The Surpassing Worth of Knowing Christ
What is the most important thing?
What is the key to Christian living and the centerpiece of biblical ministry and Spirit-filled worship? The answer is Christ, our union with Him by grace through faith, and all the spiritual blessings that are found in Him. In short, we are talking about the supreme value, the surpassing worth of knowing Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.
Though the focus of this article is our experience of knowing Christ, it is worth reminding ourselves that our experience of knowing Christ now is based on Christ's life, death, and resurrection in the past. May we never forget His righteous life, substitutionary death, and glorious resurrection as the foundation stone and fountain source of spiritual life and spiritual living. That said, now about our experience of knowing Christ.
What is the value of knowing Christ? Knowing Christ is of supreme value.
The surpassing worth of knowing Christ transcends everything else in life, both the good things and bad things, thereby giving us joy, peace, hope, and rest that nothing can rob from us.
1. Nothing is worth more to us than our relationship with Jesus.
"Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ" (Philippians 3:8).
If we know Christ we know God, and if we know God we have everything we need for this life and the next. What is worth more?
2. Christ's power at work within us and for us is immeasurable.
"Having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, [19] and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might" (Ephesians 1:18–19).
Without Christ's power we cannot turn from sin, overcome temptation, grow in holiness, or worship, pray, sing, do good deeds, or do anything properly. We need Christ's power not only to be saved, but also to live as saved people.
3. The spiritual riches of Christ, i.e., the spiritual blessings and treasures of God, are unsearchable.
"To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ" (Ephesians 3:8).
That means will never "finish" looking deeper into what God has given us in Christ. Christ and all that is in Him are always the central topic, always the front page story, always the leading narrative in the church of God. This is the chief way we live out the prayer, "on earth as it is in heaven." What riches? What Spiritual blessings? Forgiveness, justification, sanctification, adoption, glorification, and assurance; these are just a few of the riches of Christ given to sinners through the gospel of God (see Ephesians 1:3-14; Romans 3-8).
4. The love of Christ, which is knowable only by God's Word and Spirit, is the deepest, greatest, and highest piece of knowledge we could ever attain.
"May have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, [19] and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God" (Ephesians 3:18-19).
This means, among other things, God's love in Christ is NEVER BORING to us, but brings us to a place of awe and wonder.
Paul prays in Colossians 2:2–3,
"that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God's mystery, which is Christ, [3] in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge."
At the end of the day, Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so. This is my soul's only hope, strength, and comfort in this sin-cursed world. This is my only strength and sustenance to pursue holiness, serve God, flee from the devil, avoid despair, and overcome temptation for the glory and praise of God.
Without my living Lord and Priest in heaven, I have nothing and am nothing except corruption. But in Christ, by the mercy of God, I have something of surpassing worth, something of supreme value: divine love, divine riches, divine power, and a relationship with the only divine being, God Almighty.
Without Christ I had nothing of what I really needed; in Christ all my true needs -- i.e., spiritual and eternal needs -- are met to perfection on the basis of His life, death, and resurrection.
"I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. [21] I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose." (Galatians 2:20-21)