Philippians 3:7-11: But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.
Any relationship starts with an introduction, and then there is growth in that relationship. After the introduction, if you want to grow in that relationship, you must cultivate it by talking to them, knowing them, and letting them know about you. But you know the greatest way a relationship can become very intimate is through shared experiences. When we think what they think, feel what they feel, and experience what they experience, it creates a deep bond between two people. It’s the same in a personal relationship with Christ. It starts with an introduction; a true introduction to Christ itself is such a blessing, it justifies us and saves us.
Paul’s introduction to Christ was in a way rude and unexpected, when going on a road, he was pushed and Christ introduced himself, but it resulted in Paul’s salvation. But it doesn’t end with just meeting Christ; we have to cultivate that relationship. It requires time and effort. A man or woman who loves someone, no matter how busy, will find time for them. In the same way, a Christian who loves Christ will find time for his relationship with Christ. Paul, the busiest man, in this passage says that in the midst of his busy ministries and duties, his great goal is knowing Christ. This should be the great goal of every Christian, to grow in his relationship with Christ. We can summarize it like this: The goal of the Christian life is to know Christ and to be like Him.
In this context, Paul, while attacking the Judaizers and listing all Jewish qualifications as a loss, lists his Christian gains. The passage before us is like Mount Everest. Initially, I saw little and didn’t grasp much, but as I climbed a little, I tried to grasp a little more of its depth. We know all Christian experience can be summarized in two parts: justification and sanctification. Objective and subjective blessings. Paul explains the theological depth of justification and sanctification in Romans. We can call this passage in Philippians Paul’s experiential justification and sanctification. He says all these blessings come from knowing Christ. Verses 8 and 9 are the blessings of his experiential justification when he was introduced to Christ: he gained Christ, was found in Him, and received perfect righteousness. These are justification’s objective blessings.
Christian life doesn’t stop with the introductory blessings of justification. In verse 10, he again says, “I want to know Him,” and he talks about subjective experiential blessings. How do we grow in knowing Christ deeply? Paul lists three things: by experiencing the power of His resurrection, the fellowship of His sufferings, and being conformed to His death. Then, if we know the three introduction blessings and grow in knowing Christ by these three ways, the fruit of that will be in verse 11: “if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.”
We have already covered the justification blessings up to verses 8 and 9. Let us look at verse 10. There are four headings.
- Experiential knowledge of Christ – How does he want to know about Christ in three ways?
- Know the power of His resurrection.
- Know the fellowship of His suffering.
- Being conformed to His death.
Experiential Knowledge of Christ
Paul, who had the greatest education of his time, was trained in Jewish and Greek culture and classical literature, along with the current intellectualism of his day. He was a student of one of Israel’s greatest teachers, Gamaliel, and studied vast things of his time as a brilliant and learned man. He says he is so utterly captivated by the surpassing value of the knowledge of Christ, a field of knowledge that utterly ravished his heart. He has been learning this for the last 30 years as a Christian, and it is not enough; he has not begun to master it. There is a present burning passion in those words. In verse 10, “that I may know Him,” his heart must be burning with a yearning desire. If you and I don’t have this burning desire this morning, it clearly shows we are completely ignorant of this kind of knowledge, right? So let us understand it in a way so we also start yearning like this.
We already saw it is not just knowing about Christ by reading or hearing about him, but knowing Christ in a personal, experiential acquaintance, entering into a living communion with his very person: reciprocal, abiding, deep, self-giving, and self-disclosing.
Let me state four distinct characteristics of this knowledge as opposed to just mere head knowledge.
First, this knowledge always has illumination. As in 2 Corinthians 4:6, “For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”
He said, “I came to know him not after the flesh,” just knowing a few facts about him. But he said there was an operation of the Spirit of God in illumination, in his heart. The same God who shined light out of the midst of the darkness in the original creation, he said, “it is that God who shined in our hearts and gave this special knowledge of God’s glory in the face of Jesus Christ.” It is not a knowledge we get when we are saved and it is over; we have to grow in this knowledge to grow in grace and sanctification.
