Like Paul, we Aspire to Know & Experience the Power of Christ’s Resurrection

Like the apostle Paul, we aspire to know Christ and the power of Christ’s resurrection (His resurrection life), for Christ Himself is resurrection – He overcame death and came out of death triumphantly! Hallelujah!

Resurrection is not just life; resurrection is the life that went through death, overcame death, and came out in resurrection, being victorious over death.

No one has such a life except Christ Himself; He is God becoming a man, and He went through death and entered into resurrection.

Even more, Christ Himself is resurrection – He is the resurrection and the life.

The One who lives in us, the One who came into our spirit to be our life and our everything, is resurrection life.

As we aspire to know Christ, we need to know Him specifically, even in a particular way; we need to know Christ and the power of His resurrection.

What a wonderful Christ we have! He has captivated us, we now pursue Him, and we consider everything else as being a loss, even as refuse, compared to Christ.

Christ is the most precious One, the most excellent One.

We have seen something of Christ, and we are daily enjoying Him in His all-inclusiveness.

Actually, our entire Christian life is a life of enjoying the Lord and gaining Christ in His all-inclusiveness. How about that!

Day by day we are on a quest: we want to gain more of Christ, we want to obtain more of Him, and we want to enjoy and experience Him more.

We may be at work, doing so many things at the office as our job requires; in all these things, we want to gain Christ.

We may be driving back home from the office or we may be travelling by public transport; outwardly, our body is involved in a certain activity, but inwardly, we want to gain Christ.

We realize that nothing and no one else matters besides Christ.

He is the most preeminent One, and He is the reality of all the positive things in the universe.

He was given to us by God to be our enjoyment and experience, and if we just turn to Him and contact Him, He becomes our life and life supply.

May we daily enjoy Christ and remain in the realm of knowing Him in a subjective way.

May we seek to be found in Christ, so that others may see Jesus living again when they look at us.

May we aspire to know Him experientially, so that we may experience Christ in all that He is, all He has done, and all that He is doing.

This wonderful, all-inclusive One is in our spirit, and we can experience Him day by day!

We Aspire to Know and Experience the Power of Christ’s Resurrection

In Phil. 3:10 Paul aspired to know and experience the power of Christ’s resurrection.

We need to know Christ, and in particular, we need to know and experience the power of Christ’s resurrection.

For us to say that we know Christ is quite general; for us to say that we know the power of His resurrection is very specific, even in detail.

We should not be general when it comes to the enjoyment and experience of Christ; we should be specific for reality so that we may experience Him in detail.

The power of Christ’s resurrection is nothing else than His resurrection life, which raised Him from the dead (Eph. 1:19-20).

This is not a “Pentecostal power” as it is known in Christianity today; rather, it is the power of Christ’s resurrection, even the resurrection life of Christ.

The power of His resurrection is the resurrection life.

The real power is in the life, not in any outward manifestation or supernatural gift.

Unfortunately, our concept as believers in Christ may still be affected by the “Pentecostal concept” of power.

We may think that someone speaks in a powerful way and has authority in his speaking, so he must have the power of the Spirit.

We may feel that, when someone preaches, the earth is shaking; so we may think that this is the power of Christ’s resurrection.

But if we look at the apostle Paul, he seemed to be so weak and so mistreated, even despised; however, with him there was the power of Christ’s resurrection.

He was not a powerful apostle nor one of the super-apostles; rather, he was full of lowliness and meekness and was very much persecuted and humbled.

Yet there is the power of resurrection that was manifested through his ministry.

It’s similar to the blade of grass which, in itself, is very weak, but it breaks through the stone or the concrete pavement.

Such a strong pavement made of so many stones is being overcome by the little, fragile, yet powerful blade of grass which breaks through.

There’s nothing powerful in the natural realm to say it like this, but life is full of power.

We need to realize that the power of Christ’s resurrection is His resurrection life, and this life is in our spirit today.

Actually, Christ Himself is resurrection. He said in John 11:25, I am the resurrection and the life.

He is not just life; He is also resurrection.

This He said before He went to be crucified; after He died, He manifested the power of His resurrection by being resurrected from the dead.

Resurrection is not merely an event or a power; resurrection is a person.

Resurrection is Jesus Christ Himself, and this One is in our spirit.

We need to aspire to know Him and the power of His resurrection in our daily life.

We need to experience Christ to the extent that we know the power of Christ’s resurrection being manifested in us.

Like Paul, we need to aspire not only to know Christ but also know the power of Christ’s resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings.

This power is His resurrection life, which raised Him from the dead.

The reality of the power of Christ’s resurrection is the Spirit (Rom. 1:4), and this Spirit is with our spirit today.

In order for us to experience and know the power of His resurrection, we need to be conformed to His death.

When we experience Christ in His death, the power of His resurrection is manifested in us.

Our conformity to the death of Christ gives the resurrection life of Christ the opportunity to be manifested.

The only way the power of Christ’s resurrection is expressed is when the death of Christ operates in us.

