“I press on toward the goal to win the prize of God’s heavenly calling in Christ Jesus.”PHILIPPIANS 3:14 · BSB · READ PHILIPPIANS 3:7–14 →
Count your best as loss, gain Christ, and keep running toward Him.
Most of us are tired because we are chasing too many things. We want to succeed at work, keep up at home, stay fit, look good online, be liked at church, and still have time to rest. We are running in ten directions and getting nowhere. The apostle Paul had a different way to live. He boiled his whole life down to three words: one thing I do.
Paul wrote this letter to the Philippians from chains. He says the whole palace guard knew he was in chains for Christ. And yet this is one of the most joyful letters in the Bible. How does a man in prison write about joy? He tells us in chapter 3. Just before our passage, Paul lists his religious résumé. Circumcised on the eighth day. Of the people of Israel. Tribe of Benjamin. A Hebrew of Hebrews. A Pharisee. As to righteousness in the law, faultless. If anyone could have bragged about his record, it was Paul.
But then he takes that whole résumé and does something shocking with it. Let’s look at what he did, and what it means for anyone who wants to follow Jesus with a whole heart.
Move It to the Loss Column
PHILIPPIANS 3:7–8 →“But whatever was gain to me I count as loss for the sake of Christ.” Paul is using bookkeeping language. Picture a ledger with two columns, gains and losses. All his life he had put his religious achievements in the gain column. His upbringing, his zeal, his law keeping. He thought they were making him rich toward God. Then he met Jesus on the Damascus road, and he picked up his pen and moved every one of them to the loss column.
And he did not stop there. “More than that, I count all things as loss compared to the surpassing excellence of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish.” The word rubbish is strong. Paul is saying, compared to Jesus, all my trophies are trash. That does not mean his heritage was evil. It means that as a way of earning God’s approval, it was worthless. And compared to knowing Christ, nothing else even comes close.
What is in your gain column? Maybe it is not religious achievement. Maybe it is your career, your kids’ success, your reputation, your independence, your good deeds. None of those are bad things. But if you are counting on any of them to make you right with God or give your life meaning, they will fail you. Paul learned that the hard way, and he called it the best trade he ever made.
Picture thisImagine a man who has collected baseball cards since he was a kid. Thousands of them, carefully stored in binders. One day a collector offers him something he has dreamed of his whole life, but there is a catch. He has to give up the entire collection to get it. He does not hesitate. He hands over the binders with a grin. Why? Because what he is receiving is worth more than everything he is giving up put together. That is how Paul looks at Christ. It is not a sad sacrifice. It is a glad trade.
- Your best achievements cannot earn God’s approval.
- Compared to knowing Christ, everything else is loss.
- Following Jesus is not a sad sacrifice. It is a glad trade.
- Ask honestly: what am I counting on besides Christ?
Found in Him
PHILIPPIANS 3:9 →Why did Paul let it all go? He tells us: “that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God on the basis of faith.” There are two kinds of righteousness in that verse. One is my own, the kind I try to build by keeping rules. The other comes from God, and it is received through faith in Christ.
This is the heart of the gospel. Every one of us will stand before a holy God someday. The question is what we will be wearing. We can show up in the righteousness we built ourselves, but Isaiah says all our righteous acts are like filthy rags. Or we can be found in Christ, wrapped in His perfect righteousness. 2 Corinthians 5:21 says, “God made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.”
That is the great exchange. On the cross, Jesus took our sin. Through faith, we receive His righteousness. He was raised from the dead to prove the exchange was accepted. Paul was not just giving up his résumé. He was trading it for Christ’s. And that is an offer open to everyone in this room.
- There is a righteousness we try to build and a righteousness God gives.
- Only the righteousness from God through faith will stand before Him.
- Jesus took our sin so we could receive His righteousness.
- Being found in Christ is the only safe place to be found.
Knowing Christ Is the Goal
PHILIPPIANS 3:10–11 →Listen to Paul’s deepest desire: “I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to Him in His death.” This is the same man who had already seen the risen Jesus, planted churches across the Roman world, and written letters that churches still read today. And he still says, I want to know Christ. Not just know about Him. Know Him.
Notice what that knowing includes. It includes the power of His resurrection, the same power that raised Jesus from the dead now at work in the believer, giving new life and real change. But it also includes the fellowship of His sufferings. Paul was writing from chains. He understood that following Jesus would sometimes mean sharing in the hard road Jesus walked. Many Christians want the resurrection power without the suffering. Paul says you get to know Jesus in both.
