‘To know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the sharing in common of his sufferings, becoming conformed to his death,'
In these words Paul's whole desire is summed up, to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the sharing in common of His sufferings, being made conformable to His death. In other words he wants to have the mind of Christ (Philippians 2:5) more and more in such a way as to be a continual partaker with Him of what He Himself experienced, recognising that by setting his mind in this way he will continually experience the effective power of God (Philippians 2:6-11), in the same way as having the mind of the Spirit goes along with having the work of the Spirit within. This is ‘knowing Christ' in the ultimate way, by entering in to all that He has provided and made possible. It is walking in intimate fellowship with Him. It is growing in the knowledge of the love of Christ which passes all knowledge (Ephesians 3:19). And it is recognising and desiring more and more of the power that was revealed in His resurrection so that it might be effective through him (Galatians 2:20). This is the power that has made him alive when he was dead in trespasses and sins and a child of disobedience (Ephesians 2:1-4). It is the power that has given him newness of life (Romans 6:4). It is the power that seeks constantly to maintain possession of his life so that he might live fully for Christ and enjoy all the fullness of God (Ephesians 3:14-18). It is the power of the resurrection. And he wants more and more of it as he comes to know Christ in a deeper and deeper way.
But it is power that comes with a cost, for it involves sharing with Him in His sufferings and being conformed to His death. From now on he must see himself as crucified with Christ, so that he no longer lives but Christ lives through him (Galatians 2:20; Ephesians 3:15-18; John 14:23). He must reckon himself as dead to sin and alive to God through Jesus Christ his LORD (Romans 6:11). He must put off the old man and put on the new, which is created in the likeness of God, in righteousness and holiness of truth (Ephesians 4:22-24; Colossians 3:10). He must be ready to ‘fill up that which is behind in the sufferings of Christ' (Colossians 1:24), not a lack in sufficiency for salvation, but a requirement for the spread of the Gospel. For all who follow Christ truly, and would preach the Gospel, will in one way or another share His sufferings. It is through much tribulation that we must enter under the Kingly Rule of God (Acts 14:22; compare Hebrews 12:3-13).
‘The power of His resurrection.' This phrase includes both the power of Christ by which He was able to raise Himself from the dead (John 10:18, compare John 2:19), the power of the Holy Spirit by which He was ‘declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead' (Romans 1:4), and the ‘mighty power' of ‘the God of our Lords Jesus Christ, the Father of glory', ‘which He wrought on Christ when He raised Him from the dead' (Ephesians 1:17-20; compare Acts 2:24; Acts 2:32; Acts 3:15; etc. Acts 13:33; Acts 13:37; 1 Corinthians 15:15). It represents the total power of the Triune God at work through the resurrection.
‘To know Him (tou gnownai).' The article with the infinitive can indicate purpose ‘in order that I might know Him' or consequence ‘so that I might know Him'. Others suggest that it often indicates only a loose connection with what has preceded. This last idea might be appropriate here as the previous sentence has been concentrating on the obtaining of imputed righteousness. Thus here we are entering into a new realm of ideas, the knowing of the Christ experience, which does not result from being accounted as righteous, but rather results in it. Any link back is rather then to Philippians 3:8 where he speaks of ‘the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my LORD', but here there is an advancement of thought as he visualises entering genuinely and fully into Christ's own experience (as detailed in Philippians 2:5-11). We may see the aorist as signifying that this knowledge is on the one hand once for all, for once having known Him He cannot be unknown, and yet is a knowledge that will expand and grow as he knows Him more and more. More and more he will experience the power of His resurrection and the sharing in common with His sufferings, being made more and more conformable to His death as the old man within slowly expires.