That’s why when Paul prays for the young Christians in Ephesus 1:17-18, “that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know…” Oh, we have to pray for this, or we will be blind. See, without that enlightenment, there is no knowledge. It is a knowledge based upon the illuminating ministry of the Spirit who takes the things of Christ and gives us more than an acquaintance with his external form as to person and external activity as to work. He gives an inward sight to perceive the glory of his person and the suitability of his work to our need.
Secondly, this is the knowledge of appropriation—making it our own. See verse 8: Paul does not say “the surpassing knowledge of Christ the Lord.” But he says “the surpassing of the knowledge of Christ, Jesus, my Lord.” You see, this knowledge of which he speaks is an appropriating knowledge. When the Holy Spirit illuminates us and shows us the surpassing glory of Christ, we cannot live one second without making it our own. As soon as the Holy Spirit opens our eyes, with the hands of faith I urgently hold it with a death grip and take it as my own possession. It becomes my own. He becomes my Lord, my Savior, my wealth, my portion, my friend, my king. May I say it reverently, my lover. My peace, my joy. My all.
Thirdly, this knowledge not only involves illumination and appropriation, but it always involves transformation. As in 2 Corinthians 3:18, “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.” But there is something in the knowledge of Christ that when we gaze upon him by the Holy Spirit, we become like him. Look at the language: “but we all, all true believers, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into that image.” You see, you can know something about him and be utterly unlike him and become increasingly like a devil. But you cannot know him with illumination and appropriation without becoming increasingly like him.
Fourthly, it is always a knowledge of aspiration. It creates a deep desire and an intense yearning to an extent that this becomes the top ambition of life. Our text expresses it so strongly: “I counted all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord.” And now, after 30 years, my deep, great desire of heart is still that I might know him now and throughout all of my days with ever-increasing measures of that heart acquaintance, which not only ravages the soul but transforms me into his likeness. He goes on in verses 12-13 expressing a holy discontent and a desire to know him more, leaving all behind, as this is a lifetime pursuit.
One of the marvels of this illuminating, appropriating, transforming knowledge of Christ is that it craves for more. If we truly taste one gram of this knowledge, we’re spoiled forever; it is very addictive. What we taste and what we know never causes us to lean back and say, “Now I’ve had enough, I have mastered that field of knowledge.” We recognize that we’ve been locked in to the one in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, that there is an infinite beauty in our Savior, that even eternity will not disclose to us in full. There is an infinite glory and infinite perfection in him and what he has done, that we will be able to go on with an infinite aspiration and eternal ambition to know him more and more fully through the unending ages of eternity.
So it is not all having to do with just mere head knowledge. We all only know that, that is why we don’t grasp anything Paul says. There is something beyond that in the Christian life. This is surpassing knowledge with four traits: knowledge of illumination, appropriation, transformation, and aspiration. Let us humble our hearts and pray to God to grant us this.
Now, Paul goes on to tell us three means of shared experience that make him know Christ deeply and bring him close to Christ. He may not only know Christ in his person, but know him also in the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death. These are the central acts of redemption. Christ should suffer, die, and rise from the dead. In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul says this is the gospel: Christ suffered, died, and rose again. These are objective truths which, when we believe them, we are saved.
Amazingly, Paul reveals to us that these three central acts of the gospel, in a way, have an experience aspect, a sanctification aspect, that brings a believer closer to Christ. We should not misunderstand; Paul is not talking about us adding anything to the perfect work of Christ, nor do these experiences make us accepted before God as justified. He has already told us that the only way he found acceptance and justification before God is the righteousness of Jesus by faith. But in the experience of sanctification, there is a real experiential aspect of these truths. That is what Paul talks about here. Let us look at them.
