Wow...take some time to read all of Philippians 3 if you haven't today, and if you possibly can, read it out loud and with some passion (c'mon, get that preacher voice going). I can just hear Paul exhorting this to his fellow Christians. Notice in verse 18, he even says that he speaks with tears in his eyes! Oh, to have the passion for Christ and for the lost that Paul has! I love this chapter, but for today, I want to focus on verses 8-14 specifically.
Vs. 8 "I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ..." Do you know someone who appears to have it all? That was Paul -- just look at verses 4-6. And he compares all of that a loss to Jesus. This coming from a man who has "been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again". If you haven't ever read the list, I challenge you to read all that Paul endured during his ministry. The list is in 2 Cor. 24-28. And after all that, he still would rather have Jesus than anything else!
So he wanted to know Christ Jesus, he said. In verses 4-6, Paul boasted about all that he had done that he thought at the time would put him in right-standing with God. But then in verse 9 he says that he doesn't want to be made right (a righteousness) that come from the law (following rules) but "that which is through faith in Christ -- the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith." We are made right in God's eyes simply by trusting in Him! Not a single "good thing" we do will make us any better in God's eyes. But we are made perfect in God's eyes when we trust in Jesus Christ and what he did for us! That's all we have to do! Simple? Yes. Always easy? No. And it isn't always easy for Paul either. Look at verse 12 (I want to use the New Living Translation for this next verse): "I don't mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection..." Phew, even Paul wasn't perfect.
"BUT, I keep working toward that day when I will finally be all that Christ Jesus saved me for and wants me to be. No, dear brothers and sisters, I am still not all I should be, but I am focusing all my energies on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I straining to reach the end of the race and receive the prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us up to heaven."
Have you even been in a race, even a relay race when you were younger maybe? Do you remember your team cheering you on? I feel that is what is verse is to me. The NLT says "keep working toward" and the NIV uses "press on toward", both of which help me to hear Paul and Jesus saying us: "Come on, ______(your name), just keep going! You are doing great! I am so proud of you. Not much longer; you're almost there! Don't stop now. Just keep going!" So what are we doing? We are pressing on.
Another action verb I see in that verse is forgetting the past. How often does our past come back to bite us? And satan knows this. If I keep her hung up in the past, she will never be able to move forward and keep going. We must forget it, friend. As much as you wish it were different sometimes, there is absolutely nothing in your power that you can do to change it. Don't let yourself focus your attention on the past. It's not worth it. Paul says this because he knows, even from his own life, how hard it is to forget the past. He killed Christians, and lots of them, before he met Jesus. Don't you suppose satan holds that over his head every day? But we must forget the past, not that it will completely be out of your mind forever, but that it no longer has power over you. Ask Jesus for the strength to let it go. He will give it to you.
The third action I see is looking forward to what lies ahead. What lies ahead for those of us who trust Jesus? Heaven! I wish I could sit with you now and tell you all that the Lord has taught me about heaven in the past two years. Before that time, I thought that we'd be singing in a choir for eternity and walking on gold streets. That was it. And I love singing, but I couldn't get excited about doing that for all eternity. But when we know the character of God, we can begin to understand what heaven really might be like. I recommend reading Randy Alcorn's 50 Days in Heaven to get a small, but powerful picture of what we can be looking forward to one day!
Finally, straining toward what is ahead. It will not be an easy race to run. Jesus doesn't promise it, and Paul didn't experience it that way either. It will be a strain at times. But in Jesus we have everything we need to keep going, and as Paul says in verse 15, "if you disagree (about these verses) on some point, I believe God will make it plain to you."
The goal is heaven. It will be worth it. Just keep going...you're almost there...you're doing great!
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