“THAT I MAY GAIN CHRIST”
Peter Mutton
Philippians 3: 1-14; Mark 10: 17-22
I have been seized upon by this part of a verse, that Paul counted things that were legitimate, that belonged to him in his former life, as "filth, that I may gain Christ." There had been what men to-day call a water-shed in Paul's life. Things had changed dramatically for him and he moved from an extreme position in opposition to Christ to one where he became the chief proponent of the gospel. What happened in his life was dramatic and sudden and unexpected. But this is a remarkable verse: he says I reckon it all, all that belonged to me in my first life, as "filth, that I may gain Christ."
It is sometimes an interesting exercise to look at other versions of the Bible to see what other translators have made of a verse because after all every verse in the New Testament has to be transcribed and interpreted from the Greek. Now, Young is very close to Mr Darby, Young's literal translation. He says, 'I count it all refuse, that Christ I may gain and be found in Him.' The Weymouth translation says, 'that I may win Christ and be found in union with Him.' So they have used different words. We will stay with Mr Darby; Paul reckoned it all "filth, that I may gain Christ."
Now dear friend, beloved brother, beloved sister, have you gained Christ? Is Christ your gain? Is He the purpose, the driving force and influence in your life? Have you gained Christ? Have you won Him? Are you in union with Him? You may say, Well, who are you to talk to me like that? and you are right. But this verse has laid hold of my soul. Paul says, Whatever belonged to me, I reckon it all as filth, as refuse – the Authorised Version says, as dung – "that I may gain Christ." Paul became single-minded in his pursuit of Christ.
Now, he is quite clear in the passage that we have read that he did not count yet to have got possession, but how close he was! He speaks of having the mind of Christ. He speaks of having received things from the Lord, of having seen Him and heard things in glory in an apparently out-of-the-body experience that he had. He had seen the Lord on the Damascus road when such a light overshadowed him and suddenly everything that belonged to his former life started to fall away.
Now, what about Saul's former life? It comes out now and again that he was a bit proud of what he was. He was proud of the fact that he was a Benjaminite; he was proud of the fact that he was a Pharisee; that he had got good marks in his exams, he sat at the feet of Gamaliel. He was there, I think, as a star pupil. He took pride in the fact that he was free-born a Roman, and there on the road to Damascus he takes pride in the fact that he has there in his pocket a letter from the high priest giving him apparent authority to strike at the very heart of those Christians who gathered there in fear of his coming. They knew he was coming. They knew all about him, and he was on his way. Paul was quite frank and open later in what he says about himself, I was the chief of sinners, and yet, he says, as to the law I was blameless. He could give you chapter and verse for everything he did. He thought he should do much against the name of Jesus and he did it, casting Christians into prison and causing them to blaspheme. He would torture them until they blasphemed the Name that they had taken up. What a terrible man!
He says of himself, I was "an insolent overbearing man", 1 Tim 1: 13. He was just a young man here. You know what insolence is? Insolence is when you speak disrespectfully, your whole attitude is disrespectful, to those who are bigger than you are. And he was maybe Gamaliel's star pupil, but he may even have been insolent to Gamaliel. Sometimes maybe as a child, people say you are insolent and you say, Sorry, I was just asking a question. I did not mean it. Sometimes we do not know when we are being insolent. I do not think Saul knew he was being it but perhaps he was insolent to Gamaliel. Gamaliel says to the Sanhedrim – and I think Saul was there because we have a full account of what was said in secret in the Sanhedrim in Acts – this Jesus, if it is of men, it will come to nothing, so leave it alone; if it is of God, you cannot fight it. That was Gamaliel. He was a wise man. People had respect for him. But where do you see his star pupil? You see him riding hard to get to Damascus to stamp out the Name of Jesus. He says of himself he was insolent; he was also overbearing. What does that mean? Overbearing: we all know what that is; we have all experienced it, people who make life difficult for you when they are above you. So Saul was impossible to people who were above him and he was unbearable to people who were beneath him. He was a self-made man, committing himself to a life in which he would be the star.
