SHARING BREAD
10 I want to know Christ and the power of his
resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him
in his death, 11 and
so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.
Phil
3:10-11 (NIV)
In our verses for today, the apostle Paul yearns for an
experiential knowledge of Christ Jesus.
Already knowing Jesus as his Savior, he now desires to know him more
intimately as his Lord – the wording meaning to know by experience. Admirably,
the apostle was just as ambitious to be sanctified (conformed to the image of
Christ) as he was to be justified (cleansed, covered, vindicated from sin) –
surely the mark of a true believer. Paul
was not satisfied to remain a mere babe in Christ, indeed, his heart’s desire
was to be like Him – to walk as Jesus walked - resulting in a rich and full
experience of God’s love. John’s words
come to mind:
5 But if anyone obeys his word, God's love is truly made
complete in him. This is how we know we are in him: 6 Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus
did. 1 John 2:5-6 (NIV)
“Complacency is a deadly foe of all spiritual growth.” A. W.
Tozer
“This
life therefore is not righteousness, but growth in righteousness; not health,
but healing; not being but becoming; not rest but exercise. We are not yet what
we shall be, but we are growing toward it. The process is not yet finished, but
it is going on. This is not the end, but it is the road. All does not yet gleam
in glory, but all is being purified.”
Martin Luther
Paul desired for all believers to yearn for this “surpassing
greatness” of knowing Christ Jesus as Lord.
Indeed, he prays for the believers in Ephesians in like manner (a
wonderful prayer to pray for ourselves and for our families as well) that they
may be “filled to the measure of all the fullness of God”:
14 For this reason I kneel before the Father, 15 from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth
derives its name. 16 I
pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through
his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so
that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and
established in love, 18 may
have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high
and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and
to know this love that surpasses knowledge--that you may be filled to the
measure of all the fullness of God. Eph 3:14-19 (NIV)
Surely, the more we know Him, the more we love Him and the
more we love Him the more we desire to follow hard after Him. Therefore, the apostle’s longing was to
experience as much of God as was allowed this side of heaven. Jesus was not only Paul’s Lord and Savior; He
was his Friend, His role Model and, if you will excuse the common vernacular,
His Hero. Paul wanted to be like Him and
to relish in the surpassing greatness of knowing Him. He begins by speaking of knowing the “power of his resurrection”. To be sure, the power that brought Jesus back
from the dead is operative in every true believer in Christ. All believers have the Holy Spirit and all are
to be controlled by the Spirit’s power rather than by the sinful nature. The indwelling Holy Spirit gives the believer
a totally different life. This achieving
power given us is the ability to overcome any resistance – even to our dreaded
sinful selves. It is the Spirit that
gives life to our mortal bodies the flesh counts for nothing. Jesus tells His disciples:
60 On hearing it, many of his disciples said, “This is a
hard teaching. Who can accept it?” 61 Aware that his disciples were grumbling about this,
Jesus said to them, “Does this offend you? 62 What if you see the Son of Man ascend to
where he was before! 63 The
Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you
are spirit and they are life.” John
6:60-63 (NIV)
“Moralism,
whether it takes the form of denunciation or pep talks, can ultimately only
create awareness of sin and guilt or manufactured virtues built on will
power. A ministry which leads to genuine
sanctification and growth, on the other hand, avoids moralism, first by making
clear the deep rootage of sin-problems in the flesh so that the congregation is
not battling these in the dark, and then by showing that every victory over the
flesh is won by faith in Christ, laying hold of union with Him in death and
resurrection and relying on His Spirit for the power over sin. Presented in this context, even the demand
for sanctification becomes part of the Good News…Ministries which attack only
the surface of sin and fail to ground spiritual growth in the believer’s union
with Christ produces either self-righteousness or despair, and both of these
conditions are inimical to spiritual life.”
Richard Lovelace
In Romans, Paul writes to all believers the following promise
regarding the Holy Spirit’s presence in their lives:
9 You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature
but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not
have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. 10 But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of
sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. 11 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 8:9-11 (NIV)
What I glean from this:
· I am to
yearn for an experiential knowledge of Christ Jesus.
· The more I
know Jesus, the more I will love Him and the more I love Him the more I will
desire to follow hard after Him.
· I am to be
controlled by the Spirit’s power which leads to life not by the flesh which
leads to death.
