Most people live fairly ordinary lives. They get average marks in their classes at school, and they finish in the middle of the pack in sporting events. But some people are way above average. They come top of the class at school and first in sporting competitions, and their houses are filled with trophies and photos telling the stories of their triumphs. The Apostle Paul was one such overachiever, and yet he had a very curious thing to say about all his achievements in the third chapter of his letter to the Philippians:
All of these things seemed to be earning me merit, but I now count them as worthless for Christ. Moreover, I count everything as worthless in the light of the immeasurable value of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I have lost everything and consider it garbage, in order to gain Christ and be found in him. I have no righteousness of my own through obeying the law. My righteousness is through faith in Christ, coming from God by faith, based on knowing him and the power of his resurrection, sharing in his sufferings, and becoming like him in his death, if I can somehow be resurrected from the dead.
Paul had achieved many of the prizes that ordinary people just dream about, and yet as far as he was concerned it was all a pile of garbage compared with the value of knowing Christ. Something radical had happened within him to bring about such a dramatic change in his value system, and all followers of Jesus need to undergo the same change. In God’s eyes the things which ordinary people aspire to have no value, whereas Jesus, whom most reject, has all the value.