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Knowing Christ (Part 1)By John W. Ritenbaugh
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I am going to begin a new series today and I want you to turn with me to 1st John, the second chapter, and I'm going to read from verses 3 through 5, where it says:
I John 2:3-5 - And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments.
Notice how the keeping of the commandments is tied to knowing God.
V4 - He that says, I know him, and keeps not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
Are you beginning to get the drift of this? It doesn't matter how much knowledge a person has, -- if they are not following through with that knowledge and using that knowledge and keeping the commands of God, then they don't know Him. They know a great deal about Him, but they don't know Him. There's a big difference between the two. You can read things about people in the newspaper, you can read about people in biographies and autobiographies, and also in encyclopedias and history books, and you can pile up an impressive amount of knowledge about somebody; but unless you experience life with them, you can't really claim that you know them. You just know about them. That's the principle we're talking about here.
V5 - But whoso keeps his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him.
Now I'm going to begin this sermon by quoting rather lengthily from The Interpreter's Bible. The Interpreter's Bible is a Protestant commentary, and I think that this quote that I am going to give you is especially interesting because it's coming from a very liberal commentary, and it's on these verses that we just read -- 1st John 2, verses 3 through 5. It has to do with what their perception of knowing God is. I should say it has to do with what their perception of the effect [is] of people saying that they know God; but they don't really know God. That is a little bit more accurate description of what this quote is about. I especially cut this out because I believe that they have hit the nail right on the head, at least in a very narrow area.
Quote from The Interpreter's Bible on I John 2:3-5:
"In terms of history and culture, these verses pronounced condemnation on our un-Christian society. [This is an American-British publication.] Western civilization is nominally Christian. We say we know Him, but in virtually every area of life we disobey His commandments. In war we kill. We dishonor marriage and parenthood. In our greed we covet and steal. In our manners and morals we falsely swear and blaspheme. We worship the scientific and materialistic god of our own hands. We secularize the Sabbath. We pay lip service to the love of God and man, but renounce it in our common life. We resent commandments and we reject the moral order. May it not be that pagan and atheistic movements in our world are actually the judgment that God is pronouncing through history upon a culture that pretends to know Him, but that in reality is a liar, and the truth knows not? In a wider sense our pathetic faith in knowledge as the maximum good is a contemporary form of the Gnostic fallacy. The new empires, it has been said, are empires of the mind. Knowledge is power. This nation's strength lies in knowing more, knowing it first, and knowing it fastest. Thus faith in education and sciences is our main reliance. ‘All the evils in the world could be cured if men would only think,' a prominent educator once said. The answer to the fallacy is the insight of Christianity, that love is sovereign over knowledge, and knowledge must be morally controlled. Unless life is conformed to moral order, the intrinsic lie that we know God, on which our culture is built, will destroy us."
Very meaningful.
Now I've spent the past four sermons trying to impress upon us the importance of coming to know God from the standpoint of making sure that we establish time in our life to get to know Him, because we live in a very hectic society in which things are happening so rapidly, and I think designed to happen so rapidly, that we don't have time to stop and think things through and plan out what we are going to do with our lives, and discipline ourselves to actually carry it out. Rather, we seem to be like one of these iron balls in a pinball machine, as getting bounced around from one thing to another, and our lives are virtually out of control. When are we ever going to bring it under control? It seems to me, from the things that God says in the Bible we ought to be able to control our lives a great deal more than what we do. Instead, we allow ourselves to be bounced from one thing to another without having the guts, or whatever it is, to say No, I will not. This I'm going to do. This I won't do, -- the reason being is that I want to know God, I want to please God, and I want to be in God's kingdom.
Now let's turn to Philippians the 3rd chapter to a verse that I have read a couple of different times during this series, and let me say at this point that this sermon is going to be like a bridge. It's part of a new series, but it's also like a bridge that is leading into the new series; but at the same time I don't want it to get too far from the old thought from that Intimacy With God series.
Philippians 3:9 - 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.
Now here comes verse 10 – this is one that I have read several times, but each time I read it, I read it out of the Amplified Bible.
V10 - That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death. 11 If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead, 12 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. 13 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, 14 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. 15 Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing you be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.
Now when I read that verse 10 before, as I said, I did it out of the Amplified Bible. Now I'm going to read you a less flowery translation of verse 10. It's less flowery and expansive, but it gets the job done.
