‘That I May Win Christ’

Don Fortner | Added: Jan 29, 2026 | Category: Theology

Most people today have a religion that says, ‘Peace, peace, when there is no peace’. When they hear a man speak, like the Apostle Paul, of desiring to ‘win Christ, and be found in him’, they are conditioned to respond, ‘I settled that issue a long time ago. I am never concerned about that matter. I have assurance of my salvation.’

I know that salvation is by grace alone. We are not saved by anything which we do. We trust the blood and righteousness of Christ alone for the whole of our acceptance before God. Yet, I know this, too, all true faith is persevering faith. 

It is not the man who begins the race who wins the prize, but the man who finishes the race. It is not the man who begins in faith who is saved, but the man who dies in faith. That term, ‘Once saved always saved’, is misleading. As it is understood by most people, it is false. Many men and women have begun well and ended in hell. It is not enough to have believed. We must go on believing. It is not enough to profess faith. We must persevere in faith. The life of faith is the lifelong pursuit of Christ. We must know Christ today. How truly blessed is that man and that woman who can say with Paul, ‘I count all things but loss … that I may win Christ’. Would you win Christ? Would you be found in him at the last day? If you would, the Apostle Paul tells us four things that must be done by us.

A renunciation that must be made

Paul shows us by example that self-denial is an essential aspect of saving faith. It is not a singular act of renouncing self. It is a perpetual, daily dying to self. Paul said, ‘I die daily’ (1 Corinthians 15:31). This is what he meant: for Christ’s sake he renounced everything that had been dear to him. He counted all things but dung for Christ. For Paul, it was truly a costly thing to follow Christ, but he willingly, readily, and constantly paid the price.

The Lord Jesus Christ revealed Himself to the Apostle Paul in a most extraordinary way on the Damascus Road. He revealed both His glorious Person and the glory of His grace toward sinners through the merits of His sin atoning death upon the cross. Paul never got over the wonder of it. His soul was consumed by the amazing grace and mercy of God. The great, life-governing ambition of his renewed heart was that he might know Christ. Having seen the glory of Christ upon the cross, Paul renounced his former religion and his earthly advantages over other men and exchanged all his earthly riches and prospects for hunger, thirst, nakedness, peril, and bitter persecution. He counted his circumcision and his noble birth as useless things. And he renounced his worldly honour, his name, his reputation, his scholarly education, and his social distinction (vv. 7, 8). Everything that Paul had cherished and worked so hard to gain, everything that had been advantageous to him as a man in this world, he renounced as rubbish, and continued to renounce as rubbish. Thirty years later, he had no regrets. 

If you and I would have Christ, we must do the same thing Paul did. What does it cost to be a Christian? It will cost you everything you have. ‘He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me. He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it’ (Matthew 10:37-39). ‘Whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple’ (Luke 14:33).

The life of faith begins in self-denial. The life of faith is a life of perpetual self-denial. The life of faith is an increasing self-denial. ‘I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God’ (Romans 12:1, 2).

A reward that must be sought

Paul tells us there is a good reason for complete self-denial, and that there is a reward that must be sought. Remember, these are the words of a believer. Paul is telling us why he continually denied himself and daily died to this world. He said, I count all things but loss, because I am seeking something far better. He said, I have counted the cost, and I am ready to do whatever it takes to have Christ. ‘Yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ.’ 

We are thankful for family, friends, health, and the many comforts of life with which we are blessed; but we must have Christ. This is the one thing that we want as believers above all other things. This is our one consuming desire, ‘That I may win Christ’. We must not be satisfied merely to be religious, moral, and respectable. We must truly be in Christ, united to Him by faith, living in union with Him, one with Christ. We must ‘win Christ and be found in him’.

‘That I may know him.’ This was the desire of Paul’s heart, and it is the desire of my heart. Our Lord said, ‘This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent’ (John 17:3). There is one thing alone which we need for our eternal salvation, our growth in grace, and our everlasting happiness; that one thing is the knowledge of Christ. To know Him is to live. To know Him is salvation. Not to know Him is to perish. Not to know Him is damnation. 

