BIG IDEA:
KNOWING CHRIST IN A TRANSFORMING WAY IS THE SUPREME GOAL WORTHY OF THE NECESSARY COST
INTRODUCTION:
Matt. 16:25-26
Manford George Gutzke: It is tomorrow that gives special meaning to what I do today. Whatever I do today, it is tomorrow when I am going to reap the consequences.
Gordon Fee: With engaging rhetoric, Paul now revises the balance sheet, reversing “gain” and “loss” in light of his experience of Christ. He begins with a simple sentence of renunciation, echoing earlier language in the letter and setting up the word plays that follow. “What things were gains to me,” he affirms, “these things I have come to consider loss because of Christ Jesus my Lord.” The rest of the paragraph is a single sentence, which begins by spelling out the “gain/loss” metaphor in light of “Christ,” and concludes by explaining what it means for him to “gain Christ.” . . .
In this case, it is not simply “because of Christ” that he considers all things as loss, but “because of the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.” This piling up of genitives has as its ultimate goal “knowing Christ Jesus my Lord,” which so far surpasses all other things in value that their net worth is zero; they are a total loss. As v. 10 will clarify, “knowing Christ” does not mean to have head knowledge about him, but to “know him” personally (BAGD) and relationally. Paul has thus taken up the Old Testament theme of “knowing God” and applied it to Christ. It means to know him as children and parent know each other, or wives and husbands—knowledge that has to do with personal experience and intimate relationship. It is such knowledge that makes Christ “trust-worthy.” The intimacy will be expressed in v. 10 in terms of “participation in his sufferings.” In the light of such expansive language, therefore, the object of his “knowing” is not simply “Christ,” nor even “Christ Jesus,” but “Christ Jesus my Lord.”
G. Walter Hansen: Immediately after presenting the portrait of himself as a Pharisee to show that he looked better than others in the flesh (3:4-6), Paul juxtaposes a strikingly different self-portrait (3:7-11) to demonstrate that he now considers even his most valuable assets in the flesh to be liabilities in the light of his knowledge of Christ Jesus his Lord. He even considers his extraordinary achievement of a faultless record of righteousness based on the law (3:6) to be worthless in contrast to the righteousness that comes from God (3:9). As he describes his own personal experience of new life in Christ, Paul provides a theological outline of the entire scope of salvation in Christ: justification, receiving righteousness from God by faith in Christ (v. 9); sanctification, knowing the power of Christ’s resurrection and participation in his sufferings (v. 10); and glorification, attaining to the resurrection from the dead (v. 11).
In this portrait, Paul’s whole life revolves around Christ: nine times by name or pronoun in these five verses, Christ fills all of Paul’s vision. Although Paul does not explicitly label the total transformation in his life as his conversion, his negative assessment of his position and achievements in his previous way of life because of his present passion to know Christ demonstrates that a profound reorientation occurred. True, Paul always remained a Jew who believed in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and affirmed the divine authority of the Hebrew scriptures, but he was radically transformed by his supreme ambition to know the crucified, risen Christ and to become like him (3:10).
Charles Swindoll: Paul’s ancient words hit today’s overachievers hard. For those who see high achievement as paramount and seek after rewards and recognition —this passage is for you. Our righteousness, good works, fame, riches, and impressive achievements will not get us one step closer to heaven or one mark higher in God’s estimation. In fact, these will drive us further away from depending on Christ alone for salvation. This warning also addresses believers who have received Christ’s salvation by grace alone through faith alone, but who nevertheless turn to their own strength and accomplishments to live Christlike lives. That, too, is an impossibility. . .
Trusting in your own achievements can bring you glory now, but it leaves you spiritually bankrupt later. The hardest part of getting driven, self-made, “type A” people to understand the gospel is to help them understand that grace is unmerited favor. It can’t be earned. It can’t be bought. It can’t be sought and found. It can only be received. This hard truth is painful for go-getters who have come to believe that anything worth having is worth sweating for. The truth is, when it comes to salvation, surrendering our efforts is the only way to gain a restored relationship with God, the result of which is eternal life.
Grant Osborne: To emphasize the powerful turnaround Paul experienced, he presents the material in verses 7–9a in a chiastic order:
A whatever were gains
B I now consider loss for the sake of Christ
B′ I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ
A′ that I might gain Christ and be found in him
Paul writes these lines as a heavenly accountant, presenting a ledger for developing true gain out of illusory earthly gains. Here the gain-loss account has three columns: earthly gains, everything counted as loss, and true gain. Note that the earthly gains are plural and contain Paul’s past achievements from verses 4–6, as well as his current achievements that come into view in verse 8. But the loss column is singular; here, the human gains are not worthy of being listed separately. Taken together, Paul considers them all a loss, for only Christ and the things linked to him have eternal value. The true goal of life is not legal righteousness by keeping human regulations (even those of the Torah) but spiritual righteousness that leads to eternal life. . .
