Charles Ellicott Commentary Philippians 3:10

"that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, becoming conformed unto his death;" — Philippians 3:10 (ASV)

Inseparably connected with the possession of this “righteousness of God” is the knowledge of Christ, or more exactly, gaining the knowledge of Christ , by conformity both to His suffering and death, and also to His resurrection. This “conformity to the image of Christ” (Romans 8:29–30) — with which compare the having “Christ formed within us” (Galatians 4:19) — is made by Saint Paul the substance of the gracious predestination of God, preceding the call, the justification, the glorification, which mark the various epochs of Christian life.

On verses 10-11:

The order of these verses is notable and instructive.

1. First comes the knowledge of “the power of the Resurrection.” What this is we see by examining it as historically the main subject of the first apostolic preaching. There it is considered, as in Saint Peter’s first sermons, as giving the pledge of “forgiveness,” or “blotting out of sins,” and the “gift of the Holy Ghost” (Acts 2:38; Acts 3:13; Acts 3:26), or, as Saint Paul expresses it, of “justification from all things” (Acts 13:38–39). This same idea is elaborated fully in his Epistles.

   Thus, for example, without it, we are still in our sins (1 Corinthians 15:17). It is the pledge of our justification (Romans 5:1) and the means of our being alive unto God (Romans 6:11). Hence, “the power,” or efficacy, “of His resurrection” is the justification, and regeneration inseparable from it, which lie at the entrance of Christian life.

2. Next comes the “partaking of His sufferings” and “conformity to His death,” which are the “taking up the cross, and following Him,” in the obedience even to death. This “fellowship of sufferings,” coming partly from the sin of others, partly from our own, is the constant theme of the New Testament. (See 1 Peter 4:13; Romans 8:17; 2 Corinthians 1:5; Colossians 1:24; 2 Timothy 2:11.)

   The “conformity to His death” is the completion of the death to sin, described as “mortification” of sin (Colossians 3:5); as bearing about in the body the dying (or, properly, mortification) of the Lord Jesus (2 Corinthians 4:10); or more frequently as being crucified with Christ, the world to us and we to the world (Galatians 2:20; Galatians 5:24; Galatians 6:14).

3. Lastly comes the “attainment to the resurrection of the dead,” properly, “the resurrection from the dead,” which is the resurrection to life and the glorification in Him, so nobly described below (Philippians 3:20–21). If we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection (Romans 6:5). For of our resurrection (see 1 Corinthians 15:12–23) His resurrection is not only the pledge, but also the guarantee.

   Note how in 1 Thessalonians 4:14–18 and 1 Corinthians 15:51–57, the whole description is only of the resurrection to life, and compare the first resurrection of Revelation 20:6. This is the completion of all; Saint Paul dared not yet anticipate it with the confidence which later soothed his dying hour (2 Timothy 4:7–8).

Philippians 3:12–16 leads us from the warning against trust in human merit to warn against the assumption of a perfection attained in this life, even in Christ. The transition is natural. The same spirit that shows itself undisguisedly in the one claim comes out half-concealed in the other.