Excellency of the Knowledge of Christ Part 3

That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death. Philippians 3:10

By Apostle Felix

The gospel of Christ has the inherent power to deliver whosoever decides to believe in it. The gospel is the power of God unto salvation. Salvation is not the work of human effort but the work of grace through the knowledge of Christ.The power of gospel liberates us from the bondage of religion. Jesus’ coming was to liberate man from religion. He did not come to endorse it, but to expire it. Religious people fought Christ in their quest to protect religion.

The Pharisees and religious people took offense with Jesus because they thought He was in violation with their religious beliefs and standards. Paul, as a religious man was opposing the gospel and persecuting believers in Christ. He was zealously defending Judaism by all necessarily means. He committed Himself to annihilating Christians throughout the region and beyond.

And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest, And desired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem. Acts 9: 1, 2

The greatest enemy of the church is religion. Religion is a weapon in Satan’s hands and uses it to keep the church ineffective. The mixture in the church is not a surprise at all. It is the same problem Paul had faced in the church in his time. The church bought into religious rituals and that brought many into bondage. Paul addressed it at length in his letters to the church.

O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you? This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh? Galatians 3: 1 – 3

It is the Spirit of Christ that sets us free from the law of sin and death. The Spirit of Christ is enshrined in the message of Christ. The message perpetuates the spirit. The message preached or taught has the potential to invoke a spirit behind the message. Jesus was very particular with His message. He only spoke which He heard from His Father.

So Jesus responded, “I don’t teach my own ideas, but the truth revealed to me by the One who sent me.
John 7: 16

Don’t you believe that the Father is living in me and that I am living in the Father? Even my words are not my own but come from my Father, for he lives in me and performs his miracles of power through me. John 14: 10