Our primary goal, Paul says, is to know Christ in every area of our life and as deeply as possible. We are to be consumed not with our work or our earthly status, but with Christ alone. When we place him first, everything else falls into place, making us better workers, better bosses, better fathers and mothers, and better people. The temporary gain (earthly attainments) becomes true gain as Christ permeates every area of our lives and transforms us in every way. But he must be first.
I. (:7) FOCUS ON THE BOTTOM LINE = KNOWING CHRIST – THE SUPREME GOAL
A. Counting the Necessary Cost
“But whatever things were gain to me,
those things I have counted as loss”
This is an accounting perspective — concerned with profits vs. losses.
This is Paul’s thesis statement for this key section.
Warren Wiersbe: The key word in Philippians 3:1-11 is count (vv. 7-8, 13). In the Greek, two different words are used, but the basic idea is the same: to evaluate, to assess. “The unexamined life is not worth living,” said Socrates. Yet, few people sit down to weigh seriously the values that control their decisions and directions. Many people today are the slaves of “things,” and as a result do not experience real Christian joy.
Max Anders: He placed it all in the debit or loss column. Why? Nothing belonged in the profit column except Christ. His relationship with Christ is far superior to his Jewish background.
Moises Silva: Paul recognized the radical antithesis between his former way of life and the new hope offered to him; it was either one or the other. What was required was not a mere adjustment or the incorporation of an additional element—only a total conversion would be adequate. And Paul gladly forfeited his personal achievements to obtain the pearl of great price.
Gordon Zerbe: Each of the three claims of mental reassessment (I consider) gives the same fundamental reason: because of Messiah (v. 7); because of the surpassing value of knowing Messiah Jesus my Lord (v. 8a); because of him [Messiah] (v. 8b). The reference to what is of surpassing value (a term also found in 2:3 and 4:7; cf. 4:19) shows that Paul is speaking of a relative, not an absolute change in value. Something of superior value has caused former assets to pale in worth (cf. 2 Cor 3:7–18). It is not as if all things from his past have lost all inherent value (cf. Rom 3:1; 9:1–5; 11:1–2, 28–32). Still, a significant “paradigm shift” has occurred in Messiah. On the one hand, any confidence or pride in ethnic pedigree, moral credentials, or social achievement is completely undercut. Moreover, as we will immediately see, the manner of striving toward the goal of justice-righteousness by reference simply to zeal for the Law has been entirely reoriented (3:9). Nevertheless, Paul will continue to promote energetic striving as reoriented in Messiah (3:12–14). And he never categorically rejects the Law nor his prior identity markers (Rom 3–11).
B. Committing to the Supreme Goal
“for the sake of Christ.”
G. Walter Hansen: The main clause sets forth the shocking reversal in Paul’s evaluation of his assets: these I consider a loss for the sake of Christ. Paul’s radically new evaluation was the result of “an intellectual process.” His encounter with Christ did not shut off his mind, but it set him free to think with a whole new depth and clarity about his life from a totally different perspective. His conversion was not an escape from reason but an illumination of reason. Once Christ became the goal of his life, he could finally see and understand the true value of his life in the light of Christ. . .
The shift from plural gains to singular loss indicates that Paul is not giving different values to each of his assets, discounting them at different rates: some are marked down 50 percent; others down 90 percent. Because of Christ, Paul has added up all of his assets and considered them to be one huge liability. After his conversion to Christ, Paul recalculates the value of all of the advantages of his family and his accomplishments, his social class and his moral achievements, and then he enters the new bottom line: they all add up to one overwhelming disadvantage, one huge loss.
D. A. Carson: Here, then, Paul exposes his fundamental values. On one side stands everything the world has to offer, including the privileged world of learned and disciplined Judaism. On the other side stands Jesus Christ and “the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.” Paul insists that there is no contest; Jesus and the righteousness from God that Jesus secures are incomparably better.
