As a Christian, where do you derive your confidence from? The Apostle Paul derived much confidence from the fact that he was circumcised on the eighth day, his parentage was pure, and he was from the tribe of Benjamin. He was the cream of the crop and took pride in his knowledge of the Word of God. In terms of zeal, nobody could come close to him: he went out of his way to defend the pharisaical way of life and the understanding that Jesus of Nazareth was not the Christ. All these changed once he became a believer. His reaction and response were described in Philippians 3:7-8. If you do not have this same mindset, attitude and heart as the Apostle Paul after you received Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour, you need to ask yourself two questions: (a) Are you truly born again?

(b) Are you in your waywardness, far away from God?

1.  Items counted loss are identified

The list of items Paul mentioned in Philippians 3:5-6 used to be his gain, but now he considered them as loss for Christ. He regarded them as “loss” (Phil 3:7, i.e. “damaged”) as they cannot save him. His confidence was no longer in relation to his family background, his education or his religious fervour. You must come to the Lord Jesus Christ with 100% total bankruptcy of soul and spirit. Even if it was 99.99% bankruptcy of soul and spirit with 0.01% self-confidence, you have no salvation, eg: if you come to the Lord Jesus Christ thinking that you are not that bad a sinner because you have never been to prison, you are well educated, you are well respected, you have done a lot of good work, etc. All of us (not just the Apostle Paul) must see ourselves as the chief of sinners.

2.  Items are replaced by the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ

Paul counted them as loss “for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus” (Phil 3:8). While we need to know God’s Word in order to know Jesus Christ, the danger is that we may wrongly think that our knowledge of the Word of God means we know the Person of Christ. It is not the same. If you derive confidence from your Bible knowledge and doing Christian things, you would be like Paul before his conversion. The Person of Jesus Christ is the One who suffered and died for you; and we will stand before Him on Judgment Day. It is always the Person of Jesus Christ that you must have an intimate personal relationship with. The Bible may be the vehicle that helps us know Jesus, but we must not stop at Bible knowledge. While we continue to study the Bible diligently, we must know Christ more and more intimately, that is supreme knowledge, i.e. “the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord” (Phil 3:8).