Saul of Tarsus held a high opinion of himself and his standing before God, but one day it all came crashing down, and he saw the real situation. It led him to know God truly, and receive a new life. His great and eternal gains may also be ours.

‘But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. ‘

I’d like us to think of what we gain with Christ, what we gain by coming to him and having him as Saviour, and receiving him and repenting of sin before him and trusting in what he’s done to bring about the salvation of those who believe. What we gain. This eighth verse too, I must read. ‘Yea, doubtless’ says Paul, ‘and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ’ and be found in him.

Well, the apostle Paul could literally mean all things. He doesn’t here, as I shall explain, but you could give up all wealth, not that it’s necessary for you to do that. You could give up all property, not that it’s necessary for you to do that either. You could surrender beautiful things, if you have any. You could give up all admiration that may be directed to you, whether deserved or not. You could surrender all your learning and it’s not necessary to do that. You could give up all your accomplishments, any authority you have and power, any experiences and pleasures, and I’m thinking even of wholesome pleasures and good pleasures. You could give up the sum total of them, if you had to, but you don’t, in order to find Christ.

But you could, and you would make this discovery, that the loss of everything isn’t to be compared with the experience of finding Christ. That is not what the apostle literally means, but you could stretch his words to mean even that, ‘yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord.’ What the apostle Paul has in mind here, when he says he loss of all things, is that in his case, he surrendered his career. He surrendered his confidence that he had..

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