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In this chapter we will consider the excellency of the knowledge of Christ. We all need to have an excellent knowledge regarding Christ. In order to understand what the excellency of the knowledge of Christ is, we need to see some other contrasts in Philippians 3.
In the last chapter we pointed out the threefold contrast in verses 2 and 3: the contrast between the dogs and the Spirit, between the evil workers and those who boast in Christ, and between the concision and those who have no confidence in the flesh. Now we need to see three more contrasts. The Greek word translated “as to” is used three times in verses 5 and 6: as to the law, as to zeal, and as to the righteousness which is in the law. Also in the Greek the word translated “on account of” is used three times in verses 7 and 8: on account of Christ, on account of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ, and on account of whom (Christ). As to the law, Paul was a Pharisee; as to zeal for the law, he persecuted the church; and as to the righteousness which is in the law, he became blameless. Thus, he was a Pharisee, a persecutor, and a blameless one. In these verses we see a contrast between the law and Christ. The law is versus Christ, and Christ is versus the law.
Also, zeal is in contrast to excellency. An eloquent speaker can stir up our zeal in a few minutes. We also can stir up our zeal by praying for a while. This is especially true of the young people. When they come together, they sometimes say, “We are here to burn one another.” After a few minutes of praying, praising, calling, and releasing the spirit, the young people are all burning. This shows that it is quite easy to be zealous. But the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord does not come so quickly. When Paul wrote the Epistle to the Philippians, he was quite old and had gained much knowledge of Christ. Nevertheless, he still said, “To know Him.” This indicates that he felt that he was still lacking in the knowledge of Christ. It also indicates that the excellency of the knowledge of Christ does not come easily or quickly. On the contrary, it takes a good deal of time. The entire Bible is a revelation of the wonderful person of Christ. How excellent and inexhaustible He is! He is far beyond our understanding. Nevertheless, we need to have the excellency of the knowledge of Him.
It is important to have the proper knowledge of things. For example, a jeweler may place a beautiful ring in an attractive jewelry box. If we have the proper knowledge concerning the ring, we will not treasure the box. Little children, however, may care more for the box than for the ring. They may actually cast aside the ring and fight with one another over the box. The reason they fight over the box is that they do not have the knowledge of the excellency of the ring. Thus, it is crucial to have the excellency of the knowledge concerning certain things.
The Bible teaches us the law in a negative sense and Christ in a positive sense. If we do not know the law negatively and Christ positively, we do not know the Bible. Religious people care for the law. Anyone who does not have the revelation and the vision of the excellency of Christ will become involved with the law. When people are indifferent toward God, they may not care about morality. But once they begin to care for Him, they will also care for morality and try to live a good life. Immediately, they will become involved with the law. When people are careless, they do not care for God, for morality, or for their behavior. They care only for their pleasure, doing whatever pleases them. Thus, they are lawless. But if such a person turns, repents, and cares for God, he will also care for morality and behavior. In this way he will come under the law and make up his mind to do good. He will study the Bible to learn how to please God and to benefit others. In other words, he will study the Bible to find out about the law. He will also be eager to receive instruction from those who can teach him to improve his behavior. This kind of religion helps society and the government, for the government certainly desires to have good citizens. Therefore, a religion that teaches people to behave, to be good, and to be peaceful will be welcomed by society.
Many Christians today care more for the law than for Christ. Even learning to pray, to be holy, and to speak in tongues may be matters of the law. The same is true regarding instruction in being a good wife or husband. In the human mentality there is nothing but the law. There is no room, capacity, or ground for Christ. Very few people ever ask me how they can experience Christ in order to be a good husband or wife. It seems that Christians never relate Christ to being a good wife or husband. Most seem to leave Christ far away in the heavens and devote their attention to the law.
