To Know Him

"...that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, becoming conformed to his death;  if somehow I may come into the resurrection out of death." Philippians 3:10-11 (my own translation of these verses). 

[I am truly not a translator, but once in awhile when I am studying out the Greek of a passage, the translation I see is not identical to what others have written and I choose to use my own "seeing." So this is as close as I can get right now to the Greek rendering.]

The Holy Spirit is continuing to use the Apostle's own emotions to teach us in this passage. Paul has been letting us know he has not been holding on to anything in the natural - but has let it all count as loss (or nothing) so he could have a righteousness that was given - imparted - not earned -- the righteousness of Christ Himself. 

Paul now moves into his purpose in all this loss - it is to know Christ, to know the power of His resurrection, to know the fellowship of His suffering and to be conformed to His death. Most of us are really good with the first two items, but the third give us cause for stopping and pondering. Let's look at all three - one at a time. 

The first is that he might know Christ. He has understood there are two kinds of living: one is according to flesh; the other is according to the Spirit. In the life according to the Spirit, in order to receive this person of Christ - everything of flesh must be relinquished. This Paul has done. A note here: it is possible to relinquish everything in the heart and the spirit, yet be good stewards of those things in the natural. All Paul had become in the natural was eventually used by the Lord in Paul's trials through the years of imprisonment by Rome. To relinquish the emotional, spiritual, and flesh hold of something is to count it as loss, but it still remains as an entity in the life for one's stewardship. There is an entire area of exploration of this thought that would be worth our time at some point, but for now we will continue directly with this passage. 

The passion of Paul's interior being is to know Christ. This was his goal of every waking moment. He understood that this Christ was indeed God and worth every moment's seeking of more. Paul did not consider himself as one who had attained all this - (verse 12), but one who was constantly learning about Him and all He is. 

So often, we think we know Him. Well, if we are believers, we do know Him, but there is always more! There are manifold wonders we have never begun to see or know about His person and His invitation is for us always to discover. He is dimensional in nature - so are we. All of us have people who really know us, others who sorta know us, and others who are only acquainted with us or do not know us at all. Well, as we have been made in His image originally - our Lord is also dimensional. We can have, we can know, we can behold as much of His person as we choose to embrace thorough out our life-time. Eternity will be, I believe, a constant unfolding of His person, His glory and His fullness to our continual delight and enjoyment! 

 "I want to know Him!"