The Worth of Knowing Christ | Philippians 3:7–11
Today’s Episode: The Worth of Knowing Christ
Scripture: Philippians 3:7-11
Series: Philippians: The Unshakable Joy of Life in Christ
What do you value more than anything else in life? In this episode of Timeless Truth, Pastor Jim continues our series, Philippians: The Unshakable Joy of Life in Christ, exploring verses 3:7-11. We see how the Apostle Paul traded his impressive religious resume for the “surpassing value” of knowing Jesus and the righteousness found in Him alone.
Pastor Jim’s Show Notes:
What is the most important thing in your life? What do you value more than anything else?
Those questions have a way of exposing what really matters to us—what we pursue, what we protect, and where we find our sense of significance, worth, and identity.
In Philippians 3:7–11, we hear how the apostle Paul would answer those questions. And his answer is surprising, disarming, and deeply freeing.
“Whatever gain I had,” Paul writes, “I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.”
The Christian life is not a thin layer of Jesus added onto an otherwise unchanged system of worth—like buttercream frosting spread over the same old cake. Life in Christ is an entirely new kind of life.
Christ is no longer one treasure among many; He becomes the treasure by which everything else is measured.
Sinclair Ferguson puts it beautifully:
“To know Christ is not simply to understand truths about Him, but to be drawn into union with Him.”
This is the heartbeat of the gospel.
Martyn Lloyd-Jones famously warned that “the greatest enemy of faith is confidence in our own righteousness.”
The cross dismantles every attempt at self-salvation. And at the same time, it gives us something far better: a righteousness that is secure, sufficient, and unshakable—because it is Christ’s own.
The nineteenth-century Scottish pastor and hymn writer Horatius Bonar expressed this truth with striking clarity. He wrote:
“This righteousness is reckoned or imputed to all who believe; so that they are treated by God as if it were actually theirs… It does not become ours gradually, or in fragments or drops, but is transferred to us all at once… Its perfection represents us before God; and its preciousness, with all that that preciousness can purchase for us, henceforth belongs to us.”
Bible teacher Dick Lucas wisely reminded us that “the Christian life is not about striving to be someone, but about living out what is already true of us in Christ.”
Paul understands that union with Christ means both present transformation and future hope. Suffering is not the end of the story. Resurrection is. Glory is coming. And even now, the power of the age to come is at work in those who belong to Jesus.
Philippians 3:7–11 leaves us with a gracious and searching question:
What do we count as gain?
What quietly shapes our sense of worth, security, and joy?
The gospel doesn’t just shame us into letting go. It lovingly invites us to behold something—and Someone—far more beautiful and far more satisfying.
When Christ becomes our greatest joy, any loss we experience in this world no longer has the final word.
To know Christ is to know unshakable joy—now, and forever.
