Lesson 18: Joy’s passion

Philippians 3:1-21 www.bible.com/bible/59/php.3 
11 that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

In this lesson we want to take a closer look at the last verse of our last lesson. What does it mean that we want to attain the resurrection from the dead?

If this verse is talking about the “first resurrection” (including the Rapture of the Church and the resurrection of believers at the end of the Millennial Kingdom) then it must be true that something we do or do not do can contribute to our resurrection. But according to all the rest of the Bible, resurrection from the dead is a part of eternal life which is completely a gift from God and has nothing to do with any of our works. See Romans 3:20-31; Romans 4:1-22; Galatians 3:1-29; Colossians 2:20-23; and Hebrews 4:3-10 just to name a few of these Scriptures.

So if this resurrection is not part of our eternal life in Heaven, because we cannot work toward that, we must find a different kind of resurrection in the Bible. We find such named in Romans 6. Please open your Bible to this chapter so we can follow what God is telling us in these verses.

Verses 1-14 talk about our death to sin. Since we are still alive in our human body after we receive Christ, this is not a physical death. Again, verse 5 says we are united with Jesus in His death. Verse 11 is the key to understanding – we are to CONSIDER ourselves dead to sin.
 


Verse 11 does not stop with our death to sin, however, it also says we are to consider ourselves alive to God in Christ Jesus. This is the symbol we celebrate in our water baptism after we are believers in Jesus. We have died to sin, and we rise to newness of life in Christ Jesus. Death sets us free from the commands of the Law which we cannot keep anyway, and our new life in Christ is making ourselves a willing slave to Jesus Christ so His Spirit can guide us into a brand new way of living life which, without constantly thinking of what is right and wrong according to the Law, leads us into a path of righteousness (Psalm 23) where our actions are good because we have allowed God to guide our thoughts.

If we believe this slavery to righteousness is easy, please continue reading Romans chapter 7 to hear Paul’s own battle against the old sin nature we still have in our human bodies. The battle of evil versus Holy Spirit to be in control of our life is fierce. But victory is defined in Romans chapter 8.

Paul’s statement in our verse today, “that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead” is this battle in us each day. Our passion for living as a slave to righteousness – being alive to the Spirit and dead to sin – will define the rest of our human life.

 *How does your life show which is your master today?