Letting Go – Philippians 3:1-14

Hopefully you can pause and read Philippians 3:1-14, a description of a transformed heart.

In this passage we see the words; losses, gains and counting. Why is an apostle using CPA-language?  In Luke 14:25-35, Jesus tells us we must all do some critical math in calculating the cost of following Him. In today’s scriptures, the Spirit gives us a peak into Paul’s heart. We get to see how he processed Jesus’ commands and how the accounting within Paul’s heart worked itself out.

Why did the Spirit include in scripture such a transparent view of Paul? Was it to display his heart as an exception, a bar set so high it could only be cleared with apostolic muscle? I don’t think so; I believe Paul’s heart is intended as a reference point for all Christ’s followers. The apostle’s story, like our own, is intended to be a catalyst to others as we work out our salvation (aka; living our life).

Paul’s pre-Christ balance sheet was loaded with what he had thought of as stout assets; he was a Jew from the tribe of Benjamin, a Pharisee blameless regrading Law-based righteousness and he was a zealous persecutor of the Church. Yet, by the time he wrote this letter, Paul’s balance sheet had flipped! Whatever he had experienced since those days as a Pharisee had completely undermined the value of his former assets. His pre-Christ life had become, in his counting, worth less than nothing. It was as though he had experienced a joyful sort of bankruptcy, suffering the loss of all things. The passage reveals that Paul could not have been more pleased with the results; gaining his windfall – Jesus Christ.

With Christ Himself as his only remaining asset, Paul has become a bench mark for transformation, capable of assisting us in the calculations we each must make. What happened in Paul’s experience that transformed him from proud pharisee into the humble chief of sinners? What events and processes took place which left Jesus as Paul’s sole asset?  Just how did God bring about this transformation?

If we are making claims on the name of Jesus, the calculation Jesus instructs us to make must eventually include question like these;  In what ways has my own heart been transformed? Am I becoming less and less while He is becoming more an more? When the books are finally opened, will Jesus appear as my sole asset? As my Lord, have I given Him the combination to my heart?

Note; If we believe God held Paul’s heart, in its apostolic-ness, to higher standards than he does our own, please read verses 15-21. Also note the consequence for those who had replaced the cross with their own preferences.

Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, have this attitude; and if in anything you have a different attitude, God will reveal that also to you; however, let us keep living by that same standard to which we have attained.  Brethren, join in following my example, and observe those who walk according to the pattern you have in us. For many walk, of whom I often told you, and now tell you even weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose god is their appetite, and whose glory is in their shame, who set their minds on earthly things. For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.

Father, on that day when you ask us to give an accounting of ourselves, may our books be in order – where our righteousness is that which comes from you alone on the basis of faith, and that like Paul, You alone are our treasure. May we encounter You in our circumstances and may we see Your strong loving heart’s efforts to transform us and to reveal Christ to us and though us. May Your eyes soon see Your Bride pressing on toward the goal of the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Amen.