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one blot or blemish in God's universe. Isaiah had already written of God's covering
righteousness symbolically ". . . He hath covered me with the robe of righteousness . . ."
(Isa. 61: 10). God is the sole Author of this complete and saving righteousness which He
is ready to impart to sinful men on the ground of complete trust in Christ. This is a
perfect standing indeed. Millions labour to get it by their own efforts and must fail. The
tragedy is that the very thing they are working so hard to get God gives as a free gift to
those who accept His Son! To the Apostle, who had realized this astounding fact years
earlier, this meant that he gladly gave up all his previous attempts to work out his own
righteousness. This justification by faith is the main theme of his Roman epistle.
"That I may know Him" has been interpreted in several ways by expositors but this
surely represents Paul's aim now he has realized in experience what this glorious
standing is. The next step and one that never ends during this life, is to get to know
Christ more deeply and intimately day by day. The phrases which follow are the filling
out of this personal knowledge.
We can say with certainty that a real knowledge and acknowledgment of God is the
highest goal that saved human mind can attain in this life--though even then it is but
"partial" (I Cor. 13: 9-12) this side of glory. Israel's tragedy of old, with all their
constant failure, was due to the fact that, as God lamented concerning them:
"The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib: but Israel doth not know,
my people doth not consider" (Isa. 1: 3),
and so, in this respect, Israel had fallen lower than animals, in spite of all God's loving
dealings with them.
The unsaved person does not "know God". If the world as a whole did, we could not
be in the terrible condition that we see all around us. One of the great aims of redemption
is to bring the redeemed to a true knowledge of the Redeemer and this should colour the
whole life of the believer in Christ. Paul had used the close, warm phrase, "Christ Jesus
my Lord" expressing his gratitude and devotion. His greatest aim was to get to know
Him better and to "win Him", though this was not done without some loss on his part,
"for Whom I have suffered the loss of all things" he states, but without any sense of
self-pity, for his present great gain made all these things seem of no more value than
"refuse" (8).
Verses 10-12 are an expansion then of what getting to know Christ means and this is
developed in terms of power and fellowship.
". . . . . that I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of
his sufferings, becoming conformed unto His death" (3: 10 R.V).
The Apostle was not content to know the Lord in His earthly life. Thousands of
believers today are, and do not go on to know the risen and ascended Christ--the One
Who said after His resurrection "All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth"
(Matt. 27: 18). Paul discounted a knowledge of Christ after the flesh (II Cor. 5: 16). It
was the risen Christ he had personal dealings with and to know Him meant getting to