Diary of a Christian Girl

Knowing Christ

The text: Philippians 3:7-14 "7 But everything that was a gain to me, I have considered to be a loss because of Christ. 8 More than that, I also consider everything to be a loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. Because of Him I have suffered the loss of all things and consider them filth, so that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own from the law, but one that is through faith in Christ—the righteousness from God based on faith. 10 My goal is to know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, 11 assuming that I will somehow reach the resurrection from among the dead. 12 Not that I have already reached the goal or am already fully mature, but I make every effort to take hold of it because I also have been taken hold of by Christ Jesus. 13 Brothers, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead, 14 I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God’s heavenly call in Christ Jesus."

Lately I have been reading through the book of Hosea. For those of you who don't know, Hosea was a prophet back in the Old Testament. God called Hosea to marry an unfaithful woman named Gomer. Hosea's relationship with Gomer symbolized God's relationship with Israel. Hosea had a son, Jezreel, “God sows” (1:3-4), a daughter, Lo-ruhamah, “no compassion” (1:6), and a son, Lo-ammi, “not my people” (1:8-9).

"No sooner had little Lo-ruhamah been weaned than Gomer conceived again. It was another boy. God told Hosea to call him Lo-ammi, which meant “not my people,” or “no kin of mine.” It symbolized Israel’s alienation from God, but it also exposed Gomer’s sinful escapades. That child born in Hosea’s house was not his. It was all out in the open now. Everyone knew about Gomer’s affairs. While the entire second chapter of Hosea’s prophecy describes God’s relationship with his unfaithful wife Israel, it is difficult to escape the feeling that it grows out of Hosea’s relationship with Gomer, sandwiched as it is between two chapters that clearly describe that sad and sordid story. He pleaded with her (2:2). He threatened to disinherit her (2:3). But still she ran off with her lovers because they promised to lavish material things on her (2:5). He tried to stop her on occasion (2:6), but she continued to seek her companions in sin (2:7). Hosea would take her back in loving forgiveness and they would try again. But her repentance would be short-lived and soon she would be off again with another new lover.

Then the final blow fell. Maybe it was a note, maybe word sent by a friend, but the essence of it seems to have been, “I’m leaving for good this time. I’ve found my true love. I’ll never come back again.” How Hosea must have suffered! He loved her deeply and grieved for her as though she had been taken in death. His heart ached that she should choose a life that would surely bring her to ruin. His friends were probably saying, “Good riddance to her, Hosea. Now you’ll be through with her adulterous ways once and for all.” But Hosea did not feel that way. He longed for her to come home.

One day word came by way of the grapevine gossips that Gomer had been deserted by her lover. She had sold herself into slavery and had hit bottom.  And then God spoke to him: “Go again, love a woman who is loved by her husband, yet an adulteress, even as the Lord loves the sons of Israel, though they turn to other gods” (Hos. 3:1).

Gomer was still beloved of Hosea even though she was an adulteress, and God wanted him to seek her out and prove his love to her. How could anyone love that deeply? The answer was right there in God’s instructions to Hosea, “even as the Lord loves.” Only one who knows the love and forgiveness of God can ever love this perfectly. And one who has experienced His loving forgiveness cannot help but love and forgive others.

So he began his search, driven by that indestructible divine love, love that bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things, love that never ends. And he found her, ragged, torn, sick, dirty, disheveled, destitute, chained to an auction block in a filthy slave market, a repulsive shadow of the woman she once was. We wonder how anyone could love her now. But Hosea bought her from her slavery for fifteen shekels of silver and thirteen bushels of barley (Hos. 3:2). Then he said to her, “You shall stay with me for many days. You shall not play the harlot, nor shall you have a man; so I will also be toward you” (Hos. 3:3). He actually paid for her, brought her home, and eventually restored her to her position as his wife. While we do not find anything else in Scripture about their relationship with each other, we assume that God used Hosea’s supreme act of forgiving love to melt her heart and change her life." -Bible.org  "Undying Love— The Story of Hosea and Gomer"

In the same way that Gomer was unfaithful to Hosea despite his constant pleading, Israel was unfaithful to God. Israel constantly ran after idols, their 'other lovers', all the while God was continually calling them back to Him. We too, are like Gomer and like Israel. We daily run after our idols and 'other lovers' and all the while reject the Almighty God in the process. You see, anything or anyone we put before God, is an idol. And when we, like Israel, fall into idolatry, we break God's heart. Like Gomer, we are bound to our sin. When we turn away from Christ, we too are "ragged, torn, sick, dirty, disheveled, destitute, chained to an auction block in a filthy slave market, a repulsive shadow of the [people we] once [were]. We wonder how anyone could love [us] now." But God, who is rich in mercy and compassion, is the relentless lover. He is constantly calling us back to Him despite all of our brokenness and failures. God never changes, and He will never ever love us any less. Because of Christ, who took on all of our failures, and He paid for them on the cross, we don't have to live in slavery because of our sin. Christ has set us free.  Romans 5:8 says this, "But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." While we were still sinners, while we were still caught up in all of our failures and mistakes, Christ DIED for us. He loves you that much. You see, when we choose to follow Christ, we gain so much more than we could ever have lost. We gain Christ!

Let's take another look at the first verses.

Philippians 3:7-9

"7 But everything that was a gain to me, I have considered to be a loss because of Christ. 8 More than that, I also consider everything to be a loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. Because of Him I have suffered the loss of all things and consider them filth, so that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own from the law, but one that is through faith in Christ—the righteousness from God based on faith."

Francis Chan puts it this way in his book Crazy Love:

Luke 9:25 "What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?"

"How many of us would really leave our families, our jobs, our education, or friends, our connections, our familiar surroundings, and our homes if Jesus asked us to? If He just showed up and said, "Follow me"? No explanation. No directions. You could follow Him straight up a hill to be crucified. Maybe He would lead you to another country, and you would never see your family again. Or perhaps you would stay put, but He would ask you to spend your time helping people who will never love you back and never show gratitude for what you gave up. Consider this carefully-- have you ever done so? Or was your decision to follow Christ flippant, based solely on feelings and emotion, made without counting the cost?... Most of our thoughts are centered on the money we want to make, the school we want to attend, the body we aspire to have, the spouse we want to marry, the kind of person we want to become... But the fact is that NOTHING should concern us more than our relationship with God; its about eternity, and nothing compares with that. God is not someone who can be tacked on to our lives... We say to the Creator of all this magnitude and majesty, "Well, I'm not sure You are worth it... You see, I really like my car, or my little sin habit, or my money, and I'm really not sure I want to give them up, even if it means I get You."... We disgust God when we weigh and compare Him against the things of this world. It makes Him sick when we actually decide those things are better for us than God Himself... Are you willing to say to God that He can have whatever He wants? Do you believe that wholehearted commitment to Him is more important than any other thing or person in your life? Do you know that nothing you do in this life will ever matter, unless it is about loving God and loving the people He has made? If your answer to those questions is yes, then let your bet match your talk. True faith means holding nothing back; it bets everything on the hope of eternity."

Philippians 3:10-14

"10 My goal is to know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, 11 assuming that I will somehow reach the resurrection from among the dead. 12 Not that I have already reached the goal or am already fully mature, but I make every effort to take hold of it because I also have been taken hold of by Christ Jesus. 13 Brothers, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead, 14 I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God’s heavenly call in Christ Jesus."

So what about you? Are you willing to surrender EVERYTHING to Jesus and pursue Him alone? Are you willing to "deny [yourself] and take up [your] cross and follow [Him]"? (Matt 16:24). Will you leave it all behind to know Christ?