God has taken hold of us. We are safe. We now have a righteousness that has nothing to do with us—with our good deeds, or our failures, or bad deeds. This is the righteousness of Jesus Christ. While holding that to be true, the apostle Paul tells us that it is also true that we should pursue Jesus Christ with all our being.

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PHILIPPIANS #15. Philippians 3:7-15

We’re going to finally move forward past Philippians 3:1-11, but I do want to catch verses 7-11 on the way out, because they form background to the main point that Paul is making in verses 12-16.

We talked about what Paul meant when he said he considered all things as rubbish, and loss, for the sake of Christ (verse 7-8). We also talked a little bit about verse 9 – that our righteousness does not depend upon us, but upon Christ. We covered this a bit when we talked about not having confidence in the flesh. The actions of our flesh, whether good, or bad, are irrelevant, in Jesus Christ. We gain good standing with God (righteousness) through faith, but we should not be concerned about the relative strength of our faith. We depend not upon faith, but upon Christ. Faith is just exactly that—depending upon Christ. Our faith may feel like it wavers sometimes, but Jesus Christ does not waver. So, even if we feel like we are wavering, or struggling, we can be at peace, because our lives, our eternal future, depend on Christ, not us.

Imagine two men traveling on a bus to San Diego. They end up sitting together. One of them looks very relaxed, and the other nervous.

Stu looks at his seatmate, a man named Rex. “Do you think that guy is a good Driver?”

“I’m sure he is,” says Rex.

“Well, I’m not,” says Stu.

The bus gets underway. Rex slips on some headphones, and picks up a book. Stu can’t believe how trusting he is. When they go through traffic, Stu gets stressed and angry. When a thunderstorm hits, and there is wild wind and a huge amount of spray, Rex perks up, and even seems to enjoy the storm, but Stu is only more worried.

Stu stresses about the route they take, wondering if the Driver really knows the way to San Diego. There are unscheduled stops, and sometimes it seems like they are even backtracking. At times, the engine appears to make a strange noise, and this too, bothers Stu. Rex remains unruffled. He seems to trust the Driver, and the Bus.

At last they pull into their destination in San Diego.

Now: here’s a question: which one of these two men made it to San Diego?

Both, of course! Rex had faith in the Driver and enjoyed the journey. Stu had enough faith to stay on the bus, but his faith waxed and waned, and he had great doubts, and moments of fear and anger. Even so, he arrived at the same destination as Rex, and at the same time. You see, once they had enough faith to stay on the bus, it wasn’t their faith that carried them to their destination—it was the Driver and the Bus that did that.

So, in the same way, we aren’t carried to the New Creation by our faith. We are carried there by Jesus Christ. Our faith is about “getting on the bus,” and “staying on the bus.” Our faith relies upon Jesus Christ. But our faith doesn’t save us—Jesus Christ saves us.

However, back to our analogy, the relative strength or weakness of their faith did make a difference in this one way: The journey was much more relaxing, enjoyable and peaceful for Rex. Rex’s stronger faith did not carry him farther, or faster. Rex was on the same journey as Stu. He went through the same storm, took the same detours, heard the same grinding noise in the engine of the Bus. But Rex’s trust in the Driver and the Bus made his experience of the journey better. But in the end, they both arrived safely. So we have a righteousness that is not our own. It comes by faith, and it is Jesus, not our faith, that carries us to our eternal home.

Paul carries on:

¹⁰ My goal is to know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death, ¹¹ assuming that I will somehow reach the resurrection from among the dead.

Paul trusts in Christ, not in his own strength of faith. But Paul here, and in the following verses, makes it clear that he is not content to arrive after having been worried and stressed out the whole time. He wants to know Christ more, to experience the fullness of Christ’s life in and through his own life. He doesn’t want to arrive without pursuing all that it means to have Jesus in this life.

