What is the fellowship of His sufferings (Philippians 3:10)?

If the knowledge of the true living Christ, thus objectively presented to us, is brought subjectively into our hearts by the Spirit, it leads to a third thing; an acquaintance with Him in an experimental and practical way. To this Paul alludes in the latter part of verse 10. The order of the words is significant. The historical order in the case of our Lord was, sufferings, death, resurrection. Here resurrection comes first. Neither Paul nor any of us can contemplate sufferings or death save as we are fortified by the knowledge of the power of His resurrection. His resurrection is the pattern and pledge of ours. Indeed our resurrection altogether depends upon His.

As the Apostle realized in his spirit the power of Christ's resurrection, he looked upon "the fellowship of His sufferings" as something actually to be desired. He even desired to be conformed to His death! Until the Lord comes we can only know the power of His resurrection in an inward and spiritual way, yet the fellowship of His sufferings and conformity to His death are of a very practical nature. Paul would taste of suffering in the cause of Christ and after the pattern of Christ — suffering which should be of the same order as those sufferings which Christ Himself endured at the hands of men. He would even die as a witness to the truth, seeing Christ thus died. He actually desired these things.

How impossible is it to the natural mind to understand such passages as this! The most it can know of God, is as the God of nature; now, with this light, it must do one of two things, either recognise that there has been some great event intervening between His creation of the world and its present standing, in which view, attributing all the manifestly existing evil to such an event as the fall really was, it would surely, recognising God's goodness, calculate upon the present exercise of His power in behalf of those that serve and faithfully obey Him, to deliver them from the present evil; or, on the other hand, not adopting, indirectly from scripture, any such view about the fall, it must, gathering its judgment of God from the daily experience of the creation, most sadly misapprehend the real character of God, and suppose Him to take pleasure in the sorrows which sin and Satan brought into the world. Contrasted with both these views, the context before us presents God, in all the grace of His love, giving up His own Son to redeem from under the hand of Satan and the power of the fall, and yet, in His wisdom, so far from granting present deliverance to His servants from sorrow and trial, making it, because part of their association with His Son, a most especial part of His love toward them and proof of His favour for them. Such is the general instruction I should glean from this desire of the Spirit in the apostle to know Jesus, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death — the inseparableness of God's favour and suffering; at the same time it may be well to notice that there is clearly a stress upon "the fellowship of his sufferings" — suffering in itself not necessarily being the fulfilment of the Spirit's desire here expressed. As Peter expresses it, "Rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; … If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; … but let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evil-doer, or as a busybody in other men's matters. Yet if any suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him, glorify God on this behalf. … Wherefore, let them that suffer according to the will of God, commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator." There are two classes of sufferings, which may be ours as Christians: 1, Those which come upon us only because we are Christians, as persecution for His name's sake, and for testimony; 2, Those which, though they may be ours in common with the men of this world — the sufferings of fallen humanity — we yet bear for Christ's sake; for instance, a Christian may be subject, in common with others, to a great deal of oppression and tyranny, it may be — the worldling will bear it only just so far as his own advantage makes useful; the Christian will bear it all for Christ's sake — because he can say, "All things are of him who hath reconciled us. unto himself." This differs from the truth taught in Romans 4:23, in that it presents trial of circumstances — that in Romans the trial of faith as the believer's portion. The passages (2 Cor. 4:10; 2 Cor. 5:13) present the same subject, only as connected with "the motives of the mind."

The apostle desires that he might know the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable to His death. Now we have here the nature of the sufferings of Christ even to death, not in the sense of vicarious sufferings. The apostle clearly could not desire to be obnoxious and exposed to wrath because of the position he was in at a distance from God. But in the devotedness of service in which, in denial of all will of his own, he found himself as acting for God, and manifesting Him in life and in word in opposition to the whole wickedness of man and power and malice of Satan, and in the suffering of that devotedness in love to them that were God's, he did desire to be made conformable to Christ by His grace. Now this came upon him from without, but it was weighed and realized in the Spirit of Christ beforehand within, so that all this suffering without was understood, and took its place in his mind from what was already spiritually there. Thus he was "pressed out of measure, above strength, so that he despaired even of life; but he had the sentence of death in himself, that he should not trust in himself but in God which raiseth the dead;" so, "always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus may be manifested in his mortal body. For we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal body." Here Christ's sufferings were not vicarious, and such as we can seek fellowship with in the power of the Spirit of God according to our measure. That is not exposure to wrath from which a man by faith preserves himself. We get a clear view of what the sufferings of Christ are as in the world other than what was vicarious, and this even unto death itself.