First, I want to Know the Power of His Resurrection
God is almighty, all-powerful. Part of the display of His power we can see in creation, creating the whole universe out of nothing, in providence controlling all acts for his purpose. But the greatest display of God’s power was in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Remember, Christ’s death was not an ordinary death. He didn’t die as wages for one man’s sins, but all the sins of all the elect were imputed on him, and he died the death of all those people. The penalty of all those sins dragged him to death and kept him in the grave. All demons and powers of darkness kept him dead. Chained with innumerable chains, if there is some power that breaks all those bonds and brings him alive, it has to be the greatest power. Because his death was not an ordinary death, but an atoning death for many, so his resurrection power is not ordinary resurrection power. It was the height of the display of God’s power.
His resurrection was not only a validation of all his claims, not only was he declared to be the Son of God, not only was it declared that his atoning work on the cross was perfectly accepted by God for sinners, but his resurrection as God-man brought him into a new mode of existence and a new relationship to us. There is an inseparable bond between him and his people. Acts 2:33 says by rising from the dead, he ascended to heaven, was glorified, exalted, and having received the promise of the Spirit. Now after his resurrection, He, through His Spirit, pours His resurrection power into His people’s hearts.
How does Christ save a person who is spiritually dead? The same mighty power of resurrection which raised Christ is required to raise the sinner from spiritual death to spiritual life (Eph. 2:4-6). A person is born again by the resurrection power of Christ. It doesn’t stop with that. Romans 6 says the same resurrection power is available for the believer to live a new life in Christ. The power of his resurrection is the power that flows into a believer’s soul from Christ through the Holy Spirit. It brings marvelous blessings to the believer.
This is the resurrection power that gives him victory over the dominion of sin and helps him grow in sanctification. Romans 6 explains that. This is the resurrection power that strengthens the believer in the midst of weakness and makes him do all things. In Romans 8:11, he explains, “But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who indwells you.” Wow, the same resurrection power that raised Christ from the dead indwells every believer to give us power over indwelling sin and all over bodily weakness. Do we have any sense of this?
I have available the dynamic spiritual energy that comes from Him. This power is there to conquer temptation, the power for service to Christ, the power to overcome trials that makes you strong when you’re weak, the power for witnessing and boldness. To the believing soul, the power of the life of Christ pours into us and rises out of us to give us victory in this life. That’s the only way I can conquer sin. That’s the only way I can have an effective life. We experience this power as we walk moment by moment in dependence on the indwelling Holy Spirit. If we live defeated lives, it’s safe to say that we are not living in dependence on the Holy Spirit (Gal. 5:16).
We must learn to live experientially in the power of Christ’s resurrection. How much we need this power! Paul realized we cannot live a Christian life without this power, so he prays for the Ephesians. Oh, how we should pray with Paul as he prays for the Ephesians (1:19-20) that they would know “what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe [which is] in accordance with the strength of His might which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead….”
So Paul says, “I want to know Him” is an ever-increasing personal, inward, real experience of the dynamism and energy of his resurrection. I want to be a living, walking, thinking, feeling monument to the power of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. When people see me, they have to wonder where he gets the power to live so holy, where he gets so much energy and power to serve Christ in spite of so much opposition, weakness, and age. They should see the resurrection power of Christ working through me. I want to live a kind of life no normal man can live, to react to difficult situations in a way that no man left to himself will ever react, overcome things, and achieve things that will show the very power that brought Christ from the tomb is operating in my soul. I want to know him in the power of his resurrection. See, it is this resurrection power that transformed cowardly disciples into fearless lions and world changers. It is the power that made them bold enough even to die as martyrs.
Secondly, in the Shared Experiences, the Fellowship of His Sufferings
Again, one side of Christ’s suffering is unique and set before us as the object of our faith, the objective aspect. We have no part in his finished atoning suffering. But the New Testament sets Christ’s sufferings or death before us in another totally different category. Not an objective, but a subjective category, where we can experience and take part. How?