Many people know the history of Christ, but few know Christ Himself. Many admire His way among men, but do not see Him as the Way. Many people know the moral example of Christ, but few know Christ. Many people know the doctrine of Christ’s atonement, but few people know Christ who is our Atonement. Many people know the doctrine of Christ’s salvation, but few people know Christ who is our Salvation. Many people know the doctrine of Christ’s Lordship, but few people know Christ the Lord. Salvation is not knowing about Christ. Salvation is knowing Christ. Paul’s great heart’s desire was that he might know the Lord Jesus Christ. And this is my heart’s desire and the heart’s desire of all those redeemed by the blood of Christ, ‘That I may know him’. 

Everything I know of Christ, everything I have experienced of God’s saving grace, everything I know about the gospel continually compels me, by the power and grace of God the Holy Spirit, to seek these three goals, three goals for which I labour: total commitment to Christ, total communion with Christ, and total conformity to Christ. I want to bring honour and glory to my God and Saviour. I want to surrender everything to Him. Begone all self-ambition! Begone all self-motivation! Begone all self-desire! Begone all self-seeking! Let me live for Christ alone! My heart longs to know Christ’s presence, fellowship, and direction at all times. The very thought of pure, uninterrupted, free communion with Christ at all times fills my heart with bliss. I want to be like my Redeemer in thought, in word, and in deed. Like Him; full of love, kindness, and tenderness. Like Him; thoughtful, generous, considerate. Like Him, without sin.

We want to live above this world, above its cares, above this place of death and decay. ‘If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God’ (Colossians 3:1-3). We want to be like Christ in heart, in spirit, in attitude, and in conduct. My heart is greatly concerned and burdened about many things as they relate to the glory of God, the gospel of God, the will of God, and the people of God. But all the great burdens of my heart can be briefly summarized and expressed in these five words, ‘That I may know him’. This is the reward I am seeking. This is the reward which all true believers seek.

We want to know the riches of our Saviour’s grace; His eternal grace, His redeeming grace, His pardoning grace, His regenerating grace, His preserving grace, and His providential grace (Ephesians 1:3). We want to know the love of Christ that passes knowledge. ‘That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God’ (Ephesians 3:17-19).

‘That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection.’ The resurrection of our Lord Jesus was a marvellous display of divine power. Our Lord said, concerning His life, ‘I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again’. He was Master over death, even when it appeared that death had mastered Him. He entered the grave as a captive, but He arose from the tomb as Conqueror. His resurrection tells us that Christ’s work of redemption was finished. His resurrection was God’s public declaration that our sins had been put away by the sacrifice of His darling Son and that we are justified (Romans 4:25; Hebrews 9:26). The penalty of sin was fully paid (Hebrews 9:12). When He arose from the dead, we arose in Him representatively. The new birth is a resurrection from spiritual death to spiritual life in Christ (1 Peter 1:3). It is accomplished in us by that same power that raised Christ from the dead (Ephesians 1:19, 20). The power of His resurrection guarantees that we, too, will be raised in the last day (1 Corinthians 15:47-49).

Paul is also referring here to the spiritual influence of Christ’s resurrection in our hearts. We want to know Christ who is the resurrection. We want to walk in this world, just as our Lord did, as resurrected men and women, in newness of life. ‘Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection’ (Romans 6:4, 5). ‘Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord’ (Romans 6:11). I want to know the power of Christ’s resurrection, exaltation, and sovereign rule that I may trust His wise, unerring providence in all things (Romans 8:28).

‘That I may know him … and the fellowship of his sufferings.’ No man can enter into the agony that the Son of God endured upon the cursed tree when He was made sin for us. He died so that we might never know the torments He endured! But we want to know all we can of what Christ suffered for us in order to redeem us. We want to know what our Saviour suffered in the Garden of Gethsemane and what He suffered on the cross. We want to know His bodily anguish, His mental anguish, and His soul’s agony for us. We want to share the reproach He endured for us. We want to know the benefits of Christ’s sufferings for us; our justification, reconciliation, pardon, peace, and eternal salvation. I pray that God will give me grace to willingly bear the reproach of Christ in this world as He willingly bore my reproach before God, and that He will keep me from doing anything to shelter myself from suffering reproach for His name’s sake.

