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“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” – Philippians 3:8
Is He Worth It?
How precious is Jesus to you? Enough to count everything else in your life as “rubbish”, as Paul phrases it?
How personal is Jesus to you? Enough to do anything in your life just to know him more, love him more, adore him more?
How worth it is Jesus to you? Enough to withstand trails and tribulations, mockery and scorn, persecution and abandonment?
Is he enough for you?
The gospel centralizes around that question. How important is Jesus to you? How central is he in your life?
Think of the greatest commandment: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” (Mat. 22:37).
What does God require of you? That you love him. How much? With all you’ve got. How often do we fail at this? Every day. This is why we need the transforming grace of a Savior. Praise God that Jesus cleanses us from our inability to love God as we should. Praise God that Jesus was perfect on our behalf. Praise God that Jesus gives us new hearts that are tender towards him. Praise God that Jesus loved us.
In response to these things we echo the words of the apostle: “We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19). Before we know the love of God we can’t even begin to imagine what love is. We think we know, but really what we call “love” is a euphemism for the pleasure we get when we get what we want out of someone or something. When that person or thing disappoints us or doesn’t fulfill our needs anymore, we throw it away.
Isn’t this the exact opposite of what Jesus did for us? When we didn’t want him–when we actively rebelled against his continual mercy and grace–he gave himself away. He laid down his life for us. He humbled himself, became one of us, and traded his perfect life for our dirty rags. He willingly handed us his perfection, saying “Here. You don’t deserve this, but I love you so much that I want you to be right with God. Your sins are forgiven.”
How powerful is that kind of love? How radical and unconditional? Yet really, this isn’t just a different “type” of love by human standards: it is the most precise definition of what love is. And until we know the “love of Christ that surpasses knowledge”, we can never truly love God (or our fellow human beings) in return. This is the essence of the greatest commandment. Christ allows us to love God. Christ gives us a new heart.
Clearly then, God is not now (nor has ever been) looking for half-hearted, split-devotion followers who want some of God but not all of him. Nor is he looking for those who can show a brilliant display of outward behavior and good morals to impress others. He sees your heart, and that is what he is after. He wants you to see that he is better than life itself. All else pales in comparison to him. Yet again, if you don’t understand his love, you won’t understand this.
This then truly gives us a deep insight as to what Paul means when he speaks of counting “everything as loss” for Jesus. It is not a game to him. It is not one foot in, one foot out–wavering on the sidelines of his worldly desires and his devotion to God. Instead, “everything [is] loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus”. Paul recognizes the most immaculate truth of all: knowing Christ Jesus gives us eternal and abundant life (John 10:10, 17:3). The worth of knowing who Jesus is far outweighs anything this world can offer.
Do you live like that? Or yet, a better question is this: do you know Jesus in such a way that you want to live like that? There is surpassing worth in knowing him. Because of that, everything else is garbage. As C.S. Lewis asks, why play in the mud when you can go to the beach? Why love lesser things when you can love (and be loved in return) by the greatest thing of all: God himself.
There is surpassing worth in knowing Jesus. In truth, this is what this life is about.
Welcome to the blog,
-Cole Bohnsack
About Cole
Cole Bohnsack (M.Div., Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary), serves as one of the pastors at Historic Providence Church in Graham, NC. He is currently pursuing his doctorate in Pastoral Theology at SEBTS, researching and writing on Puritan Pastoral Theology.
Previously, Cole has served as a college pastor at Wingate University, as well as spending two summers in Honduras for missions. His heart is to see his generation reclaimed by the power of a living relationship with Christ, one disciple at a time.