Christ’s suffering is set before us as an example. Philippians 2 says, “let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus,” and that mind finds its climactic expression in his obedience unto death, even the death of the cross. In 1 Peter 2:21, “Christ suffered, leaving you an example that you should follow his steps,” so the category here is that of participation by imitation. When we suffer, we face it with the same mind and the same spirit that Christ had when he suffered.
What was the mind Christ had when he suffered? He completely submitted to whatever suffering the Father sent him in providence, right? He actively chose the will of the Father, though it resulted in rejection, grief, pain, and sorrow. His own family rejected him; people mocked him in different ways. His entire life was marked by the suffering of misunderstanding, opposition, betrayal, and insults. But he accepted all of them as the providential will of God and submitted.
Though the Father’s will took him to Gethsemane, which made him sweat drops of blood, so horribly unbearable, he prayed, “if possible, let this cup pass,” even then, “not my will, but yours be done.” The Father’s will took him to Golgotha where he was forsaken, which was the greatest suffering of hell for him, but He fully submitted to the Father’s will.
Hebrews 5:8 makes the startling statement that “Jesus learned obedience through the things He suffered.” It means that He had never experienced the test of obedience until He suffered. It is always easy to obey when things are good… when God tells you to do good things… True obedience will be seen when we will obey even though it brings suffering. We obey even if we have to go through things difficult to us. If we are to be like Jesus, we must also learn to obey God through suffering. There is a sense in which we can never be like Him if we do not go through suffering and learn to entrust our souls.
Now, why would Paul want to experience the suffering of Christ? Isn’t this morbid and sad? We want fellowship in Christ’s joy, peace, and happiness. What is this fellowship in his suffering? Why, Paul, are you longing for that like a masochist? Because Paul knows by experience it is the fellowship of suffering that brings him intimately close to Christ and creates a deep bond between him and Christ experientially.
One has very perceptibly written, “To suffer together and share in that suffering creates a pure, deep, intimate bond more than any other thing in the world.” Companionship in sorrow forms the most enduring of all ties.
When someone is suffering from a disease, pain, or loss, we will never be able to sympathize with them if we don’t know what they are going through. Sometimes I don’t know what they are suffering, and I don’t even know what to say. But when I know that suffering—let’s say a gastric problem or kidney stone pain—if we have both gone through it, there is a bond between us. I can place my hand on their hands and say, “I know.” There is a bond, sympathy, and closeness. We know in our families what creates a bond: not just all the good times or good vacations, but when a family goes through deep suffering. You see a bond and closeness in that family. A shared experience of suffering knits their hearts more and more; nothing else in the world creates that.
The apostle knew that his greatest desire was an ever-increasing intimacy of fellowship with Christ. He could only get closer to Christ by the fellowship of His sufferings. When he faced any suffering, he would face it with the mind and spirit of Christ, accepting the Father’s will and following in Christ’s footsteps. This brings him more into the experiential knowledge of Christ—a spiritual harmony with the dying Lord’s state of will.
To Be Like Christ Requires Being Conformed to His Death
This phrase is related to “the fellowship of His sufferings” and grows out of it. Paul describes in different places in the New Testament that as believers, if we have to grow in sanctification, we should be conformed to the death of Christ. We should be dying to sin and self through the cross of Christ. Positionally, we are identified with Him in His death and resurrection. But, we have to experientially live out what is true of us positionally. In Galatians 2:20, Paul states, “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.” In Colossians 3:5, just after explaining how we have died and been raised up with Christ (3:1-4), he exhorts us to “put to death” the members of our bodies with regard to various sins like fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness (also Romans 6:1-11 compared with Romans 8:13).
This is what Jesus meant when He said that whoever follows Him must deny self and take up his cross daily (Luke 9:23). We can become closer to Christ only when we conform to His death by denying and even killing our self and following Christ. This means denying temptations, evil desires of the self, the pride of the self, self-satisfaction, and the goal of self-glory. To the degree that we learn to die to self and sin by being conformed to His death, to that same degree we grow to be like Him.
