September 11, 2024 

Today’s Reading: Philippians 3:1-21

Daily Lectionary: 2 Chronicles 29:1-24; Philippians 3:1-21

“Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.” (Philippians 3:8a)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. 

When it comes to salvation, there is Jesus, and there is everything else. We can divide everything into categories: is this Jesus? Or is this something else? If it is something else, it cannot save me, and it has no life in it. Daily, weekly, we are brought back to this reminder that “all the vain things that charm [us] most” are empty. When we put our trust in something other than Jesus – otherwise known as an idol – it will always fail us. People fail us, the government fails us, money fails us, we fail ourselves. So, write it all off now. Count it as loss. Consider it “rubbish” (which is a polite word for what goes in the toilet). 

All of it together is nothing compared to the far better thing that Jesus is your Lord. He has purchased you not with the perishable, empty things of this world, like gold and silver, but with His holy, precious blood and with His innocent suffering and death. And that purchase price is confirmed by His resurrection, which makes that gain eternal. The goal is to be found in Jesus, having His righteousness, which will lead to resurrection, whatever suffering might come to us in this life. 

Paul had a pretty good claim to boast in his own righteousness: everything in his life, his genealogy, his belonging to the covenant, his blamelessness under the law as a Pharisee. But even that would not put him with Christ, and therefore with God’s eternal life. There was, for Paul, Jesus on one side and everything else on the other. One meant a righteousness of his own in which he could boast, and the other meant life and resurrection. He realized that the only one worth boasting about was Jesus. “Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast, save in the death of Christ, my God.” 

Is this thing, whatever it is, something other than Jesus? Then I will lose it anyway. Is this Jesus? God will not only give me Him and His righteousness through faith, but He will give every other good thing along with Him (Matthew 6:33). “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things” (Romans 8:32)?  

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. 

Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast Save in the death of Christ, my God; All the vain things that charm me most, I sacrifice them to His blood (LSB 425:2)

-Rev. Timothy Winterstein is pastor at Faith Lutheran Church, East Wenatchee, Washington.

Audio Reflections Speaker: Pastor Jonathan Lackey is the pastor at Grace Lutheran Church, Vine Grove, KY.

The new Guiding Word series takes you through all the books of the Bible in six volumes. Starting with the Books of Moses—Genesis through Deuteronomy—you will explore every passage of every chapter of each book with the help of maps, diagrams, links between the testaments, and clarification points.