Press On To The Goal

Philippians 3:4-14

Rev. Walter M. Bosman Jr. ©2005

Every Saturday during the Fall, at my son’s soccer games, you hear the coaches calling out instructions to the players on the field. One of the most often shouted commands is to “press forward, press forward!” What the coaches are telling their players is for them to keep pressing toward the goal, regardless of the obstacles thrown at them by the opposing team.

This very same principle is applicable to our spiritual life as well. What spiritual goals we set for ourselves and how we plan to achieve those goals says a lot about where we are in our relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ.

Keep on pressing toward the goal!

That is exactly the instruction that the apostle Paul is giving Christians in his time and throughout the ages in this part of his epistle to the church at Philippi. Paul begins by telling us about his life as a Jew who lived his life according to all of the rules and regulations that religion required. He points to all of his good credentials and says that if anyone could be proud and boastful, he could.

He was circumcised when he was eight days old, as all Jewish boys were required to be.
He was an Israelite by birth of the tribe of Benjamin.
Being Jewish by birth, not conversion, made Paul a “Hebrew of Hebrews”.
Paul took his Jewish religious upbringing with the utmost seriousness.
As far as the keeping of the Jewish Law was concerned, Paul was a Pharisee of great knowledge and actions.

Regarding the Pharisees, we tend to think of them as harsh extremists who persecuted their own people and hated everyone who was not as zealous about the Jewish religion as they were. While this is indeed true in some, if not most cases, during the time of Jesus’ walk on earth, the Pharisee class was not always that way. It would do us well to understand something about the period during which that class developed. It is known as the Maccabean period. That is the time between the end of the Old Testament and the beginning of the New Testament.

Alexander the Great had campaigned to spread the Greek language and culture throughout the entire known ancient world. After his death, his kingdom was divided among his four generals (just as Daniel had prophesied in his interpretation of the third beast in his dream, in chapter 8 of Daniel). One of those generals, named Antiochus Epiphanes, controlled the section that included Palestine and Israel and Judah. This is what the record of his rule says:

Then the king issued a proclamation to his whole kingdom that all were to become a single people, each renouncing his particular customs. All of the pagan peoples conformed to the king’s edict, and many Israelites turned their backs on their Jewish religion and chose to accept his religion of sacrificing to idols and profaning the Sabbath. The king sent his messengers with instructions to the towns of Israel and Judah directing them to adopt the foreign customs. These orders from the king also banned burnt offerings, sacrifices and drink offerings from the sanctuary. They also profaned the Sabbath and feasts of the Jews, defiled the sanctuary and altar by killing a pig and throwing its blood all over the place. They built altars and shrines for the idols, left their sons uncircumcised, and prostituted themselves to all kinds of impurity and abomination, so they could forget the Jewish Law and revoke all observance of it. Anyone not obeying the king’s command were to be put to death. (Again, all of this is found in Daniel’s vision recorded in Daniel 8:10 & 11:31.)

Many of the Jewish people who were apostate to the Jewish Law rallied to the king’s command, and much evil was committed in the country. All of the Books of the Law that were found were ripped apart and burned. Anyone caught with a copy of the covenant, or practicing the Law, was put to death. Women found having, or to have had, their babies circumcised according to the Law, were put to death with their babies hung around their necks. Plus, all members of their household and anyone found to have performed the circumcision were executed with them. Yet many in Israel stood firm and found the courage to refuse unclean food. They chose death rather than contamination.
(1 Maccabees 1:41-67)

Is it any wonder, after all of that, the Pharisee sect arose with a very, very strong determination to make sure that the whole Law be kept, no matter what? Paul says, “I had a strong and very particular concern to observe all of the Law. And I was so zealous that I persecuted the Christians.”

That is indeed an understatement! Paul’s persecution of Christians grew out of his background. His feeling and that of most Pharisees of his time was, “We don’t want anyone bringing in new doctrines to lead us astray from the strict observance of the Law again!” Paul’s persecution of Christians was so severe, up to and including having them put to death, that he became a legend to the Pharisees and infamous as a killer to Christians.