II. (:8-9) KNOWING CHRIST AS THE SOURCE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS TRANSFORMS US TO LIVE A LIFE OF FAITH
A. Committing to the Supreme Goal
- Supreme Goal
“More than that, I count all things to be loss, in view of
the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord“
- Two Supporting Goals:
a. “that I might gain Christ“
b. “and may be found in Him“
Homer Kent: Probably has an eschatological aspect. Paul wants the divine scrutiny he will undergo at Christ’s return to reveal unquestionably that he had been in vital spiritual union with Jesus Christ.
Gordon Fee: Thus, in keeping with the urgency of this passage, with its concluding emphasis on the “not yet realized” future toward which he—and hopefully they with him—are striving, Paul uses his own story as the paradigm for looking to the future on the basis of the “presence of the future” found in the righteousness that Christ has provided. He expects to “gain Christ and be found in him” on the day of Christ, precisely because this is already his experience of Christ.
George Hunsinger: To gain Christ (3:8), to be found in him (3:9), and to know him (3:10) are three ways of indicating the same thing. They are diverse aspects of a single gift. Paul’s hope is “to know Christ fully, to gain him completely, and to be found in him perfectly.” Paul hopes to gain Christ, whose presence is new each morning, and he hopes to be found in him on the last day. Otherwise he would be bereft of saving righteousness coram Deo.
Gordon Zerbe: Being found in Messiah suggests images of rebirthing, adoption, and incorporation into Messiah (and his “body”), as Paul explains elsewhere (Gal 3:26–28; 1 Cor 12:12–13; Col 3:1–11; Rom 6; see TBC, “Becoming Messianic Citizens”). At the same time, it implies Paul’s radical personal transformation (Gal 1:11–17; 1 Cor 15:7–11). As Paul will soon report, he has been seized by Messiah (Phil 3:12) into a new relational, social, and transforming reality. Being found in Messiah is more than a statement of a new spiritual state and bond. Rather, it expresses a new political identity: citizenship in Messiah’s regime (1:27; 3:20), with all the rights, privileges, and responsibilities thereto.
- End Result: Approved by God as One Who Has the Righteousness of Christ
a. Negatively
“not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law“
b. Positively
“but that which is through faith in Christ,
the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith“
John MacArthur: A right relationship to God is not by works, it’s by faith. Boy, that’s the key to this whole passage. You say, “What is this faith?” Let me give you a definition, listen very carefully. Faith is best described this way, faith is the confident continuous confession of total dependence on and trust in Jesus Christ for the necessary requirements to enter God’s Kingdom. Did you get that? Faith is the confident continuous confession of total dependence on and trust in Jesus Christ to provide the necessary requirements for entrance into God’s eternal Kingdom. It’s not just believing that Jesus lived and died. It’s trusting in Him and depending on Him to meet the requirements in your behalf to give you entrance into God’s Kingdom. It’s the surrender of your life in trust to Him…to do what you can’t do. It’s saying I can’t do it. . .
Paul gladly exchanged the burden of legalistic self-righteousness for the righteousness which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith. Faith is the confident, continuous confession of total dependence on and trust in Jesus Christ for the necessary requirements to enter God’s kingdom. It involves more than mere intellectual assent to the truth of the gospel; saving faith includes trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and surrender to His lordship. It is on the basis of faith alone that righteousness . . . comes from God to repentant sinners.
Righteousness is right standing with God and acceptance by Him. That repentant sinners have their sin imputed to Christ and His righteousness imputed to them is the heart of the gospel. In 2 Corinthians 5:21, Paul declared that God “made Him [Christ] who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” Paul gladly shed the threadbare robe of his own righteousness and stretched out his empty hands to receive the glorious royal robe of God’s righteousness in Christ. This doctrine is at the core of the gospel. On the cross, God judged Jesus as if He had personally committed every sin ever committed by every person who ever truly believed. When a sinner embraces Jesus as Lord and trusts only in His sacrifice for sin, God treats that sinner as if he lived Christ’s sinless life (cf. Isa. 53; 2 Cor. 5:21; 1 Peter 2:24). . .
What do believers gain by their union with Christ? The knowledge of Christ in their identification with Him; the righteousness of Christ imputed to them in justification; the power of Christ for their sanctification; participation in the sufferings of Christ; and sharing Christ’s glory in their glorification. No wonder Paul gladly exchanged the religious credits in his loss column for the surpassing benefits of knowing Christ.
