Philippians 3:12-15 12 Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me.
13 Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead,
14 I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
15 Therefore let us, as many as are mature, have this mind; and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you.
There is always room for growth
Paul realized he had room for improvement, that he hadn’t yet attained perfection.
1 Corinthians 8:2 And if anyone thinks that he knows anything, he knows nothing yet as he ought to know.
There is no such thing as someone who knows it all in this life.
1 Corinthians 13:9, 12 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part.
12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.
Even when we get to heaven, we’ll still be learning and growing. Just when we think we “know everything”, God will open up some new level that we’ve never even conceived of.
I don’t think I have to convince you that we still have room to grow.
Forgetting those things that are behind
I order to move on with God, you’re going to have to forget and leave behind past sins, failures, and mistakes.
While driving a car, if you are always looking in the rear view mirror you will not see what is ahead of you. At the worst, you’ll crash. At the least, you’ll miss the turn that would take you to your destination, your goal.
Reaching forward
Paul says we are to reach forward and press towards the goal. The goal has a prize, a reward, when we walk in that which God has called us to.
The Mature Attitude
In vs. 15, Paul alludes that following these three things – knowing you always have room for growth, forgetting the things of the past, and focusing on the goal ahead – is a mark of maturity.
Forgetting What Lies Behind
The apostle Paul, who wrote these things, had some things in his past that he had to forget. He was a persecutor and destroyer of the church.
1 Timothy 1:12-16 12 And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who has enabled me, because He counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry,
13 although I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an insolent man; but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief.
14 And the grace of our Lord was exceedingly abundant, with faith and love which are in Christ Jesus.
15 This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.
16 However, for this reason I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show all longsuffering, as a pattern to those who are going to believe on Him for everlasting life.
In Acts 7 and 8, we see that Paul was present at the stoning of Stephen, and that he was in agreement with it.
Acts 9:1-2 1 Then Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest
2 and asked letters from him to the synagogues of Damascus, so that if he found any who were of the Way, whether men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.
Notice that it was Paul who went to the high priest to obtain authority to arrest Christians. By his own testimony, Paul said he was more zealous that his brethren. He was receiving rabbinical training under Gamaliel. He saw the believers as a heretical sect, and his zeal caused him to want to purge it from the earth.
But God saw something in him – that same zeal he had to persecute Christians would also be applied to preaching the gospel, once he was enlightened of the truth he was ignorant of. And it was on the way to Damascus with those letters of authority that the Lord Jesus intercepted him, and turned his life in a complete 180.
We need to forget past sins, because God does
Isaiah 43:25-26 25 “I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake; And I will not remember your sins.
26 Put Me in remembrance; Let us contend together; State your case, that you may be acquitted.
To blot out means to erase, wipe out, or destroy. It is often referring to something written.
Revelation 20:11-15 11 Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them.
12 And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books.
13 The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works.
14 Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.
15 And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.
There are two books by which humans will be judged. One is a record of everything that they have done in their life. The other is the Book of Life. The book containing the records of our deeds would contain our sins and the charges against us. But the clincher was whether our name was written in the Book of Life.
Revelation 3:5 He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life; but I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels.
Believers will not have their names blotted out from the Book of Life. This tells me something important – that everybody, believer and non-believer alike, starts out with their name in the Book of Life. But if a person dies without ever accepting Jesus as Lord, his name will be blotted out.
Colossians 2:13-15 13 And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses,
14 having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.
15 Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.
But we as believers get the opposite treatment as non believers. For non believers, their records of their sins and the charges against them remain, and their name is removed from the Book of Life. But for us, our sins and the charges against us are blotted out from the records of our deeds, but our names in the Book of Life remain!
Isaiah 43:25 says that God blots out our transgressions for His sake (although we certainly gety benefit from it too!) Why for His sake? It is so He can look on us without seeing our sin, so that there is no separation between us and Him.
Acts 3:19 Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord,
Hebrews 8:12 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.”
If God forgets our sins, we ought to also. And that applies not only to the sins committed before we were saved, but those committed after also. The devil will remind us of them in order to put us under condemnation, but God does not condemn us. (Romans 8:1)
Learning to Forgive
Closely associated with learning to forget is learning to forgive.
Matthew 18:21-22 21 Then Peter came to Him and said, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?”
22 Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.
That’s 490 times!
Luke 17:3-5 3 Take heed to yourselves. If your brother sins against you, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him.
4 And if he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times in a day returns to you, saying, ‘I repent,’ you shall forgive him.”
5 And the apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith.”
I think it amusing that right after Jesus tells the disciples how many times they have to forgive, they say “Increase our faith!”
We can’t forgive like this in human strength. A key here is that the individual is not trying to con you by coming back and saying “I repent”, but perhaps they have a bondage they are having trouble kicking.
Should you let people purposely walk all over you? I don’t believe so. Even if you “turn the other cheek”, you’ve only got two cheeks.
It takes faith to forgive and forget. And it also takes forgiveness to have faith.
In Mark 11:22-24 we have Jesus’ classic teaching on faith. But look what follows it:
Mark 11:25-26 25 “And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses.
26 But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses.”
Unforgiveness can and will hinder your prayers. God takes a very dim view of unforgiveness. Consider the parable of the wicked servant in Matthew 18:23-34. A servant owed the king a huge amount of money. He begged for the king to have patience with him to repay, and the king forgave the entire debt. But after that, that same servant went out and found someone who owed him $100. That person begged for time to repay, but the servant was unwilling and had him thrown into debtor’s prison (I’ve always wondered about the logic of that. How is someone supposed to earn money to pay a debt if they are in prison?).
The king was furious when he heard about it. “Shouldn’t you have had the same compassion on your fellow servant as I had on you?” And it says he was turned over to the torturers until he should repay the debt. That day never came – he was tortured to death.
And then we read this verse:
Matthew 18:35 So My heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses.”
God wouldn’t require us to do something He wasn’t willing to do Himself; that would be unjust. If He wants us to forgive a person who sins against us seven times in a day when they come to us and are sincerely sorry, He will forgive us when we come to Him.
Reaching Forward
It’s good not to be dwelling in the past and not let past sins, failures, and mistakes hinder you. But we must do more than stand still, we must go forward.
God desires and expects growth, progress, and improvement from us.
Hebrews 12:1-3 1 Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,
2 looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
3 For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls.
I know Christians who because of failure and discouragement have dropped out of the race. They quit praying, reading the Word, and coming to church. I don’t judge them; who know what you or I would have done in their circumstances? But perhaps something they lacked was someone to encourage them.
We have a great cloud of heavenly witnesses cheering us on, but we also need earthly encouragers. For that, we need to develop relationships. People who can speak into our lives, and as a two way street, where we can speak into theirs.
