Pressing on to the Goal

Philippians 3:8-14 “Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through  faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do,  forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”

In created human terms it may be hard to our heartfelt efforts as “loss” or “rubbish” or “filthy rags”, but we must consider that this is only in comparison with the works of God through our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ and the point is that in the infinite gap between an all-knowing, all-seeing, all-powerful, infinite Creator of the Cosmos and His created finite creatures is truly incomparable. In a short commentary of the above Philippians passage, the commentator states that perfection, from one perspective, is the end goal of the Christian life. After all, we have the hope that when Jesus “appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2). Christ never sinned, and one day, all of those who are united to Him by faith alone will likewise be completely free from the bondage and free of the desire to sin. Creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God, that point at which all the world will know that we are the Lord’s because we reflect His character fully.

The 1828 Webster’s dictionary defines the word “perfection” as: The state of being perfect or complete, so that nothing requisite is wanting; as perfection in an art or science; perfection in a system of morals. 1. Physical perfection, is when a natural object has all its powers, faculties or qualities entire and in full vigor, and all its parts in due proportion. 2. Metaphysical or transcendental perfection, is the possession of all the essential attributes or all the parts necessary to the integrity of a substance. This is absolute, where all defect is precluded, such as the perfection of God; or according to its kind, as in created things. 3. Moral perfection, is the complete possession of all moral excellence, as in the Supreme Being; or the possession of such moral qualities and virtues as a thing is capable of. 4. An inherent or essential attribute of supreme or infinite excellence; or one perfect in its kind; as the perfections of God. The infinite power, holiness, justice, benevolence and wisdom of God are denominated his perfections.

That this will happen when Jesus “appears” keeps us from expecting perfection in this life. In the flesh, this side of eternity, we are in the process of perfecting in Christ. Perfection, in the sense of being unable to sin, will be ours only at the resurrection, because only then will we be free of the presence of sin. (Of course, our spirits that rest in heaven before the resurrection will already have been perfected in this regard.) Until that future day, full holiness is something that we strive for, and we need help to make true progress in our reflection of Christ.

Even the Apostle Paul needed such guidance as He pressed on toward the mark and goal of holiness. For him, we know this guidance came from God’s moral law, because the fruits of holiness that he speaks of in his epistles are actions and attitudes encouraged by the Ten Commandments. He did not seek to follow God’s law of love by the assistance of the Holy Spirit in order to be set right with our Creator. Instead, knowing that he had been reconciled to God through the perfect righteousness of Christ, Paul did what comes naturally to regenerate and sanctified people and sought to please the Lord by putting into practice the Lord’s holy statutes.

Believers glorification is certain. We will surely be perfect and unable to sin in the age to come. Today, we are called to show forth the holiness that will be ours fully in the future by living out, albeit imperfectly, the will of God. Because sin still clouds our thinking, we need the constant preaching of the Lord’s moral law to show us how to fulfill this call. The righteous requirement of the law is fulfilled in believers as they walk according to the Spirit, and our need for the law’s teaching has not passed away.

Christians make true progress in their fight against sin over the course of their Christian lives. Yet, we continue to discover new sins we never saw before until we die, and our sin-clouded minds need help in knowing the Lord’s will. This is one reason why we should seek and treasure the teaching and preaching of God’s law. It gives us the righteous standard to which we must strive, telling us precisely what it means to please God.