What If Your Best Achievements Are Holding You Back

Paul had the right pedigree, the right education, the right reputation and the kind of rule keeping that looked bulletproof. Then he met Jesus, opened the books on his life, and concluded he was spiritually bankrupt. That’s the jolt at the heart of Philippians 3, and it’s where we go with Dr. Timothy Mann as he traces Paul’s radical revaluation of what counts as gain and what counts as loss.

We talk through the credentials Paul once trusted and why outward religion can still miss the inward reality of sin. We dig into what it means to “gain Christ,” why Paul calls his former treasures rubbish, and why Christianity is not merely doctrine or denomination but a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Along the way, we explain the doctrine of imputation in clear terms: our sin placed on Christ at the cross and Christ’s righteousness credited to our account by faith, not by works righteousness.

Then the message gets uncomfortably practical. If you measure yourself against other people, you will land in pride or despair, and neither can produce lasting joy. Paul points us to a better standard and a better treasure, then he invites us into ongoing growth: knowing the power of Christ’s resurrection, the fellowship of his sufferings, and a life that keeps pressing on because Jesus first laid hold of us.

If this challenged you, share it with a friend who’s tired of performative faith, and subscribe so you don’t miss the next message. After you listen, leave a review and tell us: what “gain” do you need to stop counting on today?

Transcript

Ministry Welcome And Theme

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You're listening to Foundations of Truth, the radio and podcast ministry of firm foundations. Our mission is to help you build your life on the unshakable foundation of God's Word. Rooted in Scripture, anchored in the grace of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Each week, Dr. Timothy Mann opens the Bible to bring clarity, conviction, and encouragement for everyday life. Last time we saw that nothing compares to Christ. And today we go deeper as the Apostle Paul begins to list everything he once trusted in before he came to understand what truly matters. This is Foundations of Truth, and here now is Dr. Timothy Mann.

