money, that’s a “loss.” Paul’s saying that all the things he once put in his spiritual “gain” column—like all of those items on his religious resume we just read about—he now recognizes actually belong in the “loss” column. A good paraphrase might be, “Whatever things I at one time thought were spiritual assets, I now recognize as spiritual liabilities.”

And you might be wondering, why in the world would he say that? Well, Paul now recognizes that none of the religious credentials he once trusted in for a right standing with God were actually capable of earning him a right standing with God. None of them could earn Paul a place in heaven. On the contrary, they were actually things that God looked upon with disdain because they were expressions of Paul’s prideful self-righteousness. God wasn’t going to reward Paul for his religious accomplishments by giving him a place in heaven but was instead going to punish him for his religious self-righteousness by sending him to hell.

And friends, it’s the same for you and me. Think back to that question I asked a few moments ago of what you’d tell God—if you died today—about why he should let you into heaven. Hopefully, you now understand that all of the things you might think of as spiritual assets that count for you are actually spiritual liabilities that count against you, if you’re trusting in them to earn for you a place in heaven. In reality, the only way we can gain a place in heaven is through Jesus and Jesus alone.

So, if you died today and God asked you why he should let you into heaven, the only appropriate answer can be summarized in one word: “Jesus.” And if God asked you to elaborate on that, you might say that “There’s absolutely nothing about me that in any way deserves heaven. The only thing I deserve is eternity in hell. But because of Jesus and what Jesus has accomplished on my behalf in his death and resurrection, I’ve been promised a place in heaven, through faith in him.” And that’s what Paul means when he says here in verse 7, “But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.” Paul recognizes that the only thing in his spiritual “gain” column is Jesus—and that’s likewise the only thing we can have in our “gain” column as well.

Paul then goes even deeper into this same line of thinking in the subsequent verses. Yet, before we go any further, let me first give you in a simple sentence what, I believe, is the main idea of this passage. Paul gladly suffered the loss of all things in order to know Christ and the power of his resurrection. Again, Paul gladly suffered the loss of all things in order to know Christ and the power of his resurrection.

Paul’s already said that whatever gain he had, he now counts as loss. Yet he then goes even further than that. Look at the first part of verse 8: “Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.” So, not only does Paul count his religious credentials as loss, he counts “everything as loss”—his entire personal portfolio of earthly status, earthly relationships, earthly wealth, and earthly comforts. According to Paul, all of that pales in comparison to “the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.” Paul counted knowing Jesus as more desirable than everything else in this world combined.

And it’s the same for us today. When you come to know Jesus in the context of a personal relationship, he turns your entire world upside down. The things you once thought were so important—like climbing the corporate ladder, owning a late-model SUV, going on exotic vacations—you now count as empty and meaningless compared to the surpassing delight of knowing Jesus.

And I love how Paul describes Jesus in this verse not merely as “the Lord” but as “my Lord.” This points to the closeness of the relationship Paul had with Jesus. Paul understood that Christianity involves much more than merely knowing about Jesus. It involves actually knowing Jesus in a real and personal way.

I remember, growing up, my dad would read and explain a chapter of the Bible to me each day. As a result, I had a pretty decent intellectual knowledge of biblical teaching. If someone had asked me to give an overview of our sinful condition and how Jesus rescues us from our sins, I could have probably done a pretty decent job summarizing what the Bible says about that. However, for a good number of years, my intellectual knowledge about Jesus wasn’t accompanied by personal knowledge of Jesus. And because of that, it wouldn’t have been accurate to call me a Christian. At that point, I was just as condemned and headed for hell as anyone else. It wasn’t until I was a little older that I finally crossed the line from intellectual knowledge on its own to a personal relationship.

So, what about you? You might have extensive knowledge about Jesus and maintain a high level of religious involvement and live in a way that’s very morally respectable, but can you honestly say you know Jesus in a personal way? Do you truly think of Jesus not just as “the Lord” but as “my Lord”?