‘Being made conformable unto his death; If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.’ With the Apostle Paul, we, too, want to be transformed into the likeness of Christ and conformed to His death; in total surrender, in total self-denial, in total sacrifice, in total commitment. We want to have such a true and intimate knowledge of Christ that we may be like Him in all things. As we have been crucified with Christ, let us die with Him daily. Let us die to self, to sin, and to this world, having the affections and lusts of the flesh crucified and the deeds of the body mortified. As he willingly laid down His life for us, let us willingly lay down our life for Him (Acts 20:24). 

We do not desire conformity to religious tradition. We do not seek conformity to human opinion. We do not seek conformity to the law of Moses, written upon tables of stone. We seek conformity to Christ in His death. Let us seek conformity to Christ in His death such that our meat and drink is to do His will, to count His cause our cause, and to be willing to do or suffer anything for His name’s sake. 

A race that must be run

Paul was a saved man. He rejoiced in Christ Jesus and had no confidence in the flesh. He knew he was redeemed, justified, forgiven of all sin, and complete in Christ. Yet, Paul was a man in a state of conscious imperfection. He says, ‘Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect’. This man knew his sin, and he despised it. He knew the weakness and imperfections of the flesh. It caused him to cry from the depths of his soul, ‘O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?’ Paul’s awareness of his sin made him struggle hard against it. With the full awareness of his sin, indeed, because of that awareness, he was constantly pressing forward. ‘But I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.’ 

We do not use this word ‘apprehend’ very often. In fact, I can only think of one common usage of it. When we speak of a policeman arresting a criminal, we say, ‘The fugitive has been apprehended’. He has been seized, grabbed, laid hold of, arrested. That is exactly Paul’s meaning. Paul had been apprehended by God’s almighty grace on the Damascus Road. Grace grabbed him! That is how God saves sinners. Paul always felt the grasp that Christ had upon him. He never got away from it. It was a life-long grasp. With Paul, this arrest by Christ was the force and motive by which his life was directed, and governed for the rest of his days. 

Like Paul, we who believe were apprehended by Christ. We were running from the Lord. We were like lost sheep, within the reach of the wolf, when the Lord Jesus stepped in and laid hold on us. Almighty grace laid hold on us, and we could not escape the hand of mercy. We surrendered ourselves as captives under the dominion of Christ.

As the Apostle Paul drew near the end of his pilgrimage, even as he was finishing his course, he said, ‘Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do’. Paul was single-minded, governed by ‘one thing’. Being governed by just ‘one thing’, he pressed on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. What was that ‘one thing’ always in the forefront of Paul’s mind, the ‘one thing’ which kept him motivated and inspired, the ‘one thing’ he just had to have? It was the perfection of resurrection glory, the consummation of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Blessed are those people who are occupied with ‘one thing’, if that one thing is Christ.

‘Forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.’ The Apostle Paul once wrote of himself as ‘the least of the apostles’, one not worthy to be called an apostle, because he persecuted the church of God (1 Corinthians 15:9). He spoke of himself later as ‘less than the least of all saints’ (Ephesians 3:8). And when he was an old man, ready to leave this world, he said he was the chief of sinners (1 Timothy 1:15). Thirty years later, he was still astonished that Christ had poured out His life’s blood unto death to redeem him. Paul never forgot what he was and where he was when God sought him out and saved him by His grace. He never let himself forget that he had proudly blasphemed Christ and persecuted the church; but that all was behind him, covered by the blood of the Redeemer. He was never governed by his past. He did not erase his past from his memory, but his past did not rule over him with gloom, or hamper his present usefulness.

We must not trust in any measure those things which we have experienced. We place no confidence in the flesh. ‘Forgetting those things which are behind.’ Forgetting past works, past usefulness, past triumphs, past stedfastness, past weaknesses, and past failures. We rather strive for those things set before us; the promises of the gospel, the blessings of grace, the knowledge of Christ. Let us ever be found pressing on, never looking back, never stepping aside, never quitting, always pressing on ‘toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus’ (v. 14).

Children of God, the past is the past! That is how God views it, and it is how God would have us view it! Do not dwell on it, and do not act as if your transgressions are greater than God’s grace!

May God the Holy Spirit constantly bring to our memories His marvellous, amazing grace in delivering our souls from bondage, and thereby melt our hearts before the throne of grace. Nothing will stir up our hearts and minds so effectively, nothing can motivate and govern our lives better than the remembrance of redemption and grace in and by the Lord Jesus Christ. 