The Wrong Measuring Stick

Trading Reputation For Christ

Knowing Christ Beyond Head Knowledge

Pride Or Despair From Comparing

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Paul examines his own life. He becomes an auditor, if you will, who opens the books to see what wealth he has. And what he actually discovers is that he is bankrupt. That's what he discovers. He kind of goes down the list. He was born into a pure Hebrew family. He entered into a covenantal relationship as far as they were concerned when he was circumcised. He was not a proselyte, nor was he descended from Ishmael, which was Abraham's other son. He was not descended from Esau, who was Isaac's other son. No. The Judaizers would absolutely understand Paul's reference here to the tribe of Benjamin, because Benjamin and Joseph were Jacob's favorite sons. They were born to Rachel, who was Jacob's favorite wife. Israel's first king came from Benjamin, after whom Saul is named. It is his namesake, even. The little tribe was even faithful to David during the rebellion under Absalom. Paul's human heritage was something to be proud of. And when measured by that standard, he passed with flying colors. He even said, as touching the law, as concerning the law, I was a Pharisee. As touching the righteousness which is in the law, I was blameless. Verses 5 and 6. To the Jews of Paul's day, even right here, a Pharisee had reached the very summit of religious experience, the highest ideal that a Jew could ever hope to attain. As a matter of fact, if anybody was going to heaven, it was a Pharisee. He held to Orthodox doctrine. He tried to fulfill the religious duties faithfully. Now today, we're accustomed to using the word Pharisee as a synonym for what? Hypocrite. Somebody who's self-righteous, right? That was not the case then. That usage was not prevalent in Paul's day. Measured by the righteousness of the law, Paul was blameless. He kept the law. He kept the traditions perfectly. But it's not enough to believe the truth. You also have to oppose lies. Paul defended his Orthodox faith by persecuting the followers of that pretender, Jesus. He assisted in the stoning of Stephen. And after that, he led the attack against the church in general. Even in later years, Paul admitted his role in persecuting the church. Every Jew could boast of his own blood heritage. The interesting thing about that is they can take no credit for it. Some Jews could boast of their faithfulness to the Jewish religion, but Paul could boast of all those things plus his zeal in persecuting the church. Well, how could a sincere man, I mean he was sincere. How could a sincere man like Saul of Tarsus have gone so wrong? The answer is this. He was using the wrong measuring stick. He was using the wrong standard by which to measure himself. Just like that rich young ruler and the Pharisee in Christ's parable, Saul of Tarsus was looking like we do a lot of times. Saul of Tarsus was looking on the outside and not on the inside. He was comparing himself with standards set by men, not by God. Remember, by that time there were 613 laws that had made up. As far as obeying outwardly the demands of the law, Paul was a success. But the problem is, is he did not stop to consider the inward sins he was committing. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus made it very clear that there are sinful attitudes and sinful appetites, as well as sinful actions. And so when he looked at himself, and then he looked at others, Saul of Tarsus considered himself to be righteous. That was the problem, wasn't it? But one day he looked at Jesus Christ. But he had all changed then. It was then that he changed his evaluations and his values. And he abandoned works righteousness for the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Let's look at 7 through 11. When Paul met Jesus Christ on the Damascus Road, Acts 9, what happened? Well, he trusted him. He became a child of God. It was an instantaneous miracle of the grace of God. The kind, by the way, that still takes place today when sinners admit their need and turn to the Savior by faith. When Paul met Christ, what happened at that moment, especially over the next few days, he realized how futile, how futile were his good works, and how actually sinful were his claims of righteousness. His claims of righteousness were actually sinful. A wonderful translation took transaction took place. Paul lost some things, but he gained much more than he lost. Let's look at them. Verse 7, to begin with, he lost whatever was gained to him personally, apart from God. Now certainly Paul had a good reputation as a scholar, as a religious leader. He was proud of his Jewish heritage. He was proud of his religious achievements. All of those things were very valuable to him. He could profit from all of those things. He certainly, no doubt, had many friends who admired his zeal. But what happened was when he measured those treasures against what Jesus Christ had to offer, he realized that all that he actually had held dear was really nothing more than refuse, nothing more than garbage. Nothing, literally, it says rubbish here. Literally, it's dung. He said, everything that I counted as worth something is actually dung compared to what I have in Jesus Christ. His own treasures brought glory to him personally, but they did not bring glory to God. They were gained to him. As you read his letters, follow his ministry in the book of Acts, you see how he valued both his Jewish blood and his Roman citizenship. Becoming a Christian did not make him less a Jew. In fact, it made him what some folks call a completed Jew. Both spiritually and physically. Nor did he lower his standards of morality simply because he saw the shallowness of the Phariseic religion. Instead, he accepted a higher standard of living, which was conformity to Jesus Christ. You know what's true? What's true is this when a person becomes a Christian, God takes away the bad, but he takes the good and makes it better. That's what he wants to do in a person's life. I was reading through some quotes this week about some of the stuff, and not only did I come across that one with Socrates, but Jim Elliott once said, the missionary to South America. Jim Elliott said, who died at a young age, by the way, is a martyr. Killed. He said, he is no fool to give what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose. I want to read that again. That's good. Wish I'd said it. I don't say much that's quotable. He said, he is no fool to give what he cannot keep. To gain what he cannot lose. That's what Paul experienced. He lost his reputation, he lost his religion, but he gained far more than he lost. Verse 8. I count all things lost. For the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, of whom I've suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish that I may gain Christ. This means this knowledge of Christ, this means more than just knowledge about Christ. Because Paul had all of this historical information before he was saved. He had all of that. To know Christ means to have a personal relationship with him through faith. That's the experience that Jesus mentions in John 17, 3. You and I, we know about people who even lived centuries ago. We know personally very few. Christianity is Christ. Get it? It's not a religion. Christianity is Jesus. Everything about it's Him. It's the Word. He is the Word. Salvation is knowing Him in a personal way. In verse 9, he says, the righteousness of Christ. Righteousness was the great goal of Paul's life when he was a Pharisee. But it was a self-righteousness. It was a works righteousness that he never could really attain, even though he thought he had. But when he had trusted Christ, he lost his own self-righteousness and he gained the righteousness of Christ. Listen, the technical word for this, the technical word for this is imputation. Imputation. I'm going to teach that when I get to Romans chapter 4. Imputation. It means literally to put into one's account. Paul looked at his own record. He counted things up. He looked at his own record and he discovered that he was spiritually bankrupt. And he looked at Christ's record and he saw that he was perfect. And when Paul trusted Christ, he saw God put Christ's righteousness to his own account. And more than that, though, Paul discovered that his sins had been put on Christ's account on the cross. And God promised Paul that he would never write his sins against him anymore. What a fantastic experience of the grace of God. We're going to get to Romans 9 at some point. Go through chapter 10 and 11. Well, that's a doozy. I'm looking forward to that. Romans 9, verse 30, all the way through chapter 10, verse 13, is really a parallel passage. And you ought to read it carefully. You yourself, you ought to read it carefully. Because what Paul says about the nation of Israel was true in his own life before he was saved. And it's true of many religious people today. I wonder if it's true of anybody in this room this morning. Is it true of you? What is it? Many people refuse to abandon their own righteousness. Many people refuse to abandon their own righteousness so that they might receive the free gift of the righteousness of Christ. You're hanging on to your own self-righteousness. What you can do, your works. Check your conversation. How much do you boast on what you do? Huh? I did this, I did that, I do this, I do that.

