Message Nine

Taking Christ as Our Goal

(3)

Being Conformed to Christ’s Death and
Attaining to the Out-resurrection

Scripture Reading: Phil. 3:10-11

1. In Philippians 3:10 Paul spoke of “being conformed to His death”; this expression indicates that Paul desired to take Christ’s death as the mold of his life:
   1. The excellency of the knowledge of Christ, counting all things as loss, gaining Christ, being found in Him, knowing Him, knowing the power of His resurrection, and knowing the fellowship of His sufferings all issue in one thing—being conformed to Christ’s death— vv. 7-10.
   2. Being conformed to Christ’s death is the base of the experience of Christ—1:20-21a; 3:9-10.
   3. The mold of Christ’s death refers to the continual putting to death of His natural, human life that He might live by the life of God—John 6:57a:
      1. When the Lord Jesus was on earth, He lived a crucified life; by living a crucified life He was alive to God and lived Him.
      2. He always put His human life to death so that the divine life within Him could flow out—10:10b-11, 17.
      3. 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.
   4. 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:
      1. God has put us into the mold of Christ’s death, and day by day God is molding us to conform us to this death—Rom. 6:3-4.
      2. Our life should be conformed to such a mold—dying to our human life in order to live the divine life— Gal. 2:20; 2 Cor. 4:10-11.
      3. If we put to death our natural life, we shall have the consciousness that we have another life, the divine life, within us; this life will be released, and then in our experience we shall be conformed to Christ’s death—John 10:10b; 1 John 5:11-12.
      4. In the mold of Christ’s death the natural man is killed, the old man is crucified, and the self is nullified—2 Cor. 4:16; Rom. 6:6; Matt. 16:24.
      5. If we allow our circumstances to press us into this mold, our daily life will be molded into the form of Christ’s death—Rom. 8:28-29.
      6. We are conformed to the mold of Christ’s death by the power of Christ’s resurrection—Phil. 3:10; John 11:25; Eph. 1:19-20; S. S. 2:8-13.
   5. As we are conformed to Christ’s death, we experience His all-accomplishing death:
      1. By being conformed to His death, we experience Christ in His death for the release, impartation, and multiplication of life—John 12:24-26; 2 Cor. 4:12.
      2. The only way to glorify God is to be conformed to Christ’s death; the more we are conformed to Christ’s death, the more we glorify the Father—John 12:28; 13:31.
      3. When we die the death of Christ and are conformed to His death, we shall be a magnet drawing others to Christ—12:32.
      4. The more we die with Christ, the more we save our soul—v. 25.
      5. If we are willing to be conformed to Christ’s death, we shall overcome the world and defeat Satan— v. 31; Heb. 2:14.
2. The result of being conformed to Christ’s death is that we may attain to, or arrive at, the out-resurrection from the dead—Phil. 3:11:
   1. The out-resurrection is the outstanding resurrection, the extra-resurrection, which will be a prize to the overcoming saints—Rev. 20:4, 6:
      1. All believers who are dead in Christ will participate in the resurrection from the dead at the Lord’s coming back—1 Thes. 4:16; 1 Cor. 15:52.
      2. The Lord’s overcomers will enjoy an extra, outstanding portion of that resurrection, a resurrection in which they will receive the reward of the kingdom; this is what the apostle Paul sought after—Heb. 11:35, 26.
      3. The out-resurrection should be the goal and destination of our Christian life—Phil. 3:11-15a.
   2. To attain to the out-resurrection means that our entire being is gradually and continually resurrected—1 Thes. 5:23:
      1. God first resurrected our deadened spirit; He proceeds to resurrect our soul and our mortal body until our whole being—spirit, soul, and body—is fully resurrected out of our old being by His life and with His life—Eph. 2:5-6; Rom. 8:6, 11.
      2. If we are conformed to Christ’s death, every part of our being will be gradually resurrected; thus, the Christian life is a process of resurrection.
   3. The out-resurrection is a resurrection out of the old creation into the new creation—Gal. 6:15; 2 Cor. 5:17:
      1. To be in the out-resurrection means to leave everything of the old creation and to be brought into God.
      2. In the out-resurrection there is no element of the old creation; instead, everything is full of the divine element—Rev. 21:5a.
   4. For Paul to live was Christ as the out-resurrection— Phil. 1:21a; 3:11:
      1. The out-resurrection is actually the dear, precious, excellent person of Christ, the One who, through crucifixion and resurrection, has passed out of the old creation and has entered into God—John 14:3, 20; Heb. 6:19-20.
      2. The Christ whom we should live is Himself the out-resurrection—Phil. 1:21a; 3:11; John 11:25.
   5. We need to be conformed to Christ’s death so that by any means we may attain to the out-resurrection from the dead; this is the only way for the Lord to go on in His recovery, the only way for the Lord to build up His church, the only way to prepare the bride, and the only way to bring the Lord back—Phil. 3:10-11; Matt. 16:18; Rev. 19:7-9a; 22:14, 20.