Knowing Christ fully
More than that, I also consider everything to be a loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. Because of him I have suffered the loss of all things and consider them as dung, so that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own from the law, but one that is through faith in Christ—the righteousness from God based on faith. 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. Philippians 3:8-11
Removing God from the equation of life, life has no meaning and purpose. This was why when Paul was confronted by the truth about God, his perspective in life changed. For Paul, nothing matters in this world than to know Christ his Lord and Savior. All that mattered to him was to be found that he lived his life for Christ. From the text, Paul provided us what should be our view regarding salvation. Without God in life, no matter what we do will amount to nothing so there will be no reason for self-assurance for it is God who did everything for us so we could experience salvation. It is only by trusting Christ’s sacrifice on the cross we are justified, made righteous, and adopted as children of God. The only part we have is to accept Him by faith. We cannot just have a second hand experience of who God is by just listening to testimonies from others of their walk with the Lord. We can have your own unique experience of God’s working in our life. In fact, this is what Jesus prayed for at the Garden of Gethsemane. “And this is the way to have eternal life—to know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, the one you sent to earth” (John 17:3). For Paul, to have Christ in his life is to experience His mighty working that will sustain him even during times of trials. By faith, times of sufferings are God’s opportunities to manifest His presence. Because of his resolve, no matter what life would bring to him, he will experience the peace of God that surpasses all understanding. “Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:7). It is God’s purpose that you as His child will experience fully who He is in your daily living. This is so you could constantly rely and trust Him. “For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:17-18).
Blessings,
Noel De Guzman
www.my-wbc.com
