Knowing Christ

“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.” – Philippians 3:10-11

Paul–the apostle who preached the gospel to the Gentiles–wanted to know Jesus. But he already did; he’d encountered the risen Savior on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:3-6). Preaching the gospel and serving Christ for years–yes, Paul knew Jesus.

Any follower of Jesus can make the same claim. While our religious experience might not be as radical as Paul’s, we still have faith in our Lord. And through such trust, we learn the character and heart of Christ.

But Paul was looking for something deeper. And so are many of us. Going to church, reading the Bible, and spending time in prayer are fine activities. We’re trying to connect with Jesus. Walking by faith is fine (2 Corinthians 5:7), but if we’re honest, we’ll admit we want something more.

How do we come to know Jesus?

In answering the question for himself, Paul shows us the way.

And it’s not esoteric. We don’t have to hunt down special teachings or chase spiritual experiences.

We need the gospel, the good news expressed by Good Friday and Easter Sunday.

To know Jesus, we must attend to Christ’s death and resurrection. Paul arranges these in a literary structure called a “chiasm” to make them memorable in an A-B-B-A format:

A – the power of His resurrection

B – participation in His sufferings

B – becoming like Him in His death

A – attaining to the resurrection from the dead

Knowing Jesus doesn’t take us afield; it grounds us in the core events of the gospel.

Jesus died on the cross.

Jesus rose from the dead.

And we must remember He did these for us. As Paul reminded the Romans,

“He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.” – Romans 4:25

The only appropriate response is to thank Him! But Jesus invites us to something more.

We can join Him.

His experience becomes ours. Through committed faith and dedicated service, we come to know Christ in ways we couldn’t imagine.

Here’s how Paul describes our experience of the gospel:

We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. ⁵For if we have been united with Him in a death like His, we will certainly also be united with Him in a resurrection like His. … ⁸Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him. – Romans 6:4-5, 8

We can understand this in our heads and agree with our whole hearts. But It goes deeper; the gospel seeks our lives. When we live a life of loyalty to King Jesus, He rewards us with new life. The power of the Holy Spirit who transforms us will one day resurrect us.

Knowing Christ is a matter of the mind, but it’s more than that.

Knowing Jesus is a matter of the heart, but it’s deeper still.

Knowing the Lord is total and complete. It demands everything of us and gives everything to us.

We accept His call because He loves us.

Listen to His voice and obey the call of Jesus this Good Friday and Easter Sunday!