THAT I MIGHT KNOW CHRIST

Phil.3:8-10 – 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 Hm and the power of His resurrection…

Like all of us Paul had to struggle with his understanding of righteousness which was closely associated with knowing Christ. It is our sin, our unrighteousness, that blocks our intimacy with God. Believing in the cleansing power of the blood of Jesus is what opens up the door for us to know Him. This started for Paul on the Damascus Road when He saw Jesus carrying the marks of crucifixion on His body, from that day Paul began to “know” the Lord. This passion only intensified as Paul grew older in Christ so that at the end of his life that was his desire, “that I might know Him and the power of the resurrection”. This becomes our passion as well when we met Christ for ourselves and begin to walk with Him daily. Here is how Barclay described this passage.

“He says: ‘All my life I have been trying to get into a right relationship with God. I tried to find it by strict adherence to the Jewish law, but I found the law and all its ways worse than useless to achieve that end. I found it no better than skubala.’ Skubala has two meanings. In everyday language, it was popularly derived from kusi ballomena, which means that which is thrown to the dogs; and in medical language it means excrement (dung, as the Authorized Version translates it). So, Paul is saying: ‘I found the law and all its ways of no more use in helping me to get into a right relationship with God than the refuse thrown on the garbage heap. So I gave up trying to create a goodness of my own; I came to God in humble faith, as Jesus told me to do, and I found that fellowship I had sought for so long.’”

So if I am not experiencing this strong desire to know Christ more how can that be changed? Where does this strong desire come from? Desiring God is the evidence of Christ being at work in your life. The fact that you are even reading this devotion proves that your heart longs for God. You can increase that desire with some practical steps. Read your Bible daily, read Paul’s epistles and let the passion in Paul’s life become your passion. Read the Psalms of David. Allow David’s love for God and his passion for God’s presence be yours. These simple steps can change your world, why not get started right now?