To know Christ

March 10, 2022 (Thursday)

 

Philippians is a very personal letter where Paul pours out his heart. Paul zooms life into one, and only one goal. His goal is to gain and know Christ. The verses that jump out at me are Philippians 3:10 – 11, “The righteousness that I have comes from knowing Christ, the power of his resurrection, and the participation in his sufferings. It includes being conformed to his death so that I may perhaps reach the goal of the resurrection of the dead.” [CEB]

 

In verse 9, Paul states that there is a righteousness which comes through faith in Christ and depends on faith. This rolls into this the high-flying sentiments of verses 10 and 11. Typically, verse 10 is translated, “I want to know.” This is consistent with verse 12, “It’s not that I have already reached this goal or have already been perfected, but I pursue it, so that I may grab hold of it because Christ grabbed hold of me for just this purpose.” [CEB] However, the Greek in verse 10 is fuzzy. It does mean a desire to have (“want”) but it also indicates having something already. This fits into a wider “already – not yet” theme that can be seen throughout scripture.

 

Paul wants three things: to know Christ, to know the power of His resurrection, and to participate (share in the fellowship) on His sufferings. He expects this to achieve two things: to be conformed to His death and the resurrection of the dead.

 

Let’s zoom out a bit and put this theme of death and resurrection into a larger context. Before we followed Jesus, we were dead in our sins (see Ephesians 2:1). As followers of Jesus, we died to sin (see Romans 6:2, 6 – 7, 8, 11). We tend to think of death as a suffering. Paul believes we share His glory if we share His sufferings (see Romans 8:17). The overall plan of following Jesus is to conform to the likeness of Jesus (see Romans 8:29).

 

To achieve these things, Paul gives us practical strategies. Back to Philippians 3, in verse 12 his first step is to “pursue.” This pursuit is single-minded as Paul declares, “But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead.” [Philippians 3:13b ESV] I don’t know about you, but there are times when it feels like I’m relearning something I should already know and practice. That’s why Paul stated, “Only let’s live in a way that is consistent with whatever level we have reached.” [Philippians 3:16 CEB] The only way to be consistent is to practice until it becomes muscle memory.

 

If this is the purpose God grabbed hold of you, then it’s worth everything to put every effort into reaching this goal. The great part is, we become personally vested in the work of God in our lives to conform us to our position in Christ. The hamster exerts tremendous effort running on its wheel to arrive where it started. We tend to meme it as wasted energy… or maybe the hamster knows what it takes to be healthy, strong, and feeling good.