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"Though He was crucified through weakness, yet He liveth by the power of God . . . . .
we shall live with Him by the power of God . . . . ." (II Cor. 13: 4).
"That ye may know . . . . . what is the exceeding greatness of His power to usward
who believe . . . . . which He wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead . . . . .
far above all" (Eph. 1: 18-21).
The knowledge that the Apostle craved in Phil. 3: 10 was something special, it
included the fellowship of His sufferings, and conformity unto His death. Koinonia
"fellowship" is used three times in Philippians:
"Your fellowship in the gospel" (1: 5).
"If any fellowship of the Spirit" (2: 1).
"The fellowship of His sufferings" (3: 10).
In each there is some element of suffering and sacrifice, as the contexts will reveal
(Phil. 1: 5 with 4: 14-18). Fellowship with the `sufferings' of Christ must not be
confused with the substitutionary death of the Lord. In that, no man can participate, but
Paul could write of himself, "Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that
which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for His body's sake, which is the
church" (Col. 1: 24), and even though he could thus write, he still realizes that there is
something deeper, and possible, and he does not shrink from the prospect of taking these
sufferings to the bitter end, "being made conformable unto His death" (Phil. 3: 10).
Morphe `form', summorphoomai `conform', summorphos `fashioned', show the way
in which this word is used in Philippians. It indicates the infinite condescension of the
Lord Who, being in the "form of God", emptied Himself by taking on Him the "form of a
servant", and the being found "in fashion" as a man, further humbled Himself, even to the
death of the cross (Phil. 2: 6-8). This condescension is echoed in Phil. 3: 21:
"Who shall change
metaschematizo
our vile body
tapeinosis
that it may be fashioned like summorphos
to His body of glory."
Schema is rendered `fashion' (2: 8); etapeinosen "He humbled Himself" (2: 8);
morphe `form' of a servant (2: 7). The association of Phil. 2: 7-11, the Lord's
humiliation and subsequent glory, is echoed in Phil. 3: 21, the believer's share in both
the humbling and the likeness of His body of glory in resurrection.
In Phil. 3: 21, being made conformable unto the body of His glory is in view,
whereas in Phil. 3: 10, it is conformity unto death that the Apostle envisaged. The
`death' which the Apostle had in mind is "the death of the cross" (Phil. 2: 8), and the
particular aspect of this death is indicated by the reference to those whose walk
constituted them as "enemies of the cross of Christ". This enmity was not so much the
enmity of "sin", but in the opposition subsequent to the "following" of the "example" of
both Paul and his Lord:
"Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as ye have us
for an ensample. (For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even
weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: whose end is destruction,