"That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection," that is, the power of the place where He has associated us with Him, and this sought, not that peace may be more perfect or any blessing better entered into, but that we may go down more fully into the path of rejection with Him here, "the fellowship of his sufferings." No such fellowship will ever be known in the eternal glory: if we have missed it now, it is missed for ever. Do we know what it is to be attracted to Him by all His grace and by the glory of His Person in this time of His rejection? "There is a fellowship of His sufferings more sweet than even that of His glory. David's mighty men had no such intimacy with him in the glories of the kingdom as when he was hunted like a partridge on the mountains. How incalculable the loss if, through unfaithfulness or lack of purpose of heart for Christ, we miss the fellowship of His sufferings which we are called to now, as the richest privilege of our association with Him in this time and place of His rejection. And the apostle would stop at nothing short of being conformed unto His death. He would go the whole path with Him.

There is a precision in scripture we must ever be mindful of. He was never more the delight of the Father's heart than as the Holy Sufferer on the cross. In His non-atoning sufferings we may share. Paul says, "That I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings." He did know Him as His Saviour, and could speak of the surpassing knowledge, yet he wanted to know Him more, and the fellowship of his sufferings! Suffering with Christ is the portion of every true child of God in this world; but suffering for Christ is a gift. There is this difference between Peter and Paul, that Peter was "a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory about to be revealed," whilst Paul was a witness of the glory, and a partaker of the sufferings.

In Christ there could be no need of the discipline of suffering. Trial did not perfect Him in obedience, but showed Him perfect. Yet "perfected through suffering" He was, but as the "Captain of salvation," the "Author and finisher of faith," the One who goes before on and initiates the path upon which He victoriously leads His followers. For this in all things it behooved Him to be made like unto His brethren, "tempted in all things, like as we are, sin apart." (Heb. 4:15, Gk.) How wondrous, how inspiring, such an example! God Himself become man to lead our feet in obedience on the path His own have trodden! In the peculiar sufferings of the cross He has gone beyond us, where none could follow; in all else we are called to enter into the "fellowship of His sufferings," and that as the way to share with Him, through His grace, the crown also: it is "if we suffer, we shall also reign with Him." (2 Tim. 2:12.)

167 But there is another point of contrast, consequently, very important for us. Christ suffered for sin that we never might. We are healed by, not partakers of, His stripes. What Christ has suffered from the forsaking of God as wrath, He has suffered alone and exactly, as to us, with the object that we never should taste one drop of that dreadful, bitter, to us insupportable cup. Did we drink it, it were as condemned sinners. But in the sufferings of Christ for righteousness, and in those which were caused to Him through His work of love, we are, poor and feeble as our faith is, to have a part. To us it is given, not only to believe on, but also to suffer for, His name. If we suffer with Him, we shall reign with Him. If we suffer for righteousness' sake, happy are we, and yet more blessed if we suffer for His name. The Spirit of glory and of God rests upon us. We can rejoice that we are partakers of His sufferings, that when His glory shall be revealed, we may be glad with exceeding joy. The suffering for righteousness and for Christ, I may remark in passing, are distinguished by the Lord Himself (Matthew 5:10-11); and by Peter (1 Peter 2:20; ch. 3:17; ch. 4:14).