All the Judaizers, including Saul of Tarsus, were for the law. They seemed to say, “We Hebrews have the law of God, but the Gentile dogs do not have it.” The law was the unique heritage of the Jews, and they gloried and boasted in it. When the Lord Jesus came, He offended the Judaizers because He changed the dispensation of the law to the dispensation of Christ, or of grace. The Judaizers seemed to say, “Are you trying to get rid of our law? We are for the law, and we will rise up against You. Furthermore, we will persecute anyone who follows You. As to the righteousness which is in the law, we are blameless.”
When Paul was Saul of Tarsus, he was such a person, a Pharisee, a persecutor of the church, and one blameless as to the law. As to the law, as to zeal for the Lord, and as to the righteousness in the law, he was perfect, fully qualified to be a “top dog” in Judaism. But one day a light suddenly shined upon him from heaven, and he fell to the ground. Then he heard a voice saying, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” (Acts 9:4). When Saul asked who was speaking to him, the Lord Jesus said, “I am Jesus” (v. 5). Saul was shocked. He thought that Jesus was still in the tomb, but now he heard Him speaking from heaven. Before that time, Saul saw clearly, but now he was blind. When Paul was Saul of Tarsus, he could say that he was circumcised on the eighth day, that he was of the race of Israel, that he was of the tribe of Benjamin, that he was a Hebrew born of Hebrews, that as to the law he was a Pharisee, that as to zeal he persecuted the church, and that as to the righteousness in the law he had become blameless. But now he was blind. Yet in his blindness he saw Christ. It pleased God the Father to reveal His Son, Jesus Christ, in him. That day on the road to Damascus Paul began to see Christ. However, he did not see Him once for all. Rather, throughout the years he saw Him again and again.
Because Paul had come to know Christ, he obtained the excellency of the knowledge of Christ. On account of this excellency, he counted all things as loss. Paul counted all things as loss first on account of Christ, then on account of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ.
In Philippians 3 Paul shows that Christ is versus the law. In this chapter we see two contrasting phrases: as to the law and on account of Christ. Are you a person as to something or a person on account of something? We should not be people as to anything but people on account of Christ, on account of a wonderful person. We are not here as to religion or even as to the Lord’s recovery. We are here on account of the person of Christ. Moreover, we are not even as to Christ, but on account of Christ. To be as to something is to imitate it or to follow it outwardly. But to be on account of something means that that thing gets into us. We are on account of Christ because Christ has come into us. In Philippians 3 Paul seems to be saying, “On account of Christ, I count all things as loss. As to the law, I was a Pharisee; as to zeal, I persecuted the church; and as to the righteousness in the law, I became blameless. I worked and behaved as to the law. But I am no longer a man as to the law. Now I am a man on account of Christ. Christ has changed my life and revolutionized my whole being. He has come into me to be my life, my nature, and even my disposition. I am now on account of Him. On account of Him, I have counted as loss every religious and natural gain.” Paul also says that he counted all things to be loss on account of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus the Lord. How excellent Christ is! However, many traditional Christians oppose the excellency of Christ.
A wonderful person, Christ, has visited me and has come into me. Now He is taking possession of me and making His home in me. Many times He makes me happy, but sometimes He causes me to be unhappy. A few times I have even begged Him to leave, but He always refuses. Once He has come in, He will remain forever. Neither anything religious nor anything natural can be compared with Him.
In Matthew 11:27 the Lord Jesus said that no one knows the Son except the Father. When I first read this verse, I was disappointed, wondering how I could ever know Christ. But in Matthew 16 we see that it is possible for us to know Christ through the Father’s revelation of Him. The revelation concerning the Son was given to Peter by the Father. When Peter confessed that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the living God, the Lord Jesus said, “Flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in the heavens” (v. 17). Only the Father knows the Son. Yet, the Father wants to reveal Him to us.
The Gospel of John reveals Christ to us. In John 1:1 we see that Christ is God Himself. Surely the law cannot compare to God. How foolish it is to keep the law and neglect God! The law may produce religious “dogs,” but God begets sons. According to the book of Revelation, the holy sons of God are in the holy city, but the dogs are outside (22:15).