I have repeated something which I came across the other day, a picture in a little tract and it was a representation of me as in self, just as Saul was. It was a circle and inside the circle was a throne and on the throne was an 'S' and the 'S' stands for self. We all have a throne, the throne of our life, but who is sitting on the throne? In this representation it was Self that sat upon the throne. "I indeed myself thought that I ought to do much against the name of Jesus the Nazaraean", Acts 26: 9. I can justify it from the letter of the law. I think for Saul if he looked at that picture after his conversion, he would see the circle, the circle of his life; he would see the throne of his life; but on the throne is Christ and at the foot of the throne is self. Self is given up. The place that self would seek for itself is given up to Christ who becomes his gain. He says, "I... count them to be filth, that I may gain Christ." "Who art thou, Lord?" Acts 9: 5. I do not think he had ever said that before in His life: "Who art thou, Lord?" The voice does not say, I am Jesus the Almighty Creator. It does not say, I am the Son of God. It says, I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest", Acts 9: 5. Wonderful Jesus, who His Person is! How much He gave up to be found here "in figure as a man", and "having been found in figure as a man, humbled himself, becoming obedient even unto death, and that the death of the cross", Phil 2: 8. Is He not worthy to sit on the throne? God reckons Him so. But is He worthy, dear friend, beloved hearer, to sit on the throne of your life? Be in pursuit of Jesus! Paul says, I do not see it distinctly yet. I see through 'a glass darkly' – that is the Authorised Version – or "through a dim window obscurely, but then face to face", 1 Cor 13: 12. The whole of Paul's life was consumed with that desire, to see Christ and to be with Him, "that I may gain Christ."
Dear friend, it is the only way to live, the only way to live in power, and whatever circumstances life may throw at you – if you think life throws circumstances at you – whatever things may happen to you, if you have Christ, it is sufficient. If you do, it is sufficient. If you do not, even the saying of it sounds like a mockery. And we are very privileged to be in the circumstances of hearing the truth day in day out. We are in circumstances of great opportunity, but they can be in our ears "as an idle tale". They can be in our ears as something other people do and seem to get something out of, but for me, I have not seen anything in it yet. As Paul says, there was a change, and the change was when Christ shone into my life. He says before Agrippa, I have not been "disobedient to the heavenly vision", Acts 26: 19. Festus says, You are mad, Paul, you are mad. You have read too much and it has turned your head, and he says, Oh, no, I wish you were like me. I wish everybody was like me. And then he remembers the chains and he says, but I would like to be rid of these. He remembers why he was there but he used every opportunity to preach the gospel, to preach about the Christ who appeared to him and brought him on to new ground. He became a disciple, became one who had taken up his cross and followed. Even if people thought he was mad, even if people put him in prison and his feet in the stocks, even if he was given stripes, whatever it was, he said, It is worth it "that I may gain Christ."
So Paul was on a journey bringing him closer and closer to the Lord Jesus. And the further he went on his journey, the more like his Master he became, the more he would give over those things that belonged to his former self. You see little flashes of ire in the Acts and elsewhere. Some things of the former life of Saul of Tarsus come out. "God will smite thee, whited wall" (Acts 23: 3), for instance, and then he has to remember that that was not how he learnt the Christ. The voice said to him, "it is hard for thee to kick against goads, Acts 26: 14. You will not prevail against My name, but come across to My side because I want to bless you.
In Mark's gospel, we see another Jew. We see another person who kept the law. There is a moral basis to our lives; there is to be one. We have a moral being and moral responsibility. We will be judged according to the things that we have done in our lives. There is no getting away from that. But the pull and appeal of Christ is one of attraction. We come over on to His ground. We forsake the things that have belonged to us before, even the good things, even the legitimate things. The more we are attracted, the more we are ready to leave them. The more we see Him clearly, the better we want to do it. It does not become a painful struggle any more; it becomes a matter of easy relinquishment.
But we have to start somewhere. And this young man, he was good; he was wholesome; he was attractive. He wanted eternal life and he thought the pursuance of the law would give him eternal life, but it did not satisfy his soul. He was not satisfied. The woman at Sychar's well was not satisfied either, but she had hardly kept the Jewish law. She probably had not kept any law particularly well, but the point of attraction becomes the Person of the Lord Jesus and for him and for the woman at Sychar's well, there was the same need. They both felt the need. The woman at Sychar's well had so many questions that remained unanswered, and this young man had one.
