realize something of the greatest of all powers, namely that which conquers death, the

power of His resurrection.

We live in an age of power and through scientific discovery have come to know the

power that the Creator has locked up in matter. But we may be sure of one thing, atomic

power will never bring someone from the grave and give him eternal life! Later on Paul

prays for the Ephesian believers that they might know "the exceeding greatness of His

power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of His mighty power, which He

wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and set him at His own right hand

in the heavenly places . . . . ." (Eph. 1: 19-23). From this one can see that such a mighty

power is at the disposal of the believer for service. How much better than one's own

puny strength! No wonder Paul stated that he could do all things through Christ Who

empowered him (Phil. 4: 13). Realizing this, one can appreciate better how he longed to

know the "power of His resurrection".

We may all join in such longing, but what about the item that follows--the fellowship

of His sufferings?  Koinonia fellowship or sharing, describes the close association

between the Lord's sufferings and those of the Apostle (II Cor. 11: 23-28). He could

truthfully say that daily he bore in the body "the dying of the Lord Jesus" (II Cor. 4: 10).

These sufferings "for Christ's sake", he bore gladly, for at the very beginning the Lord

had said "For I will show him how great things he must suffer for my Name's sake"

(Acts 9: 16). It was this measure of sufferings he was anxious to "fill up" (Col. 1: 24) in

Let us be quite sure of this, that the Christian pathway designated by the Lord will

include suffering. We can sometimes avoid it, by departing from the Lord's will, but "no

cross, no crown", is true for every believer.  We need not shrink from it, for the

wonderful promise of I Cor. 10: 13 is for ever true.

Fellowship in the Lord's sufferings leads to "conformity to His death" (Phil. 3: 10)

and this is best explained by the teaching and experience of Rom. 6: with its stress on

identification with Christ in His death, burial and resurrection. In Him we die to the

dominion of the sinful old nature and in Him rise to newness of life, but the experience of

this demands obedience to Rom. 6: 11 to reckon this to be true, otherwise this remains

doctrine and nothing more. It is important to note that Paul puts resurrection power

before fellowship in the Lord's sufferings. To experience the latter without the former

would be to commit spiritual suicide, for we could not endure such an experience in our

own strength.

"Being conformed" or "conforming myself", is the present participle and suggests a

daily and continual experience of this conformity.  Each day brings its tests and

temptations which can only be met successfully by the power that conquers death and a

daily dying to everything that is out of the Lord's will.

The goal of all this is expressed in verse 11 "if by any means I might attain unto the

resurrection from the dead". On the surface this seems an anticlimax. Did Paul who was