Philippians 3:10-14 AMPC
[For my determined purpose is] that I may know Him [that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him, perceiving and recognizing and understanding the wonders of His Person more strongly and more clearly], and that I may in that same way come to know the power outflowing from His resurrection [which it exerts over believers], and that I may so share His sufferings as to be continually transformed [in spirit into His likeness even] to His death, [in the hope] [11] That if possible I may attain to the [spiritual and moral] resurrection [that lifts me] out from among the dead [even while in the body]. [12] Not that I have now attained [this ideal], or have already been made perfect, but I press on to lay hold of (grasp) and make my own, that for which Christ Jesus (the Messiah) has laid hold of me and made me His own. [13] I do not consider, brethren, that I have captured and made it my own [yet]; but one thing I do [it is my one aspiration]: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, [14] I press on toward the goal to win the [supreme and heavenly] prize to which God in Christ Jesus is calling us upward.
In verse 14 when Paul talks about pressing towards the goal of the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus, and he is talking about what is explained in verse 11, which is basically that he wants to experience the resurrected Jesus living his life through him in fullness in every area of his life. This is the prize, and the upward call of God on every person in Christ. Romans 8:28 – 30 says that God has called us according to his purpose, which is that we might be conformed to the image of His son. We are not conformed to the image, or likeness of Christ by imitation; instead, we are called to Christ likeness by participation in His resurrection life, and the manifestation of that Life. Everything in these verses in Philippians 3 is talking about Paul pressing on, reaching forward, laying hold, apprehending, the full experience and impact of the risen Jesus living his life in and through him. There is so much here that we could spend page after page unfolding the remarkable truths laid out in these verses, but I want to focus on one thing that I believe be profoundly important. Look at verse 13 where Paul confesses that he hasn’t yet come to the place where 100% of the time he was experiencing and manifesting the risen Christ, but he also declares that the one thing he will continue to do is to stretch forward to what ever experience of Christ as this life is still waiting for him. There’s something he says though in verse 13 that is so significant to a heart that is stretching forward to experience more, and that is that you have to forget what lies behind. It is impossible to stretch forward with much progress if you are always being pulled backward. If we are going to apprehend that for which we have been apprehended, then we cannot allow the past to distract us, and the past can distract us, and pull us backward on several levels. First, Paul talked about earlier in this chapter of suffering the loss of all things in his coming to Christ, and his pursuit of Christ likeness. It is imperative that we don’t waste our time looking back at the losses, or anything we may have missed out on in our wholehearted pursuit of the upward call. It is also imperative that we don’t waste our time living in our past experiences of Christ, and being content with them, instead of knowing there’s more that lies ahead and going after it. So many settle in to what they have known, instead of always longing to discover, experience and manifest more. Safety and control cannot be our manifest; holy curiosity, and daring must dictate our vision of Christ likeness. I find fear, and caution, and a good dose of cynicism especially among aging Christian men. When we were younger we longed for so much, and and were willing to suffer any losses to experience everything Jesus had for us, no matter the risks, but as we get older it is easy to settle in to not dreaming anymore big dreams, but just kind of collecting our spiritual Social Security check and playing it safe until we go to Heaven. Paul said in 2 Corinthians that even though our outer man is decaying as we get older, our inner man is being renewed day by day. If that is true, then even though we may be physically more limited than we used to be, there should be greater passion bowling up in our heart for the MORE than ever before. Also, we can’t let the past mistakes, bad example, or misguidedness of others in the past, hold us back from the genuine radical. I refuse to play it safe and spend the rest of my time on earth playing spiritual shuffleboard. As I get older, I am competing against time to experience the full measure of Christ likeness on this side, so I don’t have time to waste on what others didn’t do correctly. Anyway, what is the worst failure; getting it wrong, or not going after it at all. Of course, the other thing that we cannot allow to pull us backward is past failure, even if that failure was earlier this very day. We cannot stretch forward to lay hold of the prize of manifest Christ likeness in our lives if we continue to look back at things God refuses to look at. It is important for you to know that having confessed sin, you have permission to never look back at it again. Press on toward Christ likeness, and put distance between you and the failure.