All Is Loss
Why Letting Go of Everything Is the Only Way to Gain Christ
What follows is a manuscript for a sermon preached at Dover Baptist Church
”...though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus…”
- Philippians 3:4-14
When Your Résumé Meets the Cross
If you and I were to sit down this week and make a list of what we are proud of, what would make the page?
We might write down the degrees we have earned, the hours we have worked, the ministries we have served, the reputation we have guarded, the good parent we try to be, the careful doctrine we have defended, the stable life we have built. Most of us carry around a quiet résumé of reasons we feel we matter, reasons God ought to be pleased with us, reasons other people should think well of us.
Lent is a season when the Holy Spirit puts that résumé on the table and asks, “Is this really where your confidence lies? Is this really what you are trusting to make you right, to make you safe, to make you whole?”
Philippians 3 is Paul doing exactly that. He lays out a religious résumé stronger than any of ours. Then he takes a pen, draws a line through all of it, and writes one word across the page: “Loss.” He does this because he had seen something better: he had seen Christ. And once he had seen Christ, he knew that nothing else mattered.
The False Security of Religious Gain
Let’s begin in verse 4, where Paul declares, “If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more…” (Phil. 3:4).
By his own testimony, Paul was “circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, [I was] a Pharisee” (Phil. 3:5). If heritage counts, Paul had it. If religious seriousness counts, Paul had that too.
And if we think God is impressed mainly by zeal and sincerity, Paul says, “as to zeal, [I was] a persecutor of the church” (Phil. 3:6). If passion counts, Paul had that as well.
And if not heritage, or seriousness, or zeal, then maybe it is obedience that makes God smile on us. But Paul says, “as to righteousness under the law, [I was] blameless” (Phil. 3:6). If moral reputation counts, Paul had that too.
Taken together, this is an extraordinary religious résumé. In Paul’s world, it would have placed him near the top of the spiritual ladder. If anyone could have claimed spiritual advantage, it was Paul.
But then the risen Christ met him on the Damascus Road. And in that moment Paul realized something both devastating and glorious: everything he had trusted, everything he had counted as gain, was worthless compared to Christ. He lays his old résumé on the table so that we can watch him tear it in half.
That is why verse 7 lands with such force: “But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ” (Phil. 3:7). Not less important. Not secondary. Loss.
Then Paul presses even further: “Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord” (Phil. 3:8). The language is financial. What once sat in the assets column has now been moved into the liabilities column. Once Christ is in view, every other basis of confidence begins to shrivel.
Now to be clear, Paul is not rejecting the Old Testament, or Israel, or his heritage. He is rejecting the idea that privilege, religious performance, inherited status, or moral achievement can make a sinner right with God. Self-trust is deadly. Grace alone gives life.
And that brings this text close to home.
Some of you know this spirit well. Baptized young. Present every Sunday. Raised in the church. A family name tied to this place. Steady giving. Daily prayers. A Bible always near at hand. A respectable life. A clean name.
All of that may be good, but if you brought that spiritual résumé to the Apostle Paul, he would say, “I had more, and I still had to lay it all down.”
So let me ask you this morning: What have you quietly been adding to Jesus as the reason God should love you? Where is your confidence really anchored?
For some of us it is our good record. For others it is our reputation, our usefulness, our competence, or our generosity. But Paul says, “Whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ” (Phil. 3:7).
Why? Verse 9 gives the answer: “…not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith” (Phil. 3:9).
Paul understood that if he stood before God clothed only in what he had done, even his best would not make him stand. So he cast himself entirely on a righteousness from God, received not by performance, but by faith in Christ.
Christianity is not the story of good people climbing up to God. It is the story of Christ coming down to sinners and giving them the righteousness they could never earn.
So let me ask again: Do you want to be found in your own righteousness, or found in Christ? On the last day, do you want to hand God your résumé, or be wrapped in the obedience and blood of Jesus?
To say, “I count it all loss,” is not just Paul being modest. It is what happens when the cross exposes both the ugliness of our sin and the futility of our goodness, so that we stop resting in ourselves and begin resting in grace alone. This is repentance.
So what needs to move from the gain column to the loss column in your life, so that your joy and security rest in Christ alone?
The Surpassing Worth of Knowing Christ
Now the important thing is not merely what Paul lost, but what he found, and what he found was far greater.
“Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord” (Phil. 3:8).
That little phrase, “my Lord,” is intimate. This is not just a doctrine to defend or a cause to serve. Christ Jesus is the Lord to whom Paul belongs. He is the Savior Paul loves.
This is the heart of the Christian faith. Not only that we are forgiven, or that we escape judgment, but that we know Christ. The best and final gift of the gospel is that we gain Christ himself. All the treasures of grace are gathered up in him.
So Paul says, “For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish” (Phil. 3:8). The word is harsh on purpose. Compared to Christ as righteousness and treasure, every other claim to spiritual status is like refuse swept out the back door. Why such severe language? “In order that I may gain Christ and be found in him” (Phil. 3:8–9).
