Philippians 3:7-11 ESV
“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. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.”
I Count it All Loss
When we believe in Jesus Christ with God-given faith we
humble ourselves before God, deny ourselves, and we submit to being crucified
with Christ in death to sin and to being raised with Christ to walk in newness
of life in him, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. Our
old self is crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought
to nothing, so that we will no longer be enslaved to sin but to God’s
righteousness.
So all that is from our past lives we count as loss for the
surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus our Lord. All that we accomplished in
the flesh, all the pride, all the sin, all the living for self and for self-pleasure
we willingly forfeit in order to now be children of God and heirs of the
promise and followers of Jesus Christ. This doesn’t mean we instantly become perfect,
though, for our salvation and our sanctification are a lifetime process.
But when I state anything about us not being perfect, this
is no way is to ever be used as an excuse for deliberate and habitual and
premeditated sin against God and against other humans. It is just realizing
that we will always be a work in progress until Jesus comes to take us home to
be with him. And this is why the Scriptures teach we must daily die to sin and
to self and that we must be walking in obedience to our Lord, and sin should
not be what we practice but righteousness and obedience to the Lord should be
our practice.
Now, none of this comes from our own flesh. We can do
nothing to earn or to deserve our own salvation. Our good deeds will never
outweigh our bad deeds. And flesh cannot cast out flesh. All this is the
working of God’s Spirit in our lives from beginning to end, but we must
cooperate with that working of God’s Spirit by obeying what our Lord says we
must do and by ceasing to do what he commands that we not do – all in his
strength and power.
Becoming Like Him
For the goal of our faith is indeed that we may know Jesus
intimately and personally, and that we may know experientially the power of his
resurrection in our own lives, and that we may share in the fellowship of his
sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible we may
attain the resurrection of the dead.
So what this is saying is that knowing Jesus means that we
have been crucified with him in death to sin and we have been raised with him
to walk in newness of life in him in the power of God via our submission to his
work of grace in our lives. This means that sin has been put to death in our
lives so that we can now live holy and godly lives to the praise and glory of
God in his strength. We become like him in his death when we make the choice to
die with him to sin and to live to him and to his righteousness in his power.
But this is not a one-time thing that happens in our lives
which guarantees us heaven when we die regardless of how we live our lives from
that moment forward. Becoming like Jesus in his death means we are daily dying
to sin and to self and we are walking in obedience to his commands in his
strength and power. And it means that we are continuing in these walks of faith
steadfast in him until the very end so that we will have eternal life with him
when he returns for his bride.
For, if we continue in deliberate and habitual sin, and we
do not walk in obedience to our Lord in his righteousness, then we will not
inherit eternal life with God. For Jesus said that not everyone saying to him, “Lord,
Lord,” will enter into the kingdom of heaven but only the one DOING the will of
God the Father who is in heaven. So faith is not what we claim but it is what
we do. Faith is obedience, it is submission to Christ, and it is dying to sin
daily.
[Lu 9:23-26; Jn 6:35-58; Jn
15:1-11; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-17; Eph 4:17-24; 1 Pet 2:24; 1
Co 6:9-10,19-20; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; Tit 2:11-14; Jas 1:21-25; Rom 12:1-2; Eph 2:8-10; Php 2:12-13; Col 1:21-23; Col
3:5-10; Gal 5:16-21; Eph 5:3-6; Gal 6:7-8; Rom 2:6-8; Heb 10:26-27; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn
2:3-6; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Matt 7:21-23; Ac 26:18; Rev 21:8,27;
Rev 22:14-15]
Give
Me Jesus
Oh,
What Gladness!
An
Original Work / December 2, 2013
Give me Jesus. He’s my Savior.
I’ll walk with Him in His favor.
I’ll abide in His love always;
Follow His ways to the end.
Jesus is the Son of God.
He died upon a cruel cross.
He’s forgiven all my failures
By His mercy and His love.
Give me Jesus – His compassion,
And His mercy; loving kindness.
Let Him teach me how to love Him,
And to please Him. He’s my friend.
Jesus died for all our sin
So we could have eternal life.
He will free you from your bondage
If you trust Him with your life.
Give me Jesus. Let me trust Him.
May I listen to His teachings.
May I follow where He leads me
In His service. He’s my Lord.
Jesus Christ will come again
To take His bride to be with Him.
Oh, what gladness; free from sadness
When I meet Him in the air.
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