First Baptist Church Litchfield
March 29, 2026

      • Psalm 31:1–5ESV

  • Across The Lands
  • Blessed Assurance

      • 1 Peter 1:3–5ESV

  • Christ Is Mine Forevermore

      • 1 Peter 1:6–9ESV

  • Come O Sinner
  • How Great Thou Art

  • The Empty Tomb Changes Everything

    Phillips Brooks (1835–1893) was the rector of Boston's Trinity Church and authored the beloved Christmas carol "O Little Town of Bethlehem.” He was a word smith; known for his rapid (200 words/minute) and charismatic preaching. When trying to express the totality and significance of the resurrection, Brooks once said,
    The simplest meaning of Easter is that we are living in a world in which God has the last word.
    Phillips Brooks (Bishop of Massachusetts)
    Amen. The power and glory of the resurrection is the final punctuation, an exclamation mark, for the end of sin, death, and Satan. The moment Christ breathed this earths air in his resurrected lungs, death was arrested and eternal life, abundant life for repentant sinners like me truly began.
    The resurrection of Christ is the moment that redefined all of history for every human life. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is a reality that reshapes how we understand righteousness, suffering, and death.
    When the stone was rolled away and the tomb was found empty, God was declaring to the world that the debt of sin had been paid full. A real hope of life beyond the grave, a life that conquered death, was given to fallen humanity. But we do not always feel that hope, do we?
    On this side of the cross and in between the final resurrection, we find ourselves living in the tension between death and life, brokenness and restoration. We still live in bodies that waste away. We still battle sin. We still face suffering. We still stand at gravesides. So, the question becomes,
    If Christ is risen, what difference does that make for us right now?
    That is exactly where Paul takes us in Philippians 3:9–11. Paul’s contentment with knowing about the resurrection is not satisfied. He wants to know Christ in the fullness of what His resurrection has accomplished for him now. He want to to live in the power of the resurrection in his present moment. In his letter to the Philippian church, Paul shows us that the resurrection of Jesus secures three realities for every believer: a righteousness we could never earn, a power that is at work in us now, and a glory that is still to come. This morning, the Lord wants us to understand,

    Because Christ is risen, believers gain a alien righteousness, live in His transforming power, and press on toward resurrection glory.

    So as we walk through this text, do not to settle for pie in the sky theology. We are being invited to treasure the risen Christ as our surpassing value, and we will see his surpassing value through the lens of ressurection. The first surpassing value we see in Paul’s text is an alien righteousness secured by the risen Christ.

    The Surpassing Value of a Righteousness Secured by the Risen Christ (Philippians 3:9)

