Introduction
We are starting month #3 of our year of transformation. Every first Sunday of each month in 2016 we have considered and will continue to consider the calling of God in our lives to grow in our sanctification, that is, to be transformed as the Spirit of God works in us. So far we have learned the following about transformation:
· From Eph. 4:11-17, God transforms people's lives as people bring his Word to others;
· From Mt. 6:19-24, Spirit-driven transformation takes place in the heart (it's a matter of what we treasure in our hearts);
· From Lv. 19:15-18, transformation happens when we speak truth out of love for God and neighbor.
Today we will examine Paul's practice of pressing "toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus," (v. 14).
The life of the Christian is dynamic life. He/she is always moving toward Christ. Sometimes, however, we are satisfied with so little movement, so little change. God has so much for us, and we are satisfied with so little. In the height of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire's success, Saturday Night Live had a skit in which Darrell Hammond played Regis Philbin and Will Ferrell played a contestant from West Virginia. The contestant got the first question right, which was the $100 question. To the dismay of the host, the contestant decides that he is not going to try any more questions and was going to leave with $100 instead of trying for $1M.
We often take the same approach when it comes to the growth that God offers to us in Christ. We want to become a little bit like Jesus, but not much. We pull back and relax instead of striving for further transformation. To this attitude, the apostle says, "PRESS ON!"
I. Two Opposing Teachings Led Paul to Write This Passage.
A. Jewish Legalism, 2-3 (and 4-11).
1. The proponents of this teaching put their confidence in the flesh, that is, they thought that who they were in themselves and what they did determined whether God would welcome them into his kingdom.
a. For them, their pedigree mattered tremendously.
b. In addition to that, their religious performance earned God's saving approval.
c. That's why Paul lists his credentials and says that they don't matter, 4-6.
2. This group confused their sanctification with their justification.
a. They taught that growth in holiness in this life would determine whether God would accept us in the life to come.
b. Paul calls those who hold to this idea "evil workers," 2.
B. Antinomianism, 12-16.
1. This teaching says that whether you obey God's Word or not has no impact at all on your life.
a. You are not required at all to obey God.
b. You can go on sinning in whatever way you want because your salvation is eternally secured.
2. This group confused their justification with their sanctification.
a. Jesus did it all; therefore, I don't need to do anything – completely true as far as God's declaration that we are righteous in his sight.
b. But this teaching misses the point that we are justified unto obedience.
Eph. 2:10 – For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
1 Pt. 1:1-2 – Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
To the pilgrims of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ….
II. Either Belief Drives Us Away from Christ.
A. Legalism says, "Do all these things in this list and you will be just fine."
1. There is no need for Christ.
2. You just have to be really good.
3. Jesus becomes just an add-on.
B. Antinomianism says, "Believe in Jesus and live however you want."
1. Jesus becomes a box to check, and once you checked it you don't have to think about it again.
2. You now are free to live for yourself.
C. Both positions result in self-centered, selfish living that has very little room for Jesus.
D. So, the apostle addresses both issues.
1. Legalism, 2-11.
2. Antinomianism, 12-16.
E. Paul's, actually, God's directive is believe in Christ and press on toward Christ.
F. When we think of transformation in the life of the Christian, we are thinking about pressing toward Christ.
III. What Pressing Means.
A. In describing how Christians grow, Paul uses an analogy from sports, particularly from track & field.
1. "I press on," 12.
2. "… reaching forward to those things which are ahead…." 13.
3. "I press toward the goal…." 14.
B. The picture here is of a runner exerting extreme effort to stretch every fiber of every muscle toward the finish line, leaving no resource in his body untapped.
1. Back in my swim team days, we used to practice how to begin a race and how to finish a race.
a. We would practice how to stretch our whole body forward reaching for the wall, so that we could touch the wall before the swimmer next to us.
b. That's how Michael Phelps won the 100 meters butterfly in the 2008 Summer Olympics on his way to win an unprecedented 8 gold medals in the same Olympics – if you watch that race, you will see the world-record holder next to him relax in the last hundredth of a second while Phelps just strains for one more stroke and reaches for the wall.
2. We see this concept in every sport – athletes are encouraged to push through the end.
3. In the same way as an athlete, the Christian pursues Christ throughout his/her whole life.
"For as it would profit the runner nothing to have left the starting-point, unless he went forward to the goal, so we must also pursue the course of our calling until death, and must not cease until we have obtained what we seek." John Calvin
C. It is important that we realize that the pressing of v. 12b can only happen if the loss of vv. 7-8 has already taken place.
1. All the accomplishments of life are less than nothing because Christ has invaded our lives – dung.
2. God has laid hold of us in Christ and now we pursue what he already secured for us, 12b – in Paul's case, a reference to his Damascus Road experience.
3. We pursue growth in Jesus because he already grabbed hold of us for that purpose.
Eph. 2:10 – For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
a. Paul says the same thing in Colossians 3 – "You are in Christ; live out that reality!"
Col. 3:1-4 – If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.
b. German scholar Jac J. Müller says:
"Anyone on whom Christ thus lays hold cannot but exert himself to the utmost and press on keenly towards perfection so that he can make it his own."
4. Those who have counted all things as loss for the sake of Christ cannot do anything but press on.
D. Pressing toward Christ is a life consuming and focused pursuit, 13 – "one thing I do."
"One thing… was the consuming passion of his life." Homer Kent
1. Paul is not trying to figure everything out in life; he is not too worried about his perfection or imperfection; he is not concerned with whether he got a fair shake in life – he just presses on.
