We have seen that, in the progressing stage of God’s full salvation, Christ lives in the believers for them to walk in Him, to be saved in His life, to live through Him by eating Him as the bread of life, to live with Him, to live Him, to have Him formed in them, to magnify Him, to boast in Him, to be found in Him, to gain Him by counting all things loss and refuse, and to know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings. Now we need to see that Christ lives in us for us to be conformed to His death.
In Philippians 3:10 Paul says, “To know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.” This expression indicates that Paul desired to take Christ’s death as the mold of his life. Christ’s death is a mold to which we are conformed in much the same way that dough is put into a cake mold and conformed to it. Paul continually lived a crucified life, a life under the cross, just as Christ did in His human living. Through such a life the resurrection power is experienced and expressed. The mold of Christ’s death refers to the continual putting to death of His human life that He might live by the life of God (John 6:57). Our life should be conformed to such a mold-dying to our human life in order to live the divine life. Being conformed to the death of Christ is the condition for knowing and experiencing Him, the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings.
Christ’s death took place throughout His life on earth. As He was living, He was also dying, dying to the old creation in order to live a life in the new creation. This is the meaning of “His death” in Philippians 3:10. Being conformed to Christ’s death should be our experience day by day. Daily we must put our natural life to death and not live according to it. If we put to death our natural life, we shall have the consciousness that we have another life, the divine life, within us. Once our outward natural life is put to death, the inner divine life will be released. Then in our experience we shall be conformed to Christ’s death.
There are four important matters in 3:10: to know Christ, to know the power of His resurrection, to know the fellowship of His sufferings, and to be conformed to His death. Actually, being conformed to Christ’s death is related to knowing both the power of Christ’s resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings. The words “being conformed” indicate how we may know the power of Christ’s resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings. By being conformed to the death of Christ we experience the power of His resurrection and enter into the fellowship of His sufferings.
Being conformed to Christ’s death is the base of the experience of Christ. If we are not conformed to the death of Christ, we do not have the base for the experience of Christ. In order to experience Christ, we must be conformed to His death. But to be conformed to the death of Christ, we must have the fellowship of His sufferings. By participating in Christ’s sufferings, we are ushered into a position to experience the power of His resurrection. Then, when we experience the power of Christ’s resurrection, we know Him.
As we partake of Christ’s sufferings for the Body, we are conformed to His death. When the Lord Jesus was on earth, He lived a crucified life. He continually put His natural life to death. By living such a crucified life He was alive to God and lived Him. When we are willing to suffer for Christ and His body, we also shall live only to Him. Then we shall truly be conformed to His death, for we shall share in His death. Day by day we shall experience the power of His resurrection. This is the way to know Christ in an experiential way. By knowing Christ in this way, experiencing Him in the power of His resurrection, we obtain Him.
We need to be conformed to the death of Christ because we are natural, of the old man, and of the self. In Christ’s death the natural man is killed, the old man is crucified, and the self is nullified. The form of Christ’s death does not bear any indication of the natural man, the old man, or the self. This means that as we are participating in Christ’s death, His death will shape us, will conform us, to the form of His death. This shaping by Christ’s death will deal with our natural life, our old man, and our self. This means that in Christ’s death our natural man with the natural life, the old man, and the self are continually put to death. In Christ’s death, therefore, there is not any activity of the natural life, of the old man, or of the self. However, if we behave in our natural man, in our old man, or in the self, we do not bear the image of the death of Christ. In order to bear this image, we need to be conformed to Christ’s death.
We need to be impressed with the fact that Christ’s death is a form, a mold, and that we are the “dough” that is placed into this mold. In the form, the mold, of Christ’s death there is no natural man, old man, or self. All these are ruled out by the mold of the death of Christ. To be molded, formed, in this way is to be conformed to Christ’s death. The more we experience this, the more we know Christ, His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.
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