Live a Life of Gaining Christ in His All-Inclusiveness: Forget and Stretch Forward!

The Christian life is a life of gaining Christ in His all-inclusiveness; for this, we need to forget and even forsake the past experiences of Christ and stretch forward to gain Him in a fresh way, paying the price to gain Christ right now, today.

We want to be such ones; we want to be those who stretch forward to gain Christ and be found in Him, not having our own righteousness but the righteousness of God through faith in Christ.

The apostle Paul was a very good pattern to us in this matter.

In Phil. 3:8-10 we see how he pursued Christ and how he wanted to gain Christ and be found in Him.

He counted all things to be loss on account of Christ.

All things that were gains to him, he counted as loss on account of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, his Lord.

Furthermore, he suffered the loss of all things and he counted them to be refuse, dog food, that he may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having his own righteousness which is out of the law but that which is through faith in Christ – the righteousness which is out of God and based on faith.

In order for us to know Christ and experience Him in a subjective way, we first need to forsake anything that is gain to us so that we may gain Him and be found in Him.

The faith of Christ will become our faith, and the righteousness of God based on faith will become our righteousness.

May this be the condition in which others see us; may they see us and find us in Christ, not having our own self-made righteousness but the righteousness of God in Christ.

May we give ourselves to the Lord to just gain Him day by day, and may we allow the excellency of the knowledge of Christ, which we receive by revelation, to motivate us to drop all other things apart from Christ.

We cannot gain Christ unless we give up some of the things we still hold so dear and so near to us.

We cannot gain Christ unless we pay the price, day by day, to deny the self, lose our soul-life, and put aside all things that used to be gains to us.

And we cannot put all these things aside unless we have a revelation of the excellent Christ.

When we have the excellency of the knowledge of Christ, we will simply consider all other things to be refuse in comparison to Him.

And we will be willing to drop all other things, suffering the loss of all things on account of Christ, for we only want to gain Him.

The Christian Life is a Life of Gaining Christ in His All-Inclusiveness

No matter how advanced in the Lord we may be, we all need to have the attitude that we have not yet arrived but that we still want to gain Christ.

Paul was toward the end of his life on earth, a mature brother in Christ with much experience, and he testified that he still had not arrived.

Though Paul had experienced and gained Christ tremendously, he didn’t consider that he had experienced Christ in a full way or that he gained Christ to the uttermost (Phil. 3:12).

Rather, he was still pursuing Christ, still seeking to gain Christ, and still aspiring to be found in Christ.

The Christian life is a life of gaining Christ in His all-inclusiveness (Eph. 3:8).

In our Christian life, we are on a quest to gain Christ and enjoy Him to the uttermost. Our Christ is all-inclusive, all-extensive, without any limits; we cannot say that we have gained Christ to the fullest today.

Rather, at best we have enjoyed some aspects of Christ. May we not settle with the little portion of Christ that we have gained.

May we advance with the Lord and live a life of gaining Christ in His all-inclusiveness every day.

Every morning we can tell the Lord, Thank You, dear Lord, for another day to gain You. Help us explore some new aspects of You. I want to gain more of Christ today!

A normal Christian life is a life of gaining Christ. We have not exhausted the knowledge of Christ, nor did we attain to such a degree that we do not need to know more of Christ.

In order for us to gain Christ to the fullest extent, we need to forsake everything else and not linger in our past experiences of Christ (Phil. 3:7-8, 13).

Like the apostle Paul, we need to forget the things which are behind – including the good things, even the excellent experiences of Christ – and stretch forward to gain Christ more.

We should not dwell or linger in our past experiences of Christ; we thank the Lord for what we have experienced of Him, but we want to gain Him more.

On one hand, we need to forget; on the other hand, we need to stretch forward.

If God used us to save one person last week, we should continue to gain Christ so that He may use us to save five persons this week.

We should not linger in the experience of leading one person to salvation, thus being hindered from leading five persons this week to salvation.

We may have helped so many saints in the past by our shepherding or preaching the gospel; today we have a new day, and today we stretch forward again to gain Christ and minister Him to more saints.

Our saving one hundred people in the past may be a hindrance for us to save ten thousand people today.

If we are satisfied and content with our past experiences of Christ, no matter how amazing and wonderful they were, we may be hindered from enjoying Him today.

We need to ask the Lord to give us the grace to forget what is behind – forget not only our failures and lacks but also our attainments, goodness, and successes, so that we are not stopped from living a life of gaining Christ.

Not to forget but to linger in our past experiences, however genuine they were, frustrates our further pursuing of Christ (Phil. 3:13; Heb. 6:1).

Because our Christ is unsearchably rich, there is a vast territory of His riches before us to be possessed.

Therefore, we need to stretch out to reach the farthest extent of the territory of Christ so that we may enjoy, experience, and partake of His unsearchable riches.

Just as physically we need to stretch our body, even limb by limb, and this involves some exercise and even some pain, so in the spiritual realm, we need to stretch forward to gain Christ, even if this involves some pain and suffering.

We need to pay the price to gain Christ and live a life of gaining Christ in His all-inclusiveness.

We may have seen so much of the all-inclusive Christ and the high peak of the divine revelation is before us, but we still need to pursue Christ to gain him day by day.

We do not want just a mental knowledge and intellectual apprehension of the divine truths in God’s word; we want to experience Christ, enjoy Christ, and partake of the riches of Christ in our daily living.

This requires that we are saved from our comfort and being at ease.

