We need to have the excellency of the knowledge of Christ, which is derived from the excellency of His person; once we see a revelation concerning Christ, we will realise His supreme preciousness and worth, and we will drop everything else to just gain Him.
The apostle Paul, before his conversion, was zealous for the law; he considered the law as being the most precious thing, and he did everything with the law in view.
He considered that being righteous according to the law was the most important matter, and he even went so far as to persecute those Jewish people who followed Jesus, whom he thought was heretical and speaking against the law.
Paul was guided by what he saw and considered most precious and excellent; in all things he did and spoke, he was according to the law, and he sought to please God by fulfilling the law.
His zeal for the law was a sign of his appreciation of the law; his zeal came out of his appreciation, and he was even proud of this.
Christ is infinitely more precious and more excellent than the law and than anything or anyone else, but unless we see His preciousness, we cannot appreciate Him; once we see the preciousness of Christ, we will drop everything else, considering all things as refuse on account of Christ.
What we need is a revelation of the preciousness and excellency of Christ; then, we will have the excellency of the knowledge of Christ, which is derived from the excellency of His person.
We may consider many things as being precious and excellent, but once we see Christ, once we realise His supreme excellency, we will regard Him as being the most excellent and precious One, and everything else will fade away in comparison with Him.
We will be like Paul, considering all things as dung, refuse, and rubbish, on account of Christ, on account of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ.
Only God can unveil us to see a revelation of Christ; only by coming to the Lord and being open to Him, asking Him to unveil us that we may see the excellency of the knowledge of Christ, can we appreciate Him and hold Him in high regard.
May the Lord have mercy on us and enlighten the eyes of our heart that we may see Christ, have the excellency of the knowledge of Christ, and appreciate Him to the point that all other things are nothing in comparison to Him.
The Excellency of the Knowledge of Christ is our Subjective Knowing of Christ
The excellency of the knowledge of Christ that Paul saw and held in high esteem is derived from the excellency of His person (see Phil. 3:8; Matt. 17:5; Col. 1:13).
To God Christ is the most precious One, the only One that He delights in, the most excellent being in the universe; but to us, He may not be that excellent or precious, because we may lack a revelation of Him.
The excellency of the knowledge of Christ is not the knowledge that belongs to Christ, the knowledge that Christ Himself has; rather, this knowledge is our subjective knowing of Christ (John 17:3).
This is eternal life, to know God and to know Christ in a subjective way; when we know Christ by having a revelation of Him, we will appreciate Him to the uttermost.
In Phil. 3:8 knowledge actually means a revelation, a vision, concerning Christ and His excellency. We appreciate Christ not by merely having mental knowledge concerning Him but by having a visions, a revelation concerning Christ and His excellency.
When it pleases God to reveal His Son in us, we will drop everything else and enjoy Him, appreciate Him, and hold Him to the highest regard (Gal. 1:15-16).
As believers in Christ we have seen a revelation of the excellency of Christ, but we need to see Him more until we have the excellency of the knowledge of Christ, which is our subjective knowing of Christ.
For us to have a revelation concerning Christ, we need three things: first we need the veils to be removed, then we need the eyes of our heart to be enlightened, and we need the divine light to shine. We need the Lord to remove the veil for us to be unveiled and see.
Then, we need to have the eyes of our heart be enlightened; our spiritual eyes are in our heart, and we need to have an inward seeing of Christ, a revelation of who He is and what He is (Eph. 1:17-23).
Finally, we need light; we need the Lord to shine on us so that we may see Christ and have the excellency of the knowledge of Christ.
May we pray that we would have a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the full knowledge of Christ, so that we may have the revelation of the person of Christ by having the eyes of our heart be enlightened.
Practically speaking, this involves the word of God; the divine light needs to shine on the truth in the word of God for us to receive an inward revelation of who Christ is.
When we read the Bible and turn our heart to the Lord, calling on His name and opening our being to Him, the divine light will shine on the facts and truths in the Word.
As we exercise our spirit to pray with the Word, we will receive a revelation of Christ. We need a spirit of wisdom and revelation; revelation doesn’t come first to our mind as knowledge, but it comes first into our spirit as an inward seeing.
We need to have glimpse after glimpse of the revelation of Christ, and this will cause us to know and appreciate the excellency of the knowledge of Christ, which is our subjective knowing of Him.
When we have such a subjective knowing of Christ, we will forget anything else and we will drop any other pursuit, goal, or dream, for we will treasure the excellency of the knowledge of Christ.
