Philippians 3:10To: Philippians Main MenuTo: Grace Notes Home Page Philippians 3:10That I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death.This classic verse many Christians memorize or use as a life verse. It is interesting to look at this verse in its context. Paul is in the midst of giving his personal testimony. In this autobiography he tells what he underwent as he brought all his religion to the cross and left it there. Paul is now a Christian for 25 years sitting in a Roman prison. Everything he once counted success he views as loss. Now he has the righteousness of God. This righteousness was available, not attainable, to him by Jesus Christ. As we come to verse 10 we see why he makes knowing Christ his life ambition. So in a few words we have the life ambition of a spiritual giant. THAT I MAY KNOW HIM The word "that" introduces a purpose clause. This is Paul's life purpose. The life ambition of Paul was to know Jesus Christ better. He had known him for a quarter of a century. Yet he wanted to know him better. He could aim no higher. In verse 8 he referred to knowing Christ as "the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord." There is no end to knowing about the greatness of Christ. It is interesting how many people feel that coming to Christ initially in salvation is all there is to know of him. Initial salvation only introduces us to him. It does not exhaust the wonder of his person. As we grow in grace we will understand him better, "But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" (II Peter 3:18). Through the study of the Word of God we will know him better. The Bible is even called "the mind of Christ" (I Cor. 2:16). The Word of God is God's thinking about Christ. We will become more intimate with him as we grow in grace. Salvation is only the beginning, the commencement of knowing him. His person is many splendored. It takes time to know him. The word "know" means to know by experience. It is not enough to know Jesus Christ academically. We must know him personally by the experience of fellowship with him. That experience comes primarily from the study of Scripture. PRINCIPLE: It is important to know more of Christ than simply in salvation. We need to experience him daily. We need to know him more intimately as our Lord. APPLICATION: Since Christianity is essentially a relationship and not a religion, it is crucial to develop our relationship with the Lord. The more we center on the person of Christ the more our spiritual life grows. If we lessen our relationship with him our spiritual life weakens. Are you daily studying the Word to know more of Christ. Is this your life ambition? Having stated his life ambition to know Christ better, he now turns to three specific areas in which he wanted to know the Lord better. There are three parts to his spiritual ambition. Each area is preceded by the pronoun "his." The first is "the power of his resurrection." These three items are not listed in order historically. They are listed in the order the believer experiences them in his spiritual life. It is difficult to know something about the sufferings of Christ until we know something about his resurrection. We would not have the spiritual capacity to be conformed to the death of Christ until we experience something of Christ's sufferings. Paul wants to know more than just his resurrection, his sufferings and death. He wants to know something specific about each category. AND THE POWER OF HIS RESURRECTION Paul wanted to know something more than simply the resurrection of Christ. He wanted to know something of the power of the resurrection. He wanted the power of the resurrection of Christ in his everyday life. He is sitting in jail. He needs the power of the resurrection of Christ to go through trial. The word "power" here means inherent power. It is the word from which we get the English word "dynamite." But the idea in the Greek is not dynamite but dynamo--a power that is always resident. The power that brought Jesus up from the grave is the power now residing in believers. The power that raised Christ from the dead now operates in believers. This is the power Paul wanted in his Christian life. This dunamis is a vital power of the Christian life. Dunamis is nothing more than a manifestation of his glory, the sum total of his attributes, bestowed by the Father (Rom 6:4). This power transforms us day by day into the image of Christ (II Co. 3:18; 4:6). The Christian life is based on the power of God as over against human ingenuity. This word dunamis occurs in the following passages: "You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God" (Matt. 22:29). The Sadducees did not know the daily power of God in their lives. Romans 1:16, "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek." The gospel has inherent power to save souls eternally. "For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God" (I Cor. 1:18). The gospel is powerful to Christians who are in the process of being saved from sin daily. "And what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places" (Eph. 1:19,20). These verses are part of Paul's prayer that God would enable the Ephesians would know Christ better. They would know him better if they knew his power for their daily lives. The mighty power that raised Jesus out from the tomb of Joseph of Arimathaea is the power that can enable a believer to live his Christian life. "Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us" (Eph. 3:20). God's power works supernaturally in the believer's daily life. "Who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time" (I Peter 1:5). God keeps our salvation unto eternity through his power, not ours. PRINCIPLE: We have the power of the resurrection of Chris for our daily lives. APPLICATION: Paul's life ambition was to know the power of the resurrection for his daily life. That power is available to us. Most of us do not avail it for ourselves. Do we come to the ocean with a thimble instead of a three-gallon pail? If we come with a thimble, it does not take much to satisfy us. We have the power of God in salvation but we have the power of God for the Christian life as well. "For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more...." There is something much more than our salvation. "...Much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life" (Rom. 5:10). We are saved every day by Jesus' life in heaven, the resurrection life of Christ. That life will save us from worry, anger and from anything that vexes his life. That power will save us from the gravitational tug of sin, from the seductive spell of sin. If Paul could live a life of victory in prison we ought to live a life of victory in the kitchen or the office. The only thing that can short circuit that power is a break in the line of communication between us and the Lord. The second area which Paul wanted to know the Lord was "the fellowship of his sufferings." AND THE FELLOWSHIP OF HIS SUFFERINGS Fellowship is partnership. This is not partnership