Many times we are just comfortable where we are; we are at ease, languishing in the land, the all-inclusive Christ.

May the Lord save us from being lazy or passive in regards to gaining Christ.

May we be willing to stretch forward to gain Christ and live a life of gaining Christ in His all-inclusiveness!

Lord Jesus, we want to live a life of gaining Christ in His all-inclusiveness! Thank You for bringing us into the enjoyment and experience of the all-inclusive Christ. We want to gain You today. We do not want to linger in our past experiences of Christ; we just want to go on with You! Amen, Lord, we exercise our spirit and our whole being to forget what is behind us and stretch forward to the all-inclusive Christ before us! Amen, grant us the grace to forget what is behind and in the past and simply stretch a little more to gain the all-inclusive Christ! We do not consider that we have experienced You in full, Lord. We have not yet gained You to the uttermost. We want to advance toward the goal of gaining Christ to the fullest extent! Amen, Lord, we forsake and put aside what is in the past and we do not allow anything of our past experiences to hinder us from stretching forward to gain Christ! Grant us by Your grace to live a life of gaining Christ in His all-inclusiveness!

Cease our Efforts, have Faith in Christ, and be Found in Christ to Know Him!

In Phi. 3:10 Paul said, To know Him. The conclusion of the long portion from v. 7 to here culminates in knowing Christ.

We need to have a righteousness that is not worked out by our own efforts but the righteousness that is through faith in Christ, that is, the righteousness of Christ lived out of us.

For this, we need to cease our efforts and struggle and just have faith in Christ.

We are those who live by faith; we do not live by our own works, our efforts, or our striving to please God or man.

We live by faith, for we have Christ as faith infused into us.

As we live a life of gaining Christ in His all-inclusiveness, we want to be found in Christ, having Christ as our lived-out righteousness.

The more we do by our own effort, the less we know Christ; however, the more we live by faith, the more we know Christ subjectively.

The more we love others by our own effort, the less we know Christ; however, if we remain in the organic union with the Lord and let Him live in us, we know Christ in experience.

Through faith, Christ can live out His righteousness from within us, and this righteousness causes us to know Christ.

Relying on our own effort to please God, be zealous, do good, serve God, and love others will not cause us to know Christ.

Sadly, many Christians rely on their effort to do things for God, please God, and love others.

The result is that they have their own man-made righteousness, but the righteousness of God is not lived out in them.

May the Lord grant us the mercy that we would stop our effort and work, and stop all our doing good, being zealous, and serving God in ourselves.

May we simply live by faith and have faith in Christ by spending time with Him to be infused with Him as our very faith.

May we let Christ live in us so that He as righteousness may be expressed through us.

When we have the righteousness that is through faith in Christ, we will know Christ.

Christ became wisdom to us from God: both righteousness and sanctification and redemption (1 Cor. 1:30).

God made Christ our righteousness; when we stop our doing and efforts and just enjoy the Lord, believe in Him, and remain in the organic union with Him, He will become our righteousness.

To know Christ is a result of being found in Him; we need to be found in Christ day by day by not having our righteousness but having Christ lived out in us as our lived-out righteousness.

The realm in which we know Christ is having Christ lived out in us.

We need to stop our efforts. We simply need to live by faith in Christ.

Faith is Christ infused and transfused into our being.

Our desire is to be found in Christ, not having our own righteousness but the righteousness which is through faith in Christ.

The faith of Christ becomes our faith, and Christ lives in us. In this way, we genuinely know Christ, and we live a life of gaining Christ in His all-inclusiveness.

May the Lord as the Spirit guide us into the reality of Himself as our lived-out righteousness, and may we let the Lord live in us day by day to be our righteousness so that we may know Christ.

Lord Jesus, we stop our doing and our efforts to please God. We stop our striving to serve God, love others, be zealous, and do good. We simply come to You to be infused with Christ as our faith. We want to live a life by faith and in faith. Infuse us with Yourself as our faith. Live in us today. May Christ be the One who lives in us. May we be found in Christ, not having our own righteousness which is out of the law but the righteousness which is out of faith in Christ. Amen, Lord, live in us today and be our lived-out righteousness so that we may know Christ. Oh, we want to know Christ in a subjective way day by day in our experience! Amen, Lord, we want to live by faith as we live a life of gaining Christ in His all-inclusiveness! We love You, Lord Jesus!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother James Lee in the message for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1955, vol. 4, “Further Talks on the Knowledge of Life,” ch. 19, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Knowing, Experiencing, and Enjoying Christ as Revealed in Philippians (2023 Memorial Day Weekend Conference), week 4, entitled, Knowing Christ and the Power of His Resurrection.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – Brothers, I do not account of myself to have laid hold; / But one thing— / Forgetting the things which are behind / And stretching forward to what is before, / I pursue toward the goal / For the prize of the high calling / The high calling of God in Christ Jesus. (Scripture song on, Phil. 3:13-14)
  – I have come to the Fountain of Blood / That for guilt and uncleanness doth flow; / I have washed in its sin-cleansing flood / And my garments are whiter than snow. / I count not my righteousness mine— / ’Tis Jesus that lives in my soul. / I partake of His nature divine, / And in Him I am perfectly whole. (Hymns #523 stanza 2)
  – I would cease completely / From my efforts vain, / Let Thy life transform me, / Full release to gain; / Build me up with others / Till in us Thou see / Thy complete expression / Glorifying Thee. (Hymns #841 stanza 6)