TO KNOW
GOD,
THE POWER of CHRIST’S RESURRECTION
and the FELLOWSHIP of His SUFFERINGS
Rev. Dr. Robert Donaldson
Published
by World Wide Web Witness Inc.
January
2003
ISBN 0-9750303-3-7
PREFACE
It
is in Philippians 3:10 that we read of Paul’s intense desire that “I may know Him and the power of His resurrection,
and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if by
any means I might attain to the resurrection from the dead.”
There
is about this declaration of desire from the great apostle, that master builder
(I Corinthians 3), authorised by the Lord, activated by His power, agent
of His Church under divine direction, always putting Christ first, and finding
in this the fellowship not only of His sufferings, but of His Church, a certain
tenderness. There is equally a dynamic from the Lord, a reciprocity of faith
to commission, and it leads on, by Philippians 3:20-21,
to that clear affirmation of certainty that in subduing all things to Himself, Christ the Lord will bring a change of which metamorphosis
is merely a biological symbol, but which its power attests, and Christ’s
own resurrection exemplifies. Christ, says Paul, will
“transform our lowly body that it may be conformed
to His glorious body”, and this accords with that irresistible power
which is not a matter of tyranny, but truth, consummation of plan and fulfilment
of the labours and travails which Jesus Christ endured for the salvation
of many.
Are
you one of that ‘many’ (Matthew 26:28,
Isaiah 53:11) ? It is useless to hide in the concept that it is only MANY
and you may not be one. You might just as well say that there are many who
may train for a profession, and that perhaps you are not one, so that you
will not enter the educational opportunity. In THIS door, moreover, there
is no failure. YOU enter, HE saves (John 10:9,27-28). If you want to enter,
thank God, and pass through the aperture. If you do not want to enter, what
then do you lack ? It is your will. If you want another will, ask for it, for then it is God who has
put this in your heart and changing your desire, also
is changing your nature; if you do not, then you have your
own will, and if it damns you, what of that ? You are not at all frustrated,
but join that not so select group who have “preferred
darkness to light”.
One
cannot congratulate you in such a case, but rather weep for your foolishness
(cf. Proverbs 1:20-33, 8:36). As to God, HE does the saving, and HIS work
in you is His own; He would have all to be saved, so that in you only is
the core of recklessness (I Timothy 2:1-3), and to blame Him is mere passing
of responsibility where it does not belong.
As
to God, He has done ALL, and neither masses, nor jihads,
nor 144000s nor angelic visions nor ‘thus saith the Lord’ expostulations
as in some modern churches, will He suffer for addition. There is no other
name given to man UNDER heaven, than this. Take it or leave it; but if you
take it, HE will not leave you (Hebrews 13:5).
In
this volume, we plan to see the application and implication of these things,
and not least, to see the monolithic beauty of that further word, “that I may know Him” – also in the theme verse,
Philippians 3:10. Without this knowledge, you do not live forever, because
life has passed you by, His eternal life (I John 1:1-4), which John found,
as did Peter, a matter of joy irradiant in irrepressible luster, and Peter,
unspeakable and full of glory.
We will hope to see it positively, as it occurs, and negatively in this, that the predictable fruits of negligence in the use of the main spring and meaning of life will be seen, stunted, sour and afflictive to the digestion, a veritable folly of flesh, in the presence of the joy of angels.
CONTENTS
Philippians
3:10
and three Stanchions:
That I may KNOW HIM:
and the POWER of His resurrection and
The FELLOWSHIP
of His SUFFERINGS.
The more you look, as in all the things of God, the more refinement, scrupulosity and grace you see.
The
Power of Christ’s Resurrection
Philippians 3:10
Much
ado about Acts
and
much done in it!
News 255
The Australian,
What has JOB to do with the
Fellowship of Christ’s Sufferings ?
A
beginning to considerations in the book of Job, startling in their consistency
with all scriptural doctrine, so that whether it be in Moses, the prophets,
the New Testament or Job, you find the same God, the same doctrine, the same
needs, the same sin with the same penalty, the same Messiah with the same
resurrection and the same impelling propositions about God, man. It is presented
in drama, issues in doctrine; provided in life, like the Normandy landings
in World War II, and it galvanises generations to come, including this one.
The Exordium
JOB 1
The
Background
Job
II
BRINGING
HEAVEN TO EARTH
TO BRING
SOME OF EARTH TO HEAVEN
DANIEL
and the DEALING of the DEITY
The Sufferings,
the Miracles and
the Sovereign Strategy of God
(the findings
in the place of the race, when it finds Him and what is of Him)
RESTLESS ROVINGS
and the RELISH
of REST
LOVE
is not another THING.
Sanctification
is … something else
but
allied to love as love to truth, and both to mercy.