By the way, verse 11, where he says: “that by any means possible, I may attain the resurrection of the dead,” Paul doesn’t mean there is doubt about whether or not he will experience resurrection. What he doesn’t know is the particular journey he will take to the resurrection. Will he be martyred? Killed by robbers on a journey? Will he die of old age, surrounded by friends? Will he still be alive when Jesus returns? Whatever pathway leads there (that is, “by any means possible”), he will, through Jesus, be raised from the dead.

¹² Not that I have already reached the goal or am already perfect, but I make every effort to take hold of it because I also have been taken hold of by Christ Jesus. ¹³ Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead, ¹⁴ I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God’s heavenly call in Christ Jesus.

I’ve said before that there are many truths that Christians hold in tension. For example: Jesus was fully God. And, also, he was fully human. God is three persons. And, there is only one God. This is one of the somewhat unique characteristics of Christianity, compared with other religions.

When it comes to practical Christian living, another way to express it, is that we are on a road, with a ditch on either side. These verses here express that well. On the one side, we might fall into the ditch of thinking that someone our salvation depends upon us, even if just for us to have “enough” faith, or the right kind of faith. On the other side, there is the ditch of thinking, since it is all up to Christ, and not to us, we might as well wander off and live however we want to, and just meet up with Jesus after we die.

Paul has just addressed the first ditch. Just in case we missed it, he says:

I make every effort to take hold of it because I also have been taken hold of by Christ Jesus.

So, we rest secure in knowing that Christ is the one who has hold of us. This is not about us having to work to gain our salvation, or to earn God’s favor. Christ has already taken hold of us.

With that understanding, that Christ has hold of us, we, now, have the wonderful privilege and joy of also taking hold of Christ. Just to cement this idea, let me give you an illustration.

I love my little granddaughter. She’s just over a year old. I pick her up, and carry her, or hold her on my lap while we read books, or I take her outside to see the goats and the birds and the trees. These are sweet times with her as a baby, and I’ve been doing these things with her since before she could even really interact with me.

Now, of course, she is old enough to interact with me. The last time I was with her, she began trying to say “Grandpoppa,” which is my “name” with her. It melted my heart, and thrilled me all at once. She actually said something like “PupPop,” but what she was trying to do was clear.

These days, she also loves to crawl up to me and then hold out her hands for me to pick her up. Again, it melts my heart. Sometimes, when she’s having trouble getting to sleep for a nap, I lay down with her, and she cuddles up to me with a stuffed animal in her arms, and a pacifier in her mouth, and falls asleep.

Now, do I hold her because she just said “PupPop?” Of course not. I hold her because she is my grandchild, and I love her. I held her long before she could respond to me. Every once in a while, when we are babysitting her, she has a hard time getting to sleep, and she resists it, and gets upset and cries a lot. Does that make me love her less? If you are a parent or grandparent, you know that is an utterly ridiculous question.

The times that she interacts with me are a wonderful joy to me. I crave more of it. But her actions (or lack of actions) are not the basis for our relationship. I do hope that as she grows she will respond to my love with hugs and words of her own, but I loved her before she could do such things, and I will love her, regardless of what she does or doesn’t do.

Even so, my expectation is that she will grow and mature in the ways that she should, so that as time goes on, we will interact more and more with each other, and with greater understanding, and at deeper levels. I would be concerned if she was a teenager and she could only say “PupPop!” and she still lifted up her arms for me to carry her. I wouldn’t love her less, but I would know that something has gone wrong.

This is our situation with the Lord. He has taken hold of us. He did so before we had done anything at all to please him. We are safe in his love. Our actions do not change his love for us. As the apostle John wrote:

¹⁰ This is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the payment for our sins. (1 John 4:10, GW)

Now Paul tells us a second truth, and warns us of the second ditch:

¹³ Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead, ¹⁴ I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God’s heavenly call in Christ Jesus.

