Philippians 3:10-11 NLT
[10] “I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I want to suffer with him, sharing in his death, [11] so that one way or another I will experience the resurrection from the dead!”

Once again, two English words inserted into the Greek text without reference to the context, changes the meaning of what Paul intended his readers to understand.

Paul was explaining what had happened to transform his life from a fanatical, law-keeping Pharisee into a humble and faithful disciple of the Jesus, whose followers he had so viciously persecuted.

Philippians 3:6 NLT
[6]”I was so zealous that I harshly persecuted the church. And as for righteousness, I obeyed the law without fault.”

How did this transformation happen?

Paul believed that he had it made! He was faultlessly righteous according to the “Law” until he had a personal encounter with Jesus.
From that moment, everything he clung to as evidence of his own righteousness fell away from him. He dumped them in the garbage by embracing an entirely new way of being righteous before God.

Philippians 3:7-9 NLT
[7] “I once thought these things were valuable, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. [8] Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ [9] and become one with him. I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through FAITH IN CHRIST. For God’s way of making us right with himself depends on faith.”

This is what follows, according the translators…

“I want to know Christ… “

… but the Greek text says

“… To know Christ…” excluding the words “I want”.

The meaning is different without the words “I want”, in keeping with Paul’s explanation of the change in his life, and following on smoothly from verse nine.

Faith in Jesus made all the difference!!

So, now, it was by faith that Paul became righteous before God, came to know Christ, and became a particplant in His death and resurrection.

Philippians 3:10-11 NLT
[10] “… to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead, to suffer with him, sharing in his death, [11] so that, by this means, I will experience the resurrection from the dead!”

What Paul was expressing was not a desire to know Jesus and the effects of His death and resurrection on him. Rather, he was declaring that, by faith, he was already a part of what Jesus had accomplished on the cross.

Why would he write, in an earlier letter to the Galatians…

Galatians 2:20 NLT
[20] “My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

… and then contradict himself by expressing a desire for what he was already experiencing?

So, if we exclude the words, “I want…” and simply follow on from verse 9, the translation reads like this excluding the words in brackets.

Philippians 3:9-10 NLT
[9] “….I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ. For God’s way of making us right with himself depends on faith. [10](I want) in order to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead, (I want) to suffer with him, sharing in his death, so that (one way or another), by this means, I will experience the resurrection from the dead!”

Can you see how a few words injected into the text can change the writer’s meaning?

Let us be faithful to the whole of God’s Word by careful study and application of the breadth and depth of Scripture. Let us not be afraid to differ from the scholars who have interpreted to Word rather than translated it faithfully.