Are You All In?

By Tammy Lacock

“Yeah 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.” (Philippians 3:8 KJV)

He’s my Strength.

He’s my Power.

He’s my Righteousness

He’s my Faith.

He’s my Life.

He’s my Everything.

Warren Litzman really dives into the heart of the Apostle Paul’s words in Philippians 3:8 saying Paul was deeply committed to Christ and to the knowledge of Christ. Nothing else mattered. Nothing about his old life mattered once he knew Christ. Paul knew that by believing in Christ as his Savior, that he was a brand-new creation. The moment he believed was the moment Christ was placed in him, to be his new life, born again. He suffered the loss of all that he knew himself to be and counted it all dung (aka poop!) so that he would win his new life in Christ. He was all in.

The person who wins Christ is the person who puts Christ first in his life and commits to his new life in Him.

But how do we do that?

Paul tells us that we must make a decision. We must have a mind change. We must make up our minds and, moreover, give our minds over to the knowledge of Christ in us. We are now not to know anything but Christ. As our new life, Christ is everything, our strength, our righteousness, our faith, and this is how God sees us. God sees the Christ that now lives in us. Paul explains this further in Philippians 3 verse 9 when he writes:

“And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith.”

Warren goes on to explain, through Paul’s epistles, that the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus is not of the historical Christ. In 2 Corinthians 5:16, Paul says we are not to know Christ in the flesh any longer. We are to know Him now as our new life, living in us. When He drank the cup in Gethsemane, we were put in Him. When He died, we died, too, to our old lives. And with His resurrection, we were resurrected, too, to a brand-new life in Him. He is alive and well in each and every one of us who believes.

Christ is now joined to us in spirit, making us one Spirit. We are perfect in spirit. We are saved! It’s in our souls (our minds, wills, and emotions) where we are still being delivered, as our minds continue to grasp the excellency of the knowledge of Christ, who now lives in us.

God will not force us to change our minds. He’s already finished His work by saving us through giving us His Son. He knew he couldn’t depend on us (our faith, our righteousness) and would need to place His Son in us to be reconciled to Him. Yet he knows it’s in our minds where our love affair with Christ begins and evolves. This is where our commitment to Him deepens. As we give our minds over to Christ, the Holy Spirit teaches us of Him and brings us closer to Him. By God’s Grace we are saved, and by His grace we need only to depend on Christ now…for everything.

This is when we really win Christ. When our mind change allows our old lives to fade away, to be counted as “dung,” nothing else matters but our new life in Him. When all we desire is to be found in Him, in all situations and circumstances. We win Christ when our minds grasp that He who is in us is greater than anything outside of us.