Ek `out of' is used in Galatians 2:16 (2nd) and

Galatians 3:22.

Philippians 3:9 is of extreme importance for another reason. We do not find in Ephesians, Philippians or

Colossians an exposition of the great doctrine `justification by faith', for the apostle is there dealing, not with the

foundations but with the superstructure.

It would be a false and dangerous inference, however, to deduce from the absence of the doctrine that the great

foundation truth of the apostle's Gospel no longer obtained. The Church of the One Body needs a righteous standing

and a salvation by grace, as surely as the believers of any other calling. Philippians 3:9 is the apostle's own résumé

of this great truth, and its introduction into Philippians assures every believer that the basic teaching of Romans 1 to

5 is as fundamental to the revelation of the mystery as it is for the salvation of Israel.

CHAPTER 8

Philippians 3:11-21

Paul the master builder, not only laid a foundation, he built thereon. Here, in Philippians the building is not

salvation but rather the things that accompany salvation, the working out of salvation, fruit that may by its

abounding give evidence of the root hidden from view. Consequently, we have in Philippians 3:9 and 10 the

following sequence :

`And be found in Him ... That I may know Him'.

The first of these aspirations is doctrinal, the second is experimental. The first is concerned with righteousness,

the second with resurrection, but a resurrection that is peculiar and unique.

Paul did not need any proof of the fact of the Lord's resurrection, his conversion revolves around the

overwhelming fact, that it was `Jesus' Whom he was persecuting that spoke to him from heaven. What Paul desired

to know was the `power' of that resurrection. It is not possible to think of resurrection, without thinking also of

mighty power. When Paul spoke of Christ in resurrection he said `and declared to be the Son of God with power ...

by the resurrection from the dead' (Rom. 1:4). Though He was crucified through weakness `yet He liveth by the

power of God' (2 Cor. 13:4), and the prayer for the Ephesians reaches its culminating point in the first chapter, with

a desire that they should know `what is the exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward who believe, according to

the working of His mighty power, which He wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead'. This `power

that worketh in us' (Eph. 3:20) meets us in Philippians. It is available to enable the believer to work out his own

salvation as God works in (Phil. 2:13), and more pointedly, at the end of chapter 3, when speaking of the glorious

transfiguration of the believer in resurrection, we read `who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like

unto His glorious body, according to the working whereby He is able (dunamai, power is dunamis) even to subdue

all things unto Himself' (Phil. 3:21).

When the apostle cried `that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection', it is this aspect of resurrection

that the apostle has before him. He knew the historic fact; he knew its fundamental character for all doctrine; he

knew all preaching and all faith were vain without it, but he also realized that there was a personal and experimental

side to the fact of resurrection that had a peculiar bearing upon the great theme of the Philippian epistle. Let us

follow the apostle in his quest.

That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection.

The fellowship of His sufferings.

Being made conformable unto His death.

If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.

It will be seen that this four-fold sub-division falls into an introversion.

A That I may know. Power. Resurrection. Something to attain.

 Something to endure

B Fellowship of His sufferings