Holy Wholeness: I Want to Know Him
Scripture: Philippians 3:10,11
Lt. Colonel Allen Satterlee
Spiritual Life Officer
USA Southern Territory
To Know
Paul says, “I want to know [Him]” (v.10). The word used for “know” in Greek has a correspondingly identical idea in Hebrew. The word represents a most personal and thorough knowledge. In Genesis, it refers to the sexual union between a man and a woman, that most intimately loving of human acts. Without the sexual overtones, Paul says he wants to know Christ as intimately as a husband and wife know each other or a mother knows her child. It is not just to have a collection of facts. It is to know the motives, the priorities, what hurts and what helps another person, what makes him or her happy or sad.
Paul understood that the more he knew Christ, the greater would be his devotion to Him. Paul concluded that every important fact in the world led to Christ. Creation spoke of Him. The rituals of Jewish religion were patterns of His work. The Temple with its furnishings pointed to Him. The prophets saw Him over the ruin of the world around them. The history of the world itself, even the truths that survived through the distortions of other religions, spoke of Christ. He learned of Him from all legitimate teaching as well as the significance and proper place of all these things by knowing Christ.
Christ is made known to us by our worship, by the Word of God, by prayer. He is known by our experience of Him. We can describe the sweetness of honey and tell of its chemical makeup, but it can only be truly known by tasting it. Painted fires do not burn, nor will looking at water wash dirty hands. It is only in experiencing the real thing that anything is accomplished. Christ must be known experientially to be known at all.
Power of His Resurrection
Paul then says that He wants to know the “power of His resurrection” (v. 10). This great central truth for all of Christianity, this foundational fact upon which all Christian belief and teaching pivots, must never be ignored or given a mere token nod. Even a cursory reading of the New Testament and the early Church Fathers reveals that they found this one fact was more than important. They hardly could keep themselves from speaking about it. The thrill of it leaps from the pages as certainly as the stone rolled away on that Resurrection morning.
The power of the Resurrection fooled the disciples. They were sure the power arrived on that Palm Sunday when Jesus entered into Jerusalem. No king would have been welcomed to Jerusalem with greater enthusiasm. As conquering heroes, the disciples walked in the wake of Christ’s train, sure they would be advisors in the new kingdom being born on this day.
The common wisdom might have been, if not in the victory parade, then the betrayal or even the crucifixion would surely be the next place for power to be displayed. Pilate and the Roman soldiers should have faded away like dew before the morning sun. The Jewish leaders who opposed Christ should have run for their lives like refugees ahead of a ruthless army. But no such thing happened. Perhaps the mocking tones of those surrounding the cross reflected the dashed hopes among the disciples: “Those who passed by hurled insults at Him, shaking their heads and saying, “You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, save Yourself! Come down from the cross, if You are the Son of God” (Matt, 27:39-40).
What better display of power could there be than ripping one’s hands and feet from the cross and coming down in power to banish all enemies? But Jesus stayed. And in staying He died, with the anticlimax of His limp body being borne away by a handful of grief-stricken women.
Power would come when every human possibility was fully accounted for and eliminated. Power would flash in a lightless tomb, spreading like the rays of the rising sun.
It is the glorious power of that Easter morning that Paul says he wants to know. Why? Because there is no power greater. Why? Because there is no power more transforming. Why? Because when Christ arose, He reached out His hand to take you and me up with Him.
Participation in His Sufferings
Finally, Paul speaks of wanting to intimately know “participation in His sufferings,” what some versions translate as the “fellowship” of His sufferings (v. 10). Paul knew that this meant understanding pain at a deeper level than ever before fathomed. Christ’s suffering also was for different reasons than what is the common lot of humanity.
Christ’s intended it to happen. The natural response to pain is to avoid it or end it as quickly as possible. Touch your finger to a hot stove. Your reaction is to get away from the stove and then to find a way to make it stop hurting.
There are times when we undergo a painful experience intentionally, but it is usually in order to accomplish a self-benefiting end. A person submits to surgery not because he relishes having himself cut open but because the suffering in surgery is the price to be paid to prevent a worse calamity later.
Not so for Jesus. When He chose to suffer it was His intention to undergo it, to feel the full force of pain in the moment of His betrayal, humiliation, and crucifixion. He intended to do it not because it would meet any good end for Himself but to accomplish His intended purposes for us. Had He not come to earth to live, suffer, and die, the galaxies would have continued to spin; the seasons would still follow one after another; and the angels would go on about their heavenly services; but the people of this world would remain hopelessly lost in sin. Jesus’ suffering was for our sake.
Paul knew he could not share the sufferings of Christ in their intensity. Only the Son of God could take onto Himself the sins of the world, suffer the consequence of separation from the Father, and yet remain the only pure soul amid the swamp of sin that Earth had become. Only Christ could bear it; but in doing so it afflicted Him through and through.
Paul specified that he wanted to share in the “fellowship” of His suffering. The word “fellowship” in the original is the same one used for the partnership that Peter and Andrew had in their fishing businesses. As His partners we fall in behind Him while Jesus plows the way ahead. We walk in the footsteps of bleeding feet; we carry our cross in His way with the stains of nail-scarred hands; we bend our head with Him beneath the press of thorns on His head. And we do this intentionally. The criminal had his cross sentenced to him and would escape it if he could. But the follower of Christ purposely takes up his cross to follow Jesus.
Paul would seek a crown, yes. But he would do so as did his Master. Through the cross. Through the fellowship of suffering.
Our Corporate Prayer
Dear Lord, I want to know Christ more than I have ever known Him. I rejoice that He saved me from my sin and that I am Your child, but I want to hear Your heart and do Your will. Help me to know the power of Your resurrection and, though I say it reluctantly, the fellowship of Your suffering. Lead me forward so that when I am with you eternally, You will not be a stranger to me but someone I know intimately already. I pray this in Your matchless name, Jesus, my Savior. Amen.
Our Worldwide Prayer Meeting
India Western Territory
Thinking It Through
How can we know Christ better? What can we gain? What will we lose if we fail to do so?
Notable Quotables
To truly know God we must long for Him without any other motive than reaching God Himself. - A. W. Tozer
This song by Graham Kendrick is based on this Scripture, "Knowing You, Jesus," A beautiful one to listen to or sing along.
We would appreciate any feedback and/or suggestions on how to improve these devotionals. Please email comments to: SpiritualLifeDevelopment@uss.salvationarmy.org or by going to our website: https://southernusa.salvationarmy.org/uss/spiritual-life-development.
We would love to hear from you.
Lt. Colonel Allen Satterlee
Territorial Spiritual Life Development Officer/THQ Chaplain
USA Southern Territory