To be “found in him” is union with Christ. It means your sin was counted to Christ at the cross. It means Christ’s obedience is counted to you in justification. It means his resurrection life has already begun in you.
That is why Paul insists on “not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law” (Phil. 3:9). Holiness matters, but holiness can never be your foundation before God. That place is already taken by Christ.
“The righteousness from God that depends on faith” means that, at the cost of Jesus’ blood, God provides a perfect right standing and places it into the empty hands of all who trust in Christ (Phil. 3:9). Not trust plus performance. Not trust plus pedigree. Trust in Christ, and Christ alone.
Then Paul says something that fits this Lenten season perfectly: “That I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death” (Phil. 3:10). Knowing Christ is not merely knowing truths about him. It is sharing his life. It is being drawn into the pattern of his death and resurrection.
We gladly hear “the power of his resurrection” (Phil. 3:10). That power raises the spiritually dead, breaks sin’s bondage, sustains us in weakness, and will one day raise our bodies from the grave.
But Paul binds that hope to another phrase: “and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death” (Phil. 3:10). He is not speaking of paying for sin. Christ’s sufferings are once for all and sufficient. He is saying that intimacy with Jesus leads us into costly love, sacrificial service, patient endurance, and obedience that may hurt.
Resurrection power and cross-shaped suffering belong together. Following a crucified Lord will not always feel like winning. There will be seasons when obedience looks like losing.
Hear me when I say this: if winning in this world requires you to compromise your faith or your integrity before Christ, then losing is the better victory. Whatever you stand to gain in this world, if it costs you your peace with God, it comes at too high a price.
Jesus himself warned us about this kind of trade:
“And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, ‘If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? For what can a man give in return for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels’” (Mark 8:34–38).
But here is the good news: every place you share in the sufferings of Christ for his sake, the resurrection power of Christ is at work in you. None of that suffering is wasted. It is fellowship with the One who already died and rose for you.
Paul then adds, “that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead” (Phil. 3:11). In other words, the road to resurrection will involve suffering, and Paul does not know all that lies between here and there. But he knows this: Christ is worth it, and resurrection is the certain end.
So let me say it simply. To be a Christian is not only to agree that Christ died and rose, but to so treasure Christ that you gladly trade every rival source of security and then follow him into a life shaped by his cross and sustained by his resurrection.
Pressing On Because Christ Holds Us
Now Paul knows the human heart. He knows that if he preaches obedience, some of us will begin to trust in our obedience rather than in the finished work of Christ. He also knows that if he preaches grace, some of us will grow careless and say, “If righteousness is a gift, if Christ has done it all, then why not just coast until heaven?”
That is why Paul speaks of the Christian life as a race to be run. Grace does not produce spiritual laziness. Real grace produces runners.
“Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect” (Phil. 3:12).
Remember who is speaking. Paul is an apostle. He has seen the risen Christ, planted churches, and suffered for the gospel. He writes this very letter from prison. And yet he says, in effect, I have not arrived. That is a mercy for every believer who feels the ache of remaining sin.
Then comes this beautiful line: “But I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own” (Phil. 3:12).
Do not miss the order. Paul does not say, “I press on so that Christ will make me his own.” He says, “I press on because Christ Jesus has made me his own” (Phil. 3:12). The reason you run is that Christ has already taken hold of you. The reason you fight sin is that Christ has already claimed you. Your effort is real, but it is not the root of your acceptance. It is the fruit of being accepted.
“Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own” (Phil. 3:13). Again, humility, not perfectionism. “But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead” (Phil. 3:13). Paul is not saying that the past never mattered. He is saying that old sins, old successes, and old status must not rule today’s obedience. He leans forward like a runner nearing the finish.
“I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 3:14). The prize is the fullness of resurrection life in the presence of Christ. And notice this: it is “the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 3:14). The call comes from God, and the race is run in Christ. Even our striving is held within grace.
Conclusion:
So where does all of this leave us?
First, Paul invites you to take the ledger of your life and ask what you have called gain. Where have you placed your confidence? Lent is a gracious moment to write “loss” over anything you have trusted in the place where only Christ belongs. This is not about despising God’s gifts. It is about refusing to trust them as savior, identity, or righteousness.
Second, Paul invites you to the joy of gaining Christ. Christianity is not mainly the story of your surrender, but of Christ’s self-giving. The Son of God took your sin, bore your judgment, rose from the grave, and gives righteousness and life to all who trust him. To trust him is to be found in him. If you are in Christ, the truest thing about you is this: you are in Christ.
Third, Paul invites you into a lifelong, grace-fueled pursuit. Because Christ has made you his own, there is real running to do, real sin to put to death, real love to practice, and real crosses to bear. Not to earn your place, but to live out the new life already given to you.
So let the Spirit walk through that inner ledger. Confess false confidences and say, “Because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, I count these as loss” (Phil. 3:8).