Conforming to Christ's Death.
"_That I may know Him . . . being made conformable unto His
death_."--Phil. iii. 10.
"_Conformable unto His death_." At first sight the words are
something of a surprise. "_His death?_" Has not the thought more
often before us been to conform to _His life_? His death seems "too
high for us"--so far off in its greatness, in its suffering, in its
humiliation, in its strength, in its glorious consequences. How is it
possible we should ever be conformed to such a wonder of love and power?
And yet, here is the great Apostle, in one of those beautiful and
illuminating references to his own experience which always seem to bring
his messages right home to us, setting forth this very conformity as the
end of all his labours, and the purpose in all his struggles. "What things
were gain to me," he says, "those I counted loss for Christ; yea, I count
all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my
Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them
but dung, that I may win Christ, and be found in Him*, having . . . the
righteousness which is of God by faith: that I may know Him, and the power
of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, _being made
conformable unto His death_."
[Footnote *: Or, as the Revised Version has it in the margin, "not having
as my righteousness that which springs from the law; but that which is
through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is of God on the
condition of faith: . . . becoming conformed unto His death."]
There are probably deeps of thought and purpose here which I confess that
I cannot hope to fathom; which in the limits of such a paper as this I
cannot even suggest. Is it possible, for example, that the sorrow and
suffering which fall upon those who are entirely surrendered to God and
His work are, in some hidden way, sorrow and suffering for others? Is this
what Paul means when he says in his letter to the Colossians: I "fill up
that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ, in my flesh, for His
body's sake, which is the Church"? It may be so. This would indeed be a
glorious and a wonderful "_fellowship of His sufferings_."
Or, again, consider what an entirely new light might be thrown upon God's
dealings with us in afflictions and pain, if it should appear, in the
world to come, that, in much which is now most mysterious and torturing to
us, we had but been bearing one another's burdens! Every one knows how
often love makes us long to bear grief and pain for those dear to us;
every one has seen a mother suffer, in grateful silence, both bodily pain
and heart-anguish, in her child's stead, preferring that the child should
never know. Suppose it should turn out, hereafter, that many of the
afflictions which now seem so perplexing and so grievous have really been
given us to bear in order to spare and shield our loved ones, and make it
easier for them--tossing on the stormy waters--to reach Home at last?
Would not this add a whole world of joy to the glory which shall be
revealed? And would it not transform many of the darkest stretches of our
earthly journey into bright memorials of the infinite wisdom and goodness
of our God?
But I pass away from matters of which we have, at best, but a gleam, to
those concerning which "he that runs may read."
But if Christ upon His cross is meant for an object-lesson to His people,
is it not reasonable to expect that His words spoken in those supreme
moments should throw light upon that conformity to His death of which we
are thinking? The words of the dying have always been received as
revealing their true character. Death is the skeleton-key which opens the
closed chambers of the soul, and calls forth the secret things--and in the
presence of the "Death-Angel" men generally appear to be what they really
are. Our Lord and Saviour was no exception to this universal rule.
To the latest breath,
We see His ruling passion strong in death.
His dying words are filled with illuminating truth about Himself, and they
throw precious light upon His death. Let us, then, tarry for a few moments
before His cross, and look and listen while He speaks.