Philippians 3:11Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

What does this mean? It seems that here he hints at something great. Indeed, it was so great that he did not even dare to speak of it directly, but says only, "that."

It is as though he says: I have believed in Christ and in His Resurrection, and I even suffer for Him. Yet I cannot be completely certain of my own resurrection.

Of what resurrection is he speaking here? Of the one that leads to Christ Himself.

I have believed in Him, the Apostle said, and through the power of the Resurrection I share in His sufferings and am conformed to His death. Yet after all this, I am still not completely certain.

He says this elsewhere also: "Let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall" (1 Cor 10:12). Again: "Lest, after preaching to others, I myself should be disqualified" (1 Cor 9:27).

If we strive and pray, we attain. If we pray diligently, God will grant it.

But if we do not ask Him, do nothing of the sort, and remain wholly inactive, how can sleeping men ever do good? In no way.

It is enough that those who run, strive, and are conformed to His death, as Paul said, can receive. Those who sleep cannot receive at all.

"That," he says, "I may attain." If Paul said, "that I may attain," what shall we say?

Those who sleep cannot accomplish worldly tasks, much less spiritual ones. Those who sleep can never receive anything from friends, nor can they receive from God.

Fathers do not honor those who sleep, and neither does God.

Let us labor a little, that we may always enjoy rest. It is absolutely necessary to suffer grief. If we do not suffer grief here, we shall suffer it there.

Why do we not resolve to suffer grief here, so that there we may rest?

May all of us, having lived worthily of Christ and having been conformed to His death, be counted worthy of ineffable blessings in Christ Jesus.

With Him, to the Father and the Holy Spirit be glory, dominion, and honor, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

So Paul, the imitator of Christ, says: "being conformed to His death, if by any means I may attain to the resurrection of the dead" (Phil 3:10-11).

How, then, do we become "in the likeness of His death"? By being "buried with Him through baptism" (Rom 6:4-5).

What is the form of this burial? And why is such imitation beneficial?

First, the order of the former life must be brought to an end. According to the Lord's word, this is impossible for one "unless he is born from above" (Jn 3:8).

For rebirth, as the very name shows, is the beginning of a new life. Therefore, before the new life begins, the preceding life must be ended.

Among those who run back and forth in the course, two opposite movements are separated by a certain pause and rest.

So also, in the change of life, it proved necessary that death should stand between the one life and the other. It ends the preceding life and begins the life that follows.

How, then, do we accomplish the descent into Hades? By imitating Christ's burial in baptism, because the bodies of those baptized are, as it were, buried in the water.

It is received through faith in His redeeming sacrifice of sufferings for mankind, for their justification before the Father.

"Faith in Jesus Christ grants the remission of all sins. Bringing down the grace of the Holy Spirit into the heart through the mysteries, it sanctifies the heart and makes it pure before the eyes of the all-seeing God Himself.

This is essential righteousness. The Apostle possessed it. Everyone also must possess it.

Do not rely on your works that are visibly performed. Seek this inward grace of holiness built in the spirit, for everything is in it. Without it, everything is nothing."

"Having known the Lord Jesus Christ by faith, one must enter into communion with His sufferings. Through this one becomes worthy to obtain the glorious resurrection in Him."

"The death on the Cross replaced all sacrifices. Whoever enters into suffering with the Lord appropriates the power of His death on the Cross and full justification before divine righteousness."

"The Lord acquired salvation for you by sufferings. If you wish to receive your salvation from Him and make it your own, suffer together with the Lord."

"One kind of co-suffering is through outward afflictions and privations. Another kind is the struggle with passions and desires (Gal 5:24; 1 Cor 9:27).

Here are meant all acts of self-mortification, in which there is no less pain than in outward sufferings."

"The glorious resurrection can be attained only through suffering with the Lord."

"When all the passions are driven out, good dispositions take their place. The whole soul comes alive, as though it rises from the dead.

Whoever rises in this way will undoubtedly be counted worthy of the glorious resurrection. The Apostle desires to rise in soul in this life through overcoming the passions and establishing the virtues" (Bishop Theophan).

"If we do not die and come to life in this way, we shall not attain the glorious resurrection," says St. John Chrysostom.

