Forget It!

My text this morning is a familiar one, from Paul’s letter to the Philippian church, chapter three, verses twelve through fourteen. Let me set the context. Paul begins by listing his credentials as an authentic descendant of Abraham, in rebuttal to those who were attacking him and his message. Beginning in Philippians chapter three, verse four, and reading from the NIV translation:

“If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: 5 circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; 6 as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless.”

In other words, anyone who claims that the reason Paul is preaching this gospel, this good news of a salvation that is available to all, with no requirement to keep the Law of Moses or be circumcised —anyone who thinks that Paul is preaching this gospel because he himself is somehow deficient in the essential marks of Judaism, is badly mistaken. On the contrary, he is a “Hebrew of Hebrews”, an Israelite of the highest caliber. Not only was he born into Judaism, he wholeheartedly embraced it. He zealously promoted the law as a Pharisee; and even persecuted Christians, whom he viewed as heretics and apostates. Nevertheless, since his encounter with Christ on the road to Damascus, he has come to regard all of his supposed advantages as less than worthless. Continuing in verse seven:

“7 But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8 What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage,”

“Garbage”. Not things of great value, or significant value, or even any value at all. But actually a “loss”. An impediment. A hindrance. Why? Because they deceived him into thinking that righteousness was a matter of human effort, rather than what it is, a gracious gift from God on the basis of faith. Let’s continue:

“I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. 10 I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.”

Whatever advantages Paul might have claimed as a result of his lineage, his heritage, his birth; whatever claims he could make on God as a result of his faithful service to Judaism; none of that mattered. It was all beside the point. The only thing that matters is the resurrection of Christ and the righteousness that comes through faith in him.

Perhaps some of us here this morning can relate to Paul’s experience. Perhaps at one point in your life, you thought that you had an advantage with respect to God; you thought that God would look favorably on you because of the religion you were born into, or because of your strict adherence to that religion. Perhaps you imagined that your personal conduct, your superior ethics and morals, your commitment to this cause or that, would commend you to God as a righteous person. But at some point in your life, you realized that was all false. As far as God was concerned, you were no better than anyone else; in fact, you were worse off, because all the things you were relying on to make you acceptable to God were actually preventing you from seeking and finding forgiveness for your sins.

That’s the background. And now we get to our point of focus this morning, verses 12-14:

12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

As I said, this is a familiar passage. It is frequently referred to as an encouragement for us to strive, to persevere in the faith, to keep on seeking Christ. We are told that we should be like Paul, “straining toward what is ahead” and pressing on toward the goal.

And all of that is true. But what is frequently overlooked is what precedes all of that straining and striving. And what is that? Forgetting. “Forgetting what is behind,” Paul says, “I press on”. I fact, I would even say that “forgetting what is behind” is a prerequisite, a necessary precondition, for “pressing on toward the goal”. Because the reason that we so often struggle to persevere, so often struggle to keep our focus on the goal, is that we have never truly “forgotten” our past. As William Faulkner wrote, for many of us, "The past is never dead. It's not even past." It haunts us. It invades our present and weakens our resolve.