When Saul was arrested by Christ, he was in the midst of a campaign of terror against the Lord’s people. But that enemy combatant was given a new heart, and that instantly changed everything. The rebel became a willing servant of the Saviour. His old passion to be the best that his false religion could devise was gone. His lineage back to King Saul and Abraham no longer meant the same thing to him. And he realized that no matter how hard he tried, whatever righteousness he might derive from obedience to the law, fell short of the perfection of that law. He began to see that “the law (is only) our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster” – Galatians 3. His quest for righteousness was now firmly placed on the merits and sacrifice of the Christ he formerly hated.
There are many modern “Christians” who “ask Jesus to come into their hearts,” but who experience no change, because Christ has not really entered their hearts. Turning Romans 10:9 and 10 around we learn that – “With the heart man believeth unto righteousness.” When that faith is genuine, then the mouth follows the heart into confession that Jesus Christ is their Lord and Saviour. And when Christ becomes someone’s Lord, then that person’s life is transformed, as Saul’s was. Paul recognized that new life in the believers at Thessalonica. He said, I saw “how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God; And to wait for his Son from Heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus which delivered us from the wrath to come.” Salvation is a spiritual revolution which affects every part of a person’s being.
And now Paul, like the Philippians and Thessalonians, was passionate about new things. Things like sharing the good news with other sinners and rebels like himself. He had a commission now, not from the Jewish priests “that if he found any of this way, whether the were men or women, he might bring bound unto Jerusalem.” No, he had a commission straight from the throne of God – “To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in (Christ).” He also had a passion “that I may know him,” who had apprehended and arrested him. “That I may know him, and the power of resurrection, and the fellowship of his suffering, being made conformable unto his death. If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.”
In the margin of Mathias’ and Micah’s Bibles, the editor has placed some notes next to verse 12. Before listing several points, there is a title in bold letters which says: “Seeking Christlikeness.” I agree with that summation of these verses – these verses are about becoming more like the Saviour. As I said last week, “knowing Christ” isn’t an intellectual exercise. It isn’t a study and mastery of “Christology.” Paul’s desire was NOT to know ABOUT Christ, but to KNOW CHRIST – his Saviour. And that knowledge is of the intimate variety – something of which the Bible often speaks. It was personal and real, involving a living connection and fellowship. Just as Paul had experienced Christ in his conversion; he wanted to experience the power of Christ’s resurrection. And to fellowship or commune closely with the Lord in his sufferings. And a good way to summarize that desire is to say he yearned to become more like Christ – “Christlike.”
It was definitely out of any orderly sequence, but we’ve already considered the subject of “perfection” to which Paul referred in verse 15. In verse 12 he essentially says, “despite my position in Christ, as a saint of God, I am not perfect.” “I have not fully apprehended that for which the Lord apprehended me.” “But my failures thus far are not keeping me from striving for more Christlikeness in my life.” And to that end he reveals four or five things about himself in his spiritual pursuit. These are five things you and I need to implement and improve in us. Paul speaks of humility, forgetfulness, stretching out, recognizing there is a prize and pressing forward to grab that prize.
Perhaps the place to start is in recognizing there IS a GOAL – a PRIZE – to be reached by God’s saint.
“I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” There appear to be to be millions of professing Christians who think that the Christian life is like riding a rudderless raft down a mighty river. It is the “ask Jesus into their heart” thinking that grants them permission to come aboard. Then they settle into their deck chair, reading the books of their choice and playing video games on their phones until the raft takes them under the gate into the Celestial City.
While, indeed, salvation is the work of God – beginning in eternity past, up to the moment of repentance, and then ultimately into the glory of Christ… While salvation is the work of God, true Christians know that the divine Captain expects things from them. One of them is a desire to “know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings.” In fact, as Paul expresses it, the high calling which has been given to us, directly involves that prize.
We have been “called,” we have been given this calling to become children of God – like Christ. Practically speaking, that means to live out the righteousness we have been given. We are to be “holy as He is holy.” Are we Christians if there isn’t some desire to be holy? Jesus said, “take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly of heart…” Part of our goal is to be more and more mild and gentle toward others, while strict with ourselves. Christ prayed “Father, not my will, but thine be done.” Jesus was totally submissive to the will of the Heavenly Father. He also said, “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.” To be Christlike is to be holy, submissive to the Father and meek towards men. The Lord one day was approaching the community of Nain, when he saw a grieving mother. “And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her, and said unto her, Weep not.” Christlikeness means that we will not only show compassion, but demonstrate real love. And forgiveness as well.
I’m not saying that our goal in life is to check off a long list of Christ-like characteristics. The fact is, even if today we are feeling compassionate, most likely that feeling will be gone tomorrow. And yesterday you forgave that person for his offence against you, but if he does it again tomorrow, it is likely you won’t be as forgiving. No, Christ-likeness is not successfully accomplishing a certain number of objectives. It is being like Christ, as a young person may want to be just like his older brother. So he becomes his brother’s shadow. As we are more and more like our Saviour, more and more of the traits of Christ will naturally fall into place.
