if any way I arrive at the resurrection from among [the] dead.
Paul has just said he wants to know Christ, share His sufferings, and become like Him in His death. This verse names where that road ends, and it raises two questions: why from the dead rather than of the dead, and why does Paul sound unsure?
Commentators say the older English wording blurs something important. This verse is not about a rising shared by everyone.
In common Bibles it reads "the resurrection of the dead," but I have no hesitation in saying that this is a complete mistake. According to the best authorities, the true and only meaning is, "if by any means I might attain to the resurrection out of (or from among) the dead." It may seem to some only a slight change. But if we want to know the mind of God, it makes a weighty difference. "Resurrection from the dead" implies that the rest of the dead remain in their graves. It points to a resurrection not common to all mankind, bad and good, but belonging only to those who are dear to God.
The word Paul uses here is unusual. It points to God's own pleasure in the one He raises.
The word for resurrection here in Philippians 3:11 is a special one in the Greek. It is found nowhere else in the New Testament… What was Christ's resurrection? God raised Him from the dead because His delight was in Him, because of His perfect righteousness, and because He glorified Him. And it is the same with us. Resurrection is the expression of God's satisfaction in those raised; it is His seal on Christ's work.
Many readers hear hesitation in these words. Commentators say they leave the route open, not the outcome.
It is a resurrection from among the dead, a resurrection after the pattern and example of Christ's resurrection. As for the expression "if by any means," it does not imply any doubt. It simply declares that the apostle was quite ready to reach that glorious goal by any route his Lord and Master might choose.
Paul names the goal he was ready to lose everything to reach.
The apostle's great desire was to reach Christ in the glory. With this in view he was ready to be conformed to Christ's death — to die to all that Christ had died to. He would accept even a martyr's death, if that was the way to reach the blessed condition of "the resurrection from among the dead."
Some read the verse as though only outstanding Christians reach this resurrection. Commentators reject that, and point to the word behind "attain," which means simply to arrive.
There is no such thing as a special or select resurrection of a certain company of believers. Scripture speaks of only two resurrections: first, that of the just when the Lord comes; then, when time itself is over, the resurrection of the unjust to judgment… It is for them as for Him a resurrection from among the dead, which is simply what Paul refers to in Philippians 3:11. It belongs to all who are His, and depends altogether on Christ, and in no way on the condition of the believer… "If by any means I may arrive at" — the word is not the one for attainment — "resurrection from among the dead."
Commentators differ on what "attain" adds here. One reading takes it as pointing to how Paul would rise, not when.
Paul is not saying that God would raise him before the rest of the saints. That is not in view. He would rise with all the rest of the saints at the coming of the Lord, but he would rise as one who had given his life for the testimony… We know that all saints will rise at the coming of the Lord. Paul, though, is looking at it as a prize to be won.
Certainty about the end did not slow Paul down. It made him run.
He was like a well-trained athlete running in an obstacle race with a mighty enthusiasm for reaching the goal. The earlier verses have told us how he had flung away seeming advantages as hindrances to his course. These verses tell us that no obstacle would hold him back. He would tear his way through the barbed wire of suffering and plunge into the watercourse of death, if that was the way to reach his goal.
- Out from among. The verse speaks of resurrection from among the dead — one that leaves the rest in their graves.
- God's delight. God raised Christ because He delighted in Him. That same resurrection is His seal of satisfaction on all who are Christ's.
- No doubt. "If by any means" is not doubt about arriving. It is willingness to come by whatever road the Lord appoints.
- No elite. This resurrection belongs to all who are Christ's. It rests on Him, not on how well a believer has done.
- Full speed. Paul's settled hope did not relax him. It turned him into a runner who would push through suffering and death to reach the goal.
Not that I have already obtained [the prize], or am already perfected; but I pursue, if also I may get possession [of it], seeing that also I have been taken possession of by Christ [Jesus].
Paul had just listed everything he once counted as gain and written it off as loss. Now he stops any reader from thinking he had arrived. The verse holds two things together. Paul admits something is still missing. He is also sure that Christ took hold of him for a definite purpose. So what is that purpose, and what is left to reach?
One writer says the word translated "perfect" here should be read as "perfected." That one change removes the clash with verse 15:
"Perfect" in verse 12 should be "perfected"; and this means, as the context shows, conformity to Christ, in body as well as morally, at the resurrection from among the dead. Then the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, will change the body of our humiliation to be like the body of His glory... and we will be in our "perfected" condition. But when he says in verse 15, "Let those of us who are mature think this way," the meaning is quite different. The word used there is the one Hebrews 5:14 renders as "full age"... In other words, it means mature Christians.
The older translation this writer used has "perfect" in both verses, which is where the apparent contradiction starts. The ESV keeps "perfect" in verse 12 and says "mature" in verse 15. So Paul is not denying maturity here. He is still waiting for the changed body of the resurrection.
Older translations say Christ "apprehended" Paul. One writer explains what that word means:
He is not speaking here of any mental apprehension of things. As far as I know, the only place this word survives in modern English is the language of the police court. We all know what it means when a policeman apprehends a man. It is then: If I may lay hold of that for which Christ has laid hold of me. What did He lay hold of you and me for? Nothing short of being with Himself and like Him in the glory of God forever.
The verse describes a grip in two directions: Christ's grip on Paul, and Paul's reach for the same thing. One writer notes how completely the two aims match:
As the simplest reader will see, the apostle's mind was set with all his energy on the very end Christ had in view in "taking possession" of His servant. Every day he walked toward that goal with steady care. It was, we may say, his one business, and by grace he let nothing interfere with it.
Paul had a record of service most would be proud of. One commentator reads the verse as his refusal to treat any of it as the finish line:
Whatever he might accomplish for the Lord on earth, that was not his goal... Paul took no pride at all in any of these "attainments," as people would call them. In fact he had not yet reached what he wanted... Christ Jesus had laid hold of him for eternal glory. How could he settle down, content with some earthly attainment?
Missing something sounds like a weakness. One writer turns it around: the gap is what keeps Paul moving.
It is beautiful to realise that the very thing he is lacking now, as we look at him here, is the very thing which makes him a pilgrim and a racer. It is an Object outside himself, something he has not yet attained. Its glory draws him, and he gives all his energy to pressing on toward it... A racer does not look at the road on each side. He looks at what is before him.
Even the sentence structure carries the strain of a man in motion:
He does not say what it is he has not yet obtained. He is running a race, and has no time or breath for a word he can do without. Notice the urgency all through this passage. The sentences are short. Some seem unfinished, as the apostle strains to press on.
One writer applies Paul's confession to anyone tempted to claim they have arrived:
The people with the largest measure of sanctification — in other words, those who are most Christ-like — are the last people in the world to say so. CHRIST, and not attainments, fills the vision of their souls.
- Seized — "Apprehended" is arrest language. Christ laid hold of Paul, and He did it for one definite purpose.
- For glory — Christ seized him for one thing: a body made like His own at the resurrection. Nothing on earth is that "perfected" state.
- So he reaches — Paul chases the very thing Christ already grasped him for. Christ's purpose and Paul's aim are one.
- So nothing stops him — The goal is eternal glory. No achievement on the way is big enough to stop at.
- So he never boasts — The gap he admits is not failure but fuel. Those nearest Christ are the last to claim they have arrived.