How can we know or have the excellency of the knowledge of Christ, even a higher revelation of Christ? This excellency comes only by revelation; without revelation from the Father concerning Christ, we cannot know Christ.
Christ is all-inclusive and all-extensive, but do we see a revelation of Him, and do we have an appreciation of who He is and what He is? We may know Christ only as the Savior, as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world; if we know Him only as such a One, our experience of Him is limited to what we see and know of Him.
Paul considered the law as being the most precious and excellent thing, and he focused only on the law, desiring to be found by others in the righteousness of the law, and being zealous for the law.
But when it pleased God to reveal His Son in him, Paul saw the excellency of Christ, and he willingly and gladly dropped anything of the law and of the ordinances, for Christ is much more superior and more excellent than the law.
He then wrote much concerning Christ, especially in the book of Colossians, where he said that Christ is the allotted portion of the saints in the light (Col. 1:12), the visible image of the invisible God (1:15), the Firstborn of all creation (1:15); all things cohere in Him (1:17), for He is the holding center of the entire universe.
Christ is not only the Lamb of God and the Savior – He is much greater, and He is all-inclusive and all-extensive.
Christ is the Head of the Body and the beginning (1:18), He is the firstborn from among the dead (v. 19); He is the One in whom all the fulness was pleased to dwell.
Christ is called the mystery of God (2:2); God is a mystery, and if we want to know God, we must know Christ. In Christ dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily (2:9); the entire Godhead is pleased to dwell in Him – the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, with all the divine attributes, dwell bodily in Christ. What a Christ!
This is the difference between this God-man Jesus and us as the many God-men; we have God’s life and nature, but we don’t have His Godhead, and many of the attributes that He has we do not have.
Christ is the body of all the shadows (Col. 2:16-17), the reality of all the positive things in the universe. Christ is our life (Col. 3:4); He is all the members of the one new man (3:10). What an all-inclusive Christ!
He is both all-inclusive and all-extensive; in Eph. 3:18 we see the vast dimensions of Christ – the breadth, the length, the height, and the depth. We need to see more of Christ so that we may experience more of Him.
We should pray like Paul, Lord, grant us a spirit of wisdom and revelation that I may know You in a fuller way!
The more revelation we have of Christ, the more experience we could have of Christ, and the more enjoyment we can have of Him; we need to have a higher revelation of the excellency of Christ.
The Excellency of the Knowledge of Christ comes by Revelation from the Father
Paul had the excellency of the knowledge of Christ, and such a knowledge comes by revelation; without revelation from the Father concerning Christ, we cannot know Christ.
In Matt. 16 the Lord asked the disciples, Who do men say that I am? And after they replied what others said, they the Lord asked them, Who do you say that I am?
Then Peter, who usually opens his mouth and says the wrong thing, said, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God (Matt. 16:17); the Lord told him, Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in the heavens.
Where does the revelation of the excellency of Christ come from? It is from the Father.
No one fully knows the Son except the Father, and neither does anyone know the Father except the Son, and to him whom the Son wills to reveal Him (Matt. 11:27).
The revelation of Christ comes from the Father; we need to pray and exercise our spirit, asking the Lord to reveal us the excellency of the knowledge of Christ; such revelation comes from the Father.
This is why Paul said in Eph. 3:14, I bow my knees unto the Father…and in Gal. 1:15-16 he said that it pleased the Father to reveal His Son in him. It pleases the Father to reveal the Son to us and in us; we need to ask Him to reveal this excellent One in us.
When we pray, Father, reveal Your Son in me! It makes You happy to reveal Your Son in me – do it, Lord! this prayer is what He wants to answer, for it matches His desire; it pleases Him to reveal His Son in us.
If we would experience Christ, we first need to have the excellency of the knowledge of Christ (Phil. 3:7-10). Before we can experience Christ, we need to have the excellency of His knowledge; it is the knowledge that comes first, and then the experience follows.
The experience of Christ depends on the excellency of the knowledge of Christ. Once we realize this, we will want to dive into Paul’s epistles, and we would pray over the word of God so that we may have a revelation of this excellent One.
Once we have a revelation of Christ, we will experience Him; without knowing Him through a revelation from the Father, we cannot experience Christ.
Many times we may experience something of Christ, but we do not understand it nor do we enjoy it; when we have a revelation of Christ and see His excellency, we will experience Him and enjoy Him in a richer and fuller way.