Philippians 3:10 - "In order that I may personally know Him, . . .
Not know about Him, but personally know Him. How do you come to know somebody? By living with them as a major portion of your life.
V10 - In order that I may personally know Him, that I might experience His resurrection power in sharing His suffering, and thus be more and more conformed to His death.
Now let's begin to connect some of the verses in this context with verse 10. Paul says in verse 9 that he wanted the righteousness of God. The reason why he wanted the righteousness of God was so that he would have a personal day-to-day experience with Jesus Christ; that is – obtain a relationship with Him. The righteousness of God that Paul is referring to is something that God does. He imputes it to us upon our repentance, acceptance of the blood of Jesus Christ, and the receiving of His holy spirit. By so doing, God grants us access to Him, and therefore the beginning of a relationship takes place. Nobody has access to God, nobody has a relationship with Him until first the righteousness of God is granted to that person by God. Then we can come before the Father with the righteousness of Christ, as though we are Jesus Christ; otherwise we would never get into His presence. Now that is something that God does. But the knowledge of Christ or the knowledge of God in the biblical sense is come to us by the experiencing of daily problems, in the carrying out of services, in the securing of our needs, and so forth, by the same power that raised Christ from the dead. That power is the power of God's holy spirit working in our lives. Now again he [Paul] wanted this in order that he might obtain the resurrection of the dead. You begin to see that he is putting things in order. We'll see a little bit later that the first thing that he had to do was scrap the old life, scrap all his pedigree; then in doing that, he was made eligible, as it were, for the righteousness of God, and that in turn made him eligible, as it were, to have access to God, and that in turn gave him a relationship with God in order that he might come to know God, in order that he might obtain the resurrection of the dead. You see a process that unfolds here. We need to pay attention to this because we're involved in this process right now, and we're involved in a part that has to do with coming to know God, -- to really get to know Him. It ought to be clear now why Paul so strongly stated his desire to get to know Christ. That's the next step before there's a resurrection. So to know Christ is eternal life (John 17:3). "This is eternal life." So to know Christ is eternal life, and then there would be no doubt that he would be in the resurrection, and then he would apprehend that for which he was apprehended. ____?_____ will throw you a little bit of a curve here. Paul also said that he wanted to know the fellowship of His sufferings in order that he might be made conformable unto His death. Now what did he mean by that? Does it mean that Paul desired to suffer a crucifixion? Does this mean that we too must go through a martyrdom? Not necessarily. Maybe yes. Maybe no. Don't know yet. But in verses 12 through 14 Paul makes it quite clear that at the time that he wrote the book of Philippians from prison, that at that time in his life he had not yet obtained to his objective of knowing Christ. Now notice in verse 12 he says that he "either were already perfect." In other words, he wasn't perfect yet. At least he was not perfect to the degree that he was yet satisfied with himself, and so he says that he followed Christ. Or we might say, to put it another way, that he imitated Christ, or he mimicked Christ. When I was a boy, [you probably played the same game that I'm going to mention here] we played follow the leader. Everybody got into a line, and then if the leader jumped over a stream, you had to jump over the stream. If the leader climbed the tree, you had to climb the tree. If the leader swung from a branch, you had to do that. If he climbed over a wall, you had to do that. Well, that's basically what Paul meant. This may be a very childish illustration, but it's one that we can relate to. It's what I call the archigos principle. An archigos, -- that's what Christ was. It's translated author in Hebrews 2:10. Christ was the archigos. He was one who went before, -- a captain who went before in order that others following behind him would be able to do the same thing. Now in verse 13 he says, "Forgetting those things which are behind," – those are the credentials that he mentioned in verses 5 through 7, and then he mentioned "those things which are before," and those things before are those things he mentioned in verse 10 about getting to know Christ and experience His sufferings and be conformed to His death. And then finally in verse 14 the mark is again the goals that he stated in verse 10, and the prize brethren, is God's commendation, -- his [Paul's] reward. I guess you might say the personal satisfaction of knowing that he did well. Wouldn't you like to hear God say, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant. Enter you into My rest."? That would be great. That is the prize, -- to hear God's commendation and to have the personal satisfaction that one has done well and to receive a reward for the labors that he has put forth.