So, Paul says, “Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.” He then continues in the second part of verse 8 and into verse 9, ⁸ …For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ ⁹ and be found in him, 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.

Looking first at Paul’s statement in verse 8 that he’s “suffered the loss of all things and count[s] them as rubbish,” the Greek word translated as “rubbish” refers to garbage and even, in some cases, excrement. That’s why the King James Version translates the word as “dung.” Paul says he’s suffered the loss of all things and counts them as “dung” so that he can “gain Christ and be found in him.” Paul then contrasts having a supposed “righteousness” that comes from obedience to the Old Testament law to the true righteousness that “comes through faith in Christ.”

You see, the Bible teaches that, in order to enter heaven, we need to be morally acceptable in God’s eyes. And that’s a big problem for us, because we’re not even close to being morally acceptable. Job 15:14-16 (NET) states, ¹⁴ What is man that he should be pure, or one born of woman, that he should be righteous? ¹⁵ If God places no trust in his holy ones, if even the heavens are not pure in his eyes, ¹⁶ how much less man, who is abominable and corrupt, who drinks in evil like water! That describes each one of us in our natural condition. If you look within our hearts, each one of us is “abominable and corrupt” in the eyes of an infinitely holy God. And because of that, we deserve to be punished for all eternity.

Yet the good news of the gospel is that God saw our wretched condition and, instead of immediately pouring out his wrath upon us, went to incredible lengths to show us mercy. God the Father sent his own Son Jesus into this world to rescue us from our sins. Jesus did this by first living a perfectly righteous life and then dying on the cross to pay the price for our unrighteousness. All of the punishment our sins deserved was poured out on Jesus so it wouldn’t have to be poured out on us. Jesus was then triumphantly raised from the dead three days later, which is what we celebrate on Easter.

And because of this, we can experience what’s sometimes referred to as the “great exchange.” Essentially, Jesus suffers the penalty for our sins, and we get the credit for his righteousness. And that’s what Paul’s talking about inverse 9 when he speaks of “the righteousness from God.”  Theologians sometimes speak of it as an “alien righteousness”—a righteousness that doesn’t come from us or o ur own efforts but rather that originates from outside of us. It’s a righteousness that comes from Jesus and, as Paul makes clear, is imputed—or transferred—to us through faith. Paul describes it as a righteousness “which comes through faith in Christ” and then emphasizes the need for faith a second time by calling it “the righteousness from God that depends on faith.”

So, the question is whether you’ve yet put your faith in Jesus? Have you renounced all faith in your own efforts to earn a right standing with God and instead put your faith entirely in Jesus? And, by the way, putting your faith in Jesus involves a lot more than merely claiming to believe the things we’ve been discussing.

I recently heard a story that I think illustrates this quite well. During the summer of 1859, a world-famous tightrope walker named Charles Blondin amazed the crowds that were watching him by walking over Niagara Falls on a tightrope. The tightrope was 1100 feet long and was raised 160 feet above the surging waters. So, falling would obviously mean certain death. Yet everyone cheered as Blondin successfully made it across. He then thrilled the crowds even more by walking across the tightrope several additional times while doing various dramatic stunts such as walking across blindfolded, walking across on stilts, and even cooking an omelet on his way across. And each time Blondin made it across, the crowd went wild with excitement.

Eventually, Blondin took hold of a wheelbarrow and asked the crowd if they thought he could make it across the rope while pushing the wheelbarrow in front of him. Of course, the crowd cheered him on and very enthusiastically expressed confidence that he could do it. So, Blondin replied back, “Okay, now who wants to volunteer to get into the wheelbarrow?” And almost immediately, everyone in the crowd became very quiet.

You see, it’s one thing to say you have faith, but it’s quite another to actually get into the wheelbarrow. Yet that’s the kind of faith that’s required in order for us to be saved from our sins. We have to have the kind of faith in Jesus that’s willing to get into the wheelbarrow—a faith that’s not only claimed with our mouth but also expressed in our lives. And that’s the kind of faith Paul’s talking about here in verse 9. Do you have that faith?

