Phil. 3:7-11; Gal. 1:11-17, Excellence

In Phil. 3:10 we come to Paul’s declaration of the passion of his life: that I may know Him.  Specifically, there are two areas of “interest” that Paul has with respect to Christ, these being the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings.


It has been several years since Paul met Christ on the road to Damascus and confessed Him as Lord.  If you remember the story in Acts 9 you will remember that from the very beginning he was passionate about knowing Christ.  We are told that Paul immediately began to preach Christ effectively (9:20-22).  Estimates put the conversion of Paul in 34AD and the first Roman imprisonment (when he wrote the letter to the Philippians) as 62AD.  Twenty-eight years later and still Paul still has the single-minded focus on Christ: that I may know Him!


This “knowledge” is not mere theology, although Paul had a deep desire to know Jesus in truth.  To “know” involves knowledge that is proven.  This knowledge began with knowing the word of God, the Scriptures; and then this knowledge became heart knowledge.  As Paul put it elsewhere, he walked in a manner worthy of the Lord so that he increased in the knowledge of God (Col. 1:9-10).

What about “knowing Christ” resulted in this life-long pursuit?  The answer is that Paul had discovered the excellency of knowing Christ.  The knowledge of Christ was superior to any other knowledge.  Knowing Christ brought Paul blessings that could be found nowhere else.  Limiting ourselves to the immediate passage (in our next post we will go outside this passage) what had the knowledge of Christ brought to Paul?

·        The knowledge of Christ has brought Paul into servitude to a loving, kind, holy and example-setting Lord.  Paul calls Him “my Lord” (v8).  Previously he had been enslaved to the flesh, to himself.  The flesh was and is a harsh master that shows no mercy.  In Jesus Paul had found the One his soul longed for.

·        The knowledge of Christ had brought to Paul a righteousness not my own, the righteousness from God (v9).  Paul’s previous quest for righteousness was hard, full of failure and guilt and unending.  He found Christ to be satisfying to his soul.

·        The knowledge of Christ had given Paul confidence what when he stood before his Creator that he would be found in Him (v9).  The piercing gaze of the Judge of the whole earth would look at Paul and see Christ.

·        The knowledge of Christ had given Paul an actual, meaningful goal in life, the upward call of attaining to the resurrection of the dead (v12-14).  Before Christ Paul’s goal had been the excellency of himself because he was putting his confidence in the flesh.  But when he met Christ he realized that his former life was empty rubbish; he now counted it loss so that he could gain Christ.

After twenty-eight years this is still Paul’s passion.  He wants to finish well, to “grasp” that for which He was “grasped” by Christ (v12).  How long has it been since you first met Christ?  Are you passionate about knowing Him?