Philippians 3:11 “If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.”
Those who teach that a believer can lose his salvation use this verse to say, “See, even the great apostle Paul wasn’t sure he would attain the resurrection that will come after we die and go to Heaven.” But this notion is easy to dismiss with a quick glance at the verse that follows, which says,
“Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after…” (v. 12).
If Paul were saying he hoped to attain the resurrection that would come after he died, would he have had to say that he hadn’t yet attained it while he was still alive? Of course not! But if he’s not talking about that resurrection, what resurrection was he hoping to attain?
Well, if we back up in this passage just a couple of verses, we see that Paul wasn’t hoping to attain the resurrection that would come at the Rapture. The context had to do with his desire to live the resurrection life before he died! In Verse 10 we find Paul expressing what he desired for himself in this life:
“That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection…If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead” (Phil. 3:10,11).
As you can see, in the context, Paul wasn’t talking about attaining the resurrection that would come after he died. He was talking about attaining the power of Christ’s resurrection now, in this life.
To understand what Paul meant by that, we must first understand what he meant when he said he desired to know the Lord. After all, he’d already known the Lord for thirty years! He got to know Him the day he was saved. But now he wanted to know the Lord more.
And the same thing applies when he said he wanted to know the power of His resurrection. He had come to know the power of Christ’s resurrection when he was saved, as had the Romans, to whom he wrote, “Jesus our Lord…was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification” (Rom. 4:24,25). Paul was justified by the power of the Lord’s resurrection, just as the Romans were. But once he was saved, he wanted to know more of that resurrection power—and so should we!
More Power To You
So what power does the Lord’s resurrection have to offer us after we are saved? Well, for one thing, it gives us the power not to sin. That’s a power you didn’t have before you were saved, for before you were saved everything you did was sin. That might sound like a startling thing to say, but I don’t know how else to interpret Solomon’s words in Proverbs 21:4:
“An high look, and a proud heart, and the plowing of the wicked, is sin.”
How can plowing a field be considered a sin? After all, God commands us to work for a living (Ex. 20:9), and in light of that command, it would seem that when a farmer plows his field it would be obedience to God, not a sin against Him. But the fact is, nothing an unsaved man does pleases God. Speaking on behalf of his unsaved countrymen, Isaiah declared, “all our righteousness’s are as filthy rags” (Isa. 64:6).
But once you are saved, the resurrection of Christ gives you the power not to sin. When a saved man plows his field, God considers it an act of obedience to His command to work for a living, not sin. That’s the power that the resurrection of Christ gives us once we are saved, and that was a power that Paul wanted to know more and more!
Christ’s resurrection also gives you the power to serve the Lord, another ability you did not possess before you were saved, as these men learned the hard way:
“Many will say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Thy name? and in Thy name have cast out devils? and in Thy name done many wonderful works?
“And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from Me, ye that work iniquity” (Mt. 7:22,23).
These are men who thought they were serving the Lord in doing those wonderful works, but because they weren’t saved, their service was iniquity. But when you serve the Lord after you are saved, the resurrection of Christ gives you the power for the things you do to be counted as serving the Lord, and not as iniquity. And Paul certainly wanted to experience more of that kind of power as well.
And that’s what living the resurrection life is all about. I mean, isn’t it true that after you rise from the dead you won’t sin any more? Of course! And aren’t you going to spend all your time serving the Lord when that day comes? The Apostle John thought so! (Rev. 22:3). Well, if you’re never going to sin after you rise from the dead, and you’re always going to serve the Lord, would you call living like that now, in this life, living the resurrection life? Wouldn’t you like to attain that kind of life now? Paul did too! And in the context, that’s what he meant when he said he wanted to “attain unto the resurrection of the dead.”
What’s The Catch?
While you probably answered “yes” when I asked if you would like to attain that kind of life now, are you willing to attain it “by any means”? Before you answer, remember that “all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution” (II Tim. 3:12). That means if you’re going to say you want to know more of the power of Christ’s resurrection, more of the power to sin less and serve the Lord more, you’d better be willing to say you want to know more of what it means to suffer for the Lord. Paul knew that’s what it meant to say that, for he went on in this passage to add,
“That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings…” (Phil. 3:10).
Now, if you think about it, this is an astounding statement for Paul to make. I mean, he had already come to know plenty of the Lord’s sufferings! He chronicled an incredible list of them some years earlier (II Cor. 11:23-27) and had no doubt added to that remarkable list in the years since. How amazing, then, to hear him say that he yearned to know more of “the fellowship of His sufferings.”
If you’re not sure why Paul calls suffering for the Lord a “fellowship,” consider that the apostle says he suffered the things he suffered to “fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ” (Col. 1:24). Now, the Lord didn’t leave behind anything that needed to be suffered to pay for our sins, of course. But what other sufferings could Paul have had in mind?
To answer, I like to compare what Richard Nixon said when he retired from politics after losing the 1960 election to John F. Kennedy. Addressing the press who had hounded him during his political life, he said, “You won’t have Nixon to kick around any more.” In the same way, after the Lord rose from the dead and ascended into Heaven, the world didn’t have Him to kick around any more, so they directed all their persecution toward His people.
And that’s the only kind of suffering that Christ left behind, the persecution that He was no longer here to suffer. And that’s why Paul calls it “the fellowship of His sufferings.” They are His sufferings. He’s just not here to suffer them anymore. So when we suffer them for Him, we share these sufferings with Him “in fellowship” (cf. Lev. 6:2).
There’s also an additional reason why our sufferings are called the fellowship of His sufferings. We are members of the Body of Christ, a body of which Christ is the Head (Col. 1:18). In your physical body, when your foot hurts, your head feels the pain. And that’s how it works in the Body of Christ as well. As the Head of the Body, the Lord Jesus Christ feels the pain of everything you suffer for Him. No wonder Paul calls it the fellowship of His sufferings!
Now, your “old man,” the old nature you inherited from Adam, doesn’t like to suffer for any reason. So for you to want more of the fellowship of Christ’s sufferings, you’re going to have to die to self. Paul understood this. That’s why he went on to say,
“That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death” (Phil. 3:10).
What does it mean to be made conformable unto the Lord’s death? Well, isn’t death the wages of sin? (Rom. 6:23). What does that tell you about the Lord’s death? It tells you that it was a death that He didn’t have to die. He was no sinner, so He had every right not to die. But He surrendered His rights in order to die for our sins.
In the same way, you have every right not to have to suffer for the Lord. There’s no law that says you have to suffer for Christ now that you are saved. But if you want to live the resurrection life now, in this life, you have to give up your right not to suffer in order to enter into the fellowship of His sufferings. That’s how we are made conformable unto the death of the One who didn’t have to die.
Living the resurrection life is actually the reason God saved us, as Paul went on to say in our text:
“If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus” (Phil. 3:11,12).