For us to have the excellency of the knowledge of Christ is by revelation, but for us to know Christ is by experience – we need to have an experiential knowledge of Christ, that is, know and enjoy Christ in an experiential way.
Like Paul, we need to desire to live in the righteousness of God and be found in the condition of expressing God by living Christ; if we would be found in Christ, we must be in such a condition.
But many times we still live out our self-made righteousness, that is, we still live out our own good behavior, even spiritual behavior, and we do not live Christ.
In many ways we are like Job in the Old Testament – we know God by the hearing of our ear, but we don’t have a personal, intimate, and close contact with Him, we do not live in His presence.
So the Lord is faithful, on one hand, to supply us with Himself so that we may be filled and constituted with Christ, and on the other hand, to strip us from all the self-made righteousness until we have Christ as our lived-out righteousness.
By means of the cross, God strips and breaks any self-made righteousness, terminating it until we are nothing; then He can come in and live in us. It is only when we see how ugly and abhorrent we are in God’s eyes that we will put ourselves aside and allow the cross to terminate us and remove anything of the self with its expressions.
Even though we may love the Lord, abide in His word, and learn to follow the teaching of the anointing, we may still live according to the principle of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and when others meet us, they find us not in Christ but in this tree.
Oh, may the Lord have mercy on us and lay the axe to the root of this tree, so that we may treasure the excellency of the knowledge of Christ to the extent that we count all things as loss on account of Him, suffer the loss of all things, and gain Christ to be found in Him!
Amen, may we pay the price to be found in Christ, having not the righteousness that is of our own, a self-made righteousness which is the result of the efforts of the flesh, but the righteousness of God which is in Christ Jesus and in faith.
It is by faith and in faith that we can have the righteousness of God, and only when we are organically joined with the Lord can we have Christ as our lived-out righteousness, which is both pleasing to God and sweet-smelling and pleasant before men.
Having an Experiential Knowledge of Christ by Knowing and Enjoying Him in an Experiential Way
The apostle Paul lived in a condition of having not his own righteousness but the righteousness that is out of God in order to know and experience Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, to be conformed to His death, and to attain to the out-resurrection of the dead (Phil. 3:10-11).
For us to have the excellency of the knowledge of Christ (Phil. 3:8) is by revelation from the Father, and for this we need to exercise our spirit and turn our heart to the Lord.
For us to know Christ (Phil. 3:10), we need to experience Him, that is, we need to have an experiential knowledge of Him.
What does it mean to experience Christ? To experience is a direct personal participation. This is different from mere knowledge – this is direct personal participation.
As an example, in Hebrews we see that Christ is the divine and kingly High Priest; He is the High Priest according to the order of Melchizedek. But do we know Christ in experience as the High Priest according to the order of Melchizedek?
Did we experience Christ as the One coming to us with bread and wine, ministering the processed God into us? Do we have a direct, personal participation in such a Christ?
He is the Shepherd of our souls; we need to have the knowledge of this, and then have the experience of this. When we testify of such an experience, the Body will know that this is real to us.
In Matt. 28 we see that Christ has been given all authority in heaven and on earth; but did we encounter Christ as the Son of Man? Did we experience being shattered and humbled by Him, and do we now know Christ with His authority?
We all need to keep seeking the Lord, pressing forward, pursuing with all that is in our being, so that we may gain the Lord and experience Him, so that we may have a direct, first-hand experience of Christ.
Knowing Christ is knowing Him personally by direct, personal participation; we need to have an experiential knowledge of Christ by knowing and enjoying Him in an experiential way (see Phil. 2:17-18; 4:4, 10).
To know Christ is not merely to have the knowledge of Christ but to gain His person (2 Cor. 2:10). We need to have an experiential knowledge of Christ by enjoying Him, experiencing Him, being one with Him, and having Him live within us and walk with us.
In this way we know Christ both by revelation and by experience; we know Him in an experiential way, and we gain the riches of His being.
Eventually, as we live in such a way, Christ becomes us and we become Christ, for we partake in Him and He partakes in us, we live in Him and He lives in us, and we have an experiential knowledge of Christ to the extent that our living is Christ living and our very being is Christ Himself.
