That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death. —Philippians 3:10

Paul desires not only to know “the power” of Christ’s “resurrection,” but “the fellowship of His sufferings.” What are the sufferings of Christ?

They include not only the sufferings which He endured in His person, but those which are endured by His members. When Saul persecuted the church, it is said that he persecuted Christ (Acts 9:4). This is why Paul writes, “I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, which is the church” (Col. 1:24).

Peter tells us, “But rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy. If you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. On their part He is blasphemed, but on your part He is glorified.

Our sufferings are accounted to be the sufferings of Christ when they are experienced for a good cause and for the name of Christ. What does it mean to have fellowship with Christ in His suffering? It is twofold. First, it is internal. It is the mortification of the flesh or the crucifying of the affections and their lusts.

Second, it is external. It is the mortification of the outward man by various afflictions. Paul speaks of this in our text. Fellowship with Christ in His death is our conformity to His suffering and death. It is worth recognizing what this conformity is not. God poured out the whole curse of the law, due to our sins, upon Christ. By this means He showed Christ justice without mercy. But in our afflictions God moderates His anger, and in justice He remembers mercy (Hab. 3:2). He lays no more on us than we can bear (1 Cor. 10:13).

Furthermore, Christ’s sufferings are a satisfaction to God’s justice for our sins. Our sufferings are not so. We stand before God as private persons, and for this cause the sufferings of one man cannot satisfy for another, and there is no proportion between our sufferings and the glory which will be revealed (Rom. 8:17). As Christ says, “I have trodden the winepress alone” (Isa. 63:3).

And so, how are we conformed to Christ’s suffering? It stands in four things. First, Christ suffered for a just cause, for He suffered as our Redeemer, the righteous for the unrighteous (1 Peter 3:18). We must likewise suffer for the sake of righteousness (Matt. 5:10).

Second, in His sufferings Christ was a mirror of all patience and meekness. “For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps: ‘Who committed no sin, nor was deceit found in His mouth’” (1 Peter 2:21–22).

We must show the same patience in our sufferings. For this to happen, our patience must possess three properties. (1) It must be voluntary. We must willingly and quietly renounce our own wills, and subject ourselves in our sufferings to God’s will. Forced patience is not patience. (2) It must be singular. We must suffer not for praise or profit, but for the glory of God. We suffer to show our obedience to Him. (3) It must be constant. If we endure afflictions for a season, but later begin to complain and cast away Christ’s yoke, we fail in our patience.

The affections of grief and sorrow are compatible with patience, for Christian religion does not abolish these affections, but moderates them by bringing them into subjection to God’s will when we lie under the cross. Third, we are conformed to Christ’s suffering when we learn obedience. “Though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him” (Heb. 5:8–9).

Christ was not a sinner who had to learn to obey. Rather, He experienced obedience as a righteous man. Likewise, we must be careful to seek the fruit of our sufferings rather than their removal. This fruit is to learn obedience, especially to obey God’s commands to believe and repent. God afflicted Job, not on account of his sins, but to test his faith and patience. In the end Job renewed his repentance: “Therefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes” (Job 42:6).

Paul says that he received in his own flesh “the sentence of death” that he might learn to trust in God alone (2 Cor. 1:9). Fourth, we are conformed to Christ in His suffering when it is even to death itself. We must resist sin, fighting against it to the shedding of our blood (Heb. 12:4).

Faith and a good conscience are precious… Therefore, if necessary, we must conform ourselves to Christ, even in the pains of death. This is the conformity of which Paul speaks. He magnifies it as a special gain. Why? First, it is a mark of God’s children. “If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten?” (Heb. 12:7).

Second, it is a sign that the Holy Spirit dwells in us. “If you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you” (1 Peter 4:14).

Third, the grace of God is manifested most in afflictions: “My strength is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor. 12:9). “Tribulation produces perseverance” (Rom. 5:3), because then “the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us” (v. 5).

Hope of eternal life shows itself most in the patient bearing of afflictions (Rom. 15:4–5). In times of ease and peace, natural life reigns. But in seasons of suffering natural life quickly decays, and the spiritual life of Christ shows itself. Fourth, conformity to Christ in His death is the right and certain way to eternal life. “We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22). “This is a faithful saying: For if we died with Him, we shall also live with Him. If we endure, we shall also reign with Him” (2 Tim. 2:11–12).

The estate of humiliation is the way to the estate of exaltation, first in Christ and then in us. What do we learn from this? First, we learn that after believers are made partakers of Christ and His benefits by the power of His resurrection, they must be made conformable to His death. Christ’s commandment to those who would be His disciples is this: “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it” (Luke 9:23–24).

There are three weighty reasons why God will have it so: (1) that He may correct past sins; (2) that He may prevent future sins; (3) that He may test what is in our hearts. Second, we learn that there is comfort in our sufferings. We are partners with Christ in our sufferings, and He promises to make us His fellows. It follows that all our afflictions are well-known to Christ, and that they are laid on us with His consent. For this cause, we should frame ourselves to bear them with all meekness. As our partner, Christ will help us to bear them by moderating their weight or by governing them for our good (Rom. 8:28). Third, we learn that our afflictions are blessings and benefits.

We can discern them to be such, not by the light of reason, but by the eye of faith, because they are means to make us conformable to our Head, Christ Jesus. God’s benefits are positive and privative. Positive benefits are those which God bestows on us. Privative benefits occur when God takes away a blessing and gives another. This kind of benefit is an affliction. The first is more prevalent in the life to come, while the second is more prevalent in this life. Therefore, while we live in this world, our duty is to labour to attain this conformity to the sufferings of Christ.

Highly Recommended Source via Amazon: Perkins, William. A Perfect Redeemer (Puritan Treasures for Today) (pp. 79-83). (Function). Kindle Edition.