That 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
We know that the death of Christ was the death of the cross. We know that the death of the cross is His chief glory. The distinguishing characteristic by which He is separated here on earth and in heaven from all other persons is this one: He is the Crucified Son of God. Of all the characteristics of conformity, this must necessarily be the chief and most glorious one: conformity to His death.
This is what made it so attractive to Paul. What had been Christ’s glory and blessedness must have been his glory, too. He knew that the most intimate likeness to Christ is conformity to His death. What that death had been to Christ it would be to him, as he grew conformed to it.
Christ’s death on the cross had been the end of sin. Conformity to Christ’s death is the power to keep us from the power of sin. As I, by the grace of the Holy Spirit, am kept in my position as crucified with Christ, and live out my crucifixion life as the Crucified One lives it in me, I am kept from sinning. Christ’s death on the cross was the entrance to the power of the resurrection life.
In our spiritual life, we often have to mourn the breaks, failures, and intervals that prove to us that there is still something lacking that prevents the resurrection life from asserting its full power. The secret is here: there is still some subtle self-life that has not yet been brought into the perfect conformity of Christ’s death.
Therefore, look to the Crucified One. Gaze on Him until you have seen how He Himself draws near to live in you and breathe through your being His crucifixion life. It was through the eternal Spirit that He offered Himself unto God. By that Holy Spirit, Jesus Himself maintains in each soul who can trust Him for it, the power of the cross as an abiding death to sin and self. It is a never ceasing source of resurrection life and power. Therefore, once again, look to Him, the living, crucified Jesus.