But do not claim glory for yourself beforehand, for the Apostle also says that he is not yet certain of attaining glory (cf. 1 Cor 10:12).

Defining all this as the knowledge of Christ, our more recent interpreter says: "This knowledge is, of course, not dead and speculative.

It is a knowledge impossible without being in the One known. It is knowledge through appropriating Christ to oneself, through communion with Him, with His sufferings, death, and Resurrection.

It is communion with the fullness of divine powers and gifts of the Holy Spirit that belong to Him (cf. Rom 6:3-4; 1 Cor 10:16; Col 2:9-11)" (Nazarevsky, p. 123).

The Apostle wished to abide in Christ and be found in Him for this purpose. First, he wished to attain full knowledge of Him, and chiefly to know the great power and meaning of His resurrection from the dead.

Second, he wished to enter into communion with Christ in His sufferings, that is, to endure the same afflictions which Christ endured from sinners.

Third, he wished thus to die in a manner like Him, that is, to put to death the old man within himself.

For this he will, like Christ, be raised to glory. Yet the Apostle, with his characteristic humility, speaks of this only conditionally: "if by any means I may attain."

Still, he does not mean that he has already succeeded in attaining this perfect knowledge of Christ. He only strives zealously to grasp moral perfection, since, έφ’ ω, he himself has already been grasped by the Perfect One, Christ.

In general, he never fixes his attention on his own progress in Christian development. Like one running in the arena, he looks only ahead, does not turn back, and runs to receive the reward prepared for the victors.

This is done either by the path of outward involuntary sufferings, or by the path of crucifying the flesh with its passions and desires.

How does this means relate to the stated end? Let us recall an expression often found in the holy Fathers: to rise in soul before that glorious universal resurrection.

The soul is dead through sin, which acts in the passions. The seed of its enlivening is laid in baptism, on the foundation of the Christian's moral resolve to resist sin unto the laying down of life.

All life after baptism is nothing other than the development of that seed. But this development plainly consists in fighting the passions and establishing virtues in their place.

As this is accomplished, life is carried into all parts of the soul. The more passions are overcome, the greater the part of the soul that comes alive.

When all the passions are driven out, and good dispositions are established in their place, the whole soul comes alive. It rises, as it were, from the dead.

This is the resurrection before the universal resurrection. It is evident that whoever rises in this way here will then without doubt be counted worthy of the glorious resurrection.

Or, after the resurrection, he will go straight to Christ.

Therefore what does the Apostle desire when he expresses the wish to attain such a resurrection?

He desires in this life to attain resurrection in soul through the overcoming of the passions and the establishment of virtues.

This occurs by way of voluntary or involuntary sufferings and privations in the struggle against the passions and desires.

Through this he is wholly brought into conformity with the Lord's death and into participation in His sufferings.

This is the direct meaning of Chrysostom's words: "If you do not die and come alive in this way, you will not attain the glorious resurrection."

But why does he say, "if somehow I may attain," as though he were not sure that he was going by the straight path?

He was sure that he was going by the straight path. But he could not rely on himself, whether he would always go by this path.

He did not know whether he would reach the end of the path, turn back, or turn aside from the road.

"I," he says, as it were, "have believed in Christ and in the power of His resurrection. I share in His sufferings and am conformed to His death.

Yet after all this I am still not completely sure." He says the same elsewhere: "Let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall" (1 Cor 10:12).

And again: "I fear lest, having preached to others, I myself should become disqualified" (cf. 1 Cor 9:27) (Chrysostom).

If such an Apostle could not rely on himself, who will dare to do so? Therefore the word applies to all: work out your salvation with fear and trembling.

Look keenly and attend with intensity, for there are many snares.

On the other hand, it is beyond doubt that our path is true and leads straight to resurrection in glory.

But who can say that he has exactly fulfilled, and is fulfilling, all the conditions for this?

This is why a law runs through all the great holy ascetics: labor and sweat to the exhaustion of your strength, in hope, but without appropriation.

Do not appropriate to yourself beforehand the glory after the resurrection. Seek it and labor to acquire it with full hope, but do not appropriate it as a matter already decided.

If you appropriate it, you will enter a state of self-delusion, which weakens and exalts. In that state the whole company of the self-assured is sunk.