I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised Him from the dead. I want to suffer with Him, sharing in His death, so that one way or another I will experience the resurrection from the dead!
(Philippians 3:10,11 NLT)
You never do touch the Lord Jesus in His death
in any new measure without knowing a new measure of resurrection Life. When the
Lord Jesus by His Spirit brings us in a further measure into the meaning of His
death, let it be settled with us, once and for all, that that is in itself a new
measure of resurrection Life. The two things go together, it cannot be
otherwise. It is death unto Life. It is loss unto gain. The Life and the gain
are of a different sort from the death and the loss. The death and the loss is
simply all that which, sooner or later, will go in any case, and even while it
remains is of a very doubtful value, but the Life and the gain are eternal, and
have in them all the values of God. So Paul could, with something of joy, hail
conformity to the death of Christ. He speaks about it in no mournful terms as
though he were going to lose everything. There is no shadow on his face, or sob
in his voice, when he speaks about being conformed to His death. It is the shout
of a victor. There is something he is after....
He has known power, popularity, reputation,
position, possession, and he says the knowledge of Christ Jesus is excelling all
that. What knowledge is it? It is the particular knowledge of "Him, and the
power of His resurrection." Why? Because of what that leads to, all the
possibilities of that resurrection Life and power, because of its ultimate
issue: because of the place to which it can bring him, no less a place than the
very Throne of the Lord Himself.