Philippians 3

¹² Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. ¹³ Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, ¹⁴ I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. ¹⁵ Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. ¹⁶ Only let us hold true to what we have attained.

I had a dear friend who passed away some years ago. I miss my friend. He loved the Lord, was bold in his witness for Christ, faithfully served the church, and was a great encouragement to me. He spoke the truth in love to me and I came to value him greatly as a brother in Christ.

I will never forget what he told me one day. He told me that before he came to know Jesus, he lived a very rough life. He did the kinds of things that many folks do before they come to know Jesus. And then, in part through the ministry of his pastor, he was radically saved. He came to know Jesus and turned from what he used to be. And for years and years he sat under the ministry of this pastor.

He told me that he loved his pastor but that his pastor had a bad habit that used to really hurt him. His pastor had the habit of saying to my friend, “You know, I remember what you used to be like. I remember how you used to be. I remember how rough you used to be.”

My friend told me that he would say this to him consistently over the years: “I remember what your used to be like. I remember how rough you used to be.”

And my friend said that he came to dread the comment. It hurt him. It embarrassed him. And it also showed him that no matter how much he served and tried and grew, his past was still brought up to him.

He said that one day his pastor said to him, “You know, I remember what you used to be like. I remember how rough your life used to be.” And my friend said that on this occasion he heard the voice of Jesus telling him: “I don’t. I don’t remember what you used to be like. I don’t remember how rough your life used to be. You are forgiven. You are free.”

I want to talk about letting go and pressing forward toward Jesus.

We get Jesus because we have been gotten by Jesus!

We begin with Paul completing an earlier thought. He writes:

¹² Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect…

Well, that raises a most interesting question. What is the “this” that Paul says he has not already obtained, the “this” that he has not perfectly taken hold of? To answer that, we need to look at the verses immediately preceding this. Just before, Paul wrote:

⁸ Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ ⁹ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—¹⁰ that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, ¹¹ that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

This is what Paul wants! He wants:

• • to know Jesus wholly;
• • to be righteous;
• • to know the power of the resurrection of Jesus;
• • to share in the sufferings of Jesus, “becoming like him in his death”;
• • to “attain the resurrection from the dead.”

This is what Paul wants! His life was changed by Jesus! He loves the Lord! But he wants to know Him fully, completely, and be conformed to His image. And it is in this context that Paul writes:

¹² Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect…

You will notice that perfection in Christ is what awaits us in glory, or else Paul would not have mentioned his falling short of this goal. In fact, in Ephesians 5, he depicts the goal with clarity.

²⁵ Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, ²⁶ that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, ²⁷ so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.

Paul is saying that he has yet to attain to this position of being “without spot or wrinkle or any such thing,” that he has yet to attain to being “without blemish.” He was still on the journey. Or, as he put it:

¹² Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.

Paul “presses on” to “make it my own,” but note the basis for this hope: “because Christ Jesus has made me his own.”

In other words, we get Jesus because we have been gotten by Jesus! We strive to “make it our own” because, if you are a believer, “Christ has made us his own.”

Being held by Jesus is our only foundation for holding onto Jesus!

Being grasped by the nail-pierced hands of Christ is our only hope of grasping Christ.

Or, as John put it in 1 John 4:

¹⁹ We love him, because he first loved us.

Or, as the author of Hebrews put it in Hebrews 12:

² looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith…

Jesus, the one who has made us His own.

Jesus, the one who loved us first.

Jesus, “the founder and perfecter of our faith.”

Or, as E.M. Bartlett put it:

Oh, victory in Jesus, my Savior forever
He sought me and bought me with His redeeming blood
He loved me ‘ere I knew Him and all my love is due Him
He plunged me to victory beneath the cleansing flood

Yes, we get Jesus only because we have been gotten by Jesus! Our lives depend upon Jesus’ love for us before it ever comes to our love for Him!

In getting Jesus, we must move past what used to keep us from Jesus.

