WHAT IT MEANS TO "KNOW" CHRIST

pHILIPPIANS 3:10-11

"I want to KNOW Christ—yes, to KNOW the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead." (NIV)

"I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I want to suffer with him, sharing in his death, 11so that one way or another I will experience the resurrection from the dead!" (NLT)

Paul has already spoken of the surpassing value of the knowledge of Christ. To that thought he now returns and defines more closely what he means. Here the word 'KNOW' means personal knowledge.

It is not simply intellectual knowledge, the knowledge of certain facts or even principles. It is the personal experience of another person. We may see the depth of this word from a fact of Old Testament usage. The Old Testament uses to KNOW of sexual intercourse. "Adam KNEW Eve his wife; and she conceived and bore Cain" (Genesis 4:1). The most intimate knowledge of another person. It is not Paul's aim to know about Christ, but personally to KNOW him.

To KNOW Christ means certain things.

(i) It means to KNOW the power of his Resurrection.The Resurrection was not simply a past event in history, however amazing. It was not simply something which had happened to Jesus, however important it was for him. It was a dynamic power which operates in the life of the individual Christian. The Resurrection of Christ is the great dynamic in three different directions.

(a) It is the guarantee of the importance of this life and of this body in which we live. It was in the body that Christ rose and it is this body which he sanctifies (1 Corinthians 6:13 ff.).

(b) It is the guarantee of the life to come (Romans 8:11; 1 Corinthians 15:14 ff.). Because he lives, we shall live also; his victory is our victory.

(c) It is the guarantee that in life and in death and beyond death the presence of the Risen Lord is always with us. It is the proof that his promise to be with us always to the end of the world is true.

The Resurrection of Christ is the guarantee that this life is worth living and that the physical body is sacred; it is the guarantee that death is not the end of life and that there is a world beyond; it is the guarantee that nothing in life or in death can separate us from him.

(ii) It means to KNOW the fellowship of his sufferings. When the Christian has to suffer, he is in some strange way sharing the very suffering of Christ and is even filling up that suffering (2 Corinthians 1:5; 2 Corinthians 4:10-11; Galatians 6:17; Colossians 1:24). To suffer for the faith is not a penalty, it is a privilege, for thereby we share the very work of Christ.

(iii) It means to be so united with Christ that day by day we come more to share in his death, so that finally we share in his Resurrection. To KNOW Christ means that we share the way he walked; we share the Cross he bore; we share the death he died; and finally we share the life he lives for evermore.

To KNOW Christ is not to be skilled in any theoretical or theological knowledge; it is to KNOW him with such intimacy that in the end we are as united with him as we are with those whom we love on earth and that, as we share their experiences, so we also share his.