To know Christ and the Power of His Resurrection (Part 2)

I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection! This is the joy of my life. It’s knowing Jesus, not just knowing about Him, but knowing Jesus personally, as the Son of God. And the verse goes on to say, to know the power of the resurrection. We believe, not just in an afterlife, but the resurrection of the dead, simply because Jesus Himself rose from the dead. He is described in the Bible as the first fruits. In other words, God demonstrated that there is life after death by raising Jesus. Jesus Christ, Son of God, was crucified on a cross, but on the third day, He arose! For that reason on my wife’s grave I had inscribed, ‘In my flesh I shall see God’. We will see God in the flesh. I will see my loved ones again, but when I do, we will be together in the Kingdom! As the Scripture promises, ‘We who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.’ 1 Thessalonians 4. 

The Apostle Paul wrote, in Philippians 3, ‘that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith.’ The righteousness that we have, is only through Christ. When I look back over my life, it is not what I have done, but who Christ is that makes me righteous. Christ is in me, He is everything. I give my life for Christ. My righteousness is in Him. Nothing I’ve done or achieved is worth anything, I forsake it all, for the privilege of knowing, and being found in Christ.