“My goal is to know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, assuming that I will somehow reach the resurrection from among the dead” (HCSB).
With all the tinsel and noise too many have only a vague, if any, comprehension of the root meaning of Christmas. Thankfully with His Spirit dwelling within us we can celebrate our Lord’s advent with a devoted joy. In a few months we’ll commemorate this same Jesus’ death and resurrection; we go from joy to sorrow to celebration.
The Philippian church lived within these same events. Paul’s letter to them encouraged the church to reflect their new life in Jesus. Paul’s letter of encouragement to the Philippian church contains his hopes for them: ‘Complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.’
In chapter 3:10-11 we find some of Paul’s personal aspirations as he desires to:
Know
Him
Power of His resurrection
Fellowship of His sufferings
Conformed
To His death
Assume
Reach the resurrection of the dead
The word used here for “know” is, gnonai. For us “know” is pretty straight forward but not so in Greek. The word is used with 56 different spellings in the New Testament and this particular spelling is used 15 times. Gnonai’s unique meaning is ‘to know via firsthand experience.’ Not to know from hearing, or reading, or thinking about it; but to know by, if possible, experiencing it! How can Paul personally experience Jesus, His resurrection, and his death? As with Paul, and for us, this means to know Him in His person, actions, humiliation and exaltation, grace and glory. We want to know Him as our Savior, Sanctifier, Healer, coming King.
It’s human nature to want to know Jesus from His wonderful birth directly to His glorious resurrection and skip the hard stuff in-between. But Paul knew he couldn’t know Jesus without that stuff. Paul had to experience Jesus’ humiliation by being humiliated, because of serving Him, His suffering by suffering because of proclaiming Him, being conformed to His death by wanting to ‘gain Christ’ more than fearing death. Knowing that death just opened up to resurrection! This means knowing Him leads to the being with Him. This process—from Christmas to resurrection—makes sense because of Christmas.
Richard Lawson
Richard Lawson with Trinity since 2014. He and Pam have 6 children and 15 grandchildren: He knows their names, Pam their birthdays. Dick served as a pastor in Vermont and Mississippi and then as a missionary in Indonesia for 20 years with the Christian and Missionary Alliance and Compassion International. Upon returning home, He ministered with both Compassion and the C&MA in various capacities before retiring. He enjoys being part of the Trinity family, reading, college football, dragging Pam on all sorts of trips, and recuperating from said trips.
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