Max Anders: Why such single-minded devotion to Christ? Because he is the only source of righteousness—that is, of right relationship with God. Righteousness comes as a gift from God and is by faith in Christ, the true way to God in contrast to human merit or works. Here is Paul’s doctrine of salvation and philosophy of life. In regards to eternal salvation, humans deserve nothing, can achieve nothing, and have no reason for pride or self-assurance. God has done everything: created, disciplined, had grace, given his Son Jesus on the cross for our sin, raised Jesus, declared us righteous and justified, adopted us as his children, and promised us resurrection and eternal life. The only human part in all this, in faith, is to accept what God has done.
G. Walter Hansen: By setting up this strong contrast between his own righteousness that comes from the law and the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith, Paul presents two different meanings for the word righteousness. Paul’s own righteousness from the law denotes his own upright behavior determined by the law. The righteousness that comes from God does not come from Paul’s good moral conduct or from a superior level of conduct empowered by God, but from God’s judicial verdict of a righteous standing before God. The righteousness from the law refers to Paul’s obedience to the law; the righteousness from God refers to a right relationship granted by God, not on the basis of obedience to the law, but on the basis of faith in Christ.
Moises Silva: Paul asserts that true righteousness is obtained by abandoning one’s own efforts and exercising faith. As Rom. 9:30 – 10:4 makes perfectly clear, Paul understands faith as the opposite of “seeking to establish” one’s own righteousness; in that sense, works and faith are indeed incompatible. This perspective is confirmed by the Philippians passage, where pistis takes on a specific nuance through its opposition with those things that Paul, as he has already told us in the previous verses, had renounced. It would therefore not be far-fetched to define faith as “the act of counting as loss all those things that may be conceived as grounds for self-confidence before God.”
Alternative View:
Richard Melick: The construction “faith of Christ” is ambiguous in Greek. Two questions emerge regarding it, one semantic and the other syntactical. The first is the meaning of the word “faith.” The second is the precise meaning of the genitive Greek construction “of Christ.” Regarding the meaning of the word “faith,” the tension is between the semantically objective meaning (trust) and the semantically subjective meaning (faithfulness). Both are attested in Scripture (objective, Rom 4:9; subjective, Rom 3:3). Normally Paul meant “faithfulness” when the word was a quality of “God” or “Christ,” as it is here. The syntactical question is the nature of the statement “of Christ.” It could mean belonging to Christ, produced by Christ, directed to Christ, or simply of Christ. Most likely, it is the faithfulness which is in Christ and should be read “of Christ.” This first statement, therefore, appears to mean that righteousness is made available to people through the faithfulness of Christ.
B. Counting the Necessary Cost
“I count all things to be loss“
“for whom I have suffered the loss of all things“
“and count them but rubbish“
R. P. Martin: The intimate relationship with Christ Jesus into which Paul had been brought was not secured without a price. Answering the divine revelation of the Lord there went the forfeiture of his “gains” and surrender of his pride on the part of the apostle.
Robert Gromacki: It cost the young Pharisee to become a Christian. He lost his status within Judaism, his reputation, and his opportunity for wealth and fame. He experienced ostracism, bodily harm, death threats, and property destruction (cf. Heb. 10:34). He may have forfeited his Jewish birthright and family inheritance.
Tony Merida: Paul calls his religious accomplishments “filth” or “rubbish” (ESV) or “dung” (KJV) compared to knowing Christ. Paul uses a term that sometimes referred to animal or human excrement. At the risk of sounding crass, he says it’s all “dog crap” compared to knowing Christ. The vulgarity of the term is deliberate, as Paul wants to strike us with the worthlessness of life apart from Jesus. You can have the Bread of Life that will eternally satisfy or you can have a pile of dung. Which do you prefer: the dung of religious self-efforts and earthly praise and possessions or the eternal joy of knowing Christ as your Savior and Lord? Paul made his decision, and he’s trying to help others choose wisely. One may hear an echo from Jesus’ question, “What will it benefit a man if he gains the whole world yet loses his life? Or what will a man give in exchange for his life?” (Matt 16:26).
III. (:10-11) KNOWING CHRIST AS THE SOURCE OF RESURRECTION POWER TRANSFORMS US TO LIVE A LIFE OF FELLOWSHIP WITH HIS SUFFERINGS AND HIS GLORY
Grant Osborne: Paul now unpacks what he means by knowing Christ (v. 8). His remarks fall into three categories: the content of knowing him, the means by which knowing him is possible, and the goal of knowing him. Once again, this knowledge is experiential as well as intellectual. We have a new relationship with Christ, and these are the aspects of that new personal connection.