Now we still have a hole in this sermon about these verses, and that is, what, in practical application did Paul mean to participate in Christ's sufferings, and to be made conformable to His death? Well, that's part of this process. It does not end until the resurrection of the dead.
If you'll notice in Verse 10 that the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto his death, -- those two phrases are not joined by a conjunction. There is no and in there indicating that they are separate things; but rather the translators chose, and I think rightly so, to separate them only by a comma. By so doing they are showing that the second phrase is the explanation for, or the result, of the first. That is, that if he achieved his goal of joining in the fellowship of Christ's sufferings, then he would be made conformable to His death.
Now the remainder of this sermon, except for the very end of it, is going to be on What does it mean to be made conformable to Christ's death? It has very much to do with getting to know Christ. Now being conformed to Christ's death has two applications to it. The one is, that if we had a position of leadership in God's purpose like Christ did, and if we lived just like Him, we would very likely end up with a martyr's death just as Christ did. Paul did. Peter did. Of the original twelve I think only John is the one who is recorded to have lived out his life and died an old man, a peaceful death; at least relatively peaceful. But it's this second one that is going to concern this sermon, and it too is divided into two parts. It is mentioned very frequently, especially by the Apostle Paul.
Let's go to 2nd Corinthians, chapter 5, and in verse 14.
II Corinthians 5:14 - For the love of Christ constrains us; [it forces us, moves us, shapes us, motivates us] because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead.
It is literally true that Christ was alone in enduring the crucifixion, and being buried, and being resurrected. But what He did in redeeming us is not viewed in the Bible as merely being substitutionary, but also representative. Again we're getting back to the archigos principle here – the leader. We are the followers. What He does, we have to do. This is why I said earlier, "Does this mean that we have to go through a martyr's death?" That's why I said, "Maybe." There is a possibility there. What this verse is showing us, not in very clear form yet, but Christ's redeeming work is not merely seen as substitutionary. In other words, He took our place. That is true. It was also representative. In other words, all Christians are identified by the Bible with His crucifixion, with His death, with His burial, and His resurrection.
Now turn with me to Romans 7. I think all of you are familiar with each one of these applications as we go through them, but to go through each one is needful to get a good picture. Paul was explaining what took place in his own life. He said:
Romans 7:9 - For I was alive without the law once; but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.
Now here is one form of the death that he is talking about. It is one that occurs dramatically in some peoples' lives, -- usually at the time of conversion. What this is saying in so many words is Paul was pretty much living his life in blissful ignorance of the deep moral demands of the law. This doesn't mean that he was not aware what the law was and what the law did, because he was aware. He may even have been a priest of some kind, because of things that we're able to see in the Bible by what he did. He went into synagogues, and when he went into those synagogues he seemed to be recognized immediately as someone who was worthy to speak before others. Maybe he wore some kind of a piece of clothing that sort of set him off from others. But Paul was not in total ignorance of the law. He had some knowledge of it, but like everyone of us, he was careless and self-deceived as to his own righteousness. However, when God opened his mind, this is what he felt: Sin revived, and I died. He felt within himself the sentence of death because his self-satisfaction and his security disappeared and he became bogged down in self-condemnation, hopelessness and despair. "What am I going to do? I am as good as dead!" Paul understood now that the wages of sin is death, and he felt that hanging over his head, and unless there were somebody to redeem him, to take his place, -- he was going to die, and his blissful ignorance of the law disappeared. Now he wasn't sure of himself and his righteousness. Now he knew he wasn't near as good as he formerly thought he was. So he was as good as a dead man.
Now let's go to another one. The same apostle writes in Galatians 2, and in verse 20:
Galatians 2:20 - I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live: yet not I, but Christ lives in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
Again here we have the same concept of a representative death of Christ being applied to the individual Christian. If it applied to Paul, it applied to you and me. We too are crucified with Christ, if we've repented, if we've accepted the blood of Jesus Christ, that is. Death is sin's penalty, and when a person has died, his sins are paid for. So we begin to see that Christ's representative death applied to you and me, and God begins to see us as dead. And so Christ's death substitutes for ours, and so then the Bible concedes us as being crucified with Him, and the law of penalty therefore is satisfied. This aspect of death is sobering, and some people go through it to a very intense degree, almost feeling as though their insides are turned inside out. Now this is one aspect. We're not completely finished with it yet, but this is one aspect of the death that Paul was talking about there in Philippians 3.
