November 23, 2007
“THAT I MAY KNOW CHRIST…”
Philippians 3:10-11
What are you living for? If someone were to ask you, “What is your purpose in life?” would you be able to give a clear, focused answer? If so, what would it be?
One of the things that stands out about the Apostle Paul is that he was a man of clear vision and purpose. He was focused. There is no “to-ing and fro-ing” about the man. He knew where he was headed and he wasted no time in frivolous pursuits. There are a number of passages of Scripture that give us a clear glimpse at what his life purpose was. One of them is the passage in front of us this morning in Philippians chapter 3. We are actually going to take two weeks to work our way through this passage. Today we are looking at the goal or life purpose statement itself. Then next week we will look at the process by which Paul was pursuing his goal.
As we look at Paul’s life purpose statement this morning, I want you to lay it along side your own. Is it the same or similar? Is it very different? Are there changes you need to make in your own life focus and direction?
The statement is found in verses 10-11: That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.
As appropriate to a vision statement, Paul writes here with terse, compressed, power-packed statements. There are five of them in these two verses, and then there is what I think is a summary statement in verse 12 which we will consider at the end.
Before we start unpacking the phrases themselves, though, let us remind ourselves of the context. Paul began this chapter with a warning against false teachers, the Judaizers who taught that it was necessary to be circumcised and obey the Jewish ceremonial laws to be true Christians. In contrast to their teaching, Paul described true Christians in verse 3: For we are the (true) circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh.
You may recall in my message on October 26, I used the metaphor of two chairs. One chair is the “confidence in the flesh” chair. This was the chair in which Paul sat for the first half of his life, trusting in his religious pedigree and his religious performance to earn his way to heaven and to win God’s approval. But then Jesus Christ appeared to him on the road to Damascus. That experience brought about a radical reassessment of his life and his goals. He gave up his “confidence in the flesh” chair. As he states in verse 7: But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. Instead he came and sat in the “faith in Christ” chair, the “rejoicing in Christ Jesus” chair.
Another way of contrasting these two chairs is to call this one the “religion chair” and this one the “relationship chair”. This focus on relationship comes through clearly in the first of Paul’s five power-packed statements of his new life purpose.
That I may know him…
“Him” clearly refers to Jesus or, as he describes him in verse 8, “Christ Jesus my Lord.” What about this word “know”? There are different words for knowledge in the Greek language. One of them focuses on the knowledge of the intellect, the knowledge of facts. I can read the biography of a famous person and become an expert on the facts of his life. I may learn and know a great deal about him. But I still don’t know him. I don’t have a personal relationship with him. The word Paul uses here speaks of the knowledge of experience and the knowledge of relationship. The greatest passion of Paul’s life was to know Christ; to know him personally, to know him deeply.
I can’t help but contrast this statement with what I see in the lives of so many Christians, and even, if I am honest, in my own fickle heart. Yet this is what we were designed for – relationship with God. This is what God desired from his people in the Old Testament – their love and devotion. This is how the prophet Hosea challenged the Israelites in Hosea 6:3: Let us press on to know Yahweh. This is what the heart of God calls for in Hosea 6:6, For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offering. Yet, in contrast to that, our hearts are too often like the hearts of Israel as described in Hosea 6:4: Your love, (O Judah) is like a morning cloud, like the dew that goes early away.
This is the heart of Christian faith. This is what it means to sit in the faith chair, the relationship chair. It is to pursue a life-long love relationship with Jesus Christ. That I may know him… Is that the passion of your life? When I asked you about your life purpose at the beginning of the message, what place did your relationship with Christ play in it? What is the condition of your relationship with Christ this morning?
Paul continues.
And the power of his resurrection…
This is the second packed phrase in Paul’s description of his quest. It still relates back to the same verb. This is something Paul doesn’t just want to know about. This is something he wants to know by personal experience.
There is a parallel passage in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, which was written at approximately the same time as his letter to the Philippians. It is found in Ephesians 1:18-20: I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. The power is like the working of his might strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms.
This is truly a remarkable Scripture. It tells us that the mighty power that raised Christ from the dead is the same power that is at work in us who believe; those of us who have come to sit in the “faith chair.” One of Paul’s passions as a Christian is to know and experience that power in his life. Compare this with the Paul’s early life when he placed his confidence in the flesh. Now his confidence is in the resurrection power of Christ at work within him. This is truly a deep subject which we will not exhaust today. But this is Paul’s goal. To know Christ’s power, his resurrection power at work in his life. The Christian life is a supernatural life. It is not about human potential or human effort. It is Christ’s power at work in us and through us. “I want to know that power,” says Paul.