The meaning of "being made conformable unto His death" is clearly seen from the context. Strictly speaking, the commencement of verse 10 is connected with "Christ Jesus my Lord" in verse 8, the words between being in some sort a parenthesis. The apostle says, "Yea doubtless, and I count" (not only counted in the past, but still do count) "all things loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord." And then, after setting before us that he had suffered the loss of all things for the sake of a glorified Christ, and that now he desired only to have Christ as his gain, in contrast with those things which had constituted his gain as a Jew in the flesh, and "to be found in Him," etc., he proceeds, "That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death." Verse 9 goes on to the future, in accordance with the truth of the epistle in which salvation is always looked upon as completed at the coming of the Lord; whereas verse 10 gives us the apostle's desires in view of His path through this world. First then it is, "That I may know Him" — know Him, that is, in the place where He now is; and this knowledge will ever increase with growing intimacy, and thus is never attained, that is to say, perfectly attained. We know Christ now, but we desire to know Him more fully; and thus it is still all our aim, with Paul, to know Him. Next, "And the power of His resurrection." By death with Christ we are detached from this scene; by being raised with Him we are carried up into the sphere where He now is. (Compare Col. 3:1-3.) The power of His resurrection is that which draws us up, in virtue of having Him as our life in resurrection, into our new place before God; so that our minds are on things above, and not on things of the earth; for we are dead, and our life is hid with Christ in God. "The fellowship of His sufferings" is the next thing, as a necessary consequence; for when we live in the power of the life which we have in Christ risen, we must suffer in our measure in passing through this world, as Christ suffered. But these sufferings of Christ went on to, and included, death; for as suffering from the hands of man, He died a martyr. (Compare Heb. 12:3-4.) Hence it is that the apostle adds, "Being made conformable to His death;" for he had been made willing to die, like his Master, a martyr's death, in view of the glorious prospect of resurrection from among the dead. This is the only sense in which being made conformable to the death of Christ is found; and only those therefore who have been put to death, as Stephen was for example, in the character of witnesses for Christ, have been permitted to enjoy this privilege and blessedness.

The meaning of "being made conformable unto His death" is clearly seen from the context. Strictly speaking, the commencement of verse 10 is connected with "Christ Jesus my Lord" in verse 8, the words between being in some sort a parenthesis. The apostle says, "Yea doubtless, and I count" (not only counted in the past, but still do count) "all things loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord." And then, after setting before us that he had suffered the loss of all things for the sake of a glorified Christ, and that now he desired only to have Christ as his gain, in contrast with those things which had constituted his gain as a Jew in the flesh, and "to be found in Him," etc., he proceeds, "That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death." Verse 9 goes on to the future, in accordance with the truth of the epistle in which salvation is always looked upon as completed at the coming of the Lord; whereas verse 10 gives us the apostle's desires in view of His path through this world. First then it is, "That I may know Him" - know Him, that is, in the place where He now is; and this knowledge will ever increase with growing intimacy, and thus is never attained, that is to say, perfectly attained. We know Christ now, but we desire to know Him more fully; and thus it is still all our aim, with Paul, to know Him. Next, "And the power of His resurrection." By death with Christ we are detached from this scene; by being raised with Him we are carried up into the sphere where He now is. (Compare Col. 3:1-3.) The power of His resurrection is that which draws us up, in virtue of having Him as our life in resurrection, into our new place before God; so that our minds are on things above, and not on things of the earth; for we are dead, and our life is hid with Christ in God. "The fellowship of His sufferings" is the next thing, as a necessary consequence; for when we live in the power of the life which we have in Christ risen, we must suffer in our measure in passing through this world, as Christ suffered. But these sufferings of Christ went on to, and included, death; for as suffering from the hands of man, He died a martyr. (Compare Heb. 12:3-4.) Hence it is that the apostle adds, "Being made conformable to His death;" for he had been made willing to die, like his Master, a martyr's death, in view of the glorious prospect of resurrection from among the dead. This is the only sense in which being made conformable to the death of Christ is found; and only those therefore who have been put to death, as Stephen was for example, in the character of witnesses for Christ, have been permitted to enjoy this privilege and blessedness.

"That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death; if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection from the dead." Just as in the previous verse, so also in this, it was true already in one sense: Paul did know Christ and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made con-formable unto His death: this was a present, deep reality to his soul, wrought by the Spirit of God. But this viewpoint must not be confounded with that which he takes in penning this chapter. His desire here is to "know Him" by being in His very presence in Glory, to know literally "the power of His resurrection," that is, through having to pass through sufferings from men, as the Lord Jesus did, and actually experiencing death, as did his Lord, he might also actually experience the power of God in resurrection; thus knowing in literal experience, - not simply in spiritual power - that which his Lord and Master has known. "If by any means," he adds, "I might attain unto the resurrection from the dead." Let us mark here that he thus will consider nothing short of the coming of the Lord - the rapture of the saints - as any proper attainment. This is further confirmed by verses 20 and 21; but verses 12 to 16 show us the very real effects in the apostle's whole conduct and character that were produced by the fact that this present life on earth will never gain pure satisfaction for the soul.