So, you see Paul’s great desire to know Christ, to come closer to Christ, even in the central acts of redemption, the power of His resurrection, the fellowship of His suffering, and to be conformed to His death.
Application
Like we saw four headings, let me bring four applications for each of them.
First, genuine Christianity can be summarized in Paul’s words: growing in knowing Christ and becoming like Him. If you are not growing in knowing Christ and becoming like Him, you are not growing. You are hiding behind the very subtle, false deception of today’s Christianity. This passage exposes two of them.
1. The Heresy of Decisionism. Millions believe they are Christians because they had an experience many years ago where they decided to follow Christ, were baptized, and became a member. They think they are saved and that everything is over. For many of them, salvation is like buying insurance: Christ was the agent, you bought insurance that will save you from hell. Once you have bought it, you have no more dealings with agent Jesus. Now, you just have to pay a small premium every week by coming to church. That is the deception of decisionism. Christ is not an agent; Christ is the beginning, middle, and end of Christianity. If you do not have a growing relationship with Christ, your decision many years ago has no value.
2. The Deception of Only the Objective Half of the Gospel. There are many, especially in reformed circles, who are fully focused on the objective truths of the Gospel. They want to study all the objective truths, the five points, confession, and theology books about our justification by faith. You need those objective truths, but do we realize that is only half the Gospel? It only meets half of our soul’s deepest need. You were not only created to be reconciled and justified before God, but you were created to live in a growing, knowing fellowship with God. We need both objective truths and a subjective experience.
Many people live a cursed, barren, dead kind of Christianity because of this “objectivism-only” Christianity. We can all fall into that dead religion. Yes, we are reformed, we give importance to doctrinal truths, but do we realize that all that knowledge of truths is a means to a person? Do you know that even the great doctrine of justification, our approach and standing with God, is a means? Why does God give us this wonderful access to come to Him through a living way and enjoy His presence? It is not to be satisfied in ourselves and live as we want. In a way, justification is a means to knowing God in a deeper, more meaningful relationship. Someone said, “We should be completely satisfied with Christ’s righteousness that justifies us before God, and we should be utterly dissatisfied with our present knowledge and relationship with Christ.” We should always yearn to grow. That is a healthy way to grow in Christ. The devil hinders many people by reversing this. They are always doubting about their standing and acceptance with God but are very satisfied with their knowledge of Christ.
Oh, may God make us realize that there are infinite treasures of God we need to grow in. It is passages like this that make me ask, “Am I really a Christian?” If you think you have known enough of Christ that makes you hell-proof, then that is enough. There is no more appetite for Christ. May you realize that is a cursed knowledge that will take you to hell.
Do we have anything of this desire that Paul had? Do we know this knowledge of Christ with four traits: illumination, appropriation, transformation, and aspiration? Do you see there is so much more depth in Christ than any of us will ever know? You will see that all true, growing Christians, like George Whitefield, that mighty Man of God, who for over 30 years preached on both sides of the Atlantic in the midst of much opposition, on his 50th birthday, said, “This day, I have vowed to begin to begin to know more of Christ and to be a Christian.”
If you don’t wake up and start having a living, growing relationship with Christ—the illumination, appropriation, transformation, and aspiration experience—you will be more hardened by a dry, cursed religion of objectivism. That is not the religion of the Bible. If you are happily sitting here thinking, “I am justified before God, all over, no worry,” you are being deceived by this half-Gospel.
Second, The Three Greatest Means to Grow in the Knowledge of Christ
This passage teaches three greatest means to grow in the knowledge of Christ.