And the fellowship of his sufferings…
Once again, it is relating back to the same verb. This is also something Paul wants to know by personal experience. Does this sound strange to you? Do you cringe a bit at this one? As Christians, are we to seek out suffering? No, we do not need to seek out suffering, because the Bible clearly tells us that suffering will seek us out. Listen to the words of Scripture:
If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. Remember the words I spoke to you; No servant is greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. (John 15:18-20)
In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. (II Timothy 3:12)
Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. (I Peter 4:12)
For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for him. (Philippians 1:29)
These and other Scriptures clearly tell us that suffering is something we are to expect as Christ’s followers. But what Paul yearns to experience is not the suffering itself, but rather what he calls “the fellowship of his sufferings” or as the NIV translates, “the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings.”
There is a mystery of the Christian life revealed here. It is a mystery described in Matthew 5:11-12: Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven…
But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. (I Peter 4:13-14)
This was the attitude of the apostles in the book of Acts after they had been flogged by the Jewish authorities: The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name. (Acts 5:42)
I don’t pretend to fully understand the Scripture at this point. But what the Scripture seems to say is that there is special reward, a special blessing, and even the experiencing of a special bond of fellowship with Christ which grows out of suffering as a Christian. And it is a fellowship with Christ himself as well as with other suffering believers.
Being made conformable to his death…
The NIV translates: becoming like him in his death. Once again the statement is terse, almost cryptic. What does he mean? To understand his words, we must once again go to parallel Scriptures. The first place I would take us to is Paul’s words in Romans 6:5-6: If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin –
Then jumping down to verse 11: In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Just as Christ died for our sin, so we are called to die to sin and its power over us. I believe this compressed sentence of Paul’s purpose in life expresses his desire to die to sin and its power over him. He expresses the same truth in Galatians 2:20: I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.
This is a powerful positional truth which Paul desires to become a growing reality in his life and experience, whereby the old Saul of Tarsus is now truly dead, and the life he now lives is actually Christ living in and through him.
There is one more statement of his life purpose yet to come.
If by any means I might attain to the resurrection of the dead.
It is almost as if each statement becomes more difficult to understand and interpret than the one before. This particular verse prompted a commentator to write the following: “…although Philippians is generally one of Paul’s simpler letters to interpret, it should be noted that the present verse is an exception and is very difficult to interpret dogmatically.” I can only say “Amen” to that.
I read all the commentaries I own on this verse. I even went on the internet and surfed the web to see what I could find. What I found is that there is no consensus on how to interpret this verse. Most of the commentators are quick to point out that this is not the usual New Testament word for “resurrection.” It is a word that only occurs this one time in the New Testament, and it takes the normal word for resurrection and adds a prefix “out” to it. So the passage literally reads “the out-resurrection from among the dead.” But having pointed this out with a great flourish, they cannot agree on what the significance of that semantic variation might be.
What resurrection is Paul talking about in this verse? The key issue is whether to take his reference to resurrection here literally or figuratively. While Paul clearly teaches about the literal, future, bodily resurrection of the believer in other Scriptures, I do not believe that is what he is speaking of here. That literal, bodily resurrection is the firm hope of every true child of God based on faith in Christ. It is not something that we must strive to attain. Rather I think Paul is continuing to speak figuratively and he is simply concluding the image of his earlier statement about becoming like Christ in his death. Just as he longed to be made like Christ in his death by dying to sin, so he also longed to live a new life as one resurrected from the dead. If I can take us back to Romans 6:11-13: In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life.
What Paul longed for and earnestly desired to attain was resurrection living now! 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 8:11)
Well, like I said, there is a tremendous amount of spiritual truth packed into these five compressed phrases. They not only express the life purpose and goal of the new Paul, but they also contain much of his theology of sanctification and Christian growth.
I promised you five power-packed statements and then a summary statement. I think that summary statement is what Paul gives in verse 12. As it reads in the NIV: Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.
We’ll explore this verse in more depth as part of next week’s sermon and the process that Paul describes. But I just want to focus on that final phrase of the verse: to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. I think that is a wonderful way to express Paul’s new goal and purpose in life. We might expound and paraphrase his thought this way: “Christ had a purpose in mind for me when he saved me, and took hold of me. My purpose now is to fulfill that purpose. I want to be everything Christ Jesus saved me to be. I want to become everything Christ had in mind for me to become when he died on the cross for me. I want to take hold of and make my own every purpose and desire and plan Christ had in his heart when he laid hold of me and made me his child.” What a goal! What a passion!
Let me bring you back to where we began; your life purpose. What are you living for? As you compare your answer with Paul’s, do you need to make some changes?