Section 9
exposed! To some extent at least, we still have within us certain things which are a substitute for Christ in a subtle, secret way. These substitutes mainly involve religion, philosophy, and culture. As a result, we still are not fully and thoroughly occupied by Christ. We have not yet counted all things loss on account of Christ.
Many of us have known Philippians 3:7 and 8 for years, and we are very familiar with these verses. However, we probably have not touched the depths of this part of chapter three. Without this, we cannot be initiated into the genuine ex perience of Christ. You may have heard many messages on how Paul counted all things loss on account of Christ and on account of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ. But has knowing these verses in an objective way brought you into the real experience of Christ? I believe that, if we are honest, we shall have to admit that we have not experienced Christ according to these verses. The reason for this lack of experi ence is that, until now, we have not probed into the depths of Paul's thought in this portion of the Word.
We cannot experience Christ if we only drop the worldly, material things. If this is our under standing of "all things" in 3:8, we are far from