Paul then continues his thought in verses 10-11, expressing the desire, ¹⁰ that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, 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. I’d like to spend some time focusing on the first part of verse 10: “that I may know him and the power of his resurrection.” What do you think that might mean? What does it mean to “know [Jesus] and the power of his resurrection”? That sounds like a pretty good question for us to answer this Easter, doesn’t it? So, here are five aspects of what I believe that statement means. If you’re taking notes, feel free to label these as “Five Aspects of Experiencing Christ’s Resurrection Power.” This is why Easter is so significant for our everyday lives.

The first aspect is spiritual transformation. Experiencing the power of Christ’s resurrection involves spiritual transformation. In Romans 6:4, Paul states, “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.” So, the new life Jesus obtained in his resurrection results in us also being able to “walk in newness of life.” Essentially, we become new people—with radically new desires, perspectives, and priorities.

Earlier, we talked about Jesus imputing to us his righteous status, yet we now see that he also imparts to us his righteous nature. And he does that definitively at the moment of our conversion but also progressively throughout our lives as Christians. Over time, we resemble Jesus to a progressively greater degree in the way we think, the things we love, the habits we develop, and every other aspect of our lives. And all of that has its origin in the resurrection of Jesus. His new life is what enables us to walk in newness of life. 

This naturally leads to a second aspect of experiencing Christ’s resurrection power, which is freedom from sin. In many respects, this is simply a negative way to talk about our spiritual transformation. The Bible teaches that, in our natural condition, we’re enslaved to our own sinful desires. In John 8:34, Jesus says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.” And Peter says in 2 Peter 2:19, “For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved.” In many ways, our condition is similar to that of someone who’s addicted to drugs. They have a desire for drugs that, quite often, proves to be too strong for them to successfully resist. And so, their desire for drugs ends up dominating their life and eventually destroying them. And that’s precisely what our desire for sin does to us.

But when we experience the transformative power of Christ’s resurrection, sin’s power over us is broken. And for the first time, we’re able to overcome the sinful tendencies that used to dominate our lives. Paul spells this out for us very helpfully in Romans 6:8-11: ⁸ Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. ⁹ We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. ¹⁰ For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. ¹¹ So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

After that, a third way we experience Christ’s resurrection power is in the form of strength for every trial. The resurrection power of Jesus is what enables us to persevere through the many trials we face and remain steadfast in our faith all the way to heaven.

I love the way Paul describes this in 2 Corinthians 4:8-11. Speaking of himself and his ministry companions, Paul writes, ⁸ We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; ⁹ persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; ¹⁰ always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. ¹¹ For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So, Paul describes his impressive perseverance through all kinds of trials as “the life of Jesus” being “manifested” in his body. It was Christ’s resurrection life that gave Paul the strength to endure the severe trials he endured.

Likewise, that’s what gives us strength for every trial in our lives as well. Whatever you’re going through—whether it be chronic illness, grief at the loss of a loved one, relational conflict, crippling depression or anxiety, financial hardships, feelings of loneliness, or whatever else it might be—there’s strength to be found in Christ’s resurrection.

Then, closely related to that, a fourth way we experience the power of Christ’s resurrection is in empowerment for ministry. It’s the resurrected Jesus who empowers us to engage in the ministry he’s called us to of sharing the gospel and making disciples. In Colossians 1:28-29, Paul states, speaking of Jesus, ²⁸ Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. ²⁹ For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me. Notice how Paul describes himself as struggling not with his own energy but with Christ’s energy. It was the power of the resurrected Jesus that was coursing through Paul’s veins that gave him the spiritual fortitude he needed to continue ministering even in the most challenging circumstances.