Lord Jesus, unveil us to see a revelation of the excellent person of Jesus Christ, the Beloved Son of the Father. Grant us a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the full knowledge of Him, and enlighten the eyes of our heart that we may see Christ. Amen, Lord, shine in us through Your word so that we may have a subjective knowing of Christ. May we have the excellency of the knowledge of Christ, a subjective knowing of Christ, so that we may appreciate Him, love Him, treasure Him, and abandon anything else that we may gain Him!
The Excellency of the Knowledge of Christ is the Excellency of Christ Realized by us
When Christ was revealed to him by God, Paul saw the supereminence, the supreme preciousness of Christ; he realised the surpassing worth of Christ (see Acts 9:3-5, 20, 22; 22:13-16; 26:13-16).
Before he encountered Christ on the road to Damascus, Paul treasured the law to the uttermost, and he had no regard for Christ; therefore, when he met Christ, when God revealed Christ in him, he started to acquire the knowledge of Christ.
With this revelation of Christ, Paul began to have the knowledge of Christ, and he started to appreciate and treasure Him to the uttermost.
The excellency of the knowledge of Christ is the excellency of Christ realized by us (John 16:13-14; Gal. 1:15-16); such a knowledge is inward, subjective, and personal, and when we see this Christ, we will be captured by Him.
Christ in His person is already excellent, but we may or may not have realised the excellency of this person. Once we realise it, we will have the excellency of the knowledge of Christ.
We all need to have a vision of the preciousness of Christ and the excellency of the knowledge of the all-inclusive, unlimited Christ (1 Pet. 2:4). If we do not see a vision, we cannot have the experience of Christ; our vision is always greater and higher than our experience, so our vision of Christ has to be excellent and great.
It is very important that we have more vision of Christ, because our individual experience can never come up to the standard of the revelation of Christ.
For example, if we know Christ only as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, if we only know Him as the Savior of the mankind, then we will believe into Him and have eternal life, but our experience of Him nay only stop at this.
The upper limit of our experience of Christ is our revelation of Him, the vision that we see of Christ. Paul’s vision of Christ was very great, and he wrote extensively in the book of Colossians concerning this excellent One (see Col. 1:12, 15-19; 2:2-3, 9, 16-17; 3:4, 10).
When we read the book of Colossians we see item after item of what Christ is, and we will have a greater appreciation of His person.
Gaining the excellency of the knowledge of Christ can be illustrated by the experience of tourists shopping in Hong Kong, especially going to the jade merchants.
The merchants present these products in a such a way that the listeners gain a knowledge of the excellency of these things, and they are happy to pay any price to have them.
Before the tourists entered the store, they didn’t have the knowledge of these precious items, but once they are presented their preciousness, they gain the excellency of the knowledge concerning them.
If we have a revelation of Christ’s excellency, we will automatically have the excellency of the knowledge of Christ.
Lord Jesus, we need to have a vision of the preciousness of Christ so that we may have the excellency of the knowledge of the all-inclusive, unlimited Christ. May it please God to reveal His Son in us, may any veils be removed from our eyes, and may we have the eyes of our heart enlightened that we may see this precious and excellent Christ under the divine light. Amen, Lord, grant us vision after vision of Christ so that we may also experience Him and enjoy Him as such a wonderful, precious, and excellent One!
This article can also be read in the Romanian language / Citiți acest articol în limba română vizitând următorul link, Excelența Cunoașterii lui Cristos este Excelența lui Cristos conștientizată de către noi.
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by bro. Mark Raabe for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Philippians, msg. 19 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Experience of Christ (2019 Memorial Day Conference), week 5, Having No Confidence in the Flesh and Counting All Things to Be Loss on Account of Christ and the Excellency of the Knowledge of Christ.
- Hymns on this topic:
# Oh how sweet it is just to know my Christ! / Knowing Him’s the goal of my whole life. / Gaining Him supplies me day by day, / He’s rich and excellent in every way! / I’m fully captured by Him, my All in all! (Song on, Oh how sweet it is just to know my Christ)
# The excellent excelling, / The fairest of the fair, / Yet differing from the finest, / For none with Thee compare. / From all the righteous different, / For Thine is absolute; / None beauteous with Thee vying, / For Thine excels repute. (Hymns #15)
# We treasure Thee, Lord Jesus, / As God’s reality. / Whate’er our God possesses / Is surely found in Thee. / His very life and essence / Within Thy Being dwells. / His glory and expression / Thy Person fully tells. (Song on, Christ in Colossians)