1. The Power of His Resurrection. What a wonderful encouragement for struggling Christians that we have the power of the resurrection to live a victorious daily Christian life! It is a dynamic spiritual energy. It is only by this power we can overcome temptations and trials. It is the power that makes you strong when you’re weak, the power for witnessing and boldness, and the power for service to Christ. This is the secret of a victorious Christian life. That’s the only way I can conquer sin. That’s the only way I can have an effective life. This is my daily need. We are to know the power of the resurrection day by day, in their humdrum daily duties.
Without that, how could we do anything pleasing to the Lord? How can we deny a self-protective and self-indulgent life? How could we resist temptation, not seek the things of the world but heavenly things, deny ourselves, serve the Church, and preach the gospel boldly to the world? Without the resurrection power, a sermon is nothing but the words of men. Without resurrection power, though we live, we are dead Christians because we are living in the “lusts of the flesh,” doing the desires of the flesh. There is no real union with Jesus Christ, no living experience of the power of His resurrection. The risen life of Jesus will increase in the measure in which we honestly make it our life’s aim to know Him and the power of His resurrection.
Do we see our great daily need? If you know a great need, what will you do? Paul, knowing that great need, prays for the church at Ephesus, and “that you may know… His incomparably great power for us who believe.” We need to pray daily for the power of the resurrection in our lives.
“Sometimes when you are praying alone, sometimes when you are reading the Scriptures, sometimes when you are meditating upon these things, there comes the strange awareness that there is another, someone else, present, that you are not alone, and that he seems to be speaking to you. You don’t hear, but you grasp the message. You understand what he is saying.” We realize His words in our heart, and oh, what energy it brings! This is all part of the fellowship of resurrection power.
2. The Fellowship of His Sufferings. Secondly, Paul says the second means to grow in Christ is the fellowship of His sufferings. Did you notice, the order seems to be reversed? First should be suffering and death, and then the resurrection. Why does Paul bring the resurrection first? There is a profound truth here. It is only those who are experiencing the power of the resurrection who will experience true Christianity. The power of the resurrection delivers us from being self-pleasing, self-centered, and self-protective. It lifts us from our natural aversion to suffering that wants to avoid suffering in every way, even if we have to disobey God and deny Christ.
It is the power of the resurrection that lifts a man above selfish pleasing and protection, makes him say, “I want to know Christ even if that knowledge comes by suffering for Christ. I want to share in the fellowship of His suffering.” That is why Paul puts the resurrection first. All who avoid suffering, even by disobeying God and sinning, have never tasted that power.
It was only after the apostles experienced the resurrection power of Christ that they were happily willing to suffer for Christ. See how they were so scared before, but after the resurrection power, in Acts 5, they were beaten for preaching the Gospel. What was their response? In verse 41, they went rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name. The more a church knows the resurrection power of Christ, the more it will be willing to share in the fellowship of His suffering.
Again, what an exposure to the modern, deceptive, “happy, happy” Gospel. We are all influenced by that: if we follow Christ, we should have all worldly blessings, our family should be perfect, all our needs should be met, and no kind of suffering should be in our lives. This passage says true, authentic Christianity is fellowship in Christ’s suffering.
Perhaps you are with a sad face this morning because you have different sufferings: some poverty, some sickness, some family problems. What a marvelous way to see the sufferings in life! Those are means to know Christ deeply. Christ, who has suffered far beyond any human suffering, knows all your suffering. Are you rejected? He was rejected by all, even God. Christ was mocked and despised and hated. He experienced the greatest pain and suffering.
You will never reach 1% of His suffering, but all these small sufferings are means sent from Heaven to draw you to Him and increase your bond with Him. We are united to Christ. This union works in two directions. On one side, we may then humbly feel that our sufferings for Him are sufferings with Him. On the other hand, we may thankfully feel, too, that in all our affliction He is afflicted. If His sufferings are ours, we may be sure that ours are His. And how different they all become when we are certain of His sympathy! It is possible that we may have a kind of common consciousness with our Lord, if our whole hearts and wills are kept in close touch with Him, so that in our experience there is a double experience, where the bitter taste in one mouth is tasted in another. Sorrow itself will be calmed and beautified into a silent bliss. Some faint echo of His history, “who was acquainted with grief,” may be audible in our outward lives. Remember, we are “joint-heirs in Christ, if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together.”