According to the first chapter of John, Christ was not only God but the very means, the channel, through which everything came into being. This means that He was the Creator. Furthermore, John 1:4 says, “In Him was life.” One day this wonderful One became flesh, and, having become flesh, He became the tabernacle of God (v. 14). As the tabernacle, He had the glory of the Father, and with Him were grace and reality (v. 14). Of His fullness we have received grace upon grace. This One declared God, whom no one had ever seen.
Acts 2 reveals that the very Jesus who was crucified on the cross has been exalted by God to be the Lord and the Christ. Today Jesus is Lord and Christ, the anointed and appointed One of God. In Romans 1:4 we are told that Christ was designated the Son of God in power out of the resurrection of the dead according to the Spirit of holiness. This One is God over all, blessed forever (9:5). One day this person became the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45). What a wonderful person He is!
In Colossians we see more of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ. Colossians 1:15 says that He is the image of the invisible God. Colossians 1:15-17 goes on to say that Christ is also the Creator as well as the Firstborn of all creation, the first item of all the creatures. Moreover, not only were all things created in Him, but they also cohere in Him, for He holds all things together. I once read an article that said that some power at the center of the universe is holding the universe together. If this power were removed, the entire universe would collapse. This holding power in which all things cohere is Christ. He is the hub of the universe; all the spokes are joined to Him. Colossians 1 also reveals that Christ is the Firstborn from the dead in resurrection and that He is the Head of the church (v. 18). Verse 19 goes on to say that God the Father is pleased that all His fullness would dwell in Christ.
Colossians 2:2 says that Christ, the wonderful One, is the mystery of God; 2:9, that the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Christ bodily; and 3:4, that He is even our life. How marvelous and inexhaustible He is!
Hebrews 1:2 and 3 say that Christ is the Heir of all things, the effulgence of God’s glory, and the impress of God’s substance. Through Him the universe was made, and He upholds all things by the word of His power. Elsewhere in Hebrews we see that He is the High Priest in the heavens (4:14), a Priest not according to the law of letters but according to the power of an indestructible life (7:16). He is also the Mediator of a better covenant (8:6).
Finally, the book of Revelation shows us that this wonderful One is the redeeming Lamb with seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God (5:6). There are a great many other aspects of Christ revealed in the New Testament, but these are sufficient to show us something of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ.
Let us return to the illustration of the gold ring in the attractive box. If children have the excellency of the knowledge of the ring, they will not fight over the box. Instead, they will seek to gain possession of the ring. Before his experience on the road to Damascus, Paul did not have the excellency of the knowledge of Christ. He treasured the law and was zealous and righteous as to the law. But one day his eyes were opened to see the excellency of the knowledge of the wonderful One. On account of this excellency, he counted as loss all things, whether they were related to religious gain or natural gain. Paul says that he counted all things as loss on account of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus the Lord. Christ refers to God’s anointed and appointed One, the Messiah, who accomplishes everything God has purposed. Jesus is the name of the Nazarene who lived in Palestine. Today Jesus Christ is our Lord. This means that He has something to do with us. On account of the excellency of the knowledge of this wonderful One, we count all things as loss. Furthermore, we even suffer the loss of all things. I would like to cast everything aside on account of this person. Compared to Him, all other things are refuse, dog food. When Paul was one of the “dogs” in Judaism, he needed dog food. But when he became a son of the living God, he had no further need for it. In its place he had better food, the wonderful person of Christ Himself. We are no longer dogs feeding on refuse; we are sons of God feeding on Christ Jesus our Lord.
May we all have more of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ. If we do, we will drop everything religious and everything natural on account of Him and on account of the excellency of the knowledge of Him. When we serve by the Spirit of God, boast in Christ Jesus, have no confidence in the flesh, and have the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus the Lord, we have the proper basis for the experience of Christ.