When we see such an excellent Christ, we will be motivated to pursue Him and experience Him. We need to ask the Lord,
Father, reveal Your Son in us and to us. Grant us to see a revelation of the excellency of Christ so that we may have the excellency of the knowledge of Christ. May we have revelation after revelation of the excellent Christ so that we may be motivated to pursue such a Christ and experience Him. Oh Lord, it pleases You to reveal Christ to us – may we have much revelation of Christ by exercising our spirit over the Word of God. Amen, Lord, shine on us, unveil us, and reveal Christ to us for us to enjoy and experience Him in a richer and fuller way!
Having a Higher Revelation of Christ so that we can have a Higher Experience of Him
We need to realize that we cannot experience Christ without knowing Him through a revelation of Him.
In the book of Galatians we see how first we we have Christ revealed in us (Gal. 1:15-16), and then Christ lives in us (2:20) and as a result, He is formed in us (4:19).
Before Christ can live in us and be formed in us, He needs to be revealed in us; it all starts with having a revelation of Christ.
In the three stages of our union with Christ – union, mingling, and incorporation – incorporation refers to persons indwelling one another; this is the result of this revelation of Christ.
Christ is formed in us, Christ lives in us – this all begins with revelation. We need to look to the Lord for a higher revelation. If we do not have a higher revelation of Christ, we cannot have a higher experience of Him (1 John 5:20).
We all have some revelation of Christ, some experience of Christ; but we need a higher revelation of Christ so that we may experience Him in a higher way.
As we open to the Lord in His Word and pray over His Word, we may even ask Him to give us the same kind of revelation that Paul had, so that we may have a higher experience of Christ even as Paul did.
Our experience of Christ cannot surpass the excellency of our knowledge of Christ; therefore, we should ask Christ to enlighten the eyes of our heart and grant us a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the full knowledge of Him.
We should never stop pursuing the excellency of the knowledge of Christ, for as soon as we stop receiving the revelation of Christ, that’s when our experience of Christ will stop.
The apostle never stopped pursuing Christ; even when he was a mature believer in Christ he said, One think I do, I pursue. May we all have such a pursuing spirit.
May we never stop pursuing Christ and gaining Him, no matter how much of Him we enjoyed and experienced.
As we grow in life, as we see more of Christ, we need to have a pursuing spirit to see who Christ is; the more we see the supreme worth of Christ, the more we have a higher revelation of Christ, the more we can have a higher experience of Him.
If we have a pursuing spirit which issues from the higher revelation of Christ that we see, we will realise that Christ is worth everything – it is worth to give up everything else so that we may enjoy Him and experience Him.
Our lifelong pursuit is that we would gain Christ, know Christ, and experience Christ.
Christ is the reality of all the positive things in the universe; we don’t say that everything positive in the universe is Christ (this is pantheism, which we deny), but we agree that everything positive points to Christ, and He is the reality of all positive things.
He is all-inclusive and all-extensive; we need to have a higher revelation of Christ so that we can have a higher experience of Him.
Lord Jesus, we want to have a higher revelation of Christ so that we can have a higher experience of Him in our daily life. May our enjoyment and experience of Christ be greatly uplifted and increased as we have an increased knowledge of Christ, even the excellency of our knowledge of Christ. Lord, You are all-inclusive and all-extensive; we want to know You as such a One, and we want to enjoy and experience You as such a One in our daily life. Amen, Lord, may we have a pursuing spirit so that we may know and experience Christ to the uttermost!
This article can also be read in the Romanian language / Citiți acest articol în limba română vizitând următorul link, O revelație mai înaltă a excelenței lui Cristos conduce la o experimentare mai înaltă a Sa.
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, msgs. 19-21 (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:
# Most Excellent of mankind, / Creation’s firstborn One! / God saw Thee and foreknew Thee, / The first created One. / Yet, twice to Thee ’tis given, / Yea, born and born again, / A man in resurrection, / The firstborn from the dead. (Song on, Christ in Colossians)
# I’m fully captured by Him, my All in all! / He fills my heart with faith whene’er I call. / He is spreading, growing organically / As I’m dwelling one with Him continually. (Song on, Oh how sweet it is just to know my Christ)
# In Thee God’s fulness dwelleth, / Thou art God’s mystery; / The treasures of all wisdom / And knowledge are in Thee. / Thou art the hope of glory, / In us Thou dost abide; / In Thee we are perfected / And God is satisfied. (Hymns #189)
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