There is a chiasm in verses 10–11:
A the power of his resurrection
B the fellowship of his sufferings
B′ being conformed to his death
A′ the resurrection from the dead
A. Committing to the Supreme Goal
- Supreme Goal
“that I may know Him“
- Two Supporting Goals:
a. “the power of His resurrection“
Gordon Fee: Along with the gift of the eschatological Spirit, it was the resurrection of Christ that radically altered Paul’s (and the early church’s) understanding of present existence—as both “already” and “not yet.” In Jewish eschatological expectations these two events, above all, would mark the beginning of God’s final wrapup. Very early on the church recognized that the Resurrection (Christ’s) had already set the future in motion. Paul in particular saw the implications of this reality, which are spelled out in some detail in 1 Corinthians 15. The resurrection of Jesus, he argues there, makes our future resurrection both necessary and inevitable: necessary, because even though death has been de-fanged as it were, it still remains as God’s and our final enemy, but it will cease to be with our resurrection; and inevitable, because Christ’s resurrection set something in motion as “first-fruits” that guarantees the final harvest. Precisely because of the latter (Christ’s resurrection as guaranteeing ours), Paul understands the life of the future to be already at work in the present.
R. Kent Hughes: All the apostle’s powers were concentrated on knowing Christ personally. The power of the resurrection had dazzled him on the road to Damascus, and he never got over it. Every day was his personal resurrection day, an affirmation that he had been raised with Christ. So Paul kept seeking the power of the resurrection as an avenue for knowing Christ more deeply.
This in turn enabled Paul to share in the fellowship of Christ’s sufferings and further increase his intimacy and knowledge of him. Indeed, Paul passionately sought the fellowship of his sufferings as a grace for his soul. Therefore, the apostle was continually being conformed to Christ’s death by God himself. His life was stamped with the divine imprint of the cross and a growing knowledge of Christ. This meant that Paul looked with confidence to the indeterminate day of the great resurrection when the full knowledge of Christ would fill his horizon for all eternity.
There is no doubt that if any of us knew today to be the final day of our lives, we would wish that we had made Christ the passion of our existence.
b. “the fellowship of His sufferings“
John MacArthur: You see, because I know Christ intimately, because I have the righteousness of Christ, I have available the dynamic spiritual energy that comes from Him. Like in Daniel 11:32 where the prophet says the people who know their God will display strength and take action. Paul says I take Christ because of the power. You know something? There’s no power in the law. There’s no power to overcome sin in my flesh. There’s no real power for spiritual service in my flesh. There’s no power for victory in my flesh. There’s no power for witnessing in my flesh. He says I’ve been operating without power and now I see all the power in Christ. You say, “How do you see it?” In His resurrection.
Grant Osborne: Suffering as believers is never meant to be an isolated experience. We share it with Christ, with his Spirit, and with one another.
Wil Pounds: This power happens only when you take God at His word and act on it by faith. When you begin to exercise your spiritual gifts God has given you the power begins to flow, but not before. You don’t feel it. You didn’t suddenly feel strong, capable and mighty. You feel weak, and Paul says God’s power is made perfect in your weakness. If you feel weak, if you feel inadequate, this is the only requirement for God exercising the power of the resurrection in you. Many Christians keep waiting to feel power before they act. You don’t feel power. You begin to reach out and act according to the needs around you and suddenly you discover there is unusual power at work in and through you. God is at work. It is His resurrection power at work through you.
Max Anders: Knowledge is a relationship term of intimacy. Paul wanted the closest possible personal relationship with Christ, a relationship pictured in baptism as buried to the old life of sin and raised to a new life of righteousness. To know Christ in this way meant he was ready to share in Christ’s sufferings, even if that meant sharing his death. Paul’s longing to share with Christ comes through strongly in Galatians 2:20: “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
Gordon Fee: “Knowing Christ” for Paul involves “participation in his sufferings”—and is a cause for constant joy, not because suffering is enjoyable, but because it is certain evidence of his intimate relationship with his Lord.
G. Walter Hansen: The unity of these two aspects of the knowledge of Christ leads to viewing them as contemporaneous: since knowing participation in his sufferings is the present experience of Paul, then knowing the power of his resurrection takes place in the present context of sufferings. Knowing the power of Christ’s resurrection provides the incentive and strength to participate in the sufferings of Christ. Certain elements in the context, however, also point to the future experience of knowing the power of Christ’s resurrection.
- End Result
“in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead“
Bruce: “Experiencing the power of Christ’s resurrection here and now was not a substitute for looking forward to the resurrection of the body, as some of Paul’s Corinthian converts appear to have thought (1 Cor. 15:12). Christ’s resurrection, the power of which was imparted to his people even in their present mortal life, involved the hope for those who died believing in him ‘that God, who raised the Lord Jesus to life, will also raise us up with Jesus‘ (2 Cor. 4:14).”