Of course, becoming more Christlike involves a recognition there is Christlikeness to attain. But as in many other Christian subjects, we have to begin at the beginning
Which in this case is HUMILITY.
“Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect.” If we think we have arrived… If we think that we have reached the ideal – it is proof that we’ve probably not even begun. The prize of the high calling of God is so far above us that we should never even think we have arrived. So – as in salvation itself, we must begin with nothing – we were sinners whom God saved by His grace. And we remain sinners, who have been saved by grace. Never let that slip from your mind.
Some you have heard me say that when I was working as an office manager here in town, we had a secretary who believed the doctrine of Christian sinlessness. Her husband was a pastor in a certain denomination, and she was the worship leader of their church services Misapplying what may have been her true spiritual condition, she claimed that in the flesh she could not sin. Our employer could see otherwise, and so could I. In that condition there was no longer any room for spiritual growth.
Without a doubt, Paul was a spiritual man and dedicated servant of Christ. But had to admit that he wasn’t perfect. He knew – he was aware – he “APPREHENDED that he had not ‘APPREHENDED’ that for what he had been apprehended.” He was no where near reaching the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. And neither are we.
But despite our inability to reach sinless perfection, that still doesn’t take away our responsibility toward it.
The third step toward reaching the prize of Christ-likeness, is SINGLEMINDEDNESS.
“Brethren, this one thing I do, I forget those things which are in my past…” There are so many Christians who are hung up on who they once were and what they once did. Sometimes it is like a rusty nail sticking out of a doorway they have to pass through every day. They are constantly reinfecting themselves with the tetanus of their past sins. Take a claw hammer and either pull that nail out or bash it into the woodwork were it can disappear.
It doesn’t matter what you have done before, what you did could not be as bad as the sins of Saul. He falsely accused innocent people for the purpose of arresting them. Have you done that? He testified against Christ’s believers with the specific intent of having them executed. We mentioned a litany of things this morning, to which Saul was guilty. But he was able to say, “By the grace of God, those are things of my past, and they are under the blood.”
The blood of Christ is, if I can say it reverently, is a miraculous substance. Through that blood, the righteous Judge can no longer see the sins that it covers. And if God can’t see it, then we shouldn’t get out the tongs to try to fish it up again. And don’t you dare bring up the past sins of some other child of God.
And by the way, Paul was probably not confining his thinking to his past sins. He has already run through a list of things which in themselves were reasonably good. Among other things, as “touching the righteousness which is in the law, he saw himself blameless.” Maybe he was a bit myopic, not seeing everything, but I’m reasonably sure this was somewhat accurate. But he has already told us that he has cast that aside “as dung, that he might win Christ.” While some Christians spend far too much time remembering shameful things, other Christians spend too much time patting themselves on the back. All of that has to be forgotten for the sake of the prize before us.
And beside the things that are past – both good and bad – there are also the things beside us. There may be a thousand things which can distract us from the goal. Single-minded focus is the need of the day.
This might be a silly illustration, but many of you can remember the old carousel with the horses on their polls, going up and down as they went around and around. Many of those carousels, perhaps like the one at Riverside Park, had a ring attached to the outer wall. If a rider could grab that ring as they were going up and down, round and round, they won a prize. With all the music, the other riders, the laughter and the horses’ moments, the only way to grab the ring was utter concentration. The prize of the high calling of God requires a special kind of concentration.
Following that there is the need of STRETCHING ourselves to the limit.
“Reaching forth unto those things which are before.” Paul speaks of “following after,” “reaching forth,” and “pressing toward.” Two of these are the same Greek word, but the other word still suggests the same thing – effort. You can’t just sit up straight in the wooden saddle of the carousel horse and expect to reach the ring.
It would be easy to use some sort of sports analogy – pushing ourselves to the limit in order to win the prize. But we could use other pictures just as easily. To learn music requires effort; to read the New Testament in Greek requires work – stretching out. Maybe the Lord has never put those before you as goals for your life. How about this one: How well did the Lord Jesus know the Old Testament scriptures? How many verses could He accurately quote? Isn’t Christ’s knowledge of the Word of God an example for us all? John 13:15. But how many of us are pushing ourselves to memorize a verse or two of scripture every day? How many of us are even reading enough chapters to be able to go through the Bible through in a year?
Paul says, I am pushing myself “following after,” “reaching forth,” and “pressing toward” to reach the prize.
Conclusion:
Again, what is the prize? And notice that it is singular. In this case Paul was thinking of only one prize. It is linked to the high calling of God the father and God the Son. Why has God called us? We have been saved bring glory to God who saved us. And there is no more glorious way to glorify the Lord than to be like – and live like – the one who saved us.
Paul was apprehended by Christ in order to become a good servant of God – adding to the glory of Christ. “Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended” that for which I was apprehended. Well then, let’s press toward the mark for that prize for which we were apprehended.