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Who cares? God doesn't. He's not impressed by that.

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You know the problem with most religious folks? Many religious people will not even admit they need any righteousness. They won't even admit that. I got it together. I'm doing everything. I'm perfect. See, the problem with that is this. Just like Saul of Tarsus, you know what they're doing? You know what you may very well be doing? You are measuring yourself against other people. You're measuring yourself against folks. And let me tell you what happens when folks measure themselves against folks. One of two things happen. One is you either get puffed up in pride because you see yourself so much better than they are, or you sink into despair because you see yourself way much lower than they are. It's one of the two it's pride or depression. And they're both awful. They're both horrific. They're both terrible. Yeah, I know it because I've lived there. Stop living there. Stop comparing yourself to other people. Don't you look down your nose at somebody else? Don't look at admiration over somebody else. Look to Jesus and Him alone. If you measure yourself by yourself or by somebody else, you're going to fail to see the inwardness of sin. You are. Paul had to give up his religion to receive righteousness, but he didn't consider it a sacrifice.

Partner With The Ministry

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Today's message reminds us that nothing compares to knowing Christ. And that truth changes everything. At Foundations of Truth, we're committed to sharing that message clearly and faithfully, day after day, week after week. If you're being encouraged, would you please consider partnering with us? Your support helps bring biblical teaching to others who need it. You can visit us online at firm-foundations.org.

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I'm Dr. Timothy Mann. My desire is to help you understand God's word clearly and apply it faithfully in your life. And we'd love to give you a free resource this month if you would connect with us, and we'll send you a great resource on three ways to know we can trust the Bible as God's authoritative word. This resource will help you know how to have confidence in God's word. You don't have to check your mind at the door to believe the Bible. The evidence invites honest examination, and I would love to send it your way. Just contact us.

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Today, Dr. Timothy Mann is examining Philippians chapter 3, and we're seeing how the Apostle Paul examined everything he once trusted in. What we often trust in most may be the very thing we need to let go of. Thank you so much for listening to Foundations of Truth with Dr. Timothy Mann.

