Jesus is intriguing enough as a historical figure, but he is much more than that. Jesus the Messiah is the source of grace and truth, forgiveness and confrontation, power and wisdom and life. No wonder the apostle Paul said: "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).

Knowing Him is a set of devotional readings focusing on why Christ came, and what he accomplished for humanity through his sacrificial death and triumphant resurrection.

FROM THE INTRODUCTION, "TO THE READER"

The life and teachings of Jesus are worth a lifetime of study, contemplation, and application. So too his death and resurrection. Jesus made it very clear that he had a purpose in coming, and that this purpose would be fulfilled at the time when he was betrayed, handed over to the authorities, killed, and raised from the dead.

And so for centuries in the spring of the year, around the time of the Passover, Christians have turned their attention to the accounts of the suffering of Jesus, and of his astonishing resurrection from the dead.

The apostle Paul said: ""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).

In his book, The Cruciality of the Cross, P. T. Forsyth said: "Christ is to us just what his cross is. All that Christ was in heaven or on earth was put into what he did there . . . You do not understand Christ till you understand his cross."

Emil Brunner said: "He who understands the cross aright... understands the Bible, he understands Jesus Christ." (The Mediator).

And in The Truth of God Incarnate, Stephen Neill said "the death of Christ is the central point in history; here all the roads of the past converge; hence all the roads of the future diverge."

May these short readings give you the opportunity to reflect on the truth about what God did for the human race in Christ.

-Mel Lawrenz