SURPASSING GREATNESS
In 2017, the ‘Salvator Mundi’ by Leonardo Da Vinci became the costliest painting to ever have been sold in an auction for $450.3million. For someone who collects art, owning an original painting by Da Vinci would be the highest one could achieve, a dream come true, something of surpassing greatness.
Paul describes knowing Christ as one of surpassing greatness.
What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish that I may gain Christ and be found in him. Philippians 3:8
Man can achieve and accumulate things, but knowing Christ beats them all. It is one of surpassing greatness. Knowing Christ is not an act of intellectually understanding him, though the process of intellectual discovery can facilitate knowing him. Knowing Christ is to connect and unite with him, with the One who is infinite actuality. The first sentiment that comes to mind when we begin to process the act of knowing Christ is one of helplessness. “I cannot know him who is infinite and in a way beyond knowing”. That is an indeed good place to start the journey.
In a relation between man and a pet, it is the former who initiates the relationship. Man discovers his pet, names him, trains him and provides leadership to the relationship. The pet can never be the leader and the initiator; in fact if and when that happens, with the pet unleashing its wild ways, putting aside what was taught, tragedy can strike. When a dog turns on children and sometimes tragically sends them to the hospital or even their death, it is an example of a relationship gone wrong, where man’s leadership is put aside and the wild nature rules. Such a dog is appropriately put away, even though it causes immense grief to the owner.
The act of man knowing God is initiated by God, facilitated by man and consummated by God when He brings our spirits to life. And when that happens, the highest of experience and of knowledge about God feels pale compared to the rejuvenating freshness of being united with God. No bottled water with the best of packaging can compared with the freshness of drinking from a spring fed by glaciers. In that moment of contemplation made real through faith in Christ, man connects with the infinite, and as the rivers of life flood his soul, he ascends to the highest experience possible for man on earth. It is the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ!
It is from a such a starting point that man is able to consider all else a loss, akin to rubbish, as he espouses a life of seeking God’s will and submitting to him. Having been given a choice, man can turn away to the world and can allow his wild, inborn, albeit fake nature to control him. Eternal tragedy is possible if man gets to a point of completely rejecting the leadership of God. The nature we are born with, and the world around us however connives to hide the supremacy of knowing God. Unless we are known by him, know him, and ultimately found in him, the world will always be precious and not akin to rubbish as Paul says. Unless we are united with the infinite actuality of God, freedom and fullness will only a mirage and this life a fleeting dream.