    Philippians 3:9 says, “and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith.”
    I say an alien righteousness because it is not a righteousness of our own. Paul says it is found “in Him.” We need another righteousness, a righteousness alien to us. Jesus gives us his righteousness through imputation. That is he takes our sin on the cross and in turn imputes his righteousness to us. The consequence of imputation is justification.
    Justification is a courtroom term. It means to be declared righteous, to be acquitted. Moses gives us the picture in Deuteronomy 25:1: “acquitting the innocent and condemning the guilty.” The judge renders a verdict.
    And Scripture is clear about who that Judge is. Genesis 18:25 says, “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?” God is perfectly just, and He judges according to His perfect law. Which means, to be justified before God, you must be perfectly righteous, perfectly conformed to His law (Leviticus 18:5; Matthew 5:48).
    As we already know, the Bible teaches we are not perfectly righteous (Romans 3:23, Romans 6:23). We do not enter God’s courtroom as innocent people. We enter as guilty sinners deserving condemnation, and Paul knew this condemnation well.
    In verses 3-6, Paul stacked up his religious resume. Heritage. Zeal. Morality. Discipline. If anyone had reason to trust in their own righteousness, it was Paul. But then a divine encounter shattered his confidence forever; he met the risen Christ.
    On the road to Damascus, Paul encountered the resurrected Jesus. The crucified Christ was no longer in the grave. He was alive, radiant in glory. And in that moment, He experienced the perfect righteousness of our risen Lord. And when he saw Christ clearly, he finally saw himself accurately, and it broke him.
    All his achievements, all his religious efforts, all his law-keeping, he says in verses 7-8, it is loss. It is rubbish. It is dung compared to Christ. Why?
    Because he beheld the Perfect Law Keeper (2 Corinthians 5:21, Romans 5:19)
    Standing next to Christ, Paul realized his righteousness was no righteousness at all. It could not justify him. It could not survive the judgment of a holy God.
    So Paul makes the greatest exchange a sinner can ever make. He says, I do not want my righteousness. I want His (Romans 4:5, Romans 4:7–8). Thats imputation. Jesus imputes his righteousness to Paul. The effect of Jesus’s perfect righteousness is justification. God credits the perfect righteousness of Christ to, Paul, and to every the believer, who repents and trusts Christ.
    How do we know that Christ’s righteousness is enough?
    Because He did not stay in the grave.
    Romans 4:25 says, “He was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.”
    The resurrection is the Father’s declaration that the payment was accepted. The empty tomb is heaven’s verdict: “Justified.”
    Imagine standing in a courtroom, guilty beyond dispute. The evidence is overwhelming. Every sin, every thought, every motive laid bare. The verdict is certain, condemnation.
    But then, before the judge renders the sentence, someone steps forward.
    Not just anyone the judge’s own Son.
    And He says, “I will take his place. Count his guilt as mine. Give him my perfect record.” And the judge agrees.
    Your sin is placed on Christ at the cross. His perfect righteousness is credited to you. But how do you know the transaction worked?
    Three days later, the Son walks out of the grave.
    The resurrection is the receipt that the payment cleared. The case is closed. The verdict stands. You are forgiven. You are justified. Now go and live in the freedom that Christ justification gives you.
    I know all of you may feel a tension here. We still want to bring something to the courtroom, don’t we? We want to contribute. Improve. Earn. We want to prove ourselves.
    But Isaiah 64:6 says, “all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.” You cannot stand before a risen Christ with a self-made righteousness. I mean, if Paul could not do it, a Hebrew of Hebrews, you cannot do it!
    So what must you do?
    You must do what Paul did. You must abandon your righteousness and be found in Him. You can’t be half in and half out. You cannot have one foot on the dock and one foot on the boat. You cannot try to put one foot in heaven while you keep one foot in the world. You must be fully in Christ.
    That means: Stop trusting your morality. Stop trusting your church attendance. Stop trusting your political affiliation. Stop trusting your effort to “do better.” And place your full confidence in Christ alone. Commit to a single minded heart united loyal love for Jesus that expresses itself in joyful obedience.
    Furthermore, brothers and sisters, this is not just how you are saved, this is how you live. When Satan tempts you to despair (Revelation 12:10), you do not look inward, you look upward. When your conscience accuses you, you do not point to your performance, you point to Christ. Romans 8:1 says, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Why?
    Because the One who died for you now lives for you interceding on your behalf before the Father (Romans 8:34).
    Do you see the surpassing value of Christ’s justification?
    Because Jesus lives, you are declared righteous.
    Because Jesus lives, your sin is fully paid.
    Because Jesus lives, His righteousness is yours.
    And because Jesus lives, you can stand before God uncondemned, now and forever. Oh, the freedom! Oh the life that Jesus’ justification gives you today.
    Oh, Your grace so free Washes over me You have made me new Now life begins with You It's your endless love Pouring down on us You have made us new Now life begins with You
    Oh, we're free, free Forever we're free Come join the song Of all the redeemed Yes, we're free free Forever amen When death was arrested and my life began
    In Christ, I am justified, I am made right before my holy God. So treasure Christ. Be found in Him. Because the risen Christ is your only righteousness, your freedom from the fear of death’s condemnation.

    The Surpassing Value of a Life Transformed by the Power of the Risen Christ (Philippians 3:10)

