Philippians 3:8 Yes doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord… I. The OBJECT of this knowledge. Unlike all other objects of human study it is single. Human science diverges into several branches. And then it is not a thing or a system, but an individual. It is a knowledge of Christ Jesus as — 1. God. To take a lower view of Him is to degrade His dignity and destroy His atonement. He is the Creator, and as the creator of a thing, must be greater than the thing created, so the knowledge of Christ must be superior to that of nature. 2. The only revealer of God. You may study science in all its branches and be totally ignorant of God. The heathen world is an evidence of this. But Christ is the revealer of the Father's mind and heart. 3. The Redeemer. As guilty sinners, under the curse and condemnation of the law, we wanted a Saviour who should bear our sins and provide such a salvation as would harmonize the moral attributes of God, and make it honourable in God to pardon. Jesus Christ is such a Saviour. 4. The Provider and the channel of the Holy Spirit, by whose power alone we become living souls. Unspeakable as is God's precious gift to us, without the gift of the Spirit it had been of no avail. Take out the science of dynamics from the other sciences and you reduce them to a shadow. The Spirit provides the spiritual dynamics of Christianity and makes redemption effective. II. ITS TRANSCENDENT EXCELLENCY. 1. Its majesty and grandeur. What is there that can be compared to it. The time will come when those around whose name an halo of scientific glory exists will stand upon the confines of eternity. Where will the splendour of human science be then? 2. Its certainty. There is a degree of uncertainty attaching to all science. You will rarely find two scientists perfectly to coincide. But there is no doubt as to Christ's personality, the lustre of His Deity, the efficacy of His atonement, etc. The only uncertainty is that which man's depraved nature invents. 3. Its adaptation to the highest interests of our nature, and its supply for all our yearnings after happiness, knowledge, and a nobler state of being. 4. The only knowledge that meets the solemnity of a dying bed is this. Here Bacon and Butler had to lie their dying heads. (O. Winslow, 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, |
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