Lord Jesus, we want to have an experiential knowledge of Christ by knowing and enjoying Him in an experiential way. May we not only have a mental knowledge of all that Christ is but open our whole being to Him and enjoy Him, experience Him, be one with Him, and have Him live and walk within us. Amen, Lord, we want to have a direct, personal participation in Christ, having a firsthand experience of Christ according to His Word so that Christ may be lived out in us. Oh Lord, may we and may all the saints know and enjoy Christ in an experiential way!
Paying the Price to Gain Christ in our Experience and Enjoy all His Unsearchable Riches
To know Christ is not merely to have the knowledge of Him but to gain His person; this means that He needs to live in us, make His home in us, replace us, and even become us. When we experience Christ, we also gain Christ; to gain something involves the paying of a price.
For us to gain the Christ we experience and enjoy, we need to pay the price. Christ has taken possession of us and has gained us by paying the highest price – He paid the price of His life; now we need to pay the price to gain Christ, so that we may know Him and enjoy Him in an experiential way.
After we receive the excellency of the knowledge of Christ, we will be willing to suffer the loss of all things and even count them as refuse in order to gain Christ and be found in Him; as a result, we will know Christ experientially.
But if we don’t have the excellency of the knowledge of Christ, we will not be found in Him, for it is this excellency of the knowledge of Christ which makes us willing to suffer the loss of all things and count them as refuse so that we may gain Christ and be found in Him.
To gain Christ is to experience, enjoy, and take possession of all His unsearchable riches by paying a price (Phil. 3:8; Eph. 3:8). Oh, the riches that Christ our Savior has for us – how unsearchable their measure, yet our full reality!
We need to pay the price of counting all things as loss and even suffering the loss of all things so that we may gain Christ in our experience, and we will enjoy His unsearchable riches.
There’s a difference, however, between gaining Christ and experiencing Him; as an illustration, it is one thing to gain the groceries from the shop (after paying a price), and it is another thing to cook them and enjoy them as food entering our stomach.
First we receive the excellency of the knowledge of Christ, then we pay the price to gain Christ and be found in Him, and finally we experience Christ and enjoy Him.
When we gain Christ and are found in Him, we will know Him – we will have an experiential knowledge of Him – and enjoy and experience Him. Amen!
May we have a higher revelation of Christ so that we may have a higher experience of Him, for our experience of Christ cannot exceed our knowledge of Christ.
When we pay the price to gain Christ in our experience day by day, at the Lord’s table meeting we will simply open our being and release the praises and the riches of Christ constituted into us.
Then, we will worship the Father with the Christ whom we have experienced and gained, and the Father knows and enjoys this Christ, for this is worship in truthfulness, this is reality.
This is what the Father is looking for, and this is what He desires to gain week by week – He wants many saints who pay the price to gain Christ and have an experiential knowledge of Christ, many who know Christ by experiencing Him, enjoying Him, being one with Him, and having Him live within us (Phil. 3:10; 1 Cor. 6:17; Gal. 2:20).
Lord Jesus, may we have a higher revelation of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ so that we may have a higher experience of Christ. May we be those willing to pay the price to gain Christ in our experience and enjoy all His unsearchable riches. Amen, Lord, we want to know Christ by experiencing Him, enjoying Him, being one with Him, and having Him live within us. May Christ be wrought into us to be our very being, and may He live in us to be manifested through us for the building up of the church and the manifestation of God.
This article can also be read in the Romanian language / Citiți acest articol în limba română vizitând următorul link, Să avem o cunoaștere experimentală a lui Cristos și să plătim prețul pentru a-L câștiga pe Cristos.
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by bro. Ron Kangas for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Philippians, msgs. 21, 52 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Experience of Christ (2019 Memorial Day Conference), week 6, Being Found in Christ, Knowing Christ, and Pursuing Christ.
- Hymns on this topic:
# All things of the Father are Thine; / All Thou art in Spirit is mine; / The Spirit makes Thee real to me, / That Thou experienced might be. (Hymns #501)
# See the vision of Christ and the church; / Count the cost; reckon all things as loss; / Pay the price. The prize to gain Christ, / Burn the bridges; leave the world behind; / On God’s economy your heart be set / To live a life of no regrets. (Song on, A Life of No Regrets)
# O the riches, O the riches, / Christ my Savior has for me! / How unsearchable their measure, / Yet my full reality! (Hymns #542)
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