    Paul now moves us from what Christ has done for us to what Christ is doing in us right now. Philippians 3:10 says, “that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and may share His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death.” There is a clear progression in the text. In verse 9, Paul says he wants to be found in Christ. That is justification. Now in verse 10, he says that he wants to know Christ. That is sanctification. Salvation does not just change your standing before God. It also transforms your life. Justification is what God does for us, but sanctification is what God does in us, and the same risen Christ who secures your righteousness now supplies your power to live a resurrected life.
    We naturally believe we can change ourselves. This is obvious by the self-help culture we are saturated with in America. Paul once believed that. Acts 22:3 tells us that he was educated at the feet of Gamaliel and was zealous for God. He devoted himself to the law and pursued holiness with passion. In his mind, holiness worked from the outside in. If he could reform his behavior, he could become righteous. And religion is very good at producing that kind of reform. It can restrain sin and produce outward improvement. It can make a dishonest man tell the truth, a reckless man more disciplined, and a destructive life more stable. But it cannot bring life to a dead heart. Jesus exposes this in Matthew 23:27 when He says that outwardly we can appear beautiful while inwardly being full of death and uncleanness. That was Paul before Christ, and apart from Christ, that is us. We can look clean on the outside while remaining corrupt on the inside.
    But everything changed when Paul encountered the risen Christ. Because the same power that raised Jesus from the dead is now at work in the believer. Romans 6:4 says that just as Christ was raised from the dead, we too might walk in newness of life. Ephesians 1:19-20 declares that the immeasurable greatness of God’s power is at work in us, the very power He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead.
    Christ is not interested in behavior modification. He provides resurrection power. When Paul says that he wants to know Christ and the power of His resurrection, he is saying that he longs to experience the living Christ transforming his life from the inside out. The resurrection power of Christ does what the law could never do. It breaks the power of sin, gives new desires, and produces true holiness. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says that if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away and the new has come.
    Think of it this way. A man may spend his entire life trying to fix a dead tree. He trims the branches, shapes the limbs, and even attaches artificial fruit so that from a distance it appears alive. But what is the problem? The problem is the root. No amount of external effort can produce life where there is no life. What that tree needs is life from within. That is exactly what the resurrection power of Christ does. He does not come to decorate your life. He comes to resurrect it. He gives new life at the root so that real fruit begins to grow.
    Now Paul goes further and says that he wants to share in Christ’s sufferings and become like Him in His death. This shows us that resurrection power always travels the path of the cross. To know the power of Christ’s resurrection is to also die to self. Jesus says in Luke 9:23 that if anyone would come after Him, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Him. Romans 8:13 teaches that by the Spirit we are to put to death the deeds of the body. Because Christ died, we die to sin. Because Christ lives, we live in righteousness. Sanctification is the daily dying of self and the daily living unto Christ.
    This work happens through the Holy Spirit. Jesus tells us in John 16 that the Spirit reveals Christ to us. Romans 8 teaches that the Spirit empowers us to put sin to death. 2 Corinthians 3:18 says that we are being transformed from one degree of glory to another as we behold the Lord. The Spirit reveals our sin, reveals the truth, and reveals the glory of Christ. And as we behold Him, we are conformed into His image. This is the grace of God at work within us.
    At the same time, sanctification is not passive. 1 Peter 1:15-16 calls us to be holy as God is holy. We are commanded to act, to obey, to put sin to death. But we do not do this in our own strength. We do it in the power that the Spirit provides. Romans 8:13 again makes this clear, that it is by the Spirit that we put sin to death. So we pursue holiness, not to earn God’s favor, but because resurrection power is already at work within us.
    So, here is a question for you to ponder? Are you trying to reform your life or are you relying on the power of the risen Christ? Are you managing sin or are you putting it to death? Are you content with outward change or are you pursuing inward transformation? Because Scripture warns that we can resist the Spirit, grieve the Spirit, and quench the Spirit. When we do that, we choose darkness rather than light. But when we walk by the Spirit, we experience life and transformation.
    Do you see the surpassing value of Christ’s sanctification? Because Jesus lives, you are not the same. Because Jesus lives, sin no longer has dominion over you. Because Jesus lives, you are being transformed into His image. And because Jesus lives, you can walk in newness of life even now. So treasure Him, not only as your righteousness but as your power. The risen Christ does not only justify you. He transforms you, and there is no greater power in your life than the power of His resurrection at work within you right now.

