Philippians 3:8-10. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— 10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
If I were to ask you “how do you know Christ better?”, you would probably, like me, think about how you read your Bible, and pray, and go to church on Sunday to hear a sermon. But isn’t it interesting that when Paul talks about knowing Christ he doesn’t list any of these kinds of things? He doesn’t say “that I may know him, and the power of the resurrection as I read scripture.”
Rather, Paul says he knows Christ and his resurrection power by sharing in Christ’s sufferings, and by becoming like him in his death.
This is because the word “know” doesn’t mean to “know about Christ.” It means to know Christ intimately, relationally, and experientially. And the way to do that is to experience what Christ experienced and is experiencing through your partnership with Christ’s life, that is, your union with Christ.
Paul says he wants to “share in his sufferings.” Koinonia. Partnership. Interdependence. Christ chose to share in our sufferings. He left eternal glory behind and entered into our lives. Christ chose to become like us in his death. He was made perfect though suffering. He became our sympathetic High Priest through his death on the cross. His humanity was fulfilled when he became sin for us. Paul is saying that what Christ did for us (shared our sufferings, and became like us in death) is now what we do for him. Christ didn’t settle for simply knowing about us. He didn’t just read a book about us, or even just write the book about us. He entered into our experience. Our suffering experience. Our humanity. He wanted to know us intimately, relationally, and experientially.
In Philippians 2:5-11 we see Christ go through this progression: he emptied himself, he became a suffering servant, he died, he was resurrected and glorified. In Philippians 3:8-11 we see Paul describe this same progression in his own life (and ours): he counted everything as loss, he shared Christ’s suffering, he becomes like him in death, he attains to the resurrection. How is this possible? It is possible because we are “found in him” (v.9). This is our union with Christ lived out. Union with Christ, means that his life becomes our life. His suffering. His death. His resurrection.
“Sharing in Christ’s sufferings” is a thought that brings with it a lot of questions. Possibly the biggest one is “Do we try to suffer?” “Are we supposed to go looking for suffering?”
If we only see suffering as the result of a trial like illness, or job loss, or even persecution, then we will miss the point of the Christian life. The answer is NO, we are not supposed to go looking for trouble, or self-manufacture trials just so we can suffer with Christ.
But YES we are supposed to choose a life of suffering. To follow Christ is to suffer. To love is to suffer. To live the Christian life is to suffer. Why? Because it is the life of the servant. It is the life of taking up the cross daily. It is the life of losing your life to find your life. If we see suffering as giving up something for the sake of others, then yes, we are supposed to choose suffering.
For example, when the Christian single chooses to follow and obey Christ and abstain from sex, he chooses to share in Christ’s sufferings. When the Christian spouses choose to put each other’s needs first they are choosing to share in Christ’s sufferings. When the Christian family sells all they have and goes to serve others in a far away place, they choose to share Christ’s sufferings. When the Christian stands up for justice without violence, and face retaliation, they are choosing Christ’s suffering.
Why would we choose a life of sacrificial suffering? To know Christ! To become like him. To experience his love and joy on a deeper than intellectual level. To experience him as a friend, a brother, a partner, a lover, a captain to be loved and trusted, and not just as a story, or a principle to be followed.
Sadly, too often in our suffering we see Jesus as the way out of our suffering. We think “knowing Christ” is knowing him as the escape hatch from our problems. But this is not what Christ teaches us. He never used the Father as an escape hatch. He trusted the Father in the midst of the suffering, because the suffering had the good purpose of allowing him to know the Father and know us. We too must see that our suffering is an opportunity to know Christ. To trust the Father. To experience the faithfulness and love of the Trinity. And we must understand that to be a Christian is to choose to suffer. It is to choose to count everything as loss. But the gain is far better. The credits far outweigh the debits. Christ is all in all. Our fullness is in him. There is joy everlasting in the knowing of Christ.
