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That I may know
Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His
sufferings, being made conformable unto His death
(Phil
3:10).
To know Christ means
that we should be fully acquainted with His nature, His character,
His work, and with the salvation which He has worked out. Duncan
Leighton once said that there was only one thing better than
knowing Christ - and that was to know Him better.
To
know Him means to gain practical day-by-day acquaintance with
Him in such an intimate way that we become more Christ-like.
To know HIM is more than merely to know a doctrine about Him.
To a large congregation, two visitors
were introduced. The first one was a young orator, who was asked to
recite Psalm 23. His oratory was so moving that it ended with a
standing ovation. Then they asked the other visitor, an elderly
gentleman, to recite the same psalm. There was no standing ovation,
but tears in everyone’s eyes. The orator stood up and said, “I can
explain the difference, I know the psalm, but this gentleman knows
the Shepherd.” Paul expresses our desire too, “That
I may know Him”.
Sometimes we sing, "More
about Jesus would I know......" and this is in agreement with
this verse. We should seek that knowledge of Him not only with our
minds but also in the heart. Paul wished to become entirely wrapped
up in Christ.
There is no one truth that will have
greater power over us, when properly believed, than the truth that
Christ has risen from the dead. His resurrection declared
Him to be the Son of God (Rom 1:4).
The fact that Christ has risen from
the dead will cause us to bear trials for His sake, with the
assurance that we shall be raised up as He was.
The
power that raised the Lord from the
dead is set forth in Scripture as the greatest display of might
which the universe has ever seen (Eph
1:19-20). This same power
is placed at the disposal of all believers,
to be appropriated by faith. Paul is stating his ambition to
experience this power in his life and testimony. The power of the
Divine Spirit, which raised Jesus from literal death, is the same
which raises believers from spiritual death now, and shall raise their
bodies from literal death hereafter (Rom
8:11).
Paul
also wanted to share in Christ's
sufferings; he wanted to live the crucified life, to die practically
to sin, self, and the world. For Paul it meant beatings, stoning, hunger, thirst,
cold, nakedness etc. The experience of being hated.
He was very much aware that there would be nothing of
an atoning value in his own sufferings as there was in Christ's, but
he knew, too, that it would be inconsistent for him to live in
luxury and ease, in a world where his Lord was rejected, scourged,
and crucified.
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