I
want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised Him from the
dead. I want to suffer with Him, sharing in His death, so that one way or
another I will experience the resurrection from the dead! Philippians 3:10,11
You never do touch the
Lord Jesus in His death in any new measure without knowing a new measure of
resurrection Life. When the Lord Jesus by His Spirit brings us in a further
measure into the meaning of His death, let it be settled with us, once and for
all, that that is in itself a new measure of resurrection Life. The two things
go together, it cannot be otherwise. It is death unto Life. It is loss unto
gain. The Life and the gain are of a different sort from the death and the
loss. The death and the loss is simply all that which, sooner or later, will go
in any case, and even while it remains is of a very doubtful value, but the
Life and the gain are eternal, and have in them all the values of God. So Paul
could, with something of joy, hail conformity to the death of Christ. He speaks
about it in no mournful terms as though he were going to lose everything. There
is no shadow on his face, or sob in his voice, when he speaks about being
conformed to His death. It is the shout of a victor. There is something he is
after....
He has known power,
popularity, reputation, position, possession, and he says the knowledge of
Christ Jesus is excelling all that. What knowledge is it? It is the particular
knowledge of "Him, and the power of His resurrection." Why? Because
of what that leads to, all the possibilities of that resurrection Life and
power, because of its ultimate issue: because of the place to which it can
bring him, no less a place than the very Throne of the Lord Himself.
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