Press On And Revalue Your Treasure

SPEAKER_03 16:33

A few more verses. 10 and 11. Y'all still with me? All right. The fellowship of Christ. See, when he became a Christian, it was not the end for Paul, but the beginning. That's the problem with a lot of us. We see it as the end. Well, I'm there now. I'm saved. I'm going to heaven. It was not the end for Paul, it was the beginning. And his experience with Christ was so tremendous it actually transformed his life. And as this experience continued in the years to follow, it was a very intensely personal experience. He said that I may know him. That's what he wanted. Personal. Not a doctrine. He wants to know Jesus. Not a denomination. He wants to know Jesus. I know everybody and their brother claims to love Jesus today. I get it. And there's a lot of folks out there way out in left field as far as the truth of Scripture goes. Just because they say they love Jesus. I'm not talking about the test of doctrine. I'm talking about the test of your heart. You that you want to know him. It's personal. As Paul walked with Christ, he prayed. He obeyed his will. He sought to glorify his name. When he was under the law, man, he was living by a set of rules. But now he had a friend, he had a master. He had a master, he had a companion. It was a powerful experience. Not just personal, it's powerful. He said that I want to know the power of his resurrection. The power of his resurrection. Medical studies show that if you uh wash your hands just casually, if you go back here to the restroom and you kind of get some soap on there and wash your hands, sometimes what happens is it uh just raises more bacteria to the surface. One of the reasons that surgeons, when they go in, other people who go into the room to operate, they scrub. Not just casually wash their hands, is they want to get those all that off that comes to the surface. All works righteousness is like is just casually washing your hands. The power of the resurrection is that the resurrection power of the Lord Jesus Christ gets to the heart. It gets to the source. And scrubs off those old sins. But if you're trying to live by the law, you're gonna have to fake it. Because you gotta look good. You gotta keep the rules. You've got to keep impressing somebody else. And so you hide stuff. But when the power of the resurrection goes to work in your life, it begins to bring those things to the surface and scrub them off and get rid of them. Paul's estimate of the resurrection power of Christ. You can read about it in Ephesians 1, Ephesians 3, what it can do in your life. It's a painful experience, though, too. He said, the fellowship of his sufferings. I want to know that. I want to know the fellowship of his sufferings, he says. Paul knew it was a privilege to suffer with Christ. In fact, suffering had been a part of it from the very beginning in his life. Here's what I think. I do believe this. As we grow in our knowledge of Christ, and as we grow in our experience of his power, if that is real, I'm not talking about head knowledge, just information, but our real experiential knowledge of Christ. As we grow in our experiential knowledge of Christ and in the power of his resurrection, we come under the attack of the enemy. Paul had been a persecutor at one time, but he learned what it meant to be persecuted. But it was worth it. Do you really want to know the sufferings of his death? He said, being made conformable, being conformed to his death. It's practical. Paul lived for Christ because he died to self. He took up his cross daily and he followed him. And the result of this death was a spiritual resurrection that I may obtain to the resurrection from the dead. If by any means he said, I'm willing to go all out. Walking in newness of life. Paul gained so much more than he lost. And those gains were so thrilling that he considered all other things nothing but garbage. By comparison. Are you there yet? Can you do that? No wonder he had joy. His life did not depend on the cheap things of this world, but on the eternal values found in Christ. Paul had the spiritual mind, and he looked at the things of earth from heaven's point of view. We don't have time to get into this morning, but verse 12 he says, Not that I've already attained or I'm already perfected. I'm not there, he says. But I press on. That I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. The only reason you can press on is because Jesus laid hold of you first. And now you keep going. You know, I've probably hit well over the halfway mark. If all goes by normal course. Some of you are beating the curve, you know that? That's good. Good for you. God's blessing you. I'm talking about lifespan. And here's what I have finally grabbed a hold of, I think, in my life, and I see this in other people, and you know this, I think, intuitively, but people who live for things are never really happy. Whether it's those intangible things or the tangible things. People who live for things are never really happy. You're never satisfied. Why? Because you must constantly protect your treasure. Whether it's tangible or intangible. You constantly have to protect your treasure and you have to worry all the time lest it loses its value. That's not the case with the believer who really has the spiritual mind, who has who your treasures are in Christ. They can never be stolen and they never lose their value. Maybe, just maybe, I'm suggesting to you this morning, maybe it's a good time for you to become an accountant and to evaluate in your life the things that matter the most to you. I dare you.

Share The Message And Closing

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I dare you.

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Thank you for joining us today for Foundations of Truth, the radio and podcast ministry of Dr. Timothy Mann and Firm Foundations. If today's message strengthened you in Christ, please consider sharing it with someone you know. You never know who might need to hear these words. You can also find more teaching and learn how to support this ministry at firm-foundations.org. Your partnership helps us continue sharing God's word clearly and faithfully. That's firm-foundations.org. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of God stands forever. Until next time, keep building your life on the unshakable foundation of truth, the Bible.