“I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection…” Philippians 3:10
In the immediate context of our passage, we find Apostle Paul saying that for the surpassing value of knowing Christ, he now counts all things rubbish and a loss. In other words, whatever achievements and accolades that earned him a type of righteousness before God and people, he now lays them aside and with a new purpose and goal in life he strives forward towards the “prize of the heavenly call” (3:14).
Paul’s desire is to not only to know Christ even more, but he wants to experience the power of His resurrection as well. He is clearly making the point that to know Christ is to know the power of His resurrection. To deny the power of God in the resurrection of Christ is to deny His power in salvation as well.
Christianity is not based on abstract principles and convoluted ideas, but rather it is a relationship with a living Savior; a Savior we can know; a Savior who comes into our lives and empowers us and who transforms us into His likeness.
Now, if we affirm that the resurrection of Jesus Christ has power, we can also say that the power of His resurrection is the power of salvation. It is the power to deliver us from our sins and spiritual death. To the Christians in Rome, he writes that: “He (Jesus) was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification” (Rom. 4:25). Moreover, “if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you”.
While we are all awaiting the Lord’s return with much anticipation and with it the ultimate and final stage of our salvation and resurrection, I pray and hope that as we seek to know Him more, the Holy Spirit will awaken in us a renewed desire to walk and to experience the power of His resurrection daily.