Be Like Jesus?

I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on towards the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.
-Philippians 3:10-14

If you've been reading my blog very long, you have found that I get a lot of my inspiration from my daily devotions, well, today is no different. I came across this passage from Philippians and I remembered that it is a passage that I used to use in the signature of my emails, however I used to only use the Philippians 3:13-14 "Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on towards the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus."

Even now I think those few verses contain a good message, I hope that for all of us, the goal is to press on toward the heavenly call of of God in Christ Jesus, but this morning I was convicted of what I was omitting when I quoted only those verses, maybe you noticed a phrase that made you say, "I'm not sure I quite want to do that" as you were reading the passage, let me highlight it for you.

In verses 10 & 11 Paul writes, "I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead." (emphasis mine).

What, become like Christ in his DEATH? No thanks, that's not quite what I signed up for. What good am I to anyone if I am dead? I could have hung my head and turned the other way. But, I remembered something that I learned in Sunday School years ago, something amazing about Jesus' death ... it wasn't final. In three days Christ rose again.

Then I remembered a little something about baptism. Luther writes in the Small Catechism, "What then is the significance of such a baptism with water? It signifies that the old person in us with all sins and evil desires is to be drowned and die through daily sorrow for sin and through repentance, and on the other hand that daily a new person is to come forth and rise up to live before God in righteousness and purity forever."

Suddenly Paul's desire is a little easier to swallow. In fact it easily becomes my desire as well. I don't want to live in my sin, I want my sinful self to die, so that I am not hindered in pressing on towards the goal.