"THE PRIZE -- TO KNOW CHRIST"

Sept 6, 1998 am
MF Blume


Phil 3:7 - 4:1 But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things [but] loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them [but] dung, that I may win Christ, And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but [this] one thing [I do], forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing. Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an ensample. (For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, [that they are] the enemies of the cross of Christ: Whose end [is] destruction, whose God [is their] belly, and [whose] glory [is] in their shame, who mind earthly things.) For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself. Therefore, my brethren dearly beloved and longed for, my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord, [my] dearly beloved.

I want to get down to what this is all about.

Paul wanted to unite with Jesus Christ above everything else in his life.

Notice that he was already saved, but that was only the beginning.  He said that there is a place in union with Jesus that he did not yet have.

Verse 12 says that he has not yet attained this union.  He used the word perfect.  He said he was not yet made perfect.

Notice his goals.
 

Perfect means complete.  If a man and woman is one flesh, then each of them is incomplete without the other. A man is driven to his wife because she is his flesh. Deep within Jesus was something special. Adam laid down to rest and God took a rib and built the woman.
  The woman was taken from man. Our union with Jesus is spiritual. As God literally built Eve, God built the church.
  Paul said that as a christian, part of the church, there was a drawing inside him to want to know the Lord. Salvation is the making of a christian. Paul said this longing in him was so strong that he counted all things that distinguished him, things sought to satisfy him, as loss.

He found these things were empty.

When Adam knew Eve they were again one flesh. Paul told us to walk as he walked.  

Everything about Jesus is meant to be our's because we are made from Him.

And only when we resurrect in body will we be one with Him forever.

Everything inside me as a christian is pointing me to this union.

He said he wanted to know Jesus and the power of resurrection and fellowship of suffering.

  Paul said the union circles around  the suffering and resurrection. He said he wants to apprehend the very thing that he was apprehended for... to unite with Christ forever. Paul so eagerly sought this union with Jesus. He said that THIS ONE THING I DO. His eye was on the goal and he pressed through every obstacle to reach it.
  Christ is already resurrected and glorified. We are of Adam, therefore we are like him. "We shall bear the image of the heavenly." "We shall be..." means we are not yet.

So we need to pursue this goal.

DEEP CALLETH TO THE DEEP.
  This goal, this ultimate point, this being like Him s that we can TRULY KNOW HIM, is what Paul sought for. This passage lets us know that something remains to be done in us.

1Cor 15:22-23  For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming.
 

Paul lost all desire for things that distinguished him.

That part of the old Adam is left... flesh.. and that is all that is left. We can know Him now, but Paul sought for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ. So he sought for resurrection with everything inside him. Like the salmon that struggles and fights with every last ounce of its life to return to the place of its birth and spawn, there is a resurrection that will occur with the child of God, and we long to return to His side where we were first removed, to be built up, to grow and become more spiritual, and see the things of Adam fall away. The closest times you are with Him are in two things...
  1. power of resurrection and
  2. fellowship of his sufferings.
He will be closer to you in the hard times if you will recognize it, and in the times of  supernatural faith, than in  any other times.
 

Romans speaks of the desire of all to go to the full hope.

And then we read ...
  If we love God, we know that we will be like Him in eternity.
  Paul saw what things that eleveated HIM were rooted in.
 

Enemies of the cross are people who deny the work of the cross upon their lives.

The cross was accomplished to make a Bride for Jesus. Jesus went through the cross experience to the purpose of JOY set before Him. With JOY we will get through the trial. Paul said this is what it is all about...
  Perfect in Christ.