Search
We have seen that on account of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ, we should count all things as loss in order that we may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having our own righteousness out of the law, but the righteousness that is God Himself lived out of us (Phil. 3:7-9). The purpose of this is that we might know Him, the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings. But Paul does not stop here; he continues by saying, “Being conformed to his death” (v. 10). The excellency of the knowledge of Christ, the counting loss of all things, the gaining of Christ, being found in Him, knowing Him, knowing the power of His resurrection, and knowing the fellowship of His sufferings all issue in one thing — being conformed to His death. Thus, the burden in this chapter is to consider this matter.
In Philippians 3 the apostle Paul considered the death of Christ to be a model, a form, or a mold. For example, when the sisters make cakes or cookies, they put the dough into a mold. By being pressed into the mold, the dough eventually is conformed to the shape of the mold. This is precisely Paul’s meaning here. He regards the death of Christ as a mold and us as the dough to be put into the mold and pressed. The result is that we are conformed to the death of Christ.
The death of Adam is terrible, and we loathe it. The death of Christ, however, is precious and lovable, and we all should treasure it. According to the Bible, the wonderful death of Christ is symbolized by baptism. In the Gospels the Lord Jesus experienced two baptisms: the first at the beginning of His ministry, when He was baptized in water by John, and the second at the end of His ministry, when He was baptized on the cross. Both baptisms symbolize the lovable death of Christ.
Baptism signifies both burial and resurrection. When a person is baptized in water, he is buried. A person who believes in the Lord Jesus comes to realize that he is dead and needs to be buried. Thus, we bury him by baptizing him in water. However, we do not leave him there. After burying him, we immediately raise him up. Burying signifies termination, and being raised up signifies germination. Thus, baptism clearly has two meanings: burial, signifying termination, and resurrection, signifying germination. This is the profound significance of baptism in the Scriptures.
The Lord Jesus passed through two baptisms. In the eyes of God, to be baptized like this is the highest righteousness. According to God, righteousness means to be right according to God’s commandments. In the Old Testament times God gave His people ten commandments. If anyone kept these commandments, he would be right before God, and God’s righteousness would be with him. If anyone broke a commandment, he had to present a trespass offering in order to be brought back to the right position and to maintain his righteousness before God. Moses came with two tablets of commandments and charged the people to keep the commandments so that they might be right with God and have the righteousness required by God according to His law. But John the Baptist came and told people that they had to be baptized. By this we see that with John the dispensation was changed. God’s economy in the New Testament is different from that in the Old Testament. According to God’s economy in the Old Testament, His people were required to keep the law in order to be righteous in His sight. But in the New Testament God does not require us to keep the commandments of the law; rather, He has ordained that we be buried. This means that He requires that we be terminated and germinated. This is God’s New Testament ordination. If anyone in the New Testament economy keeps the Ten Commandments but refuses to be baptized, he is a rebel against God’s ordination. Therefore, in the New Testament the highest righteousness is to be baptized.
This is the reason that in Matthew 3 the Lord Jesus said that He had to be baptized in order to fulfill all righteousness (v. 15). When I read this portion of the Word as a young man, I was troubled by it. I could not understand why Jesus, the Son of God, had to do something to fulfill all righteousness. It seemed to me that He was already perfect and complete and did not need to be baptized. In His New Testament economy God wants us to be terminated in order that we might receive the One who will germinate us. In other words, in the New Testament the righteousness God requires is that we live not by ourselves but by God.
Once again we may use married life as an illustration. Suppose a wife keeps her husband’s commandments and does everything according to them. She does whatever her husband tells her. Although such a wife may be a good wife, she is not a sweet wife. The sweetest wife is the one who not only keeps her husband’s word but also lives by his life. There is a vast difference between these two things. However, it seems impossible for a wife to live by her husband’s life because he cannot get into her to be her life. But our divine Husband, the Lord Jesus, has come into us to be our life. In the New Testament God does not command us to do this and that. Rather, He simply commands us to live by Him. Moses came with God’s commandments, but Jesus Christ came with God Himself. Thus, the only thing God wants is for us to live by Him.