with the sufferings of Christ upon the cross. Only he was qualified to die our sins. This is partnership in his sufferings while he walked on earth. He was criticized for going to a party with sinners. He suffered religious persecution. Paul says, "I want to be a partner in his sufferings." He has already stated in 3:8 "...for whom I have suffered the loss of all things." No one likes to suffer. Paul was no masochist. He had no desire to inflict wounds upon himself for Christ. Standing in the snow barefoot is no virtue. Wearing a burlap bag or horsehair underwear inflicts pain but has no spiritual value. Laying on a bed of spikes may torture the flesh but it does nothing for the spiritual life. These things will not subdue our sin capacity. Our flesh will not improve by this kind of suffering. Partnership in the sufferings of Christ is not reserved for the super-saints. Not many of us are called upon to suffering seriously for Christ. Few of us will die for Christ. Hypothetically, should there come a day when Christians of our day suffer extensively for Christ, I wonder how many would be loyal to Christ? Should you face the supreme test, how would you respond? The quality of life of the average evangelical today will not stand under pressure. Most people in evangelical churches today are religious spectators. Most do not intend to go to any extraordinary extent to live for Christ. They do not take their Christianity seriously, "You do not expect me to get involved in a Bible study, do you?" "I cannot share my faith at work, it might affect my business. Do you think that I am a fanatic?" At the end of life's day when we look back over our lives will we have lived for me, myself and I? Did we serve self? "Oh, I wish I was in my twenties again? I would start over. I would put priority on the things that are most important. Now that I am dying there is little left to my life." Paul wanted to know the Lord better by entering into his sufferings. Peter said the same thing, "Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you; but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ's sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy" (I Pet. 4:12,13). We do think it strange that we suffering for Christ. It seems odd that we can "rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ's sufferings." When Jesus went to the cross he went with an attitude, "Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame...For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls" (Heb. 12:2,3). What was his attitude? He went to the cross knowing he was to die for the sins of the world. He went knowingly. He understood fully the horrors of the cross. He wanted the will of God, nothing less. That is why we are challenged in 2:5 to "Let this mind (attitude) be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus." PRINCIPLE: We know Christ better when we live by his values. Invariably living by his values causes sufferings. We should face duress with the same attitude Jesus did. APPLICATION: Are you a partner with Christ in his sufferings? To what extent does your Christianity go? Does it go to the point of pain? Do you have an attitude about pain? The third category by which Paul wanted to know the Lord better was conformity to his death. BEING CONFORMED TO HIS DEATH The word "conformed" means to take on the same form as his death. It means to make like form with another person or thing, to render like. This does not mean to die on a cross like Christ did. The trust is to have the same mental attitude Jesus did when he went to the cross. When Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane he said, "If it be your will, let this cup pass from me, nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done." Jesus understood fully what he was about to face. He knew the horrors of the cross. Yet he still went to the cross. Jesus faced pressure with a certain orientation. Tradition believes that Paul was beheaded. He did not die in bed. Most of us would prefer to die in bed, with white sheets, with a nurse or two, with a head physician plus a couple of interns. It probably will not work out that way. We had little to do with our entrance into the world and we will have little to do with our exit. What epitaph will they place on our tombstone? What will people say about us? What would we want them to say? Will they say, "He lived for Christ? He put priority on eternal values?" Most of us have heard the couplet: "Only one life, 'twill soon be past. Only what is done for Christ will last." If we could only view things in light of eternity, we would put Christ first. Our perspective on life would be entirely different. We would put God first. Everything else would be incidental. Yet, we generally put everything else first. We relegate the things that count for eternity to our spare time. We consign eternal priorities to hobbies. We dispatch winning people to Christ to whatever is left over from other priorities. We do not live with eternal values in view. Most of us feel the main thing is to make a living, stay healthy, raise our children, get a good education and be a good citizen. All this will be put in proper perspective in eternity. These are good things. Good things can become distorted if put them in inverted order. Paul put the Lord at the head of his list, "That in all things He might have the preeminence" (Col. 1:18). Jesus was "Mr. Big" in his life. Everything we have belongs to him. That includes our children, education, health, job, business, house, friends. All that he have must conform to him. All we possess belongs to him. What an ambition to "know him!" Any experience in life will help me know him better whether I am perpendicular or horizontal. One reason God lays us horizontally is that we will know him better. In Romans 8:29 Paul set forth Jesus as the model to which we should be conformed, "For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son." God predestines us to be conformed to the image of his son. He determines that every child of God shall be ultimately like the Lord Jesus, even if he has to take us to the wood shed! To God, it is inconsequential whether we live twenty years or ninety years. John the Baptist and Jesus both died young. It is not how long we live that matters to God but how well. How well we live is determined by how well we know Christ personally. PRINCIPLE: The length of our lives or the time of our death is incidental to God. The quality of life from God's viewpoint is how well we have come to know Christ. APPLICATION: What epitaph will be on your tombstone? ---------- Copyright © 1995, Dr. Grant Richison. All rights reserved. There is no charge for Grace Notes Materials. You can help further this work by your prayer and by sending a contribution to: Grace Notes 1705 Aggie Lane Austin, Texas 78757 wdoud@bga.com Grace Notes Web site: http://www.realtime.net/~wdoud/ Anonymous FTP site: ftp://ftp.bga.com/vendors/wdoud/ Grace Notes is a ministry of Village Missions International. |
|
|