And then, a final—and, I believe, climactic—way we experience Christ’s resurrection power is that it gives us hope that transcends death itself. The French philosopher Blaise Pascal once observed that one reason people are so addicted to entertainment is that they need something to distract themselves from thoughts of their own mortality. Deep within our hearts, we know that death is coming. And we know we can’t escape it. So, what do we do? According to Pascal, we surround ourselves with all kinds of diversions so that we don’t have to think about our impending death. Instead of preparing for our death, we often spend our lives trying to ignore it and live more or less in a functional state of denial that we’ll one day die. And the reason we do this is because, at the end of the day, we find the whole idea of death—and our death specifically—to be absolutely terrifying.

But what if I told you that you don’t have to spend your life desperately trying to medicate yourself with various forms of entertainment that keep you from thinking about death because Jesus offers you a hope that transcends death? Well, it turns out, that’s exactly what he offers. And that hope is rooted specifically in Christ’s resurrection. Because Jesus rose from the dead, we too can have hope—and, by that, I mean a confident expectation—of life beyond the grave.

As Peter reminds us in 1 Peter 1:3-4, ³ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, ⁴ to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you. Death, for the Christian, isn’t something to fear but instead something we can joyfully anticipate because we know that the moment we die is the moment when we’ll finally see Jesus face-to-face and be ushered into our heavenly inheritance—“an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading.”  This is why Paul can say in Philippians 1:21, “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” Do you have that kind of confidence about your eternal future? Or will you leave here today and continue medicating yourself with endless entertainment all the way to a Christless eternity? Jesus offers you hope that transcends death itself. Will you receive the hope he offers?

So, these are five key aspects of what it means for us to experience the power of Christ’s resurrection: spiritual transformation, freedom from sin, strength for every trial, empowerment for ministry, and hope that transcends death itself. This is why Easter is so significant.

So, hopefully, it’s now obvious why Paul would say the things he says in verse 8 of our main passage. Hopefully, you can now see why Paul counted everything as loss compared to knowing Christ and why he was willing to suffer the loss of all things and counted them as rubbish in order to gain Christ.

His words remind me of a couple of short parables Jesus tells in Matthew 13:44-46. He says, ⁴⁴ “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. ⁴⁵ “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, ⁴⁶ who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.

To put these parables in more modern terms, imagine you went into a store that sold rare antiques and stumbled across one antique that was being sold for $10,000 but that you knew was worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. What would you do? Well, I suppose if you were an exceptionally nice person, you might let them know their mistake. But if you were more of a typical kind of person, you’d do whatever you needed to do in order to purchase that outrageously underpriced antique. Even if you didn’t have $10,000 readily available, you’d find a way to get $10,000—perhaps by selling your car or something like that. And in short order, that antique would be in your possession, and you’d hardly be able to contain your excitement. Even if you had to walk home from the antique shop, there’d be a spring in your step the whole way home.

Similarly, Jesus offers you something that’s infinitely greater than everything else in this world put together. He offers you forgiveness of sin’s guilt, freedom from sin’s power, adoption into God’s family, and, most of all, the opportunity to know him and enjoy him for all eternity. So, why would you not give up everything in order to gain Jesus?

Right now, you stand at a crossroads. Will you continue rejecting Jesus, or will you embrace him? If you’d like to learn more about Jesus and who he is and what he offers and how you can have a relationship with him, let me invite you to do something very simple. Take a Connection Card—the same card I encouraged our guests to fill out at the beginning of the service—and at the bottom in the prayer requests section, just write “Schedule a Conversation.” And then you can put that card into the black box near the rear doors of this room after the service. And a pastor from our church will follow up with you about that.

Understand that if you want more than this world can offer you, what you’re looking for is found in Jesus. So, I can’t encourage you strongly enough to put your trust in Jesus and devote your life to Jesus—even right here and right now this Easter Sunday. Don’t put off for tomorrow what you know you need to do today.

And for those who are already Christians, maybe you need a spiritual reset. Maybe you’ve been distracted and caught up in 101 different things lately but realize this morning that you’ve somehow been missing the main thing: knowing Jesus in a personal way—delighting in him, treasuring him, and counting everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing him. Let me invite you today to set your gaze once again on Jesus and let your heart be captivated by him.