Philippians 3:8-9; Found In Him

04/28 Philippians 3:8-9; Found In Him; Audio available at: http://www.ephraimbible.org/Sermons/20240428_philippians-3_8-9.mp3

What does it mean to be in Christ? The Bible says a lot about believing in Jesus; it is the only requirement for salvation; repent, turn from what you were trusting in and believe the gospel. But what does it mean to be ‘in Christ’? In this passage in Philippians, Paul counts it his greatest treasure to be found in Christ. What does it mean to be ‘found in him’? What is the big picture of what it means to be ‘in Christ’?

Change in Accounting

We have seen in this passage that Paul has every religious advantage, but he has learned to account differently. That which was a credit to him, an asset, a benefit, he counts rather as a liability. All his religious accomplishments were a dangerous source of potential pride, a source of boasting in the flesh.

Philippians 3:7 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, …

Paul’s accounting has changed radically since he met the risen Lord. All his gains he counted as one big liability. Everything that was a gain to his confidence in the flesh he now counts as loss because he has found something of infinitely greater value; knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.

This was not mere knowing of Christ or knowing about Christ. He says ‘knowing Christ’, a real knowledge of a real person, reciprocal -both knowing and being known, a real personal relationship. Intimacy, communion. Knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. He is the Lord, the sovereign, the one who holds all authority, Lord over all. But Paul owns Jesus as my Lord, the ultimate authority in my life, the one to whom I gladly bow, the one whom I serve. This relationship with Christ is the one thing of surpassing value, against which every other gain he counts as loss.

Actual Loss

Philippians 3:8 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, …

Paul not only counted every personal gain as loss because of Christ; he actually experienced the loss of all things. Once poster child for the Pharisees, hunting followers of Jesus, now himself a follower of the Jesus he once persecuted, his own turned against him. They sought his death, He suffered mob violence, was conspired against, forced to appeal to Roman law for protection from being handed over to his own countrymen, now imprisoned in Rome.

This gives indication of who was impressed by his credentials; confidence in the flesh earned him the applause of people who took confidence in the flesh, but God was not impressed by his self-righteousness. When he came to account his own self-righteous gains as losses, he lost the confidence of his peers who took confidence in the flesh. Paul experienced real loss; following Jesus cost him deeply. He literally lost it all on account of Jesus.

[σκύβαλον]

He lost it all, but he was now counting differently. Those fleshly confidences he now counted as [σκύβαλα]; refuse, rubbish, filth, feces. Paul had finally come to his senses, and realized that he had been holding up his own fleshly confidence like an impudent child holding up his own poopy diaper and waving it around in order to impress God with his own accomplishments.

What he had once put his confidence in, he now considered vile, repulsive, offensive. This word [σκύβαλον] may have as its root ‘that which is thrown to the dogs’. Dogs eat some disgusting things. Wild dogs were filthy, diseased, dangerous. They were indiscriminate as to what was clean or unclean. It is ironic that in verse 2 Paul warned against those who insisted that non Jewish believers in Jesus be put under Old Testament law, and called them ‘dogs’. Now he says that all his own righteous accomplishments he considers unclean, only worthy to be thrown to the dogs.

Gaining Christ

But Paul has a purpose in discarding his own accomplishments on the rubbish heap. He sees relationship with Jesus as that which is of surpassing worth, and his goal is to gain Christ. He once considered his good works as gain, but he now counts them as sewage in order to gain Christ. Gain is often used in the context of finances; Jesus tells in Matthew 25 of the servants entrusted with their master’s money, who traded and gained more. But ‘gain’ is also used relationally. Jesus in Matthew 18 says:

Matthew 18:15 ​“If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother.

Here gain is used of restoration of relationship. Both Paul (1Cor.9:19-23) and Peter (1Pet.3:1) use this word in the context of evangelism, loving and serving people in order to gain or win people with the gospel.

When Paul says his goal is to gain Christ he is not saying that he is able to acquire Christ as a possession he could put in his pocket, to spend when he needs it. He is speaking of a relationship restored.

Knowing Christ, gaining Christ, are different ways of saying that relationship with Jesus is the greatest treasure.

Found In Him

He says it another way in the next verse; ‘and be found in him’. To be found in Christ is another way to describe our relationship with Jesus. Being ‘in Christ’ it is a rich New Testament truth.

Jesus taught his followers about abiding in him in John 15, like a branch abides in the vine. He taught in John 6 that those who feed on his flesh and drink his blood abide in him and he in us (Jn.6:56).

