-WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO KNOW CHRIST? WHAT DOES THAT LOOK LIKE, HOW DO WE DO THAT, AND WHY IS PAUL SO DESIROUS OF THAT?
-So Paul wants to gain Christ and be found with His righteousness, and here he clearly wants to know Christ and His power as well as His sufferings. But don’t miss this - what Paul describes here in verse 10 is a description of faith, the faith to which he just referred twice in the previous verse, the kind of true and genuine faith which is in Christ and which is the only way to receive the righteousness of God. So again, don’t miss this: real faith is relationship, AND real faith is power, AND real faith is suffering.
-Real faith is relationship, and that with Christ. It is not just that I know or believe something about Christ. Even Satan knows and believes things about Christ. It is knowing Him personally, to which Paul referred in verse 8, a relationship which is more valuable than anything else this world might offer (Jeremiah 9.23-24, John 17.3, Ephesians 1.17, 2Peter 1.3). This was Paul's point in Athens, a city full of idols (false gods) that could never be known - they were worshiping in ignorance what they could not ever know personally. He wanted to introduce them to Somebody. He wanted them to know about the One True God, yes, but he understood that faith is about a personal connection with our Creator God (Acts 17.23ff).
-Real faith is also power, the power of Almighty God Who created the heavens and the earth and all that is in them with a word. The best most obvious example of God’s power at work for Paul was when God raised His Son from the dead, so that is why he mentions the resurrection here (cf Ephesians 1.20), but he is not thinking of power that is confined to an experience of resurrection, which of course would mean this power would only get to be displayed after my death. No, if I truly have faith in Christ, God’s power can and should be manifested in and through my life all the time. cf Ephesians 1.18-19, Luke 9.1, Acts 1.8, Acts 4.33, Acts 6.8, 1Corinthians 2.4, 1Corinthians 4.19-20, 2Corinthians 4.7, 2Corinthians 12.9, Ephesians 3.16, Ephesians 3.20-21, Colossians 1.11, Colossians 1.29, 2Thessalonians 1.11, 2Timothy 1.7. Jesus told us quite clearly that those who follow Him would do even greater works than He Himself did (John 14.12). This supernatural power manifesting in our lives is proof positive to a lost world that God is real, it is the unmistakeable sign that I actually do have a connection to the invisible Almighty God, and it shows off His breathtaking goodness. BUT WHAT DOES POWER LOOK LIKE? HOW DOES IT MANIFEST? Signs and wonders? Miracles? Yes. But it also looks like faithfulness - in the little things, when no one is looking. Faithfulness to my spouse. Devotion to God - ongoing, increasing. It is kindness and goodness on display and serving others from the heart, for their benefit. It is the growing absence of self. It is patience and long-suffering. It is incomprehensible peace and perseverance and endurance in the midst of trials and hardship and suffering. Joy - it looks like inexpressible joy, and gratitude. Worship. It is saying no to temptation. Self-control. It is the strength to say I’m sorry and own my junk. And as much as anything it is prayers being answered. That was Jesus’ point in John 14.13 - greater works are the answers to believing prayer.
-How much power are we talking about? Consider the power it takes to create and sustain billions upon billions of suns in which billions upon billions of nuclear bombs are exploding every second of every day without end. Think about the power that is associated with the resurrection, of what it takes to actually produce life - glorious eternal life - where there is no longer any life. This is the realm of the supernatural. We’re talking limitless power. We’re talking about incomparable power beyond comprehension or description, that goes far beyond our feeble ability to muster up a bit of obedience. We’re talking about living into that which is humanly impossible. Truly breathtaking glory, inexplicable fruitfulness, and that which one day, sooner or later, will rise above the inescapable law of corruption which otherwise will bring an end our life. In place of a broken and dead jar of clay we will be given an incomparably glorious and perfect body in which we will live forever. The kind of power which will bring all this about - Paul wants to see this power displayed in his life, not only in death but in life as well (1Corinthians 4.19-20)(he desires for other believers to know this reality as well - Ephesians 1.18-20).
-But real faith is also suffering. It will experience suffering (Acts 14.22, John 15.20, 2Timothy 3.12), and it will endure suffering (Romans 8.17, 2Corinthians 4.8-11). Don’t miss this - the process of suffering and daily dying to self and what I want is what gradually forms and reveals the glorious life of Christ in and through my life. Because my default position is to avoid suffering. I want greener pastures and the warmth of the womb. I want what I want when I want it, gosh darn it, and unfortunately there is very little in that that helps me to know and show off the One Who came to serve and give His life as a ransom for many. His prayer to the Father was, ‘not what I want but what you want...’ Right after that He was betrayed, forsaken, beaten, ridiculed, flogged and crucified. This is Who we follow.
-Right on the heels of saying that he wants to know the power of Christ’s resurrection, Paul adds that he actually wants to share in Christ’s sufferings. Say what? Why not just stick with power and don’t even mention the suffering thing? And he’s not just talking about an attitude that hunkers down at the onset of unavoidable suffering (cf 1Peter 4.13, James 1.2), but rather almost a pursuit of suffering? Who in their right mind would do that? The reality is that at a certain level, power and suffering go hand in hand (cf 2Corinthians 12.9), and Paul had learned this. God actually uses suffering to effect transformation (cf Romans 5.3-5). Owing to the fact that we are actually powerless to begin with, being in situations that are beyond our perception of strength provides the perfect opportunity for God to perfect His power. You want power? Bring on helplessness. Bring on the suffering.
-He also mentions being conformed to Christ’s death, which is not necessariily a death wish per se, but rather more a statement of a readiness to give his life for the cause of Christ and the intent to die to self in following Him, to have Christ’s same attitude of full commitment to humble himself and serve and obey to the fullest extent possible, even if it means that he loses his life in the process.
-Clearly, what passes for faith in modern Christendom is a far cry from the example Paul gives us of an obsessive, one who actually did find that incomparably precious pearl and had sold out in order to attain it. Back in the day, Amy Grant dared call us a fat baby. Keith Green described us as asleep in the light. By comparison, the bloated and fractured western church frought with nominalism and easy-believism is innocuous and vacuous, tedious and tired, uninspiring, unexciting, uninteresting, and seemingly unnecessary. Powerless to resist temptation, to save marriages, to love our neighbors and live for eternity, to really love and not forsake one another despite our differences, to sell out and all we have for the sake of the Kingdom, to live and look any differently than those who stand outside the Church wondering what all the fuss is about. There are exceptions of course. But that is why so many people are leaving the institutional church to join the ranks of the unaffiliated, not to mention why the masses are not crowding in. There’s nothing to see here. Just a bunch of folks with a creed and a tithe and a building and somewhere else they'd much rather be on Sunday morning. Do we really want to know Jesus? Are we sure? Anyone can say they know Jesus and show up on Sunday. Do we realize Who we are actually talking about? Do we realize what’s at stake? Much of what we do is so much window dressing, straightening pictures on the walls of burning houses. Sadly, based on how I live much of my life, I have a long way to go...
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