I think many fail to see just what the Apostle means when he says, in Philippians 3, that he counts all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ.
“Counting” is faith; and faith is the God-opened eye, which simply realizes things as they are. It does not color them. A good eye imparts nothing to the object it takes in, but only realizes it as it is, adding nothing; substracting nothing.
The Apostle was not generously giving up what had real value in it. It was not even a self-abandonment, which does not count the cost of what it does. He had counted; and his quiet, calm, deliberate estimate is here recorded. Pursuing what he saw alone to have value, he says: “Yea, doubtless, and I do 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 (or ‘have Christ for my gain’), and be found in Him.” Philippians 3:8, 98Yea 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, 9And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: (Philippians 3:8‑9).
This is not “sacrifice,” as people speak; for to make that, there must be worth (at least, in our eyes) in the thing we sacrifice. The Apostle’s deliberate conviction was that in his pursuit—entire, absorbing pursuit as it was—of Christ, there was no sacrifice. This is the estimate which eternity will confirm, as the Apostle’s abundant experience had already confirmed, for he was no mere theorist. To occupy himself with what he had given up would be loss indeed.