Paul has determined to press on toward the fullness of an unhindered relationship with Jesus. But, to do so, there is something he, and we, must first do. We must first move past what used to keep us from Jesus. Paul writes:

¹³ Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind

We must “forget what lies behind.” If we do not forget it, it will take hold of us and rob us of the joy of knowing Jesus! The importance of this step is captured by the singular nature of Paul’s description of it: “But one thing I do…”

What must we forget in order to attain the fullness of Christ?

Oftentimes, people think Paul is speaking only of sin here and saying that we must forget our past sins. This is true, but, first, let us notice that, in context, what Paul has mentioned just prior to this is his resume, his accomplishments, and all the things he used to derive his confidence from. Do you remember?

⁴ though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: ⁵ circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; ⁶ as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.

So it is not only our past sins. It is also our past lives. It is letting go of all that we were before we came to Jesus. It is letting go of our resumes, our boasts, our confidences, our plans, and our agendas.

Why must we forget what lies behind? Because, if we do not, we have not truly been crucified with Christ (Galatians 2:20). We have not truly come to the end of ourselves so long as we are still holding on to the past.

And, secondly, of course, we must forget our sin and our shame and our guilt if we have been saved. We must not let our past lostness tyrannize us. Let us not forget the word of the Lord in Psalm 103:

¹⁰ He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. ¹¹ For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; ¹² as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.

Let us not forget the word of the Lord in Hebrews 8.

¹² For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.

You are not your past.

You are not your past victories.

You are not your past sins.

When you trust in Jesus, He gives you a new life and new trajectory and a new goal! 

This is not to say that we can sidestep the earthly consequences of our sin. Some of those consequences linger for a long, long time. But the power of guilt and shame to render us hopeless and to condemn us has been broken by the cross of Jesus Christ.

It is astonishing to me how many people are still in bondage to their past. Paul clearly remembered his past and could tell you about it, but he was not in bondage to it. The tyranny of what used to be had been broken. He was now, in Jesus, a free man! And he was now free—because of Jesus—to strive for Christlikeness!

Press on and lean into the prize of Jesus!

Having been set free, Paul now sees himself as in a race. He is running toward Jesus, but, paradoxically, is also running with Jesus: “it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me” (Galatians 2:20)! But as for the goal—the completion of his race, the fullness of an unhindered relationship with Jesus, the perfection to which and which, in glory, would one day be his—Paul says he is straining, pressing forward toward this goal!

¹³ Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, ¹⁴ I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Charles Eerdman speaks of Paul’s language of “straining forward to what lies ahead” as “an agony of effort,” as “the graphic phrase of the foot race” that “indicates the expenditure of every ounce of energy.” This is not a picture of drifting, of napping, of being sedentary. This is a picture of active exertion, of intentional striving, of fierce determination to know Christ in His fullness and to be all that Jesus wants him to be.

Paul is leaning into that prize, the “prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” But Paul is not being pretentious. He calls us all to the same. Paul writes:

¹⁵ Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. ¹⁶ Only let us hold true to what we have attained.

Do you want more of Jesus? Then forget what lies behind, lean in, and run toward him! Strain toward him! Reach! Reach! Press on! Try! Pray! Study! Witness! Work! Move! Do not stop!

Johnson Oatman Jr. wrote:

I’m pressing on the upward way,
New heights I’m gaining ev’ry day;
Still praying as I’m onward bound,
“Lord, plant my feet on higher ground.”
Lord, lift me up, and let me stand
By faith, on heaven’s tableland;
A higher plane than I have found,
Lord, plant my feet on higher ground.

My heart has no desire to stay
Where doubts arise and fears dismay;
Though some may dwell where these abound,
My prayer, my aim, is higher ground. 

I want to live above the world,
Though Satan’s darts at me are hurled;
For faith has caught a joyful sound,
The song of saints on higher ground. 

I want to scale the utmost height,
And catch a gleam of glory bright;
But still I’ll pray till heav’n I’ve found,
“Lord, lead me on to higher ground.” 

Yes! This must be our prayer as well!