Moises Silva: A serious problem is raised, however, by the apparent tentativeness of Paul’s language, εἴ πως καταντήσω (ei pōs katantēsō, lit., if somehow I may reach—the idea is obscured by the NASB: “in order that I may attain”). Because Paul elsewhere speaks with great assurance about his future hope (e.g., Rom. 8:30–31; 2 Tim. 1:12), it might seem legitimate to look for a way of interpreting these words that removes the element of doubt. One could argue, for example, that Paul’s tentativeness “is not in reference to the reality of his resurrection . . . but in regard to the way in which it will be his” (Martin 1976: 136, who thinks the possibility of martyrdom is in view; cf. also Motyer 1984: 170; O’Brien 1991: 413). Unfortunately, I can find no evidence to support this interpretation. True, the word “somehow” is a common English equivalent for pōs, but the semantic area common to these two words is that of indefiniteness, not means or method. . .
It is always important, in this connection, to distinguish between the firm, unmovable object of our hope and our subjective apprehension of it. The apostle Paul, in spite of his maturity, and though writing under inspiration, was neither omniscient nor sinless. This passage is not the only place where he expresses a note of self-distrust (cf. esp. 1 Cor. 9:27); moreover, his concern to strengthen Christian assurance is always balanced by a desire to prevent presumptuousness (1 Cor. 10:12; Gal. 4:19–20). In the very nature of the case, any warnings against complacency and a presumptuous spirit are susceptible to misinterpretation. Indeed, someone unfamiliar with the apostle’s teaching could deduce, from Phil. 3:10–11, that Paul perceived he was in the process of earning the resurrection by his willingness to suffer. Of course, such an interpretation would undermine the perfectly clear thrust of verses 7–9; yet it serves to remind us of the way in which this epistle repeatedly juxtaposes divine grace with personal responsibility. . .
We may still ask, however, why Paul’s striking expression should occur in this particular passage. The only reasonable answer, as others have suggested, is that Paul is already anticipating what he will stress in verses 12–14. It is apparent that some perfectionist tendencies were present in the Philippian community. The apostle wants to give no encouragement to that, but perhaps he senses that the glowing descriptions of verses 8–10 could be misused. Accordingly, the subsequent verses qualify his previous remarks to prevent a perfectionist interpretation. In that light, verse 11 can be seen as a transitional statement: although it brings the previous passage to a culmination, it also anticipates the qualifying remarks that follow.
B. Counting the Necessary Cost
“being conformed to His death“
James Boice: The knowledge of Christ’s sufferings comes at a very high price, the price of total obedience. Hence, Paul writes of “being made conformable unto his death.”
To understand this phrase we must go back to chapter two of the letter, where 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 man’s 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 the price of such radical and total obedience.
G. Walter Hansen: Being conformed to his death can be interpreted in several ways:
(1) Paul may be referring to his martyrdom. Just as the sufferings of Jesus led to his death on the cross, so also Paul’s sufferings led to his execution. . .
(2) Being conformed to his death may also be interpreted as a reference to the inward experience of dying to sin by being united with Christ in his death: “For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin” (Rom 6:6). Certainly Paul is concerned in this letter with being free from sin, pure and blameless (1:10; 2:14). But the difficulty with interpreting this phrase in the light of the parallel with Romans 6:1-6 is that it limits the reference of being conformed to his death to the beginning of life in Christ since this passage refers to being united with Christ’s death through baptism: “all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death” (Rom 6:3). Paul is not referring to the beginning of his life in Christ, but to his entire experience of participation in Christ’s sufferings as a process of being conformed to his death.
(3) Being conformed to his death may be interpreted as a reference to Paul’s obedience in his faithful proclamation of the gospel of Christ. The link between partnership (koinōnia) in the gospel and participation (koinōnia) in his sufferings connects sufferings to the proclamation of the gospel, and those sufferings for the sake of the gospel are the means by which Paul is conformed to the death of Christ. Paul’s reference to Christ’s death is primarily a reference to Christ’s obedience. . .
These three interpretations do not need to be set against each other as separate alternatives. Paul’s experience of being conformed to Christ’s death may well include his sense of facing his own execution, his awareness that he was baptized into the death of Christ to be freed from sin, and his appreciation that his sufferings for the gospel are shaping his obedience so that he will reflect Christ, who was obedient unto death.