    The Surpassing Value of a Future Guaranteed by Resurrection with Christ (Philippians 3:11)

    The surpassing value of Christ is ultimately seen in His promise to glorify His people. Paul writes in Philippians 3:11, “…that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.” Notice, there is nothing vague about Paul’s hope. It is grounded in the resurrected and glorified Christ, who appeared to his disciples in a new glorified physical body, the same body he appeared to Paul in on the road to Damascus.
    In John 11:25, Jesus declares, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live,” and again in John 14:19, “Because I live, you also will live.” Because Christ lives, resurrection is guaranteed for all who belong to Him. Paul, having been justified by Christ’s atoning death and now being sanctified by His Spirit, sets his eyes on the final stage of salvation; glorification. Paul knows without a doubt he will be raised by the power of Christ and enjoy a glorified body like His. This is why he can say with confidence in Philippians 3:20–21 that our citizenship is in heaven and that Christ “will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body.”
    The Christian life is about total transformation. We are promised new bodies, completely free from sin, death, weakness, and decay, bodies like Christ’s resurrected body.
    After His resurrection, Jesus was undeniably physical. The disciples took hold of His feet in Matthew 28:9, He walked and talked with them on the road to Emmaus in Luke 24:15–18, He broke bread in Luke 24:30, and He ate fish before them in Luke 24:39–43 to prove He was not a spirit. He invited Thomas to touch His wounds in John 20:27, and the apostles testified in Acts 10:41 that they ate and drank with Him after He rose from the dead.
    Yet His body was also glorified and supernatural. He appeared and disappeared in Luke 24:31-36, and He entered rooms with locked doors in John 20:19-26. His resurrected body was physical, yet no longer bound by the limitations of this fallen world.
    When God raised Jesus, He gave us a preview of our future. Your resurrection body will be like His. This is not wishful thinking; it is a divine guarantee purchased by the blood of Christ and secured by His empty tomb.
    Think of it like this. Imagine living your entire life in a broken-down house. The roof leaks, the foundation cracks, the walls are warped, and no matter how much you repair it, it keeps decaying. That house is your present body, affected by sin, aging, weakness, and death. Now imagine that instead of patching the house forever, the owner promises to completely replace it with a perfect, indestructible home, built exactly as it was meant to be. You would not cling tightly to the broken house; you would long for the new one. That is what Paul is doing. Paul is not white knuckle this life. He knows the guarantee of his resurrected body and eternal home. SO he sets his eyes on that prize.
    If Christ’s glorification is of surpassing value, then we must stop living as if this present world and this present body are ultimate. Do not anchor your hope in your health, your comfort, your appearance, or your earthly life, because all of it is fading. Instead, fix your eyes on Christ and the resurrection He promises. This future glory should fuel present perseverance, holiness, and joy. You can endure physical suffering because your body will be made new. You can fight sin because one day it will be gone forever. You can face death without fear because it is not the end but the doorway to resurrection life. As you press on in Christ, you are not moving toward loss, but toward glory.

    Because He Lives, You Will Live Also

    As we close, we see Paul’s entire life was anchored in one reality: the surpassing value of knowing the risen Christ. He looked back and said, I have a righteousness that is not my own. He looked at the present and said, I am being transformed by the power of His resurrection. And he looked forward and said, I will be raised and glorified with Him.
    This is the full sweep of the Christian life. Justification, sanctification, and glorification are not disconnected blessings. They are all found in one Person, the risen Lord Jesus Christ. And that is why Paul does not say that these benefits are of surpassing value in themselves. He says knowing Christ is of surpassing value, because Christ Himself is the treasure.
    Once again, Bishop Phillips Brooks captures the surpassing joy of knowing the resurrected Christ with a carol.
    An Easter Carol Tomb, thou shalt not hold Him longer; Death is strong, but Life is stronger; Stronger than the dark, the light; Stronger than the wrong, the right; Faith and Hope triumphant say, Christ will rise on Easter Day.
    Phillips Brooks (Bishop of Massachusetts)
    The empty tomb is not simply proof that Jesus is alive. It is the guarantee that everyone who belongs to Him will share in His life. Because He lives, your sins can be forgiven. Because He lives, you can be changed. Because He lives, you will be raised.
    Don’t settle for asking yourself if you believe in the resurrection. Seriously ask yourself, do I know the risen Christ?
    If you are trusting in your own righteousness, abandon it and run to Christ. If you are weary in the fight against sin, lean into the power of His resurrection. If you are fearful of death, fix your eyes on the empty tomb and the glory that is coming.
    Because in the end, the Christian hope is not a pity, and we are not fools to be pitied. Our hope is a risen Savior. And because He lives, you will live also. Amen.
  • Death Was Arrested
First Baptist Church Litchfield
pastorjason.fbcl@gmail.com
217-324-4232
http://www.firstbaptistlitchfield.org/
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