Philippians 3:7-9a says, “But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For His sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in Him.”
According to this passage, all that we as Christians should be living for is to know Christ and to gain Him. In chapter 3 of Don’t Waste Your Life, Piper reminds us that before salvation the cross was total foolishness to us but after salvation it is our wisdom, power, and sole boast here on earth. The only reason we experience and can enjoy life and breath is because God is merciful and gracious to us. Piper also reminds us that, “Everything good, and everything bad that God turns for the good of His redeemed children—was purchased by the death of Christ for us.” (pg. 51) We do not deserve the life or breath we have for two reason: because we are the creation of God and He made us and because we are sinners before a holy and righteous Creator. God does not have to show us mercy; He does not have to give us sunlight, food, water, good health, family, etc. but He chooses to bestow these things on His creation because He loves us.
In reading this chapter there was a point where Piper said something that confused me a bit at first; he said that all of these free gifts of breath, sight, hearing, speaking, etc. are “for now” gifts to sinners from God. Puzzled by his use of the qualifying phrase “for now,” I kept reading to find his explanation of what he meant. He goes on to say that those who accept the blessings of God on this earth and yet refuse to believe in Him will have all of these blessings and daily mercies used against them one day as “evidence of ingratitude.” (pg. 52) I was greatly sobered when I thought about this because there are so many people who will have these blessings used as evidence against them for not acknowledging the true God. They accept blessings and yet refuse to give glory and honor to God for His kingship. Piper ends this section of chapter by simply phrasing what he means: “Every good thing in life (or bad thing graciously turned for good) is meant to magnify Christ and Him crucified.” (pg. 53) Anything good we experience in life needs to turn our hearts, eyes, and worship to magnifying Christ and what He did for us at the cross.
One might ask, how do we have any gifts for our own good? How do we get them in the first place if we are sinners and creations of God? Piper explains: “Christ died for our sins on the cross and took away the wrath of God from us and secured for us, even though we don’t deserve it, God’s omnipotent grace that works everything together for our good.” (pg. 53) Wow. Think about that. We deserve God’s wrath and judgment for our sin and yet, because Christ loved us and died for our sins, we instead receive grace and mercy from God. Because of Christ’s death we receive blessings and God works all things together for our good. (Romans 8:28) And because of this, it is our duty to live for the glory of God with our whole lives. Our lives must be centered around finding joy in Christ and boasting in Him and His work on the cross. We need to keep in mind, however, that we are admiring and praising God and His glory, not His gifts themselves. If His gifts are merciful and good how much more merciful and good is the giver Himself?! It is the Giver that we must glorify.
To close, Piper wrote this about being people who find our joy in Christ:
“How can we become the kind of people who trace all our joy back to joy in Christ and Him crucified? Answer: The old self that loves to boast and exult and rejoice in other things died. By fiath we are united to Christ. His death becomes the death of our self-exalting life. We are raised with Him to newness of life. What lives is a new creature whose single passion is to exult Christ and His cross.” (pg. 56-57)
I pray that I am a follower of Christ who does just this. I pray that I would exult in the cross and Christ’s saving work and that I would never forget that all of the blessings and mercy I experience on earth are because of that death.
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