press on

This is one of Paul's BIG statements about a life lived in faith, believing that Jesus is the key to a connection with God...

...and that getting that connect by working for it through good deeds alone is not how it's gonna happen.

Philippians 3

3 For we who worship by the Spirit of God rely on what Christ Jesus has done for us.

We put no confidence in human effort,

4 though I could have confidence in my own effort if anyone could.

Indeed, if others have reason for confidence in their own efforts, I have even more!

  5 I was circumcised when I was eight days old.

I am a pure-blooded citizen of Israel and a member of the tribe of Benjamin;

a real Hebrew if there ever was one!

I was a member of the Pharisees,

who demand the strictest obedience to the Jewish law.

6 I was so zealous that I harshly persecuted the church.

And as for righteousness, I obeyed the law without fault.

  7 I once thought these things were valuable,

but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done.

8 Yes, everything else is worthless

when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.

For his sake I have discarded everything else,

counting it all as garbage,

so that I could gain Christ

9 and become one with him.

I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law;

rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ.

For God's way of making us right with himself depends on faith.

10 I want to know Christ

and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead.

I want to suffer with him,

sharing in his death,

11 so that one way or another I will experience the resurrection from the dead!

12 I don't mean to say that I have already achieved these things

or that I have already reached perfection.

But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me.

13 No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it,* but I focus on this one thing:

Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead,14 I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.

Verses 13 & 14 are pretty interesting...

Remember that Paul had a lot to forget.

He approved of the stoning of Stephen.

He went around throwing Christians in prison & having them killed.

Probably there were LOTS of people to whom he later preached, taught, & wrote letters to, who were relatives & friends of people he had thrown in prison &/or killed.

Think about how tough it must have been – looking out on a group of believers & see the faces of wives, husbands, fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, or friends of people you had murdered.

Yeah, Paul had a LOT to forget.

But Paul just placed his faith in Jesus & kept moving forward with that, & let God take care of what people thought about Paul.

ALL of us have a LOT to forget.

Last time I checked, ain't none of us pee holy water.

But no matter what we've ever been or done, we can let that go,

because God has let it go – He has forgiven us & forgotten about it.

And our responsibility is to continue to believe that Jesus is the only way to connect with God,

& to keep moving forward, following Him.