Something Paul longs to know more is the power of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, in the same breath as to know Him. He has experienced God’s miraculous interventions multiple times, but to know Jesus goes beyond the miracles themselves. It is what T. Austin-Sparks calls revelation, to know Jesus by experience. It does not mean a Damascus road experience, a dream or a vision, nor an overwhelming sense of His presence, nor to feel lifted up, but to experience how certain characteristics of the Lord are the answer to crises. These situations reveal Jesus as being the exact opposite of the reality of the problem. Paul in prison – Jesus is his liberty and joy and the gospel is even more preached.
The power of His resurrection – not just resurrection power – is of course experienced the most in situations of deep suffering, but not exclusively. In Philippi there seem to be occasions for grumbling and disputing and Paul shows how Jesus is the answer. His voluntary utter humiliation resulted in glorification of the highest order possible. All disputes will be solved immediately for sure, when this is applied by the Philippian believers, when they ‘know the Lord’ in these matters. They will not only know His humility and gentleness, but they will also know His authority and how that applies to their lives, to the whole community of believers and how that results in the advance of the gospel. That is the power of His resurrection. What we sometimes call ‘the way of the cross’ has a very deep application and a very broad application. It touches every area of our lives, our very being.