The Benefits of Faith
INTRODUCTION
MAJOR IDEAS
Benefit #1: Change (v. 10a)
The topic of becoming like Christ is introduced with the words that I may know him. In scriptural terms, our definition of ‘knowledge’ as truth held in the mind offers only a third of the total. The Bible would add, first, a practical dimension. Nothing is truly known until it becomes part of daily conduct: ‘To depart from evil is understanding.’ Secondly, the Bible would add a personal dimension. In personal relationships, to ‘know’ is to enter into the deepest personal intimacy and union: ‘Adam knew Eve his wife.’11 The Bible speaks in this way, not through reticence on sexual matters, but because this is what marriage is and this is what knowledge between persons is—deep, intimate union. Consequently, having been saved wholly and solely by Christ, Paul wants to enter into the deepest possible union with him. He wants to know him.
Patterns of the Old Life Left Behind
The motor home has allowed us to put all the conveniences of home on wheels. A camper no longer needs to contend with sleeping in a sleeping bag, cooking over a fire, or hauling water from a stream. Now he can park a fully equipped home on a cement slab in the midst of a few pine trees and hook up to a water line, a sewer line and electricity. One motor home I saw recently had a satellite dish attached on top. No more bother with dirt, no more smoke from the fire, no more drudgery of walking to the stream. Now it is possible to go camping and never have to go outside.
We buy a motor home with the hope of seeing new places, of getting out into the world. Yet we deck it out with the same furnishings as in our living room. Thus nothing really changes. We may drive to a new place, set ourselves in new surrounding, but the newness goes unnoticed, for we’ve only carried along our old setting.
The adventure of new life in Christ begins when the comfortable patterns of the old life are left behind.
David Roh
Benefit #2: Companionship (v. 10)
What does this involve? The career of Christ, as depicted in 2:5–11, was one of descent into death leading through into the glory of the ascension. To be made like Christ, to enter into intimate union with him, to know him, necessarily involves the same experiences, becoming like him in his death, that if possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. How surprised we often are when (as we say) life brings its trials to us! But what did we expect? Do we want to be made like Christ or not? Christlikeness must lead to Calvary. We must be ready for—and we cannot hope to avoid—the downward path of the Crucified. It was true of Paul: down to the dungeon and thence to the executioner’s block. ‘All who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted’; the servant must be made like his Lord; we must not ‘be surprised at the fiery ordeal … as though something strange were happening … But rejoice in so far as you share Christ’s sufferings’. This is the way the Lord Jesus went, and it is the way of Christlikeness for us.
Benefit #3: Confidence (v. 11)
CONCLUSION
More than that, however, is available. For again, before he spoke of ‘becoming like him in his death’ Paul referred to ‘sharing’, or ‘fellowship’ in, his sufferings. Why does he thus make a double reference to the cross of Christ? It is for this reason: he wants us to see that in desiring to follow him as faithful cross-bearers we are not left alone; he keeps fellowship with us; we are not copying a dead Model but walking in fellowship with a living Saviour.
Yet this verse does express uncertainty, not of the goal but of the way. The resurrection is certain; the intervening events are uncertain. We neither know how many days we have left on earth nor what those days will contain, but we do know that, be they many or few, smooth or rough, at the end of them there is the glory, the resurrection from the dead.
Gymnast With a Broken Knee
In the 1976 Olympics in Montreal, a Japanese gymnast, Shun Fujimoto, was competing in the team competition. Somehow, during the floor exercises, he broke his right knee. It was obvious to all reasonable observers that he would be forced to withdraw. But they reckoned without the determination of a true competitor. On the following day, Fujimoto competed in his strongest event, the rings. His routine was excellent, but the critical point lay ahead—the dismount. Without hesitation, Fujimoto ended with a twisting, triple somersault. There was a moment of intense quiet as he landed with tremendous impact on his wounded knee. Then came thundering applause as he stood his ground. Later, reporters asked about that moment and he replied, “The pain shot through me like a knife. It brought tears to my eyes. But now I have a gold medal and the pain in gone.”
Gary Inrig, A Call to Excellence, (Victor Books, a division of SP Publ., Wheaton, Ill, 1985), p. 152
Newspaper Dog
One morning I opened the door to get the newspaper and was surprised to see a strange little dog with our paper in his mouth. Delighted with this unexpected “delivery service,” I fed him some treats. The following morning I was horrified to see the same dog sitting in front of our door, wagging his tail, surrounded by eight newspapers.
I spent the rest of that morning returning the papers to their owners.
Marion Gilbert in Reminisce, quoted in Reader’s Digest, February, 1994, p. 12
Went to the Wrong Race
A world-class woman runner was invited to compete in a road race in Connecticut. On the morning of the race, she drove from New York City, following the directions—or so she thought—given her over the telephone. She got lost, stopped at a gas station, and asked for help. She knew that the race started in the parking lot of a shopping mall. The station attendant also knew of such a race scheduled just up the road and directed her there.
When she arrived she was relieved to see in the parking lot a modest number of runners preparing to compete. Not as many as she’d anticipated; an easier race than she’d been led to expect. She hurried to the registration desk, announced herself, and was surprised by the race officials’ excitement at having so renowned an athlete show up for their race. No, they had no record of her entry, but if she’d hurry and put on this number, she could just make it before the gun goes off. She ran and, naturally, she won easily, some four minutes ahead of the first male runner in second place.
Only after the race—when there was no envelope containing her sizable prize and performance money— did she confirm that the event she’d run was not the race to which she’d been invited. That race was being held several miles farther up the road in another town. She’d gone to the wrong starting line, run the wrong course, and missed her chance to win a valuable prize.
Thinking And Acting Like A Christian, D. Bruce Lockerbie, p. 52
• If we consider the greatness and the glory of the life we shall have when we have risen from the dead, it would not be difficult at all for us to bear the concerns of this world. If I believe the Word, I shall on the Last Day, after the sentence has been pronounced, not only gladly have suffered ordinary temptations, insults, and imprisonment, but I shall also say: “O, that I did not throw myself under the feet of all the godless for the sake of the great glory which I now see revealed and which has come to me through the merit of Christ!” - Martin Luther
• The Scriptures teach that the happiness or blessedness of believers in a future life will be greater or less in proportion to the service of Christ in this life. Those who love little, do little; and those who do little, enjoy less. - Charles Hodge
Glory, of God
J. S. Bach
J. S. Bach said, “All music should have no other end and aim than the glory of God and the soul’s refreshment; where this is not remembered there is no real music but only a devilish hub-bub.”
He headed his compositions: “J. J.” “Jesus Juva” which means “Jesus help me.”
He ended them “S. D. G.” “Soli Dei gratia” which means “To God alone the praise.”
Kingdom Conflict, J. Stowell
CONCLUSION
Paul, characteristically, calls it becoming like Christ. And does it not stand to reason that if we are satisfied with Christ for salvation, we will not rest until we are like the One who satisfied us so?
Paul, therefore, encourages himself and us along the path of Christlikeness by sharing openly his determination, as though he said, ‘so that by whatever route God in his providence shall ordain—and what it will be I do not know—empowered by the risen Christ and accompanied by Christ himself I will follow him, bearing my cross, descending with him into death, and then for all eternity, still with him, enjoy the glory of the resurrection’.
