In Philippians 3:10 we see that Paul desired to be conformed to Christ's death. In verse 11 he speaks of the out-resurrection from among the dead (Gk.). In these two verses death and resurrection are covered. The death spoken of in verse 10 is not a negative death, the death of Adam, but a positive, lovable death, the death of Christ the Savior. Furthermore, the resurrection in verse 11 is not the ordinary resurrection, but the extraordinary resurrection, the outstanding resurrection. Hence, Paul calls it the out-resurrection. Verses 8 through 11, which are one long sentence in Greek, issue in two things: the lovable death of Christ and the out-resurrection from among the dead.
In verse 8 Paul speaks of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus the Lord. In order to have the excellency of the knowledge of Christ, we need the vision, the revelation, of Christ. If we have the vision, we shall see that there is no comparison between Christ and the law. We shall also count all things loss that we may gain Christ and be found in Him in a condition of not having a righteousness that is out from ourselves, but the righteousness that is God Himself lived out of us. Then we shall know Christ experientially, and we shall also know the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings. All this issues in the lovable death of Christ and in the out-resurrection from among the dead. Christians today do not know Christ's lovable death or the extraordinary resurrection in an adequate way. But in order to experience Christ adequately, we must know these things.
In this message I would like to share with you concerning the all-accomplishing death of Christ. Christ's death is lovable because it has accomplished so much for us. Among Christians, mainly the redeeming aspect of Christ's death is preached. There is hardly any mention of any other aspect of Christ's death. But according to the New Testament, there is more than one aspect of His death. John 1:29 says, "Behold, the Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world!" This verse indicates that the Lamb of God, our Redeemer, would die on the cross to take away our sins. We believe in this, and we praise the Lord for it. In our hymnal we have many hymns on the subject of Christ's redeeming death. We believe strongly that Christ, the Lamb of God, died on the cross as our substitute to take away our sins. However, other aspects of Christ's death are also found in the Gospel of John.
In John 3:14 the Lord Jesus said to Nicodemus, "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up." The brass serpent had the form of a serpent, but not the poisonous nature of the serpent. According to the Lord's word, the brass serpent typified the Lord Himself. This means that He was to be lifted up on the cross just as the brass serpent was lifted up on the pole (Num. 21:8-9). Thus, the Gospel of John reveals that Christ was to die as the Lamb to take away our sins for redemption and also that He was to die in the form of a serpent to deal with the poison of the serpent in us. This aspect of Christ's death is related to sin. Having nothing to do with redemption, it deals with the poisonous nature of the serpent, Satan. It deals with the satanic nature in our being.
A third aspect of Christ's death is found in John 12:24: "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit." Regarding Christ's death, John uses three figures: the Lamb, the brass serpent, and the grain of wheat. The grain of wheat indicates the life-multiplying aspect of Christ's death. Therefore, we have the aspect of redemption, the aspect of removing the serpentine poison, and the aspect of the multiplication of the divine life. The grain of wheat that falls into the earth and dies multiplies the divine life. Because we are sinful, we need Christ as the Lamb. Because we have a serpentine nature, we need Him in the form of a serpent to destroy the nature of Satan in our being. However, if He merely takes away our sins and our serpentine nature without imparting anything into us, we are still empty. Hence, there is the need of the third aspect of Christ's death, the aspect that releases the life in Him into us. When our sins are taken away, when our serpentine nature is dealt with, and when the divine life is imparted into our being, we are no longer empty, no longer void. All this is the result of Christ's death. Because the death of Christ has so many aspects, we may describe it as the all-accomplishing death. Now we need to see in detail more of what Christ's death has accomplished for us.