A sermon series on the riches that are ours in Christ could fill up a whole year or more. Here’s just an short list of some of the things that belong to us because we are in Christ:

• ‘he chose us in him before the foundation of the world’ (Eph.1:4)
• ‘In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses’ (Eph.1:7; cf. 4:32; Rom.3:24; Col.1:14)
• ‘salvation that is in Christ Jesus’ (2Tim.2:10)
• ‘justified in Christ’ (Gal.2:16-17)
• ‘no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus’ (Rom.8:1-2)
• ‘freedom that we have in Christ Jesus’ (Gal.2:4; cf. Rom.8:2)
• ‘the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus’ (1Cor.1:4; cf. Eph.2:7; 2Tim.1:9; 2:1)
• ‘eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord’ (Rom.6:23; cf. 6:11; Jn.1:4; 1Jn.1:5; 2Tim.1:1)
• ‘in him you also, …were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit (Eph.1:13; cf. 1Jn.3:24; 4:13)
• ‘sanctified in Christ Jesus’ (1Cor.1:2)
• ‘in him we have obtained an inheritance’ (Eph.1:11; cf. Phil.3:14)
• ‘the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord’ (Rom.8:39; cf. 1Cor.15:24; Gal.5:6; 1Tim.1:14; 2Tim.1:13)
• ‘if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation’ (1Cor.5:17; cf. Eph.2:10)
• ‘in him all things hold together’ (Col.1:17; cf. Eph.1:10)
• ‘we, though many, are one body in Christ’ (Rom.12:5; cf. Gal.3:28; Eph.2:13, 21-22)
• ‘saints in Christ Jesus’ (Phi.1:1)
• ‘approved in Christ’ (Rom.16:10)
• ‘in every way you were enriched in him‘ (1Cor.1:5)
• ‘you have been filled in him’ (Col.2:10)
• ‘rooted and built up in him‘ (Col.2:7)
• ‘establishes us… in Christ‘ (2Cor.1:21)
• ‘in whom we have boldness and access with confidence’ (Eph.3:12)
• ‘in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge’ (Col.2:3; cf. Eph.4:21; 1Jn.2:8; 5:20)
• ‘all the promises of God find their Yes in him‘ (2Cor.1:19-20; Eph.3:6)
• ‘in him we might become the righteousness of God’ (2Cor.5:21; cf. Phil.3:9)

Do you see why Paul counted every gain as loss in the face of what he had to gain by being found in Christ?

In Christ

What exactly does it mean to be ‘found in him’? I want to look together at a few passages that will help us grasp this awesome truth of what it means to be ‘in Christ’

Ephesians says a lot about being in Christ. But the first thing I want you to notice in Ephesians 1:1 is who the letter is addressed to. It is ‘to the saints who are in Ephesus’. What does it mean for the saints to be ‘in Ephesus’? Well, we know Ephesus was an ancient city in Asia Minor, and Paul had established a church there. To be ‘in Ephesus’ probably meant you lived there, or at least you happened to be found there when the letter from Paul arrived. ‘In Ephesus’ tells us about physical location. Now look down at Ephesians 1:3:

Ephesians 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ

What does it mean that God has blessed us in the heavenly places in Christ? Ephesians 1:20 points to God’s awesome power

Ephesians 1:20 that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.

First of all, God’s resurrection power was at work in Christ’s physical body. That is the sphere where his power was at work. Then the resurrected Jesus was seated at the right hand of the Father in the heavenlies. That sounds like a physical location. But it’s described more as a position than a location; a position of authority; at God’s right hand; above every other authority that exists through time and space.

Let’s keep going in Ephesians 1:22-23;

Ephesians 1:22 And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

Jesus’ authority over all things includes his authority over the church. But notice, Jesus is a gift given by the Father as head over all things to the church. And the church is not an entity outside of himself that he rules; it is connected to him, part of him. It is in him. The church is his body. We are in Christ, connected to him as branches to a vine, as a body to its head.

Now look at Ephesians 2:6, where God ‘made us alive together with Christ,’

Ephesians 2:6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,

What is this talking about? This doesn’t seem to be pointing to our future physical resurrection. This is talking about our spiritual resurrection when we were dead in trespasses and sins. It says that God made us alive together with Christ (that’s the new birth, salvation by grace), and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places. Just as we were physically alive walking around in our sins and trespasses, but God says we were spiritually dead; so now we are spiritually given new life in Christ, and because we are identified spiritually as ‘in him’, we share in his current position of authority. This is not an out-of-body thing; this is not where we physically are; this is our position in Christ. Similar to the way the Ephesians lived in Ephesus, so the Christian lives in Christ and is found in Christ.

This is our union with Christ, our connection with Christ. Because we are inextricably united with Christ, because we have been made alive with Christ, raised up with him, seated with him, we have been given new eyes to perceive the spiritual blessings we have been blessed with through our union with Christ.

But our union with Christ didn’t start with our being made alive. Galatians 2:20 says:

Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

I was dead in trespasses and sins, and he died the death I deserved. The old me was united with him in his death, buried with him in baptism, and now a new me, a new creation is raised up with Christ.

Colossians 3 is another passage that sheds some light on this being ‘found in him’.

Colossians 3:1 If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. 3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. 5 Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: …

You have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

Do you deserve to be raised up with Christ? Do you deserve to be seated at the right hand of God? Could you retain that position if you somehow got there?

Let me ask this; does Christ deserve to be raised up above every power, seated at his Father’s right hand? Could he possibly ever be dethroned? It is only by amazing grace, only by union with Christ that we are safe. This is why Paul is so joyfully willing to count every human effort as filth, if only he can be found in Christ, hidden in him.

Will you be found in him, hidden in him?

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Pastor Rodney Zedicher ~ Ephraim Church of the Bible ~ www.ephraimbible.org