The Quest goes on. Like Abraham ascending Mount Moriah, like Christ ascending Mount Calvary, and like Frodo and Sam climbing up Mount Doom, the final stages of the Quest are the most challenging and the most rewarding.

To know Christ. Thirty years after his baptism, Paul is still yearning to know Christ relationally and by experience. We can know all about Jesus from history and the Bible, and so we should. But we can never finish getting to know Christ Himself in our hearts. 

In Him dwells all the fullness of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit (Colossians 2:9). 

To know the power of His resurrection. It seems odd that Paul mentions resurrection before suffering and death. But he knows what he’s talking about. To know Christ is to experience a foretaste of His resurrection power here and now (Romans 8:11).

This touch of Eternity gives us the hope and courage we need to endure all manner of suffering for Christ in our present life. Knowing how the story will end, we can rejoice in the Lord always. Whether in church, or in prison, or in ICU.

To know the fellowship of His sufferings. To this day, Christ is still being persecuted in His disciples and apostles (Matthew 25:40; Colossians 1:24).

There’s no greater honour than to co-suffer with Christ (Acts 5:41). This is not suffering for suffering’s sake. But for the Gospel’s sake.

This is redemptive suffering. It benefits not only others, but ourselves too. God uses such suffering to pivot us into the final stage of our Quest for Christ.

To be conformed to His death. We are initiated into the death of Christ at baptism (Romans 6:3). But the actualisation of this is neither instant nor painless.

To the extent that we share in the sufferings of Christ, God conforms us to the death of Christ. He who dies this death fears no other.

This is our final ascent to the summit before completing our Quest. And then what? Immortality.

To attain the resurrection from the dead. Dying with Christ in the present guarantees our future resurrection with Him.

Paul is sure of this. But he’s not cocksure of himself. “If somehow,” he says, “I may attain the resurrection.” 

He has nothing in common with those who claim charismatic gifts and resurrection power while steering clear of the Cross. Paul knows full well that only those who die with Christ now will experience His resurrection life in the future (Romans 6:5).

If we have died with Him, we will also live with Him (2 Timothy 2:11). To live is Christ. To die is gain.

Pray Now

1 There is no such thing as too much of Christ. No matter where you are in the spiritual journey, ask God to keep you hungering for more of Christ as Paul did. Thirty years on from his dramatic conversion, this scholar par excellence was still longing to know Christ more personally, more deeply, more experientially. Therefore, regardless how long or how well we have known the Lord, there is always more of Him to know. Jesus is more than ready to reveal more of Himself to anyone whose heart is pure, purely His, and purely after His own heart (Matthew 5:8, Revelation 3:20). Are you ready?

2 There is no such thing as revival without hunger and surrender. Agree in prayer today for a historic church-wide revival marked by four things:

• A return to the ancient path of knowing Christ in the Word, through the Word, according to the Word. Not only an intellectual rediscovery of the great truths about our Saviour. But also an experiential knowledge of Christ personally and intimately, as he opens our minds and warms our hearts to understand the Scriptures (Luke 24:32). “Nothing is more important for mature Christian discipleship than a fresh, clear, true vision of the authentic Jesus” (John Stott).
• A manifestation of resurrection power here and now through Christ who indwells us by His Spirit. Not just exuberant celebration once a week or once a year during Easter. But an experiential knowledge of Christ in manifest presence and power as the norm and without limits every time we come together for worship, prayer, and equipping. And every where we go for evangelism and community service.
• A passion to conform to Jesus’ death by taking up the cross and dying to self. Not only reciting great liturgies (like the one below), but also personally experiencing Christ in real life as we abandon ourselves to him in total surrender:

“Lord, I am no longer my own, but Yours. Put me to what You will, place me with whom You will. Put me to doing, put me to suffering. Let me be put to work for You or set aside for You. Praised for You or criticised for You. Let me be full, let me be empty. Let me have all things, let me have nothing. I freely and fully surrender all things to Your glory and service. And now, O wonderful and holy God, Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer, You are mine, and I am Yours. So be it. And the covenant which I have made on earth, let it also be made in heaven. Amen.” (Wesleyan Prayer of Covenant)