In Philippians 2 God's operating is for us to work out our own salvation without murmurings and reasonings. For this we need to take Christ as our model, our pattern. In chapter three we see that we need to be those gaining Christ and being found in Christ (vv. 8-9). The real gain is Christ. Anything other than Christ is a loss. In Philippians 3:7-8 Paul said, "But what things were gains to me, these I have counted loss on account of Christ. But surely I count also all things to be loss on account of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, on account of whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them refuse that I may gain Christ."
To gain Christ may be compared to gaining the victory in a war. To gain the victory in a war, everything has to be sacrificed. When the United States declared war in World War II, the entire country with all its citizens sacrificed everything to gain the victory in the war. Without that kind of sacrifice, the United States could not have helped to win World War II. Today we also need to sacrifice everything to gain Christ. We need to tell Satan that we are going to fight to win the victory to gain Christ.
We also need to be found in Christ. Everyone should be able to see that we are persons in Christ. When Paul was Saul of Tarsus, he was absolutely in the law. When people found him, saw him, he was a person in the law. But in Philippians 3 Paul declared that he only wanted to be found in Christ. He was only for Christ, and he wanted to be found by everyone in Christ. He was a man in Christ (2 Cor. 12:2a).
We gain Christ and are found in Christ by knowing Christ as our all and by knowing the power of His resurrection to be conformed to His death (Phil. 3:10). Paul indicated in Philippians 3 that he was a person pursuing Christ (vv. 12, 14). The Greek word for "pursue" is the same word for persecute. Paul did two kinds of persecuting. The first kind of persecuting was a negative kind of persecuting. Paul persecuted Christ in this way when he was Saul of Tarsus. But after he was saved, he began to persecute Christ in a positive sense. To persecute Christ in a positive way is to press toward Christ, to follow after Christ. Paul realized that in order to pursue Christ, to persecute Christ, he needed the power of Christ's resurrection, a power that can overcome death, subdue death, defeat death, and bring us out of death's usurpation.
Paul aspired to know Christ and the power of His resurrection so that he could be conformed to Christ's death. A.B. Simpson said, "'Tis not hard to die with Christ, when His risen life we know" (Hymns, #481). When we have resurrection as our enjoyment, this enjoyment enables us to be conformed to the death of Christ. Christ's death is a model, a mold, and we are like pieces of dough that are put into this mold so that we can be conformed to the image of this mold. The mold that we are being conformed to is the death of Christ.
Each one of us has a certain amount of problems and sufferings. We may have sufferings related to our health, our finances, or our children. Who has no suffering? No one is in a situation in which everything is complete, perfect, satisfactory, fine, and in the third heavens. Who has a perfect, complete, satisfactory, and heavenly marriage? There is not such a marriage on this earth. Even marriage can be a real suffering. No one can escape suffering. These sufferings should be a mold. After we have been saved, God's sovereignty puts us into this mold. This is the mold of the death of Christ. We need the power of resurrection to be conformed to the death of Christ. We need to be in the image of Christ and also in the image of His death. For this we need the power of His resurrection, not our natural power.