Paul's Great Exchange

(From devotionals where I work)

"But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord." -Philippians 3: 7-8

An English judge found himself kneeling at Communion beside a man he had once sentenced for a crime. When asked if he recognized the man, he said, "Yes. That was a miracle of grace." He was asked again, "You mean that such a man should be kneeling beside you?" "Not at all," he said. The miracle is that I should be kneeling beside him. I was brought up in a good, religious, moral home, and served my community. It is much more difficult for someone like me to recognize his need for a Savior. I am the miracle of grace." -Jerry Bridges (paraphrased)

The apostle Paul before his conversion would have made a great church member. He was dedicated to God as an infant, had a long family religious heritage, went to the best school and studied under well known professors, was devoted to the faith, a zealous church worker, above reproach, and a model citizen.

Yet in this passage in Philippians, he called it all "loss." The word for loss was a word rarely used in the New Testament. It meant to throw something overboard--to jettison even a valuable cargo to save lives on a sinking ship. Paul regarded all his "religious" attainments as worth nothing, because he had found something more valuable.

That which he prized more than his own reputation was "knowing Christ Jesus my Lord." It is important to point out here that he is not speaking of a mere intellectual knowing, or a moral knowing, or grasping a set of doctrines. The knowing he exalts here is intimate, relational knowledge of a Person. And Paul's knowledge was not only the apprehension of who Christ was and what He had done for Him. Paul had been invaded by the Life of God that flows through Christ, the life that brought the world forth, and that was revealed to humanity when that Life became human Himself. The knowledge was not something he pursued; it was something that pursued him.

Paul exchanged his own self-righteousness for the righteousness and life of another, and never looked back. We need to do the same. Moral self-righteousness is more dangerous than gross and blatant sin. It is sneaky and gives us a sense of false confidence that strangles the work of the gospel in us. Paul firmly believed that he was saved on the basis of the finished work of Christ alone. He was so convinced of this that he even publicly rebuked Peter when he began to drift into legalism from fear of what his Jewish Christian friends would think of him for hanging out and eating with gentiles.

Our salvation is based on the infinite merit of Christ, not on our actions. Our tendency is to drift back into performance based acceptance (PBA), dragging back up from the bottom of the sea what we've thrown overboard. But shouldn't we do good works? Of course. But true good works are the result of the presence of Christ living in us, not actions that we perform on our own apart from him.