My determined purpose is that I may know Him. (Philippians 3:10 AMP)
There are few words in his writings which reveal how committed to the Lord Jesus
this man was. The whole context is one consummate outpouring of his heart to the
One whom he said had "apprehended" him, and he focuses all in a brief half
sentence: "That I may know Him." The impressive thing about this expressed
ambition is the time at which it is made. Here is a man who has had a revelation
and knowledge of Jesus Christ greater than any other man up to that time. That
knowledge commenced whence as he said, "it pleased God to reveal His Son in me."
That beginning devastated him, and sent him into the desert to try to grasp its
implications. Later he had been "caught up into the third heaven and shown
unspeakable things, which (he said) were not lawful to be uttered." Between,
and around those two experiences, there is evidence of an ever growing knowledge
of Christ. Here, after all that, near the end of his life, he is crying
passionately: "That I may know Him."
The very least that we can say about this is that the Christ in view was a very
great Christ indeed, who outstrips the greatest capacity and comprehension of
man. This stands in such tremendous contrast to the limited Christ of our
recognition and apprehension! How very much more there is in Christ than we have
ever seen!