‘Reaching forth unto those things which are before.’ The life of faith is aptly compared to runners in a race. Here Paul is inspiring us, exhorting us, and alluring us to run with him in the race of faith. The race that is set before us requires diligence, perseverance, and commitment (Hebrews 12:1-4, 12-17). 

Paul knew the Saviour, probably more fully and clearly than any man who ever lived upon the earth. He knew he had a saving interest in Christ. Yet, he knew his knowledge was only partial, imperfect knowledge, therefore, he desired to know Christ more fully, more intimately, more completely. He wanted to know all he could of Christ. His soul could never be satisfied with anything less than the perfect knowledge of his beloved Redeemer. On the earth, such perfect knowledge is unattainable. But Paul pressed toward the mark of perfect knowledge. He sought it with all his heart. Paul seems to have almost forgotten every other concern and addicted himself to this one object, ‘I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.’ 

Let us press toward the mark that we might know Christ. To know His love, His sufferings, His power, and to know Christ Himself. Let us press toward the mark that we might be conformed to Christ. Let us be conformed to His will, His example, and His image. This must be the all-consuming ambition of our heart, ‘That I may win Christ and be found in him’.

This is my goal. I want to finish my course with joy, that I may win the supreme, heavenly prize, ‘that I may win Christ’. ‘As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness’ (Psalm 17:15). ‘Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doeth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure’ (1 John 3:2, 3). Pressing toward that mark, when my life’s journey is over, when my race is run, I shall have, by the grace of God, that which I seek after; total commitment to Christ, total communion with Christ, and total conformity to Christ. Oh, what a blessed hope we have in Christ!

A rule that must be followed

If we would run this race and win this prize, there is a rule that must be followed. We must live by faith in Christ. We must walk in those paths of gospel truth which God has revealed to us. We must run the race, ‘Looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith’ (Hebrews 12:2).

 ‘Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded’ (v.15). All who are taught of God have this attitude and hold these convictions. They denounce their own righteousness and seek the righteousness of Christ. They want Christ above all things. They seek Christ above all things. The more we know of Christ, the more loathsome and abhorrent we become in our own eyes (Job 40:3-5; 42:5, 6; Isaiah 6:15; Psalm 51:1-5), and the more we see the all-sufficiency of Christ. The more we know of Him, the more we realise how much we need the blood of Christ to cleanse us, the righteousness of Christ to clothe us, the strength of Christ to support us, the advocacy of Christ to plead for us, and the grace of Christ to preserve us.

‘Let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing.’ As we anticipate the days that may yet be appointed for us, let us be found walking with God, walking in the steps of faith, trusting Christ. Whatever degree of the knowledge of Christ and whatever light we have in gospel truth, we are responsible to walk in it. As we walk in the light God gives us, He will give us more light. 

By these things, we may examine ourselves and see whether or not we are in the faith. Do I count all things loss for Christ? Do I desire above all things to know Christ and be like Christ? Do I strive after this knowledge of and likeness to Christ? Am I looking to Christ for all things, resting my soul upon Him? Hymnwriter Robert Robinson said,

Here I raise mine Ebenezer,

Hither by Thy help I’ve come;

And I hope by Thy good pleasure

Safely to arrive at home.

The race finished

The reward of faith is Christ Himself. All who finish the race shall receive a full, complete reward. None shall be disappointed. ‘Thou wilt show me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; and at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore’ (Psalm 16:11). ‘As for me, I will behold Thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake with thy likeness’ (Psalm 17:15).

Fix your eyes upon Christ and press on toward the goal. Set your heart on Him. Do you want Him more than anything? Are you hungry for Him? Does your heart beat for Him? Then lay aside everything that would hinder you and run, run, run, that you may win Christ and be found in Him! There is but one thing in the world really worth pursuing, and that one thing is the knowledge of Christ!

Lift up the hands that hang down, strengthen the feeble knees, press onward, press forward. Let us run with patience the race that is set before us, and when the race is over, we shall have the prize which we have sought for so long. We shall obtain total commitment to Christ. We shall obtain total communion with Christ. We shall obtain total conformity to Christ.

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