An Upward Spiral

I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead. (Philippians 3:10-11).

There are many little tangents one could take out of these beautiful verses. We’ll stick with just one: our union as Christians with the death and resurrection of Jesus.

But here Paul throws an odd twist into it. It does not show up in the usual order of death, then resurrection. Instead, Paul begins with resurrection—then talks about suffering and death before returning to resurrection again.

The Christian life is to be an upward spiral. Every day we begin in the resurrection life of Jesus. A new day: a gift of life to be thankful for. Not simply because we woke up on the right side of the ground—but because we have life in Jesus! We wake up into a sure hope that gives purpose and direction to our giving and our grieving, our working and our washing, our studying and our suffering. What we wake up into is a life in Christ, a Christian life—a new life filled with new mercies every morning.

If we wake up in the morning and think, “What can I get out of this day? How much can I make? What urges can I satisfy?” If we start there, we do not enter this upward spiral. However, if we start with this, “How can I serve God today? What is he calling me to? Who is he calling me to love today and what form will that love take?” With such questions we enter the upward spiral Paul is reflecting on.

As we move through each new day—this Christian life calls us to take up our cross and follow Jesus in his humble, self-giving, submissive way. On this side of eternity, resurrection life is not ours in its fullness. We still must die to ourselves and to our sins and all these other things that fall away in the all-surpassing glory of knowing Jesus.

We must reckon with and die to our rage at the bad driver in front of us. We must loosen our grip on our status, accomplishments, and wealth that we have. Or on our desires to have them. We must confront and suffer our way through a still sin-broken world where nothing is as God intended. But, as we do: suffering with Jesus and letting our ambitions and sins die in his death, the Spirit forms the new, resurrection life of Christ ever more fully within us.

Sometimes this happens slowly over years and decades. And sometimes we can see the full course of this rhythm of life-suffering-death-life all in one day or moment.

Round and round it goes, down through the years—a continuing spiral of rising and dying and rising again until Christ is formed in us. Sometimes we slip downward. But Christ will find us and continue his work. This is how we come to know Christ and the power of his resurrection at work in us and come to believe more fully that yes: this Christ who is bringing us to life in the little, daily things, can also be trusted to keep his promise to raise us to life at the end of all things.

So, while there is much suffering still to be endured and many things in our lives that we still must die to, it is worth remembering as Paul does that the first and final word of the journey with Jesus is life.

As you journey on, go with the blessing of God:

May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you: wherever he may send you. May he guide you through the wilderness: protect you through the storm. May he bring you home rejoicing; at the wonders he has shown you. May he bring you home rejoicing once again into our doors.