Philippians 3:11

‘If by any means I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.'

‘If by any means' indicates that Paul was ready for anything as long as it resulted in his attaining the resurrection from among the dead. He did not mind what was demanded of him as long as he achieved his goal. (He had had the same desire as a Pharisee, but had then been going about it the wrong way).

Some people are baffled by the word ‘attain' used here because their minds think in terms of trying to achieve it by merit of some kind. But the verb does not necessarily carry this meaning. In everyday terms it meant ‘to come to', and that is basically what Paul means here. He is not doubting whether he will in the end attain it, but is not sure of the way through which he will attain it, whether by living on or through martyrdom. He is, however, certain that he will achieve it (compare Philippians 1:6). What he is not sure of is how.

‘To the resurrection from the dead.' If we translate literally this is ‘the out-resurrection out from among the dead'. He visualises the glory of being raised up from among the dead along with all God's true people. That is not to deny the resurrection of all, both the righteous and the unrighteous (John 5:29; Revelation 20:12). It is rather to see the experience of the Christian as special. This special nature of the resurrection of God's people is regularly brought out. When Christ comes and takes up living believers who will be transformed in the twinkling of an eye (1 Thessalonians 4:17; 1 Corinthians 15:52), it will only be after He has first resurrected believers who have died and whose bodies ‘sleep' (1 Thessalonians 4:15). It is only then that the rest of the dead are raised to meet their judgment (Revelation 20:12 where they are called ‘the dead'). Of course we must beware of trying to fit Christ's activity at His coming into our limited earthly ideas and time-scale. This is a moment when time and eternity meet with eternity taking over. It is pictured in many ways throughout Scripture, but the pictures must not be over-pressed. They are given in order to provide us with a vivid understanding of what He will do, but are not intended to be applied absolutely literally. By such folly men have argued for many comings and many resurrections. See for example Matthew 24:30; Matthew 24:36; Matthew 25:31; John 5:28; 1 Corinthians 15:20; 1 Thessalonians 4:13; 2 Peter 3:10; Revelation 6:12; Revelation 11:11; Revelation 14:14; Revelation 19:11; Revelation 20:11 all of which depict the final end.

Some see the aim here as being to attain to a spiritual resurrection in line with the dying-rising experience of a Christian so constantly spoken of in Paul e.g. Romans 6:1; Ephesians 2:1; etc. The thought then is that the out-resurrection has in mind the spiritual resurrection of believers from among those still dead in trespasses and sins as described in John 5:24; Ephesians 2:1. But while that experience is certainly taught in Scripture, Paul had already certainly experienced that, and while it was undoubtedly still possible for his knowledge of Christ to grow ever deeper, he already essentially possessed resurrection life. Thus the greater probability is that here he is speaking of the physical resurrection at Christ's coming. He is moving on from the experience of spiritual resurrection in Philippians 3:10, to the future literal resurrection here, and has the expectancy of it constantly before his eyes. And this would appear to be confirmed in what follows.

If, as has been suggested, some of the false teachers against whom he warns the Philippians were saying that ‘the resurrection is past already' (2 Timothy 2:18) because they saw it simply as a spiritual resurrection obtained through special ‘knowledge' (gnosis), which was already theirs so that they needed no other, we can see very clearly why Paul was so emphatic on the fact that the resurrection was yet future, and was something that no one had yet attained to (apart from Jesus Christ Himself).