Philippians 3:10

10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death;

We’ve seen the first parts of this verse; now let’s take a look at the last phrase, “being conformed to His death.”

To understand this verse, you have to understand the importance of the dual aspect of our Lord’s work on the Cross. We know that because He paid the price for our sins on the Cross, we are completely forgiven for our sins, and able to spend eternity in heaven. But we must also understand the reality of the fact that WE DIED WITH HIM, and are therefore free to live the life that God has for us.

Salvation is of course totally by grace. What kind of salvation would it be if God simply saved us from our sins, and then left us on our own to deal with the power of sin we face everyday in our Christian life? We are not left to deal with our sinful nature ourselves; it has been dealt with by Christ on the Cross. That’s how we are conformed to His death. Look what Paul had to say about it:

Romans 6:1-7

1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?

2 May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?

3 Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?

4 Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.

5 For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection,

6 knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin;

7 for he who has died is freed from sin.

Our old self, or the sin nature inside of us, has been crucified with Christ. Being identified with His death means understanding that our sins are no longer an issue. But as Paul says in verse 1 above, this is not a license to keep on sinning! When we understand that our sinful nature has been crucified with Christ, it motivates us to give up our life like we want it, and take up the life that Jesus Christ has for us:

Galatians 2:20

20 "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.

Jesus spoke of this same principle:

Matthew 16:24-25

24 Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.

25 "For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.

Being conformed or identified with the death of Christ on the Cross gives us the true freedom to be delivered from our old self, and pick up the life that God has for us today.