Let's go back to the book of Romans, this time to chapter 6, and you will recognize these verses very quickly.
Romans 6:1-6 - What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? 2 God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? 3 Know you not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? 4 Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father: even so we also should walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been planted [I like that word planted] together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection. 6 Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.
Now you begin to see this death turn a little bit here. There's a reason why we have to go through this death, -- and we're beginning to see that. So what this section does, it clarifies the concept that we're already speaking on, and so God, in order to emphasize what has happened legally, makes us go through a watery burial to enforce the concept of the end of one life, -- that is, a life that has been dominated by sin, to a life in which sin's influence must still be dealt with, but whose dominance is broken by the power of a new nature and the relationship with God through access to Him. Please understand that baptism does not accomplish this. It is only a ritual that God makes us go through in order to reinforce what He has legally done. We haven't literally died; but God considers us dead, because through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, our sins which should have killed us, have been paid for, and therefore we are dead. Now how is God going to get Himself out of this corner that He has backed Himself into, because He is looking at us as dead? Well, He does this by resurrecting us up out of the watery grave. The purpose of that is to teach us that even as Jesus Christ was raised to newness of life, -- from flesh and blood to spirit life, we too have been raised legally from the grave to newness of life, walking in the spirit. The purpose of this brethren, [I don't want you to let this get far from your mind] -- the whole purpose of this is so that we might know God, because knowing God is eternal life. This is no little concept. It is in this that we are brought to real holiness, -- walking with God, coming to know Him. The holiness that we have as a result of the receiving of His spirit is again only, [if I can put it this way] a minor setting apart to signify that we are now part of His family, and we are part of the creation that He is working out within us. But the process must go on, or God's purpose will not be completed. We are not in the image of God when we have repented and we've been baptized. That's only the beginning. Conception has occurred, but that's as far as it's gone. There is much more to come, and God is deadly serious about working this out, because He is doing what He does best, and that is creating someone in His image, -- the highest creation that our God can involve Himself in. And so this concept of death is exceedingly important; but that's only one part of it.
Now turn with me to 2nd Corinthians 5 again. We read verse 14. Now we'll read verses 14 and 15 together this time, just to remind you.
II Corinthians 5:14-15 - For the love of Christ constrains us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all [all Christians], then were all dead [a representative death, a legal death]: 15 And that he died for all, that -- [here comes the purpose] they which live [you and me] should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.
Now just compare that with Romans 6 and verse 6, and we'll see a little bit more there as well, -- a representative act. We are resurrected to newness of life, and in this new life Jesus Christ is the dynamic around which this life revolves. But in order to get to this position, we have to first die. And so Paul said that he wanted to be made conformable unto Christ's death; and of course also come to know the fellowship, the communion, the participation in His sufferings.
Okay. Back to Romans 6, this time in verse 9.
Romans 6:9 - Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dies no more: death has no more dominion over him.
Again, the representative thing. If things go well with us, death has no more dominion over us either.
V10 - For in that he died, he died unto sin once; but in that he lives, he lives unto God.
That exactly compares with 2nd Corinthians 5.15, -- and us.
II Corinthians 5:11 - Likewise reckon you also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin; but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Now what is taking place here, I guess you might say, in the strongest doctrinal book in the entire New Testament, as Paul lays out the doctrines one by one in the book of Romans, he's gradually shifting the attention here from our union with Christ's death and its effect on the problem of sin in the life of the person who is resurrected, because sin is still a reality. We aren't in the Kingdom of God as Jesus is. He doesn't have to deal with sin personally any more; but we are resurrected out of this watery grave, and we still have to deal with sin. So it's clear that sin must be dealt with. But because of the new nature and the union with Christ, sin's dominance is no longer a given. The power is there to choose not to sin, and defeat it. But, I think we all recognize from our personal experiences that this is not easy. It requires our intense and willing cooperation. Overcoming sin is not a matter of just going through the motions of being a nominal Christian. We have to cooperate with God by refusing to cooperate with sin's seductions, and this means in everyday experiences. It means on the job. It means at home. It means in our automobiles. It means in the way we dress. It means in the way we use our tongue. It means everything in every aspect of life. It has to be evaluated, screened, thought about; and if it happens to be a problem, strategy has to begin to be established to fight this thing. Unless those strategies are entered into and they are fought, calling upon all the powers of God that are available to us, it is very likely that sin's dominion is going to continue, especially in some areas of life where we really have a weakness. This particularly requires taking advantage of access to God's grace. It means diligent study, persistent faithfulness in prayer, and an intense desire to maintain freedom from sin by resisting it courageously, and enduring until God intervenes. Now from this arises the second aspect of death. Let's go back to verses 12 and 13.
