Pressing On

Pressing On

Philippians 3:12-16

Good morning.

The Apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15:10, by the grace of God I am what I am. NKJV

John Newton was a captain of different slave ships and he also invested heavily in slave trading.

Some years after his conversion to Christ, Newton renounced the slave trade and actually began working to end slavery.

John Newton was later ordained in the Church of England and served as a Parish priest.

John Newton said, “I am not what I ought to be, I am not what I want to be, I am not what I hope to be in another world…

…but still, I am not what I once used to be, and by the grace of God I am what I am.”

In the Book of Philippians, Paul encourages his readers with an invitation and challenge to grow and keep growing as long as we are here on planet Earth.

So, we like John Newton, can say, “I am not what I once used to be, and by the grace of God I am what I am.”

Please open your Bibles to Philippians 3, as we continue in our verse-by-verse study of Paul’s Epistle to the Church at Philippi.

Last week, Paul taught his readers to abandon the idea of self-righteousness as he explained a Christian’s position in Christ.

Paul showed the difference between living and trusting in self-righteousness and living and trusting in God’s righteousness, given to a person by faith in Christ.

Paul wrote the church and told them that the only way he could be found in Christ was by renouncing his self-righteousness.

Paul mentioned faith. Faith means to take God at His Word. Faith is weighing the evidence of what God has said and believing Him!

Paul said he denounced self-righteousness as dung was so he may know Christ. To know Jesus doesn’t mean to know about Him, it means to have a relationship with Jesus through faith.

Can you stand before a perfect God and claim that you are morally right or that your actions are justifiable?

Whether I die or if the rapture happens, my prayer for you and me is the same as what Paul said in verse 9.

Philippians 3:9 and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, NKJV

“What are you into?” “What are you passionate about? What moves you? At the end of this life, it will only matter who you know to determine where you will go!

In the section of scripture we will look at today, Paul uses a race metaphor.

I. Paul was perfectly imperfect.

Read Philippians 3:12

Last week we said that there is a positional and a practical truth to the command to live righteously before the Lord.

The positional aspect of Christ’s righteousness is found in…

2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. NKJV

For the Christ follower, the moment we place our faith in Jesus Christ, our sins are instantly removed, and His righteousness is imputed to us.

Jac J. Muller said, “Just as a little child is a perfect human being, but still is far from perfect in all his development as man,

“So, the true child of God is also perfect in all parts, although not yet perfect in all the stages of his development in faith.”

Here in this verse, Paul seems to indicate that he was not perfect as he wrote this letter. Again, if we remember Paul’s pedigree and his resume, this was a big revelation.

Perfected in this context means mature. Paul was mature but he was not done maturing in Christ.

Warren Wiersbe said, “One mark of this maturity is the knowledge that he is not perfect! The mature Christian honestly evaluates himself and strives to do better.”

By this time, Paul had already been serving the Lord for nearly 30 years, many would probably believe he was mature enough to overcome temptations and spiritual battles at this point.

Paul was deeply satisfied with Christ; however, he was not content with his own achievements.

With the words, “Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected”, Paul made it clear that he was not satisfied with the spiritual things he had already achieved for Christ.

Paul believed there was so much more to do for the kingdom.

There is not only a danger in living focused on our past mistakes, but there is also a danger when we rest on our past achievements as well.

Sometimes we hear about people who have been Christians for a long time, who start to believe that they have arrived or attained. Those sorts of people can become haughty and unteachable.