Philippians and Philemon - MR Vincent - 1906.pdf

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I04 THILIPPIANS [ill. 10
into a knowledge of the riches of Christ in the process of his
experience. See Lightf. on Gal. iv. 9; and comp. Jn. vii. 27;
I Cor. ii. II ; Gal. iv. 8, 9 ; Eph. v. 5 ; i Jn. ii. 18, 29, iii. i, 16,
iv. 16. It should also be noted that, in N.T. Greek,«
often implies a personal relation between the knower and the
known, involving the influence of the object of knowledge upon
the knower. (See Jn. ii. 24, 25 ; i Cor. ii. 8 ; i Jn. iv. 8.) In
Jn. the relation itself is expressed by the verb (Jn. xvii. 3, 25 ;
I Jn. ii. 3, 4, V. 20) . Here, therefore, * that I may come to know,'
appropriating with the increase of knowledge.
The two following details are involved in personal knowledge
of Christ
T^v/^?? '
: and the power of his
resurrection.' is more than a simple connective. It introduces
a definition and fuller explanation of. /is not
the power by which Christ was raised from the dead (Chr., CEc),
nor, as Theoph., "because to arise is great power" ; nor Christ's
power to raise up beUevers. Like the preceding expressions, it
describes a subjective experience. It is the power of the risen
Christ as it becomes a subject of practical knowledge and a power
in Paul's inner life. It is thus within the same circle of thought
as Rom. vi. 4-1 1. (Comp. Col. iii. i ff.) The resurrection is
viewed, not only as something which Paul hopes to experience
after death, nor as a historical experience of Christ which is a
subject of grateful and inspiring remembrance, but as a present,
continuously active force in his Christian development. The
beginning of the life of faith is a moral resurrection, a rising with
Christ (Rom. vi. 5; Col. iii. i),
(Rom. vi. 4), — life in the Spirit
inaugurating 'newness of life'
(Rom. vii. 6), a life essentially
identical with the ^^?and