Then he adds, “and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.” Paul is not unsure of his salvation. He is expressing humble, eager longing for the day he will be raised with Christ. The Christian life is headed somewhere. There is a resurrection morning coming, and everything we go through now is shaping us for that day.
Picture thisThink about a young woman who marries a man she deeply loves. On their wedding day she knows him, but not like she will after forty years. After the job losses, the hospital waiting rooms, the moves across the country, and the long ordinary Tuesdays, she will say, I thought I knew him then. Now I really know him. Suffering together did not weaken the bond. It deepened it. That is how it is with Christ. The hard places are often where we come to know Him best.
- Christianity is not just knowing about Jesus. It is knowing Him.
- Resurrection power is real and available to every believer.
- We often come to know Christ best in seasons of suffering.
- The Christian life is heading toward a resurrection morning.
Forget, Strain, Press On
PHILIPPIANS 3:12–14 →Paul is honest: “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.” Do you see the order? Christ took hold of Paul first. Paul is not running to get Jesus to notice him. He is running because Jesus already grabbed him. You do not chase Christ to be accepted. You chase Him because you have been.
Here is a detail that is easy to miss. The Greek verb behind press on is diōkō, which means to pursue or chase after. It is the same word Paul used a few verses earlier in verse 6 when he said he was persecuting the church. Paul used to pursue Christians to destroy them. Now he pursues Christ with that same intensity. Grace did not make Paul passive. It redirected his zeal.
Then come the three words that define his life: “But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize of God’s heavenly calling in Christ Jesus.” Forgetting what is behind does not mean amnesia. Paul clearly remembered his past. It means refusing to let the past drive you. Not your past failures, which Christ has forgiven. Not your past successes, which you have already counted as loss. Neither one gets to hold you back.
Straining toward what is ahead is the picture of a runner leaning toward the finish line. Every muscle is focused forward. That is the posture of a disciple. Not looking back with regret, not looking around with comparison, but looking ahead to Jesus. Hebrews 12:2 says, “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith.”
- You chase Christ because He already took hold of you.
- Grace does not make us passive. It redirects our passion toward Jesus.
- Forgetting what is behind means refusing to let the past drive you.
- One thing: keep running toward Jesus.
Paul’s life came down to one thing. Not ten things. Not a pile of achievements. One thing: knowing and following Jesus Christ. Everything else went into the loss column, and he never regretted it.
So let me ask you: what is your one thing? If it is anything other than Christ, it will not hold up on the day you stand before God. But if you are found in Him, then your sins are forgiven, His righteousness is yours, and the prize is waiting. Jesus died for your sins and rose from the dead so that you could be found in Him. Stop trusting your own record. Put your faith in Him today. Ephesians 2:8 says, “For it is by grace you have been saved through faith.”
And to every believer here: forget what is behind. Stop replaying the failures Jesus already forgave. Stop resting on the wins you already counted as loss. Lean forward. Fix your eyes on Jesus. Press on. The finish line is coming, and the One who took hold of you will not let go.
- Make two columns on a sheet of paper, gain and loss. List the things you have been counting on for worth or approval, and pray over each one, handing it to Christ.
- Pick one past failure that keeps pulling you backward. Confess it if you have not, then write 1 John 1:9 over it and choose to stop replaying it.
- Spend ten minutes each day this week simply getting to know Christ: read a passage from the Gospels and ask, what does this show me about Jesus?
- Identify one distraction that keeps you from pressing on. Cut it back or cut it out this week.
- Write a one sentence statement of your one thing and share it with a friend who will help keep you on track.
- What was on Paul’s gain column before he met Christ? What might be on ours today?
- What is the difference between a righteousness of our own and the righteousness that comes from God through faith?
- Why do you think Paul included the fellowship of His sufferings in his desire to know Christ?
- What does it mean that Christ Jesus took hold of Paul first? How does that change the way we run?
- Which is harder for you to forget, past failures or past successes? Why?
- What would it look like this month for you to live by one thing I do?
Lord Jesus, we confess that we have chased many things and counted on many things besides You. Today we move them to the loss column. Thank You that we can be found in You, not wearing our own righteousness but Yours, because You died for our sins and rose again. We want to know You, in the power of Your resurrection and in the fellowship of Your sufferings. Help us forget what is behind, both our failures and our trophies. Give us strength to strain forward and press on toward the prize. Thank You for taking hold of us first. Do not let us go. In Jesus’ name, amen.