Morning By Morning #288

I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.

Philippians 3:8

From the pen of Charles Spurgeon:

Spiritual knowledge of Christ is a personal knowledge. I cannot know Jesus through someone else’s acquaintance with Him. No, I must know Him myself—on my own account.

It is also an intelligent knowledge. I must know Him—not some illusive vision of Him—but as the Word reveals Him. I must know of His two natures: divine and human. I must know of His positions of authority, His attributes, His works, His shame, and His glory. I must meditate upon Him until I “have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge” (Eph. 3:18 – 19).

Our knowledge of Him will be an affectionate knowledge, for if I know Him at all, I must love Him. And an ounce of heart knowledge is worth a ton of head knowledge.

It will be a satisfying knowledge. When I know the Savior as my own, my mind will be full to overflowing and will feel I have that which my spirit has always longed to know. He is “the bread of life” and whoever eats of that bread “will never go hungry” (John 6:35).

Spiritual knowledge of Christ is an exciting knowledge, for the more I know of my Beloved, the more I will want to know. The knowledge I glean by climbing even loftier summits will invite my eager footsteps to continue. The more I learn of Him, the more I will want. Like a miser with his treasure, my spiritual gold will make me yearn for more.

In conclusion, this knowledge of Christ Jesus will be the most blessed knowledge I can imagine. In fact, it will be so uplifting that often it will completely carry me above all trials, doubts, and sorrows. And while I enjoy this knowledge, it will be working in me to make me more than “man born of woman [who] is of few days and full of trouble” (Job 14:1), for it will clothe me in the immortality of the ever-living Savior and wrap me in His eternal joy.

Come, my soul, sit at Jesus’feet and learn of Him throughout today.

From the pen of Jim Reimann:

What is the goal of your life? Paul had a singleminded focus when it came to this question, for he said, “I want to know Christ” (Phil. 3:10). Obviously he was a believer and had a relationship with Christ, but he desired more. In the same way, he prayed for the believers in Ephesus, saying, “I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better” (Eph. 1:17).

May we apply these words of Paul to our hearts this morning:

[My determined purpose is] that I may know Him [that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him, perceiving and recognizing and understanding the wonders of His Person more strongly and more clearly], and that I may in that same way come to know the power outflowing from His resurrection [which it exerts over believers], and that I may so share His sufferings as to be continually transformed [in spirit into His likeness even] to His death.

Philippians 3:10 AMPLIFIED