10 I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.
In our verses for today, the apostle Paul yearns for an experiential knowledge of Christ Jesus. Already knowing Jesus as his Savior, he now desires to know him more intimately as his Lord – the wording meaning to know by experience. Admirably, the apostle was just as ambitious to be sanctified (conformed to the image of Christ) as he was to be justified (cleansed, covered, vindicated from sin) – surely the mark of a true believer. Paul was not satisfied to remain a mere babe in Christ, indeed, his heart’s desire was to be like Him – to walk as Jesus walked - resulting in a rich and full experience of God’s love. John’s words come to mind:
5 But if anyone obeys his word, God's love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him: 6 Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did. 1 John 2:5-6 (NIV)
“Complacency is a deadly foe of all spiritual growth.” A. W. Tozer
“This life therefore is not righteousness, but growth in righteousness; not health, but healing; not being but becoming; not rest but exercise. We are not yet what we shall be, but we are growing toward it. The process is not yet finished, but it is going on. This is not the end, but it is the road. All does not yet gleam in glory, but all is being purified.” Martin Luther
Paul desired for all believers to yearn for this “surpassing greatness” of knowing Christ Jesus as Lord. Indeed, he prays for the believers in Ephesians in like manner (a wonderful prayer to pray for ourselves and for our families as well) that they may be “filled to the measure of all the fullness of God”:
14 For this reason I kneel before the Father, 15 from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. 16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge--that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Eph 3:14-19 (NIV)
Surely, the more we know Him, the more we love Him and the more we love Him the more we desire to follow hard after Him. Therefore, the apostle’s longing was to experience as much of God as was allowed this side of heaven. Jesus was not only Paul’s Lord and Savior; He was his Friend, His role Model and, if you will excuse the common vernacular, His Hero. Paul wanted to be like Him and to relish in the surpassing greatness of knowing Him. He begins by speaking of knowing the “power of his resurrection”. To be sure, the power that brought Jesus back from the dead is operative in every true believer in Christ. All believers have the Holy Spirit and all are to be controlled by the Spirit’s power rather than by the sinful nature. The indwelling Holy Spirit gives the believer a totally different life. This achieving power given us is the ability to overcome any resistance – even to our dreaded sinful selves. It is the Spirit that gives life to our mortal bodies the flesh counts for nothing. Jesus tells His disciples:
60 On hearing it, many of his disciples said, “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?” 61 Aware that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, “Does this offend you? 62 What if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before! 63 The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life.” John 6:60-63 (NIV)
“Moralism, whether it takes the form of denunciation or pep talks, can ultimately only create awareness of sin and guilt or manufactured virtues built on will power. A ministry which leads to genuine sanctification and growth, on the other hand, avoids moralism, first by making clear the deep rootage of sin-problems in the flesh so that the congregation is not battling these in the dark, and then by showing that every victory over the flesh is won by faith in Christ, laying hold of union with Him in death and resurrection and relying on His Spirit for the power over sin. Presented in this context, even the demand for sanctification becomes part of the Good News...Ministries which attack only the surface of sin and fail to ground spiritual growth in the believer’s union with Christ produces either self-righteousness or despair, and both of these conditions are inimical to spiritual life.” Richard Lovelace
In Romans, Paul writes to all believers the following promise regarding the Holy Spirit’s presence in their lives:
9 You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. 10 But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. 11 And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you. Romans 8:9-11 (NIV)