Philippians 3:1-11

Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life.”

Against a backdrop of resurrection hope, Paul writes:

Finally, my brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you is not troublesome to me, and for you it is a safeguard. Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of those who mutilate the flesh!

For it is we who are the circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God and boast in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh– even though I, too, have reason for confidence in the flesh. If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.

Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.

For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith.

I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

The Power of His Resurrection

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. – Philippians 3:10-11

“That I may know Him!” Those words ring out through the centuries and sink deeply into our hearts evoking the most poignant cry of a believer’s soul; “I want to know You, Lord.”

More and more and more, I want to know Him. Anything less is nothingness. Anything more is unnecessary.

I want to know the power of His resurrection, even if that power is known only in the fellowship of His sufferings.

If He were in the grave, we could not know Him. If He had merely passed away and stayed away, there would be no basis for hope. But alas, He is risen and we may experience His victory.

I want to experience the fullness of His presence in my life, by any means.

I want to be made conformable to His death because there are those lingering remnants of my sin in me that must go if I am to be fully alive. Death must do its work in me that I might also rise from the ashes of despair.

I want to conform to His death because there is nothing of that old life worthy to bring over into the new. By death I am made free without actually dying. I can stand with Him as He stood with me and be liberated from all that would have destroyed me.

Because He lives, everything is different. Because He has been raised from death, I can live forever. Because He is alive, I can know Him and experience all that resurrection means in my own life

And so, we exclaim with joy and anticipation, with assurance and conviction this glorious day:

“The Lord is risen! He is risen indeed!”