Paul starts by writing a warning against the lawkeepers, who pursued the law – and using strong language to indicate their activities “evildoers, mutilators of the flesh, the dogs”. The essence of their behaviour is that they have put their confidence in the flesh rather than in Christ.
He then takes some trouble to lay out the reasons by which he would have been guilty of putting his own confidence in the flesh via his own credentials, recognising here that this involved persecuting the church. However he now states his base position with all these included is that of a nett loss compared with the extreme worth of knowing Christ.
Especially, he brings up how having a sense of one’s own righteousness as defined by the law is NOT part of the process of knowing Christ.
“What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I onsider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ-the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. I want to know Christ-yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, beoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.” Phil 3:8-10
to know: ginosko (Greek) – to know, taking in knowledge, through personal experience, in an intimate sense (including sexual intimacy)
In this manner, Paul talks about knowing Christ and also the power of his resurrection, and how it is like to participate in his suffering, effectively emulating how he died, and thereby gaining resurrection from the dead
Some words here:
power: dunamis (Greek) – miraculous power, might and strength
participation: koinonia (Greek) – fellowship either in a spiritual or a physical sense
suffering: pathema (Greek) – the capacity to feel strong feeling – is redemptive, preparing us to know the Lord better, includes afflictions resulting in knowing God’s glory
becoming: symmorphoo (Greek) – sharing the same form from embodying the inner reality, to conform to
attaining: katantao (Greek) – coming down to – denoting a journey from high land to lower, but also descending in the form of inheriting
Paul is not intending here that we should all dream of being crucified literally as Christ died in order to attain his outcome of being resurrected. However, he is showing the imagery of how we can intimately know Christ (beyond head knowledge) by:
- experiencing (a two way process involving giving and receiving) His power
- sharing His sufferings – journeying through pain and persecution as He would have done, also sharing in the journeys of others either physically or spiritually
- and embracing the inner reality of his death – which was out of love for humanity – the sacrificial love that caused Him to come to serve, not to be served, and to bring all of humanity into an opportunity to encounter His saving grace
By knowing Christ in this fashion, we inherit his resurrection – this, then is the larger definition of a Christian, the basis of the often quoted “To know Christ, and to make Him known”. As depicted by Paul using the words ‘gain’, attain’, this process is a journey which is at once started at the beginning of a faith relationship with Christ, and coming to a conclusion when He comes again (given that He will come again, our resurrection is guaranteed in that sense).
Practically, time spent with Him, studying His word and experiencing and expecting His power in my life via supernatural and miraculous happenings, making the tough times in life something that I view as a growing period in Him, not being afraid of sharing these times with others as well as being a part of their own struggles, and having an attitude of serving and giving to others; these are things I need to work on.
Out With The Old 