We should not think that we know Christ. Yes, on the one hand, we all have known Christ, but on the other hand, we still do not know Him in an adequate way. That Paul aspired to know Christ (vv. 8, 10) seems to pose a problem. However, this does not mean that Paul did not know Christ. He knew Christ very well, but he still needed to know Him more. He aspired to know not only Christ but also the power of His resurrection. This relates to the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b). If Christ were not the life-giving Spirit within us, we could not know and experience the power of His resurrection. The power of His resurrection is not in our body; it is in our spirit.
At the time Paul wrote this Epistle, he was in prison. Throughout all the years, Christians have extolled the experience of Peter when he was in prison. The prison doors were opened, and Peter was released (Acts 5:18-19). The power that opened the prison and physically released Peter from the material prison was the power of God, but it was not the power of Christ’s resurrection. When Paul was put in prison at the time he wrote Philippians, the prison was not opened and his chains did not fall off. He was kept there month after month and year after year. Within him, however, was the power to suffer gloriously. This is the power of Christ’s resurrection. I have heard many people praising Peter’s experience of being released from the outward prison, but I have not heard many people praising the experience of Paul, who was imprisoned outwardly but released inwardly. Even today we still enjoy the issue of his release. Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians were all written in prison. Outwardly he was imprisoned, but inwardly he was resurrected.
When we are childish, even babyish, and we become ill, we may pray about the illness. The Lord may say, “All right, let the illness be gone,” and it is gone. When we gain more growth and maturity, we may still pray about our illness. However, many people can testify that the more they pray, the more serious the illness becomes. The Lord will not take away the illness. Rather, He will say, “My grace is sufficient. You have to experience My resurrection power.” The illness will remain, but praise Him, it simply paves the way and lays the ground for us to experience the resurrection power. If we do not have the illness, we can never experience the resurrection power of Christ. In the past and even until today, I know some brothers and sisters with problems. They prayed much, but their problems remained. Recently, a sister whom I have known for more than thirty years came to me. She spoke of her husband, whom I also had known even as a schoolmate, saying that there had been no change with him before the Lord for year after year. Day by day he still complains to her that she should not be a Christian. Every day this sister has suffered, and she is still suffering. She asked me why it is so. I did not say a word, but I looked to the Lord that He would speak to her. I realized that she has truly learned something within, not of the power of God’s creation but of the power of resurrection.
For almost forty years the people of Israel saw the miracle of manna every morning. If we were to open the door tomorrow and see that manna had come down, we would all be excited, and it would be in the major newspapers. The people of Israel experienced this more than ten thousand times. Day by day they saw a miracle as something that came down from heaven in the morning, regardless of where they went or where they stayed. However, that was too outward to be the power of resurrection. Regardless of how many years God performed that miracle, nothing was wrought into the people of Israel. Today in the New Testament time God will generally not do that kind of work. In the New Testament dispensation God’s intention is to work Christ into us. The manna sent down was of the power of creation, not of the power of resurrection. God’s intention, however, is not an outward miracle but an inward miracle. The inward marvel is that Christ as the Spirit is wrought into us. This is the power, not of creation, but of resurrection.
Even for the prison to be opened to release the apostle Peter was not the power of resurrection. In Philippians, however, there is another apostle, who was kept in prison. God did nothing for him outwardly, but he suffered by the power of resurrection within him. When Peter was released from prison, I believe he did not experience the resurrection power by that event alone. When he was old, though, he was martyred by crucifixion. At that time God would not release him; God would not deliver him from the persecutors. When Peter suffered persecution and was martyred, he experienced the resurrection power.
What kind of power do we expect to have? We all may childishly expect to have the power of creation. We may think that it would be wonderful for the Lord to send manna throughout the city we live in; then all the millions of people will be saved. I do not believe this. How many of the people of Israel were truly gained by Lord through the daily miracles for almost forty years? Not many were. The Lord Jesus fed five thousand people, not including the women and children, with five small loaves. That was a marvelous miracle, but how many people were saved through that miracle? Only a handful of people continued to follow the Lord and seek the inner life. According to John 6 the crowds left Him, saying, “This word is hard; who can hear it?” (vv. 60, 66). The power we expect to experience must be the resurrection power. We must have the goal of the resurrected Christ as the very resurrection power within us. We must seek Him, pursue Him, and follow Him, taking Him as our goal, aim, mark, and the prize of God.
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