The Out-resurrection as the Goal of the Apostle Paul
The Apostle Paul declared that his goal was to attain to the out-resurrection from among the dead. The statements that precede Paul’s statement of his goal teach us what must be our attitude and practice if we hope to attain to the first resurrection, the resurrection that will take place when the Lord appears.
Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, (Philippians 3:8)
The above verse reveals to us the deplorable state of contemporary Christianity. In numerous instances our standard of Christian faith and behaviour is far, far below the standard of the Scripture.
I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ.
I have suffered the loss of all things so that I may win Christ.
And the above from an older, experienced minister!
And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: (Philippians 3:9)
What does Paul mean by the statement that he was seeking to gain the "righteousness which is of God by faith"? Paul was speaking of the daily decisions we make as we decide between serving God by our own dead works or else surrendering the problems of the day to Christ so we are able to combat the evil of the day in Him and by Him.
Paul does not mean that the Lord Jesus already has won every victory for Paul and Paul is victorious because of his identification with Christ through means of his belief in Christ. The doctrine of "Jesus did it all" is being preached today. The widely held concept that the Christian redemption is primarily a mental acceptance of Jesus’ victory is one of the principal reasons for the present immorality and spiritual weakness of the churches.
The righteousness that is of God by faith is behaviour that seeks always to be found in Christ, motivated by Him, guided by Him, submitted to Him. We make the choice to obey the commandments of the Scriptures and then we look to the Lord for every aspect of obedient behaviour. This is what it means to live by faith.
Paul was declaring that he could do nothing of himself. The Lord Jesus was becoming the Centre and Circumference of every element of Paul’s thinking, speaking, and acting.
That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; (Philippians 3:10)
Paul was seeking to know Christ in the sense of living by Christ’s incorruptible life and experiencing the sufferings of Christ (perhaps, as some believe, sufferings that Jesus still is bearing as He purifies His Bride). Paul sought to be continually changed into the likeness of Christ’s death, knowing that only from such death does the fullness of life spring forth.
As to Christ’s death:
I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels. My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and thou hast brought me into the dust of death. For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet. (Psalms 22:14-16) As to Christ’s incorruptible life:
I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death. (Revelation 1:18)
The totality of life proceeds from the totality of death.
If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection [out-resurrection] of the dead. (Philippians 3:11)
The few commentators we have read, when referring to Philippians 3:11, assure us that the passage is referring to a spiritual resurrection. Their idea is that all Christians are raised from the dead into unutterable bliss so the verse must not be referring to the physical body of the believer.
However, a few verses later we see that Paul had the body in mind.
Who shall change our vile body, 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)
The common teaching that all Christians are raised from the dead leaves out some extremely important considerations. First of all, every person will be raised from the dead, not only the Christians. Second, our hope is not just that we will be raised, our great hope has to do rather with what will happen to us after we are raised. Third, we may ask, why was Paul so anxious to attain to a spiritual resurrection? What end would a spiritual resurrection serve if such an inner, spiritual resurrection were to have no effect on his outer, material resurrection?
We know that the inner spiritual nature of every true saint has died with Christ and now is alive with Christ. Also, our inward nature already has ascended to the right hand of the Father in Christ.
And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ: (Ephesians 2:6)
It appears that Paul was striving to bring his daily experience into line with that which already was spiritually true of him. Our entire Christian experience is a bringing into view that which already has been spoken concerning us. We are fighting our way downward, striving to bring our throne-life down into our daily behavior, and finally into our death-doomed physical body.
But are we to say that we shall receive a body like that of the Lord Jesus whether or not we succeed in being transformed in our inner nature ? Is it not true, rather, that in the resurrection our outer man will reflect that which the inner man has become? To think otherwise is to dwell in an unscriptural land of fantasy.
When Paul was striving to attain to the out-resurrection from among the dead he was speaking of his entire personality—spirit, soul, and body. All that Paul is, is to be filled with Christ. All that is not filled with Christ is garbage, from Paul’s point of view.
Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ. (Philippians 3:12)
Notice that Paul speaks of attaining to the out-resurrection as being perfection. Paul did not count that he had attained perfection but was pressing forward to grasp that for which he has been grasped. Christ has grasped Paul with the intention of filling all of Paul’s personality with Christ’s incorruptible life—the incorruptible life that makes Christ’s priesthood superior to that of the Aaronic priesthood.
Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, (Philippians 3:13)
We Christians, if we would live victoriously in the Lord Jesus, must not look back. Let us forget the past. God has brought us to where we are now, even though our pathway on many occasions has led us through a minefield. Are we reaching forth to the goal set before us? And what is that goal? It is to be part of the royal priesthood when the Lord appears. It is to receive back our body at His appearing so that we may rule with Him over the saved nations of the earth.
I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ. (Philippians 3:14)
The program of redemption will not continue forever. It is not that we are to press forward forever with the thought that there is no finish line. There is a finish line. There is a mark. There is a goal. The finish line, the mark, the goal, is that we may be found entirely in Christ, being crucified with Him and living by His life. We are in the pursuit of eternal life in spirit, in soul, and in body.
It comes as a surprise, even to seasoned believers, to learn that the purpose of resurrection is not to bring us to Heaven but to bring us back to life on the earth. If we are a true servant of the Lord we will go to be with Him when we die physically. When the Lord returns we shall return with Him and bring up our body from the place of death. Then we shall be able to live and rule with Him during the thousand-year Kingdom Age.
The reason we Gentiles have misunderstood Paul so grievously, referring now to the lawless-grace-rapture teaching, is that we are not coming to Christ for the same reason that Paul did. We must bring to mind that Saul of Tarsus was an Orthodox Jew. The one consuming passion of Paul’s life was to acquire righteousness and life in the Presence of God. Righteousness and life go together in both the old covenant and the new covenant.
Now therefore hearken, O Israel, unto the statutes and unto the judgments, which I teach you, for to do them, that ye may live, and go in and possess the land which the Lord God of your fathers giveth you. (Deuteronomy 4:1) But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. (Romans 6:22)
There is no eternal life apart from righteousness of personality and behavior. It is true that when we first come to the Lord Jesus for salvation we receive an assigned righteousness, even though there has not as yet been a change in our personality. But the Lord sets about immediately to develop actual righteousness in us. The atoning blood keeps us without condemnation during the time that the new creation is being formed.
It often is true that we Gentiles have little thought concerning righteousness either before or after we receive Christ. We have been taught that we are sinners, that all have sinned, that we cannot save ourselves but must have a Redeemer, and that we stand in danger of going to Hell if we do not come to the Redeemer to have our sins forgiven. We are told that the blood of the Lord Jesus is our ticket to Heaven. Our task is to not lose our ticket and to tell as many people as possible about the gift of deliverance from Hell through the blood of Christ. Paul would not even recognize the current "gospel."
Paul sought Christ in order to please God, not in order to go to Heaven. Paul wanted to partake of the righteousness that comes to every person who lays aside his own efforts to please God and trusts his righteousness into the Lord’s hands.
The goal and hope of the Orthodox Jew is as follows:
That he would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear, In holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life. (Luke 1:74,75)
Paul was not groaning for the redemption of his body in order that he might escape the great tribulation, or Antichrist, or even the discomfort of the Roman prisons. Paul was groaning for the redemption of His body so he might be set free from the body of sin and death he was dragging around; that he was beating into compliance so it would not cause him to betray his faithfulness to the Lord Jesus.
The Gentile Christians are seeking to go to Heaven when they die. Therefore much of what Paul says does not become a genuine part of their Christian walk. No Gentile will ever understand Paul, or the glory and liberty of the resurrection from among the dead, until he is seeking to be righteous in personality and behaviour in order to please God.