The way of discipleship and sanctification is not based upon a list of things we don’t do. That is the way of control, measurement, comparison, criticism, and arrogance. Instead, it is a single-minded pursuit of the Holy One so that we are set apart for His service and surrendered to His purposes in every facet of life. It is allowing ourselves to be possessed by God in such a way that His indwelling Holy Spirit is free to reorient our hearts, values, and behaviors in each sphere of engagement. Having entered into a relationship with the personal Creator of the universe, our highest calling is to know Him in a deeper and richer way.
This was the Apostle Paul’s ambition: “That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death” (Philippians 3:10). The kind of knowledge Paul had in mind was the experiential knowledge of Christ as a Person.
There is a subtle tendency among many students of the Word to be more interested in an intellectual knowledge about God than in a personal knowledge of God. The former is important, but God wants us to love Him with our hearts and our souls as well as our minds (Matthew 22:37). Above everything else, Paul made it his purpose to know Christ with his whole being.
What is the purpose of your life on this planet? Do you have an unchanging reason for being, a purpose that transcends the seasons and circumstances of life? I propose that if the most significant component of your purpose is not a growing knowledge of the person and character of God, your answer to the question, “Why am I here?” will be at variance with a biblical view of life.
Philippians 3 clearly affirms that true spirituality is not concerned with rules, regulations, and rituals, but with the person of Christ Jesus. The focus of Scripture is not on religion, but on a relationship. A growing knowledge of Christ involves not only an increased grasp of “the power of His resurrection,” but also a greater understanding of “the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.” The believer’s conformity to His death is vividly described in the familiar words of Galatians 2:20: “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and delivered Himself up for me.” Paul adds in Romans 6 that “if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection… if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him” (6:5, 8).
Our identification with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection is the basis for our experiencing the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings. His divine power gives us everything we need for life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3) when we surrender to the control of the Holy Spirit. This includes the power to endure suffering for Christ’s sake, which the Scriptures assure us will occur in the lives of those who want to be more like Him. But we are also assured that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us (Romans 8:18).
Taken from Ken Boa’s Handbook to Spiritual Growth.
