"Even though it be a cross that raiseth me"
"I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings - becoming like him in his death and so somehow to attain to the resurrection from the dead"
A cross is what it takes to attain the resurrection. You, I, in fellowship with Christ, would be elevated to attaining resurrection were we to first attain to a cross. The resurrection of Jesus Christ first and foremost held up this truth. Jesus had endured a cross and now he is resurrected and this same way is set before us too. To be resurrected there is first a cross and we endure a cross in order to find that resurrection follows it, if we endure it because we walk in fellowship with Christ by keeping his teachings and living by them, in the way the Holy Spirit teaches and leads. The resurrection of Jesus Christ thus held up the cross as a holy route to resurrection.
