by Larry Ferrell | March 23, 2018
There are many things that distinguish Christianity from other world religions, but one of the most significant distinctions is this: Christians believe that Jesus rose again from the dead after having been crucified and that he lives today to be known by those who trust Him. The Jesus who was born in Bethlehem two thousand years ago, who lived, who died, and who rose again, still lives. Consequently, to know Him personally, intimately, and experientially is the first and greatest goal of the believer’s life. This was Paul’s goal also, and Philippians 3:10-11 is a great expression of it. Paul has spoken of his initial faith in Christ. He now speaks of the goal of Christian living. Paul wanted to know Jesus. As he writes about his desire, the nature of that knowledge is plain.

In the first place, the knowledge Paul sought was experiential. We must see this aspect of his statement clearly, for without this understanding of Paul’s desire the verses themselves are meaningless. Paul wanted to know Jesus in the truest biblical sense – personally and experientially. And he wanted this to affect his day-by-day living. Consequently, having been saved wholly and solely by Christ, Paul wants to enter into the deepest possible union with Him. There is only one inexhaustible person, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. People disappoint us, but Jesus never will. It is entirely satisfying to know him.

Paul’s desire did not stop merely with the knowledge of Christ. He also wished to know his power. Here Paul speaks of experience. He states that, in addition to knowing about the resurrection, he also wants to experience its power. Paul knew that this power could overcome sin and death and that it was far more potent than Rome’s armies. The power of Jesus Christ is a great reality. Paul wanted to experience the resurrection power of Jesus Christ over sin daily as he strived to live a holy life before God.

The third thing that Paul says he wished to know of Jesus Christ was “the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings.” This does not mean that Paul wished to suffer for human sin, for only Jesus Christ could do that. He alone suffered innocently and therefore for others. Paul wished to join in Christ’s suffering in a different sense. He wished to stand with Christ in such and invisible union that when the abuses and persecution that Christ suffered also fell on him, as he knew they would, he could receive them as Jesus did. He wanted to react like Jesus, for he knew that abuse received like this would actually draw him closer to his Lord. Such sufferings will always come to the Christian. Paul speaks of Christ’s obedience in death and holds it up as a pattern for all Christian conduct. He argues that Jesus was so careful to obey his Father that he laid aside his outward mantle of glory and took to himself human form and nature, enduring all the sufferings of this world, and that he even died as a man in obedience to his Father’s will. The fellowship of Christ’s sufferings is won at a price of such radical and total obedience.

In the last phrase of this great expression of Paul’s goals Paul tells why he desires to know Christ so completely and to be like him in his death. It is that he might “attain to the resurrection from the dead.” We must not understand this to mean that Paul was afraid for his eternal security. Paul knows that God will bring him safely to heaven (see Rom. 8:38-39; Phil 1:6). Paul is not thinking in these terms; he is thinking about something else. Actually, he is saying that he wishes to be so much like Christ in the way he lived that people would think of him as a resurrected person even now, even before his death. Or to put it another way, “As I walk your streets, as I walk into you homes, as I walk into your stores, as I walk into your offices, as I mingle among the sons of men, I want to be so living for Christ, so outstanding for him that you can see that I am a living one among the dead ones.” This is God’s greatest purpose in saving you.

Philippians 3:10-11 Reflection Questions:
Do you have the desire to know Jesus intimately, to awake with Him in the morning and to live each day with Him and in His presence?
In what ways do you experience the resurrection power of Jesus Christ daily?
Are you careful to obey God completely, even at the expense of open persecution and real suffering?
Is it your desire to be so living for Christ that you will appear as a resurrected person among those who are spiritually dead?

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