We are secure in his love. But, says Paul, there is much more to come, so he strains forward, pursuing God’s heavenly call as a prize to be won. This is not an isolated thought. Look at these other verses about the same thing:

²⁴ Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. ²⁵ Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. ²⁶ So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. ²⁷ But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified. (1 Corinthians 9:24-27, ESV)

⁴ No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him. ⁵ An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. ⁶ It is the hard-working farmer who ought to have the first share of the crops. ⁷ Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything. (2 Timothy 2:4-7, ESV)

⁶ For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. ⁷ I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. ⁸ Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing. (2 Timothy 4:6-8, ESV)

¹ Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, ² looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
³ Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted (Hebrews 12:1-3, ESV)

The idea that “getting saved” is just a ticket to heaven that you keep until you die is not a Biblical one. The Bible shows us that we are utterly secure in Christ. It also shows us that the normal path for those who belong to Christ is to pursue more and more of Christ, above all other things in our lives. When I die, and someone asks, “What was Tom Hilpert’s life all about? How would you sum it up?” I want the answer to be something like “He was all about Jesus,” or “He kept learning to love Jesus more and more.”

And here’s the thing: every single Christian should want that to be true of them as well. That is the normal pattern for those who follow Jesus. Paul puts it like this in our text today:

Therefore, let all of us who are mature think this way. And if you think differently about anything, God will reveal this also to you.

We’ve had discussions in our house churches about whether or not there are rewards in heaven, beyond the reward of “just being there.” Many people don’t seem to like the idea, and seem to think it’s best to have the attitude that they are just glad to be there at all. They don’t need anything extra. But that’s not the attitude that Paul is showing us here today. Paul wants it all—everything he can possibly get in and through Jesus Christ. He pursues like a runner, fights for it like a soldier or boxer. And he tells us that if we are mature, we will pursue Christ in the same way. Maybe one way to think about it is this: regardless of what the Bible means when it talks about rewards in heaven, we should pursue Jesus as if doing so will win us some kind of prize. We should go all out for Jesus, like a runner who doesn’t look back. Again Paul says that all who are mature should think this way.

Here’s part of what is going on here: the love of God, given to us in Jesus Christ is the only thing that is safe for us to desire without limit. You all have heard far too much about how I really love eggnog. Sometimes, I wish I could just sit and guzzle eggnog for hour after hour. I want eggnog without limit. But eggnog without limit will literally kill me. The truth is anything without limit will kill us. Even drinking too much water can kill human beings (it takes a LOT, but it can happen!).

The only thing it is safe to desire without limit is Jesus himself. And so, Paul says, “Let’s go for it! Let’s desire and pursue the one thing that is safe to desire and pursue without limit.”

Now, it’s easy to think, “OK, I guess I have to quit my job and go join a monastery, or go on the mission field, or something.”

It may be that the Lord is calling you to something like that. But I think it’s more likely that he is calling you to make him the main thing in your life as it is right now. If you are a drug dealer, or something like that, then probably you should make immediate changes. But for most people, it starts by pursuing Jesus in the midst of everyday life, where they are right now.

Here’s a small example. Our doorframe recently shifted, and I decided that the best option (for now) is to plane off the vertical side of the door until it fits better. I didn’t have a plane, so I went to a home-improvement store to get one. I asked a store employee to help me find one, and he did. He also turned out to be a talkative individual. Now, normally, this is the kind of situation I hate. But I felt like the Holy Spirit nudged me, and let me know that this man just needed to talk for a bit. So I stood there for far longer than I ordinarily would. Why? Because my life belongs to Jesus, and he made it clear that my mission, before planing the door, was to spend some time with this guy. I am trying always to be Jesus’ man, not my own. As it turned out, after listening for a while, I got to go fix my door as well. But I stopped to listen to the man because I’m living for Jesus, not myself.

I want to hasten to add, like Paul, that I haven’t achieved this perfectly, not by a long shot.

So, I think for most people, you keep on living life more or less as you have been doing, but within that framework, you are pursuing Jesus, and trying to let him use you, and remembering that your life is about him, not you.

Like Paul, as I just said, we will not do this perfectly. But Paul also says,

Forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead, ¹⁴ I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God’s heavenly call in Christ Jesus.

Forgetting what is behind means, at least in part, forgetting about the ways we have failed in the past. No, we don’t do it perfectly, but God has already taken hold of us, so we are secure. We leave the past to Jesus, and move forward, toward him.