Living by God requires that we be killed. If we are still living, it is impossible for us to live by the life of another person. Some wives are very good in a legal way and do whatever their husbands say. But often these legally good wives have a judgmental attitude toward their husbands. The best wife is one who lives in the person of her husband, according to the very heart and desire of her husband. Such a wife does not live or act on her own but lives and acts in and by her husband. Even though her husband cannot actually get into her and be her life, she still lives by him. The wife who lives like this is a sweet, lovely wife.
In the Old Testament God sent Moses with ten commandments to the people. But in the New Testament God sent His Son to put Himself into His people so that they might live not by themselves but by God. Such a living is the highest righteousness, the righteousness required for entering into the kingdom of the heavens, the righteousness which surpasses that of the Pharisees, the righteousness which is according to God’s law (5:20). This righteousness surpasses the righteousness of the Pharisees because it is according to God Himself. In fact, it is even God Himself lived out of us.
The Lord Jesus took the lead to live this kind of life, living not by Himself but by God. Therefore, when He came out to minister, the first thing He did was to go to John the Baptist to observe God’s ordination to be terminated in baptism. This was a symbol of His death, the termination of His human life. His death terminated His human life so that the divine life might rise up in Him. In all the years that He was on earth, He lived, behaved, acted, and moved by God and not by Himself. In baptism He buried His human life and was resurrected in the divine life. Thus, He was a person who kept His human life under the death of the baptism that buried His human life and resurrected Him in the divine life. In this matter the Lord Jesus did not live according to the law; He lived by God Himself. In John 6:57 He said, “As the living Father has sent Me and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he also shall live because of Me.” This is not a matter of conduct according to laws and regulations; it is a matter of living by Christ. To live this way means that we are in the model of Christ’s death.
The Lord Jesus had a human life. Nevertheless, in answering God’s ordination, He did not live by His human life but by God Himself. Instead of keeping the law, He lived by God, not caring for requirements, regulations, or commandments but only for God Himself. The Lord Jesus did not live merely according to His Father’s commandments; He lived according to the Father Himself. Living such a life requires us to be terminated. This is the model, the mold, of Christ’s death to which we are being conformed.
If we see this, we will realize how far off the mark most of today’s Christians are. Most of them are still in the Old Testament economy, under God’s former ordination. But in the New Testament we should not be under that old ordination but under the new ordination, the ordination of living not by ourselves but by Christ. As long as we live by Christ, whatever we do and wherever we go is all right, because it is actually not we who are doing a certain thing or going to a particular place but Christ who lives in us. In the past many of us thought that to be a Christian was simply to do whatever God asked us to do. But this is the Old Testament economy, not the New Testament economy. In the New Testament economy God does not ask us to do certain things but to live by Him. Acting according to God’s commandments does not require us to die, for we are needed to do something. But living by God requires us to die, not to do anything. In one sense, God needs us, and in another sense, He does not need us. He does not need us to do anything, but He does need us to die. God only needs us to go to the cross and die. To learn this lesson, do not go to a professor to be educated; go to John the Baptist to be terminated.
The Lord Jesus was no exception to this. When He came to John the Baptist, John at first declined to baptize Him. But the Lord said, “Permit it for now, for it is fitting for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness” (Matt. 3:15). The Lord Jesus had to be buried and raised up by God so that He might live no longer by Himself but by God. This was the highest righteousness. For example, no wife is better than the one who lives by her husband, not by herself. This is what God desires today. He does not want us to do anything; He only wants us to die to our own life and to live out His life. This is the righteousness that is God Himself.
Before His ministry began, the Lord Jesus passed through such a death. All the time that He was on earth, He did not live by Himself. Rather, He always lived by the Father and said, “I can do nothing from Myself” (John 5:30). The Lord had been buried. How could a buried one do anything? Suppose you are buried. What would you be able to do? If you are still able to do something, it indicates that you have not been buried. Our status must be that of a terminated and buried person who can do nothing from himself. The Lord Jesus seemed to say, “I can do nothing from Myself. When I came out to minister, I was baptized, buried, under the water. Now, as a buried person, how can I do anything?”
Hallelujah, where burial is, there is resurrection! The burial is of the human life, and resurrection is of the divine life. Because He was buried and resurrected, the Lord Jesus did not live by His human life but by the divine life. The Lord Jesus did everything by the Father who lived within Him (14:10), living as One who had been buried. Thus, the power of resurrection was always with Him.
