The Knowledge of Christ Jesus

The Knowledge of Christ Jesus

We read what Paul could boast of according to the flesh. He was one of Gamaliel’s most zealous students. He could have become a great man among his people because of the knowledge he had received—as a matter of fact, he was that already. But when he received the knowledge concerning Christ Jesus he considered the knowledge he had gained previously only dung, and what had been gain to him he considered loss for Christ’s sake. He viewed the righteousness he had—in which he was blameless according to the law—as his righteousness. That was also dung compared to the righteousness he could partake of through faith in Christ—the righteousness which is from God by faith.

His own strength had enabled him to attain to the righteousness he had obtained through the law. That was an external righteousness for which he could receive recognition from man. But the law said, “You shall not covet.” Rom. 7:7. The law could not help him to attain to that righteousness, and it is impossible to come to it in your own strength. But now he had heard about Christ; for what the law could not do, God did, by sending His Son. It was Jesus who “was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, and declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.” Rom. 1:3-4. Nothing good dwelt in David’s flesh, which was the same flesh Paul had. Rom. 7:18.

Then he heard what God had done with the flesh of the seed of David, so that Jesus would not sin like all the others who were in that flesh. God condemned sin in the flesh, and in obedience, Jesus offered up Himself in the power of an eternal Spirit. By the blood of that sacrifice our conscience can now be cleansed from dead works to serve the living God. With that, a completely new realm of possibilities opened up for us so that we do not need to do a whole lot of works to satisfy our conscience. Moreover, now we can serve the living God. Heb. 9:14.

We read further in Romans 8 that Jesus fulfilled the law, but not only that; He did it so that the righteous requirements of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk in the Spirit and not in the flesh. Most people have the understanding that Jesus fulfilled the law in our stead, and then God sees us through Jesus’ blood as if we were perfect. That explanation leaves us as helpless as we were before Jesus came. However, Jesus had promised the disciples that He would give them power by sending them the Holy Spirit, and then they would be His witnesses, even to the ends of the earth. Acts 2:32-33. Jesus sacrificed Himself in the power of the Spirit which He had received from the Father. This is the Spirit He poured out over the apostles on the day of Pentecost. Thus it became possible to follow Jesus in His steps, He who did not commit sin. “That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.”

Jesus has now inaugurated the new and living way through the veil, that is, His flesh, into the Holiest. Heb. 10:19-20. Paul writes further in Philippians that he had not yet attained to it, but he was apprehended of Jesus’ salvation and the possibilities he had as a result. He forgot everything that was behind him and the great things he could have attained to here in this world. He only thought of the perfection of the reward that awaited him. Peter was also apprehended of the same thing. “As His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.” 2 Pet. 1:3-4.

Before He left them, Jesus said to His disciples that He still had many things to say to them, but they could not bear them now; “However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you.” John 16:12-14.

Through the leading of the Spirit to all the truth concerning the things that dwell in the flesh, and in the power of the Spirit, we will come to live the life Paul writes about—always bearing about in the body the dying of Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. 2 Cor. 4:10.