Paul was so strict in his observance of the Law that he could claim that as far as a person could be righteous by observing the commands of the Law, “I was without fault!” But here Paul says that, “All of those things (his birthright, fame, wealth, self-righteousness, everything) are dung when compared to the knowledge of Christ, my Lord.” By “knowledge” here, Paul does not mean “head knowledge”, or to simply know “about” Christ. Paul means to have intimate knowledge of and a personal relationship with Christ. He is speaking of being completely united with Christ and having a righteousness with God, based solely on faith in Jesus Christ, God the Son.

In Philippians, chapter 2, Paul speaks about the “mind of Christ”. He also speaks of a time when “all beings in Heaven, and on Earth, and under the Earth (Paul’s symbol for Hell) will fall on their knees and proclaim that Jesus is Lord.” That is exactly what Paul is doing here in these passages. Paul is laying aside all of his credentials and acknowledging the sole Lordship of Jesus Christ. Paul will no longer plead where he has come from or what he has done as his claim to glory. From now on, Paul’s sole glory comes from what Jesus Christ has done for him!

Paul goes on to say that all he wants is to know Christ and experience the power of His Resurrection. Paul says “I want to share in Christ’s sufferings and become like Him in His death, in the hope that I myself will be raised from death to life.” Paul extends this by going on to tell us about his sufferings, and they are many. But Paul is not some strange person who enjoys personal suffering. Rather, he accepts what he has suffered and will suffer for the sake and cause of Jesus Christ.

However, Paul is confident, as we must be confident, in his goal to experience the power of Christ’s Resurrection, and be raised from death to eternal life with Him. Paul’s goal was, and our goal should be, stated something like “Christ died for my sin. I am forgiven. So I want to experience the power of the Resurrection. I want to experience the complete and ultimate overcoming of sin in my present life, and eternal life in God’s Kingdom of Heaven with Christ my Savior and Lord.”

So that is Paul’s goal at this point in His life. Had he yet achieved his goal of perfection? He tells us plainly that the answer to that question at that time was “No”. Paul says here, “I do not claim that I have already succeeded, or have become perfect. I keep striving to win the prize for which Christ Jesus has already won me to Himself. Of course, my brothers, I really do not think that I have already won it. The one thing I do, however, is to forget what is behind me and do my best to reach what is ahead. So, I run straight towards the goal in order to win the prize, which is God’s call through Christ Jesus to the life above.”

As long as we live on this earth, our quest is not over.

We need to know Christ Jesus better.
We know we are forgiven, but we need more and more of the redeeming grace of Christ in all areas of our lives.
We must serve the Lord, no matter what the cost.
We belong to Christ, for He has already won us to Himself.

But we still have a race to run, a prize to win. Life is a marathon, not a sprint. It is very easy to get distracted on a long run. A glance backwards over our shoulder may allow another to pass by us. Yes, the negatives of our past failures and sins are behind us. They are there, as is the amazing grace of God. But we must not focus our attention in the past, because God calls us forward. He calls us to continue to run the race facing forward to a life transformed into what God meant it to be from the very beginning. Paul knew, and I dare say we also know, people who called themselves Christians, but who lived their lives as enemies of Christ’s death on the cross. They were not moving forward in their race. They were instead destined to an eternity spent in Hell, because their god is their bodily, worldly desires. They think only of the things of this world.

But Paul tells us that we are citizens of Heaven. We know where and to Whom we belong. We must never forget that our goal is to know Christ better. The finish line is straight ahead. Christ Jesus has redeemed you and is with you. He is also waiting for you at the finish line with your prize in His loving hand. So no matter what the opposition (that is, Satan and his demons) throws at you in this life, heed the advice of Paul and my son’s soccer coaches, and “Keep pressing forward toward the goal”, your goal, of eternal life in close fellowship with God Almighty, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, in His Heavenly Kingdom. Amen.