May we bring this matter to the Lord and pray to Him,

Lord Jesus, we want to know You and the power of Your resurrection. Thank You for coming into us to be our life and our everything. You are the resurrection life in us. We open to You. Grant us to experience Christ in His death, being conformed to the death of Christ, so that the power of Christ’s resurrection may operate in us. Amen, Lord, have a free way to operate in us as the power of resurrection! We open to You, Lord: come in any kind of death! May any death that is in us be swallowed up by the resurrection life of Christ! May Christ’s resurrection life fill all our mind, emotion, and will, so that we may be beings in resurrection who live in resurrection! Amen, Lord Jesus, we aspire to know You and the power of Your resurrection and the fellowship of Your sufferings, being conformed to Your death!

Christ Himself is Resurrection: He Overcame Death and He is now Living Forever

When Paul said that he wanted to know Christ and the power of His resurrection he did not mean that he wanted to know Christ on the one hand and a strong power apart from Christ, the power that raised Him from the dead.

Rather, Paul realized that Christ Himself is resurrection life; He is resurrection.

In Rev. 1:17-19 He said that He is the First and the Last and the living One; He became dead and now He is living forever and ever, and He has the keys of death and of Hades. Wow.

Christ was living, then He died, and then He overcame death and lived again; now He lives forever, for He is resurrection life.

Because of the fall, death came in and is now working to gather everyone into Hades.

Death is like a great broom that sweeps all the fallen men who die onto the universal dustbin, which is Hades.

None of us can overcome death; death is more powerful than any one of us.

However, there is a Man who overcame death. His name is Jesus Christ.

The Christ who now walks among the churches, the Christ who is the Head of the churches and to whom the churches belong, this One is the living One.

He is living, and all the churches should also be living, fresh, and strong.

Christ was put to death, He entered into death, took a tour of death and Hades, and then came out of death, taking with Him the keys of death and Hades.

He is now living again. Death could not hold Him (Acts 2:24); it was impossible for death to keep Him in Hades, for He is resurrection (John 11:25).

We as His believers today are the members of His Body, and we can experience the power of Christ’s resurrection in our daily life.

We may be suffering today, but no matter how severe our suffering is, the church will still be alive, for the resurrection life of Christ is in the church, causing it to be living.

Hallelujah, Christ is the living God who became a man, died on the cross, went on a tour of Hades as the place that holds the dead, and emerged out of death!

And we as the church are His Body, experiencing and enjoying the power of Christ’s resurrection.

Satan used things such as the world, the environment, the cross, the grave, and even Hades, to attack the Lord Jesus, but the Lord withstood every attack.

He willingly passed through the baptism of death, entered into Hades, and let Satan do whatever he wanted to do.

However, Satan could not conquer Him. He is the living One, He is resurrection life itself, and now He lives in us, the members of His Body.

Just as He overcame death and came out in resurrection victoriously, so we today can overcome death and come out of death victoriously by experiencing the power of Christ’s resurrection.

Death could not restrict the Lord nor could it hold Him back.

He is the First and the Last, the One who became death and lived again (Rev. 2:8). He lives in resurrection.

Christ went into Hades, passed through death, overcame death, and came out of death triumphantly in resurrection; this is resurrection (1 Pet. 3:18-22).

We desire to know such a One; we aspire to know Christ and the power of His resurrection.

This One is life, even our life, and He is resurrection life and power in us.

Lord Jesus, we praise You for Your wonderful death and for Your death-overcoming resurrection! Hallelujah, Jesus Christ became dead and now lives again, and He is living forever! Praise the Lord, Christ went into Hades, passed through death, overcame death, and came out of death triumphantly! Amen, Lord, You are resurrection life itself. You are the resurrection and the life. We want to know Christ and the power of Christ’s resurrection in our daily life. We come to You, Lord, for You are; You simply are. You went through death and entered into resurrection, and You now have the keys of death and of Hades! Praise the Lord! We praise You, Lord Jesus, for being such a One in us today! Grant us the experiences we need so that we may know Christ and the power of Christ’s resurrection for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother James Lee in the message for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Philippians, msg. 21 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Knowing, Experiencing, and Enjoying Christ as Revealed in Philippians (2023 Memorial Day Weekend Conference), week 4, entitled, Knowing Christ and the Power of His Resurrection.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – Death cannot hold the resurrection life, / The life of God eternal manifest; / ’Tis uncreated, indestructible, / ’Tis Christ Himself, unconqu’rable, expressed…. / Oh, may I know this resurrection life, / In every kind of death its pow’r outpoured, / In my experience ever realize / This life is nought but Christ my living Lord. (Hymns #639 stanzas 1 and 6)
  – Christ has made me more than conqu’ror, / By His mighty victory, / Now His resurrection power / From my spirit strengthens me! (Hymns #540 chorus)
  – One with Thee in crucifixion, / On the cross I died in Thee; / I am dead unto the world, Lord, / And the world is dead to me. / One with Thee in resurrection, / Risen now to live in Thee, / With that life which is Thyself, Lord, / Now in me, Lord, even me. (Hymns #474 stanzas 3-4)