Here the apostle, already a believer, already a member of His body, steps out into

voluntary association with the suffering and death of His Lord. He cannot make his place

in Christ more secure thereby; he cannot make the attainment of the blessed hope more

sure thereby; membership and hope alike are ours completely, fully and irrevocably in

Christ. For the truth's sake, not for our reputation's sake, we ask the reader to perceive

that we do not bring any uncertainty into the question of our hope. Those who go to

Phil. 3: for the hope, place that hope in an atmosphere of uncertainty, of pursuing,

of attaining, and by so doing take the truth that belongs to the prize, which may be won or

lost, and attach it to the hope which cannot be gained or forfeited. This voluntary

conformity unto the death of Christ, the apostle continues, is so that if by any means I

might attain unto the out-resurrection, that which is out from among the dead ones. Here

is something parallel with the "better resurrection" of Heb. 11: 35. The attainment of this

special resurrection was greatly desired by the apostle because it was the entry into the

added prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

We will not go further in this article; we prefer to leave with the reader this witness of

the use of the words ex and ek. While we pray that not one word of ours may blunt the

edge of Scripture or rob Phil. 3: 11 of all the unique features that legitimately belong to

it, yet we pray that any who have been misled as to the usage of Scripture may so desire

"truth" above all things that they may gladly be prepared to unlearn again and again

rather than entertain one false idea about so vital a theme.

Scripture never speaks of our having been "raised together", anastasis being never so

used. If the reader has been perusing several pages of an article in which the word used

for resurrection has been exclusively anastasis, and has read with delight the wondrous

truth that the believer has been "raised with" Christ, and has been instructed that this

word "with" is sun, it is only logical that he should assume that Scripture not only speaks

of an ex-anastasis, but also of a sun-anastasis. One friend with whom we had an earnest

conversation based a good deal of his belief that Phil. 3: 11 taught an immediate

translation to glory at death, on the fact that, as he put it, the believer had already been

raised with Christ. It will come as a surprise, and perhaps a shock, to some to learn that,

while we keep to the one word anastasis, such a doctrine as being raised with Christ is

not found in Scripture.

Upon reading this some reader may turn to Col. 2: 12, 3: 1, or Eph. 2: 6, and point

to the fact that in each of these passages we have the expression:--