Relinquish to Possess

January 6

The dissertation of Paul in Philippians 3:7-9 is the affirmation of a man who has turned his life around. Where once he had temporal goals at the heart of his being, he now had a totally spiritual orientation. There was nothing that he once held dear that he had not totally abandoned. There was Christ Whom he once scorned that he had now come to embrace.

He said of himself, “Whatever was to my profit, I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. I consider everything I gained to be loss compared to the surpassing greatness of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for Whose sake I have lost all things and count them but dung that I may gain Christ and be found in Him.

“I have no righteousness of my own through obedience to the law; I have only the righteousness that comes through faith in Jesus. It is the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.”

When Paul’s dark eyes were opened, when he could see the squalor of his own goodness, he embraced the One whose pure life enabled Him to place a robe of righteousness upon those who believe Him.

When Paul’s eyes were opened to behold the glory of the Holy One whose life, death and resurrection had the power to transform an ordinary flawed man from sinner to saint, he received the Gift that made all things new—that made him a man of passion for the Lord—the “unspeakable Gift” of II Corinthians 9:15.

It is only Jesus who can transform ordinary men today from flawed, vessels, laden with sin into godly people who can boldly face life or death in the confidence that Paul had. As the Apostle declared, “I know Whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I’ve committed to Him,” II Timothy 1:12, so may believers today affirm that confidence!

Like Paul, we can be believers who are willing to exchange the momentary treasures of time for the unfathomable riches of eternity. We, too, may embrace the Lord Jesus Christ with a full heart that enables us to be like Paul—a man who relinquished the trappings of the world so he could possess the treasure of eternal life.