PHILIPPIANS 3:11

If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection [Greek, out-resurrection] of the dead. (Philippians 3:11)

The expression "I might attain unto" may be rendered "I may arrive at."

The Greek term forresurrection used in the above verse sets forth the concept of an out-resurrection, or first resurrection. It is the ordinary word for resurrection with a prefix added that suggests a resurrection out from among the ranks of the dead.

That Paul was not speaking only of a moral resurrection, of spiritual maturity, but of the actual physical resurrection of the dead, is indicated by the fact that the last verse of the same chapter speaks of the change in our body that will take place when the Lord appears from Heaven. Philippians 3:21 is in the context of thought of 3:11, revealing that Paul’s mind was on the actual bodily resurrection.

Who shall change our vile body [the body of our humbling], that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself. (Philippians 3:21)

Philippians 3:11 truly is one of the most significant of all the verses of Scripture.
Philippians 3:11 is of special importance because it identifies the goal, the "mark" toward which the program of salvation leads. It is extraordinary also because we would not expect the Apostle Paul toward the end of his life to be attempting to attain to the resurrection from the dead.

One reason Philippians 3:11 is incomprehensible to us Christians is that we have changed the scriptural goal of eternal life into eternal residence in Heaven. However, Paul stated that the redemption of our mortal body is a major goal of redemption:

And not only they [the material creation], but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. (Romans 8:23)

For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life. (II Corinthians 5:4)

It is important in any undertaking to understand clearly the goal of the program. If we do not understand the goal we cannot make effective use of energy, time, or resources. We do not know where we are going, toward what we are striving. In this case it is difficult to distinguish among what is important, what is an unessential detail, and what is going in the wrong direction and destroying the endeavor.

Today we are shooting at the wrong target. We are stressing dying and going to Heaven as the goal of the salvation that is in Christ. Also, we emphasize that by receiving Jesus we escape Hell. To be saved, according to contemporary preaching, is to escape Hell and go to Heaven.

Would it surprise our reader if we insisted that the goal of salvation is not limited to escaping Hell and going to Heaven? There is a Hell and there is a Heaven. But there is more to the salvation that is in the Lord Jesus than escaping Hell, as important as such an escape is.

Our Lord Jesus spoke a few times of the tormenting fires into which the wicked will be cast. The Lord never spoke of going to Heaven as the object of the Gospel of the Kingdom, the goal of His teaching.
How does God profit if untransformed people escape Hell? How has this solved the problem of sin and rebellion in the creation?

If we place our trust in the Lord Jesus and are baptized in water, and then live as a Christian should, we will escape the wrath of God (I Thessalonians 1:10). But the Christian salvation is not a plan for man’s escaping Hell and going to Heaven when he dies. Rather, the Christian redemption is a change in man so he can have fellowship with God. Fellowship with God brings immortality to man and eventually leads him into Paradise.

The problem of current teaching is that it presents a means whereby unchanged mankind can regain Paradise. It makes the return of rebels to Paradise, rather than a restoration of the fallen man, the goal of the Divine redemption.

The current concept of salvation is largely mythological. It proceeds from man’s love for himself. It accounts for the present ungodliness among the members of the Christian churches. The believers have been taught that they have been unconditionally saved from wrath. When they die they will go to Paradise (they think), whether or not there is a change in what they are and how they behave. The apostolic doctrine of Divine grace has been perverted in our day.

The true scriptural salvation is a change in the individual. It is the transformation of the person into the image of Jesus so he can have fellowship with God. All we desire comes through fellowship with God. Fellowship with God is not produced by our partaking vicariously of the perfection of Jesus but by the working in us of a new creation.

If we would have fellowship with God we must be transformed in personality and in behavior. We must partake of the Life and Virtue of the living Lord Jesus.

The goal of the Gospel of the Kingdom of God is to bring about the performing of God’s will in the earth as it is in Heaven. The goal of the Gospel is the return of God to the earth and the resulting abundance of love, joy, peace, immortality, and paradisiac surroundings.

Adam and Eve lost the opportunity to attain to immortality because of their disobedience to God. Then they were driven from Paradise.

The Lord Jesus is our Redeemer. He came to restore to us the opportunity to attain to immortality and to enter once more into Paradise on the earth.

The Gospel of the Kingdom of God has to do with the restoration of what has been lost by disobedience to God. In the Hebrew Prophets the emphasis is on the coming of the Glory of God to the earth. Christ will return in His Kingdom to the earth.

When we first receive Jesus as our Lord and Savior, placing our faith in the blood atonement made by Him, God gives us a portion of eternal life in our Spirit. We have an earnest, a pledge, a seal, a guarantee, a foretaste of God’s Spirit in us. Our sins are washed away by the blood of the cross. We are forgiven all our transgressions. We are covered by the blood of God’s Lamb so that in the Day of Wrath God will pass over us. God hears us when we pray. We have access in worship and supplication to the Mercy Seat in Heaven. In the Spirit, God raises us to His right hand in Christ.

Our discipleship thereafter consists of laying hold on eternal life until every part of our personality has been filled with Divine Life.

Each day of our walk on the earth, eternal death and eternal life struggle for mastery over us. If we serve the Lord Jesus we will grow until we are filled with life. Then, when He appears from Heaven, He will fill our bodily form with eternal life. This is what Paul was striving to attain to, to grasp, to arrive at, to apprehend.

If we do not serve the Lord Jesus, spiritual death will supplant the life that was given us when we accepted Jesus. The Lord will warn us and rebuke us. If we do not heed His voice but continue living in the sins of the flesh, the day will come when our spiritual life is gone. We shall not, in that case, attain to the resurrection Paul was seeking.

The soul that sins shall die. The Lord Jesus did not come to waive the eternal law of fellowship with God, the law of life. Rather, the Lord Jesus came to make it possible for us to turn from our sins and enter eternal life.

Narrow is the gate and difficult is the way that leads to life, and few people find that path.

Current doctrine has changed the Christian Gospel from a pursuit of life to a "religious faith" that in actuality is no faith at all. It is instead a mental belief in certain theological positions that have been taken from a few "key verses" of the Scriptures.

In numerous instances the believers of today are walking in the flesh and reaping death. They are immature in the things of eternal life. They are under the impression that if they believe in their theological positions they will inherit eternal life in Heaven. But Heaven is the source, not the place, of eternal life. The distinction here is of importance.

Let us list some definitions concerning eternal life, and then we will proceed to examine the context of Philippians 3:11 and see if we can gain a clearer understanding of what Paul has set forth as the "mark" toward which every saint is to be pressing.

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