Philippians 3:9-11 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 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!”

By misunderstanding and mistranslating one original Greek word in this text, most translators have introduced an unfortunate misrepresentation of Paul’s statement at the end of this quote.

[10] “I WANT to know Christ…” in place of … “… by FAITH to know Christ…”

They missed the link between faith and knowing Christ. Instead of making a statement of fact…

Philippians 3:9-10 NLT
[9]… “For God’s way of making us right with himself depends on faith, (“epi”, on the basis of faith), (“to)
[10] know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead…”

…translators have rendered Paul’s statement as the expression of a desire (“I want to know Christ”). There is no “I want to” in the Greek text. It’s a misinterpretation injected into the text!

How could Paul have contradicted everything he had written in every other letter about knowing Jesus and experiencing salvation and living by faith, by expressing a desire to know Him and His power which he already knew by faith? This makes no sense to me.

I found an accurate translation of this one Greek word in only one version so far.

Philippians 3:9-10 RSV
[9]”…and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own, based on law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God THAT DEPENDS ON FAITH (epi); 10 THAT I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death…”

Let’s look at its use here, “epi” meaning “on the basis of”, i.e., “based on”.

What is Paul saying? His argument so far has been that we experience salvation through Jesus alone, by faith in what He has done through His death and resurrection. Paul had to learn this lesson when he met Jesus on the Damascus road. All his efforts to please God came to nothing. He had to trade his self-righteousness for Jesus’ righteousness, and it happened by faith.

Now, if we are to understand his statement here, it is on the basis of faith that we know Jesus and experience the power of His death and resurrection by dying to our old selves. This is the place where Paul’s statement about suffering fits in. In the same way, by believing what God has done through Jesus, we have risen to a new life and can experience suffering through Jesus’ power working in us, disciplining and perfecting holiness in us.

Hebrews 12:10 NLT
[10] “For our earthly fathers disciplined us for a few years, doing the best they knew how. But God’s discipline is always good for us, so that we might share in his holiness.”

Paul said that this is a process. The more we identify with Jesus’ death and resurrection by faith, the more we are able to share in His suffering. The more we share in His suffering, the more God deals with sin in our lives through the discipline of suffering.

Just as Jesus was qualified to be our Saviour and High Priest through His suffering…

Hebrews 2:10 NLT
[10] “God, for whom and through whom everything was made, chose to bring many children into glory. And it was only right that he should make Jesus, through his suffering, a perfect leader, fit to bring them into their salvation.”

… so we, too, are being prepared through suffering, for our eternal life with Him as His children, perfected in the image of Jesus. All this happens bit by bit, by faith, as we trust in Him.

Do you get the picture?

Paul is not writing about his longing to be perfected. He is telling us that it was happening and how it was happening. He had identified suffering as a partner which would take him towards Jesus’ goal for him.

The way to participate in God’s work in us is also to embrace suffering as a partner so that we work with the Father in His way of purifying our hearts from self to live under Jesus’ authority as Lord.

It’s not WHAT we suffer but HOW we suffer that prepares us for eternity. With Jesus as our example and mentor, we learn…

1 Peter 2:21-23 NLT
[21] “For God called you to do good, even if it means suffering, just as Christ suffered for you. He is your example, and you must follow in his steps. [22] He never sinned, nor ever deceived anyone. [23] He did not retaliate when he was insulted, nor threaten revenge when he suffered. He left his case in the hands of God, who always judges fairly.”

Our identity with Jesus by faith not only saves us from hell. It also saves us from ourselves in a process of dying with Jesus by faith so that we live in Him by faith, as Paul stated in Romans 1, salvation is “by faith from start to finish”.

Suffering, then, is not an intrusion but a tool through which, if we embrace it with the same faith that saved us, the Father prunes and purifies us in preparation for our participation with Jesus in glory.

Just as Jesus was qualified to be an atoning sacrifice for sin through suffering, so we too, through suffering with Him, are prepared for our role in eternity.