To Win Christ and be Found in Him
R. S. Candlish, D. D. Philippians 3:8 Yes doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord… is perfect security and consummate blessedness. The language suggests a goal and a starting post; that "I may win Christ," the goal or end I have been seeking to reach; that "I may be found in Him," ready not only for resistance to old adversaries, but for a new start and onward movement towards Divine perfection. Consider — I. WHAT IT IS TO WIN CHRIST. 1. To count Him gain in opposition to what Paul once counted gain. There is an entirely new estimate of gain and loss. What is gain to me is what puts me on a right footing with God. Thus I once thought that my personal qualifications of birth, privilege, attainment might do. Now I see that for any such purpose they are worthless. In view of the end for which I once pressed then I now perceive Christ to be gain. There is much implied in your perceiving this. (1) You are in earnest as regards the end with reference to which you estimate what is gain (ver. 2). Is this so? Naturally it is not so. You care little about righting your position towards God; or is it your anxiety to stand well with Him? (2) If the latter, it is no wonder that what things were gain to you are now counted loss, for they seem but to aggravate your condition of wrong standing, however good they may be in a sense, and however you may multiply them. (3) But just as all else is thus felt to be worthless Christ is seen to be gain. What a relief to find in Christ the reconciler and the peacemaker; the justifier of the ungodly and the revealer of God. How thoroughly He meets our case. I see an instant end of the weary attempt to amend the old position, and a way wonderfully open for the immediate occupying of a new one. 2. Christ is coveted and sought as gain. It is not enough to count Christ as gain. This is often done by those who evince an unconquerable repugnance to accept the gospel. But Christ must be really and earnestly sought as well as desired. 3. Christ is appropriated as gain. It is for nothing short of this that you are called upon to count all things but loss. This is to be done by faith alone. 4. Christ is, won so as to be enjoyed as gain; and yet not as the miser wins wealth to hoard it, or the spendthrift to waste it, but for profitable use. II. TO BE FOUND IN CHRIST is it the fitting sequel of winning Christ. 1. For defence, that I may meet every adversary. 2. To meet and obey the high calling of God, that I may press on. As one with Him I would know more of Him. (R. S. Candlish, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, WEB: Yes most certainly, and I count all things to be loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I suffered the loss of all things, and count them nothing but refuse, that I may gain Christ