What one thing do you value more than anything else?
In this passage, the Apostle Paul repeats his call to rejoice in Lord. In particular to rejoice in the Lord’s goodness shown to us in Christ.
However this time, the call to rejoice is accompanied by a warning against distorted priorities and self-righteousness. Whether its trusting religious rituals or your moral performance…or just presuming that ‘the good will outweigh the bad’, in this passage we learn that nothing – except Christ’s forgiveness and grace – can put you ‘in the right’ with God.
Compared to gaining Christ, all else is worthless.
By example, Paul shows how not even his privileged ancestry and strict adherence to Jewish Law was enough to put him ‘in the right’ with God. Only by trusting Christ – His sin-bearing death and life-giving resurrection – can Paul be ‘right with God’.
Convinced of this, Paul systematically ‘loses’ everything that stands between him and the free gift of God’s forgiveness in Christ. Leaving behind his career, reputation, status, authority, comfort and safety… Paul is single-minded in his determination to ‘gain’ Christ.
What stands between you and Christ? Is there something you need to set aside in order to gain Christ?
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