At the end of His ministry the Lord Jesus physically died on the cross. When the two sons of Zebedee came to Him seeking for a position, He said, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup which I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?” (Mark 10:38). When they said to Him, “We are able,” Jesus said, “The cup which I drink you shall drink, and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you shall be baptized” (v. 39). In the book of Acts we see that the apostles were in fact baptized in this way. They were all buried and resurrected. For example, in Acts Peter did not live by his human life but by the divine life. He was under the death of Christ and was being conformed to it.
We have seen that at the end of His life the Lord Jesus literally entered into death and was buried. But after His physical burial, in which He was absolutely and thoroughly terminated, He was bodily resurrected. By His resurrection the divine life within Him was fully released. Hence, He became the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45). As the life-giving Spirit, He entered into the disciples and infused them with His life, the life that lived always under the death of the cross. This enabled the disciples to live in the form, in the model, in the mold, of the death of Christ. Thus, the apostle Paul could declare, “I am crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me” (Gal. 2:20). Paul lived not by his own life but by Christ as his life.
It is important to see the difference between doing something and dying that we may live Christ. Doing things is according to the old ordination, but dying to live Christ is according to the new ordination. As we have seen, God today does not want us to do anything; He only wants us to die that we may live Christ. This is what it means to be conformed to Christ’s death. This vision needs to control us. For example, as you are about to love someone, you need to consider whether you are loving by your self or by Christ. The same is true with the preaching of the gospel. Do you preach the gospel by your self or by Christ? God does not want you to preach the gospel by your self; He wants you to preach the gospel by Christ. You need to be able to say, “It is not I who preach the gospel; it is Christ.” We need to live a life under the death of Christ until the redemption of our body, until we are literally and thoroughly terminated and enter into resurrection with the divine life. Until that happens, we must live in the principle of having our human life buried so that we may live by the divine life, which is Christ Himself. To do this is to be conformed to the death of Christ.
We all are in the process of being conformed to the death of Christ. Christ’s death is the model, the form, for our daily living. Our very being needs to be conformed to His death. This means that our human life is always under death so that we no longer have our being according to our human life but according to Christ.
As we are being conformed to Christ’s death, temptations will come to induce us to live by ourselves instead of by the divine life within us. In John 12 the Lord Jesus faced such a temptation. After the resurrection of Lazarus, many Jews had come to believe in Him. The crowds that were in Jerusalem for the Passover heard of this miracle and even saw the resurrected Lazarus. When the Lord Jesus came to Jerusalem, He was given a warm welcome. The Pharisees even said that the whole world had gone after Him (v. 19). Apparently, this was the golden time for the Lord Jesus, the man from Nazareth. Some Jews from Greece wanted to see Him. Not daring to approach Him directly, they asked Philip to speak to Him for them. When the Lord Jesus heard that they desired to see Him, He said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, Unless the grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit” (v. 24). The Lord Jesus was not excited by the warm reception given Him. Rather, He said that He would fall into the ground and die. He came to Jerusalem not to be welcomed but to die so that many grains might be brought forth.
In John 12:25 the Lord Jesus said, “He who loves his soul-life loses it; and he who hates his soul-life in this world shall keep it unto eternal life.” In the next verse He continued, “If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there also My servant will be.” The Lord Jesus is in death, and all who want to serve Him must follow Him there. The Lord’s emphasis was that we must always live, move, and act under death to terminate our human life so that we may be germinated with the divine life to live in the way God desires. This is the kind of life that we should live today. This is the highest righteousness.
Even the Lord Jesus was tempted to live according to His human life instead of according to the divine life. As we are in the process of being conformed to His death, we will be tempted again and again to turn away from the crucified life. The temptations seek to induce us away from living a crucified life and to revert to living by our natural life. When we are tempted, we need to say, “I am no exception. Unless I die, I cannot bear fruit or release the divine life. Unless I die, I cannot live out Christ or say, ‘To live is Christ.’ I must keep myself always under the death of baptism and be conformed to Christ’s death.”
Being conformed to the death of Christ is the issue of all the foregoing items in Philippians 3. I am sorry that so few Christians have seen this. The more we have the excellency of the knowledge of Christ, the more we will be conformed to His death. The more we count all things as loss on account of Christ, the more we will be conformed to His death. The more we know Him, the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, the more we will be conformed to His death. It is in being conformed to His death that we enjoy Christ, the divine life, and live out God as our righteousness. This is the way to experience Christ.
