HOW WELL DO YOU KNOW CHRIST?

Phillipians 3:10, “that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his suffering, being made conformable unto his death.”

Paul is expressing a desire which should be the desire of every man.

HOW WELL DO YOU KNOW CHRIST?

Do you know him only as a mystical, mythical figure who was endowed with certain supernatural powers only in the minds of his superstitious followers? Or perhaps you are of those who see him as an historical figure who captured the minds of a downtrodden world.

Then there are some who love to see Christ as the cute little babe of Bethlehem who had a rather remarkable birth, about which the world still talks and wonders. And then there are many who learned in Sunday School as children that Jesus is the Son of God.

Paul already knew him better than any of these. He knew as a student of the Old Testament, what the prophets had said about the Messiah, but this didn’t satisfy him. He knew the recent fact of the death, burial and resurrection of Christ and desired to know him still better. He had even had that memorable personal encounter with him on the road to Damascus at which he had accepted Jesus as the Messiah and his own personal saviour. Yet he still expresses this desire to KNOW him!

After his salvation experience he had enjoyed years of the close companionship with Christ which enabled him to exhibit a bouyant spirit of hope and cheerfulness in spite of his trials and persecutions. He could do this even to the extent that he was able to express the thought in Phillipians 4:13. “I can do all things through Christ, which strengthen me.”
It seems that the more he knew of Christ, the more he wanted to know Him! The closer his relationship with Christ the greater was his desire to know him better.

HOW WELL DO YOU KNOW CHRIST?
If you know him only as the infant of "Christmas", let me introduce you to the man of the cross, the one who triumphed over the tomb! I wonder if there are not many who would prefer to keep him an infant, to be adored for a season and then quietly put away for another year than to have him as a real savior who might change their lives?

Though the virgin birth is an indispensable part of our faith, we must remember that it was as the man of sorrows that he died for our sins. It was the cross and not the crib in which Paul said he gloried . Your first need, then, is to know the crucified Christ and to understand that he died for YOUR sins. You must come to know; to REALLY KNOW him as a personal savior. This doesn’t mean to accept certain dogma, rituals or ceremonies but to receive him, THE PERSON! Only then are you ready to learn what Paul meant when he said, “I know whom I have believed-“ Not what, but whom. “And I am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him.”

Perhaps you already know him as savior. The next step is to know him in your life as a daily companion. This is not accomplished by trying to make him a junior partner in the affairs which you might choose, but rather by a transforming of your whole being to HIS service, by the renewing of your mind. [Romans 12:1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.]

Phil 2:5 Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus

Those who know him as savior have a real need to know his mind ; To know his thoughts, his desire, his loves and what he hates. To know the mind of Christ is to experience the same desires, manifest the same humility and follow with the same obedience as He followed the Father's will.

The mind of Christ has never yet led one of his into a life of cold indifference. His mind never leads except into paths of rightousness.
HOW WELL DO YOU KNOW CHRIST?