The Death Part 3.9

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9. " That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his ' sufferings, being made conformable unto his death." (Phil. 3:1010That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; (Philippians 3:10).)
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 recognize 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, recognizing 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 favor 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 favor 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 fulfillment 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 fur 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 Rom. 4:23,23Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him; (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; 5:1310Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. (2 Corinthians 4:10)
13For whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God: or whether we be sober, it is for your cause. (2 Corinthians 5:13)) present the same subject, only as connected with "the motives of the mind."