Paul said in 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.”
In Christ there is a spiritual treasure that turns earthly treasures into garbage. Paul has a way of playing the game, winning, and then saying the game is bunk. He does it, for example, in 2 Corinthians 11:21–12:11 where he lists his “superior” achievements and then says, “I have been a fool! You forced me to it” (2 Corinthians 12:11). In other words, I can play your game of measuring myself by your standards, win, and then call it all worthless. It is fool’s play!
In the above passage gaining Christ is all that mattered to Paul. As referenced above he said, “For His sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ”. In context to “gain” means to get all that Christ is for us in heaven, not just on earth. Paul previously said, “To live is Christ and to die is gain” (Eph 1:21), because “to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better” (Eph 1:23).
Futhermore, Paul will later tell the church in Philippians 3:12 that, “He press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of him.”
Brothers and Sisters, it’s abundantly clear that part of what makes human achievement a pile of garbage compared to Christ is that soon (and very soon!) we are going to meet the KING—in a far more full, intimate, stunning, and satisfying capacity.
At the end of the day and obviously at the end of our natural lives, Jesus Christ will be both the treasure we all cherish and the One who provided the right to possess or “gain” this magnificent treasure. In Christ and Christ alone we have an irrefutable and inalienable right to know and gain Christ. And that is all we should ever truly desire because in a nutshell that is the gospel aka good news!
4GIVEN 