All suffering Christians will tell you that the deepest moments of spiritual fellowship with the living Christ are the direct result of intense suffering. Suffering always drives us to Christ. Why? Because we find there the sympathetic, merciful high priest who cares, the friend who feels our pain, who is in all points tempted as we are, who knows our weakness and our infirmities. When you go to Him and receive His sympathy and comfort, there is a deep, deep bond and fellowship which nothing in the world can give.
Child of God, don’t fight against pain and suffering. Don’t reject it. Don’t hate it. Those are the only boats that will take you closer to Christ. Pray to God to give you resurrection power that will make you embrace your suffering, so that in that suffering there may be a communion with Christ that you would otherwise never know. Child of God, do you want to know your Savior? Then you’ll know Him only by way of suffering.
We all live in a suffering and sad world. All of us suffer. The question is, when you suffer, where do you go? Well, most of the world goes to drink, to worldly comforts. You go to Christ; He uses those sufferings to reveal His glory. That’s the fellowship of sufferings. Paul says, “You know, when I’m very weak, I go to Christ,” in 2 Corinthians 12, “and I find in Him my strength.”
3. Conformed to His Death. Thirdly, a means to know Christ is to be conformed to His death. We will see in the next passage that only those conformed to His death will rise from the dead. There are many things we have to regularly die to in our experience. We have to die to sin, die to the world, die to the old self, and die to old habits of lust, anger, that bitterness against wives, children, and husbands, and that covetousness. It is by dying that we experience the power of the resurrection. Scripture blends the two thoughts of the Christian life as being a daily dying and a continual resurrection.
So brothers, our life’s goal is to know Jesus Christ by these three means: resurrection, suffering, and death. Can I encourage you to make this the goal of your life? Have you noticed when you have a goal or a desire, you start seeing it everywhere? You have a goal to buy a car, and you suddenly see that make of cars everywhere. If you will set before yourself each week this goal, to know Christ by these three means, you will see opportunities all over the place to apply it. You will have temptations, trials, and difficulties where you need to rely on the power of His resurrection. You will face sufferings and you will see them as opportunities where you come to know the fellowship of His sufferings. You will encounter irritations and lusts where you must learn to be more conformed to His death. View it all as an opportunity to know Christ and to remind you that it is preparing you for that great day when He comes and you will be raised up in glory with Him for all eternity. That’s our goal!
Finally, those of you still in your sins and not believing in Christ, you may be wondering what nonsense this suffering sermon is. It is all because you don’t understand the resurrection power of Christ. You cannot even manage the smallest suffering in life. You have no power in life to overcome any suffering or to overcome your habits and sins.
See the gospel truth. God meets your greatest needs. He not only, through Christ’s righteousness, justifies and reconciles you, but through Christ, you can have a living relationship with God that will satisfy the deepest needs of your heart. There is truly a God-shaped hole in your soul. No amount of sin can fill it. No amount of pursuit of wealth, sensual pleasure, or sex, drugs, and other pleasures of this life. Only a relationship with God can fill that hole.
Jesus comes to you in the Gospel, not only offering pardon for all sins and delivering you from all punishment and hell, but also filling your deepest need for love and fellowship. That is why God says, “All who thirst, come to Me, I will give you waters and satisfying bread.” Your two great, deepest needs are met in the Gospel. Oh, my sinner friend, your need is Christ. Just taste Him once with true faith. You, too, will be able to say it. Paul, “I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. For whom I’ve gladly suffered the loss of all things, and count them but refuse that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, having what not my own righteousness but God’s righteousness, and that I may know.
Grace Reformed Baptist Church, Bangalore 