Romans 6:12-13 - Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in the lusts thereof. 13 Neither yield you your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.
See that word obey in verse 12? It's kind of interesting. This thing has a root you probably never would think of. It comes from the same root as the word listen. What Paul is saying, is that a way major to keep from sinning is to not listen to sin's enticement as it works on the mind, appealing to self-satisfaction. Think about that. Don't we get an idea to do something that we know is wrong? As long as we entertain that, we keep the possibility that we're going to sin alive. We're listening to it. What Paul is saying is that there is a direct connection to listening to it, and sin. So he says, Don't listen to it. That's a major way to overcome sin. [Here's] a simple illustration: A person has a problem with a drug; alcohol, let's say. The yearning begins to call out saying, "Come to such and such a bar and grille, where all of my friends are. If you listen to that, -- listen to that appeal that is going out there, and you hop in your car and get on the street, the closer you get to that place, the more powerful the sound becomes to draw you right into it. Paul says the way you avoid the sin, is don't listen in the first place. Don't even get in the car. It's a simple concept, but it works. What did Joseph do when Potiphar's wife started whispering in his ear? He ran the other way. He didn't listen. Such a simple concept, but so powerful to overcoming sin, and so you attack sin before it gets too powerful and overpowers you. This is one way to keep the body mortified. I inject this word because it's the one that we're going to be dealing with here next, but just a little bit later.
In verse 13 the word yield -- yet another interesting word. That's the way it appears in the King James Version, but it's more likely in a modern translation to be translated present or offer. "Yield yourself," or "Present yourself," or "Offer yourself." So Paul was saying we're not to hand over the members of our body to their old master, but rather to hand them over, offer them to God. Now we're beginning to come awfully close here to a word that's going to mean very much to this series. It's the word offer from which comes the word offering, from which comes the word or concepts sacrifice, burnt offering, meal offering, etc., etc. Now what God is dealing with here is the concept of surrender. Yield, surrender to God. Don't let sin's former dominance get the upper hand, but yield yourself to God.
Now a critical point in catching the essence and getting the most out of this series, is understanding this New Testament concept of death, of union with Christ, of entering into His sufferings, and knowing the power of His resurrection.
Now turn to Romans chapter 8 and in verses 12 and 13.
Romans 8:12-13 - Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. 13 For if you live after the flesh, you shall die: but if you through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, you shall live.
Now verse 12 I think is rather weakly translated in the King James Version, at least for modern ears, and it's better read something like this: "Therefore brothers, we have an obligation; but it is not to live according to the standards of the flesh."
There is really only one word that is significantly changed, -- the word debtors, to the word obligation. That's much much closer to a modern English word. What Paul is stating there is, it is a duty, a requirement, that we must respond to something that someone else has done. That's what an obligation is. An obligation is something that comes upon us because somebody else has done something. It might be command us. It might have been a favor that they did for us, -- so we're obligated to say "Thank you." It's our duty to do that. We should do that. It is right in God's eyes that we should do something along that line. So what he is saying, is we are obligated to go into action because someone else has done something. Now I think that you know who the someone else was. It was God who did something. He declared us righteous. As a result of that, we are obligated to respond, to surrender to Him, to yield to Him. But it goes much further than that. We are responsible to kill ourselves! That's what verse 13 said, "do mortify the deeds of the flesh"; -- put to death. Second aspect of dying. Now verse 13.
V13 - For if you live after the flesh, you shall die: but if you through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, you shall live.
Now the word mortify . . . very interesting to you and me. Turn back to Romans chapter 7, verse 4.
Romans 7:4 - Wherefore, my brethren, you also are become dead to the law.
That word dead there has the same root as the word mortify in Romans chapter 8, verse 13. There's only one significant difference between those two words, and that is, the case that it is in. In chapter Romans 7 and verse 4 it is in the dative case. What this means, as far as grammar is concerned, is that in Romans 7 and verse 4, it shows that it was som
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