2. He presses on toward a goal, 14.
a. The word translated goal is skopos from which we get the English word scope.
b. It implies a single-minded focus – some scholars translate this word as "that on which I fix my gaze."
1) A sniper is not concerned with anything else but what he sees through his scope.
2) That's the type of single-mindedness that should mark our growth in Christ.
3. He doesn't look back, 13 – "forgetting those things that are behind."
a. The past should not impede progress.
b. In our pursuit of Christ, we cannot be absorbed with the past: good or bad.
1) We are back to the sports analogy – a runner/swimmer that looks around to see where everybody else is, or what he has done, will lose precious time and waste energy.
2) Good things that we have done could slow us down as we stop to contemplate them – that's the point Paul was making in 4-6 and having confidence in the flesh.
3) Bad things we have done can be used as excuses to not following Christ in obedience.
4) Forget them both!
E. The goal that he is pursuing is something that he hasn't attained yet, 12.
1. Paul hasn't attained in the reality of this life what is positionally true of every Christian because of our union with Christ.
2. The goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ is described in vv. 8c-11.
a. Gain Christ – Christ-likeness.
b. Be found in him – the final proclamation by Christ at the last days.
c. Know him – full knowledge of Christ.
d. Attain to the resurrection.
3. In essence, we are called to move closer on earth to the realities of heaven!
"I do not consider that I have the prize already in my grasp. This, and this only, is my rule. Forgetting the landmarks already passed and straining every nerve and muscle in the onward race, I press forward ever towards the goal, that I may win the prize of my heavenly rest whereunto God has called me in Christ Jesus." J.B. Lightfoot's paraphrase
4. Before anyone thinks that we earn heaven by becoming more like Christ, let me say that this passage parallels what Paul said earlier in the epistle – sanctification (the process of growth and transformation) is a work of God's free grace in which we participate.
5. It feels like we are doing it, but at the end it is God's doing it in and through us.
Phil. 2:12-13 – Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for Hisgood pleasure.
Phil 1:6 – … being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ….
IV. Why Do We Have to Grow, to Press on, to Be Transformed? Because We Are Still Sinners!
"The church is not a hotel for saints, it is a hospital for sinners." Attributed to Augustine of Hyppo
"The church is a hospital for sinners, not a museum for saints." Abigail Van Burien (Dear Abby)
A. Christians still struggle with sin – often it is not hypocrisy, just sin.
B. That's why Paul describes the pursuit of Christ as a continual process – verbs in the present active indicative (including the counting loss).
C. Paul also acknowledges that in the church Christians will be in different stages of their sanctification process, 15-16.
1. Recognizing that we all may be in different stages of our fight with sin brings us together.
2. Homer Kent says:
"Paul recognizes that Christians, though proceeding along the same path, may be at different stages of progress and should be faithful to as much of God's truth as they understand."
V. How Does This Transformation Work in Real Life?
A. It starts by realizing that we are all works in progress.
1. That is part of being mature.
2. I recognize that I am a work in progress and that you are a work in progress.
B. It continues by our repenting from any notion that we can't by the Spirit of God press on to Christ.
1. We are really good at coming up with lists of reasons why pressing on is not for us or why wen can't press on.
2. Yet, the Spirit says through Paul that that's the one thing we CAN do.
3. These lists are more about what we won't do than about what we can't do.
a. "I can't forgive" is more likely "I won't forgive."
b. "I can't stop looking at pornography" is more likely "I don't want to stop."
c. "I can't love my spouse" is more likely "I won't love my spouse."
d. "I can't help those who are around me" is more likely "I don't want to do so."
C. Obey what God says in his Word about whatever situation or stage you are in life.
1. It is a misunderstanding of what grace is to think that we don't have to obey what God says in the Bible, that we only have to obey if we feel like obey, or that we have to wait till some future time when God will zap us in order to do now what we know we should do.
2. Christ lived a perfect life, died the death of sinners on the cross, and was raised from the dead to bring newness of life to those who believe in him – all the grace in the universe has been secured by that.
a. When we say "I know the Bible says this or that, but…" we are saying that we don't really believe in whom Jesus is and in what he did for us.
b. We don't have to wait for some future work of God for us to obey now.
D. Study what the Bible says about growth in Christ, about transformation, then follow what it says – an example turn to Rom. 12.
1. Be transformed in vv. 1-2.
2. How? For I say in v. 3 introducing very practical things in the rest of the chapter.
E. Don't settle for what is easy and natural.
1. It is easy and natural to hate people.
2. It is easy and natural to give up on people.
3. It is easy and natural to neglect your relationships.
4. It is easy and natural to be selfish.
5. It is easy and natural to go to hell.
F. Go for the supernatural – what you can only accomplish because the Spirit of God dwells in you.
1. Love your wife.
2. Submit to your husband.
3. Be faithful to one another.
4. Raise your child in the discipline and admonition of the Lord.
5. Serve and love your neighbor.
6. Live a single life of contentment and purity.
Conclusion
God has so much for us as far as growth is concerned. Don't be satisfied with just answering the $100 question. Go for the $1M! You can because it is God who is working in you to want and to do his good pleasure.
http://olympiabp.blogspot.com/2016/03/press-on-phil-312-16.html
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