He comes to Jesus because he knew that here was a Teacher whom he honoured before God and he kneels at His feet. He is respectful. He comes with the right attitude and he says, What shall I do, what do I have to do, that I may inherit eternal life? Jesus says, Why do you call me good? Why are you here? Had the young man any apprehension as to who Jesus was – the Son of God? He had used that expression, "Good Teacher", but it had not seized hold of his heart that here was the Messiah. Here was the Son of God, God incarnate. He had not received that sense in his soul, so the Lord probes him. Why are you here? Why do you call me good? "No one is good but one, that is God." We come into the presence of supreme goodness in Jesus. This young man knew that Jesus was good, but he did not seem to realise that Jesus was perfect, the holy, sinless, undefiled. He did not seem to realise that here was his only hope of salvation. He comes for enlightenment. Do not just come to the meetings, beloved brother and sister, just for enlightenment! Come for Christ!
And so he kneels. Jesus says, Do you know the commandments: "Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal..." Jesus knew he knew these things because He knew his heart. He was the discerner of men's hearts. He knew all this. And he says, "Teacher, all these things have I kept from my youth" all these things, and I am still not satisfied. You know it is possible to do all the right things, to avoid all the wrong company and all the wrong parties and to say the right things in the right places at the right time, to give out the right hymns and the right prayers, and you are still not satisfied.
But he had come to the right place because he finds the answer. Jesus says to him, Well, you have a lot of possessions, get rid of them, and come and follow me. Take up your cross. And here was the nub of the matter. This man's life was in his possessions. He wanted material success and wealth. He wanted to get on in this world, I believe, just as Saul of Tarsus did before he met Christ, but he also wanted eternal life, and the two are mutually incompatible, mutually exclusive. It is either one or the other. Jesus says, One thing you lack; you are nearly there. You are a 99% candidate for eternal life, but there is one thing: you need Me! You may be perfect, but you need Me! Dear friend, do not seek after perfection here because you will never find it! This man was nearly there. Jesus loved him. He looked at him and He said, There is someone who stands before God as morally upright and ready for the gospel of grace. Is he ready to receive Me? Because the only basis on which God is going to take people into eternal life is because of the acknowledgement of the work of Jesus. Is this sounding like the gospel? Do not be surprised because it is all bound together. Christ was his hope, his only hope if he was to experience the joy of eternal life and, beloved brother and sister, now is the time for eternal life, now is the time for the enjoyment of it. That was what the disciples enjoyed with Jesus: it was eternal life conditions – "Thou hast words of life eternal", John 6: 68. It was what kept them close to Him, what bound them to Him. And this young man threw it all away because he had large possessions.
Now, you may not have large possessions, and I certainly do not, but the Lord says, "It is not because a man is in abundance that his life is in his possessions", Luke 12: 15. You could have a little hovel and it could be everything to you. You can have a job and it is everything to you and it is your life and consumes you at every moment and yet it does not satisfy your soul. There is only one Person can do that, and this man was kneeling at His feet. He was in the right place at the right time, the moment of opportunity. He received the invitation, Take up your cross and follow me. Get rid of what is encumbering you and holding you down! Come and follow me! And he went away grieved.
I think here we have a great contrast with Saul of Tarsus. You may look at Saul's life and say, What a disaster! He had prospects, he had hope, expectations of making a good living, interpreting the law for other people, and now look at him: he is in prison most of his time. He makes testimony, yes, but he is in bonds, in chains, he has been in shipwrecks. How many shipwrecks has he been in? How many beatings has he had? And you look at Saul's life and you say, he died a martyr, did he not? Ah, but he gained Christ! Christ was his gain! Christ was his life! For him to live was Christ and to die was gain. Every moment of every day he was getting closer and closer in his link with His Saviour. And he preaches with boldness, takes every opportunity to speak of Christ. This young man went back to his possessions. We do not know what his life was like. Outwardly maybe it was very successful. Maybe he became a powerful person in the Jewish assembly. Maybe he took a place in the Sanhedrim, but he lost Christ. He had no gain.
Well, the word has been simple, but think about it! It is worth the sacrifice to gain Christ, to have that sense of joy in your soul that you have that most precious and wonderful person Himself. It does not end there, of course. There is much more besides but time is limited to speak about it, but just let us think about this passage: "I have suffered the loss of all, and count them to be filth, that I may gain Christ"! For His Name's sake.
BIRMINGHAM
9 January 1999