Strive For Eternal Glory Phil 3:12-16

Not everyone finishes the race...

Christian Gollayan, of the The New York Post, asked the question, “What happens to marathoners who fall short of the finish line?” He expains,

“More than 50,000 runners take part in the New York City Marathon each year. But not everyone makes it to the finish line. For those who can’t complete the 26.2 mile race in 6 ¹/₂ hours, or who decide to give up along the way, there’s the sweep bus. While some see it as a rolling symbol of personal defeat, others are just grateful for the lifeline....”

He goes on to say, “Marathon officials say that about 1.3 percent — some 650 — of the more than 50 thousand participants in any given year don’t complete the race and their record is stamped as DNF (Did Not Finish).” (Gollayan, New York Post, 2016 https://nypost.com/2016/11/05/what-happens-to-marathoners-who-fall-short-of-the-finish-line/)

Marathons have their origin in ancient Greece culture. The name Marathon comes from the legend of Pheidippides, a Greek messenger. The legend states that he was sent from the battlefield of Marathon to Athens to announce that the Persians had been defeated in the Battle of Marathon (in which he had just fought), which took place in August or September, 490 BC. He supposedly sprint the twenty-five miles or so, and then dropped dead just after he announced the victory. Marathons are grueling and take an immense amount of training and discipline. Because the race is straining on the body and mind, not everyone finishes the race.

Paul uses athletic metaphors, like racing, to describe the journey Christians must walk on earth. Perhaps one of his favorite metaphors was that of the runner.

1 Corinthians 9:24 ESV

24 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it.

Paul goes on to say that he runs the race of faith with purpose and discipline like a good athlete does to compete and win.

2 Timothy 4:8

2 Timothy 4:8 CSB

8 There is reserved for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me on that day, and not only to me, but to all those who have loved his appearing.

A crown is given to the athlete who strives to win the race.

Galatians 5:7 ESV

7 You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth?

Paul uses the running metaphor to describe their faithful commitment to sound teaching and the gospel.

Hebrews 12:1–3 ESV

1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.

In maybe his clearest use of running, the writer of Hebrews, who many think was Paul, encourages the church to run the race of faith with endurance, as if we are running before a crowd of spectators, keeping your eyes on the crown, that is Jesus. He uses words like endurance, weary, and fainthearted to describe those who run.

The Christian faith is a marathon, and just like the New York Marathon, not everyone who enters the race will finish.

In our text this morning, Paul, again, uses marathon like language to describe your Christian faith. he says things like, “I press on,” or “ straining forward” to the upward call of God. The straining and pressing onward is your day to day faith and growth in holiness. The upward call is eternal glory, its finishing the race, crossing the finish line, receiving your eternal life. Only those who persevere until the end will be saved. Jesus warns, particularly in the last days when things become extremely difficult for the believer,

Matthew 24:13 ESV

13 But the one who endures to the end will be saved.

Just as an athlete’s training produce s the skill and stamina to endure the race until the end, so does your maturity and growth in the faith. Christianity is not passive or stagnant. It is living water flowing with a current toward maturity in the faith. Maturity is the result of being conformed into the image of the Son. So, Paul offers you four intentional ways you can strive to mature your faith to reach eternal glory.

Christian, you must strive for eternal glory by realizing you have not arrived, keeping your eyes on the prize, maturing in your thinking, and persevering in your walk.

Strive for eternal glory by realizing you have not arrived (Phil 3:12a-13a)

Philippians 3:12–13 (ESV)

12 Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect... 13 Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own...

How has Paul not arrived? He says, “he has not obtained this or am already perfect. He has not made it his own.” He feels a bit ambiguous with his words. What does he mean by “this” and “ it”? There are two ideas that capture my attention. The first is Paul is speaking of moral perfection. He has not yet attained spiritual perfection. He has not become, as one commentator notes, what God intended him to become. It is the state of perfection in heaven, both moral and spiritual perfection.

There other idea, which I think makes the most sense, is he has not obtained a perfect knowledge of Jesus. As Gerald Hawthorne explains, Paul means to say that he does not lay claim to having fully grasped the meaning of Christ at this point in his experience. Christ—the full significance of this person...Paul’s encounter with the resurrected and living Christ created within him not only a consuming desire to know Christ intimately and fully, but also an awareness that this was something that could not be achieved in a moment. To know the incomprehensible greatness of Christ demands a lifetime of arduous inquiry.” (Hawthorne, Gerald F. 2004. Philippians. Vol. 43. Word Biblical Commentary. Dallas: Word, Incorporated.)

Paul has not arrived a fully knowing Jesus in this life. He has not have a perfect knowledge of Jesus. Paul realizes that no one on this earth with a finite mind and heart can fully know Jesus, and yet, he strives to know him fully every day of his life. That is the Christian faith. Striving to know Jesus fully is the heart of every Christian. Those who are in Christ want to know him, to be fully conformed into His image, to be like Him in every way. Knowing Jesus echoes what Paul meant to have to mind of Jesus in chapter 2. Striving to know Jesus fully is a clinic in humility. The more you know him, the more your realize how far you need to come to be like him. You realize you have not arrived by any standard of the word.

Realizing you have not arrived gives your spiritual eyes bi-focal perspective. One the top lens, your eyes see the infinite revelation of Jesus afresh every day, like his mercies are new every morning. Your spiritual ears hear the truth preached and it creates a hunger to know Jesus more. So you strive everyday in your quiet times, in your DNA groups, in Sunday School, and in Cooperate worship on Sunday mornings to know Jesus.

On the bottom lens, to know Jesus is to know your sin and imperfection. To know Jesus, is to be able to see your sin in other people and realize that their sin is as much your sin apart from the grace of Jesus.

There was a godly Christian woman who startled her friends by saying, “There isn’t a sin of which I am not capable. I could be a prostitute; I could murder; I could embezzle.”

Most of her friends were not impressed with her frankness. Instead they thought that she was displaying a false humility. Then she added, “You don’t really believe what I just said. I mean it—because I realize that any particular sin that crops up in someone else’s life expresses itself in me, but in different ways. Until I accept that, I am self-righteous, proud, and arrogant.”

The woman knows Jesus. The woman realizes she has not arrived. She strives for more knowledge of Christ in order to be conformed into his image. Knowing Jesus fosters a sense of humility, and it is humility that helps you strive for eternal glory, to finish the race, that matures your faith.

Humility is one of the chief of all the Christian virtues; it is the hallmark of the child of God.

David Martyn Lloyd-Jones

Let us pray with George Whitfield,

Lord, give me humility or I perish.

George Whitefield

Christian strive for eternal glory by realizing you have not arrived in a full knowledge of our Lord. Pursue a greater knowledge of Jesus with all of your heart, mind, soul, and strength so that his humility is a hallmark to your faith and a means of grace in your sanctification.

Strive for eternal glory by keeping your eyes on the Prize (Phil 3:12b-14)

Philippians 3:12–14 (ESV)

12 ...but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. 13 Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

I am using the race metaphor to help us feel the wight of striving for eternal glory. Gerald Hawthorne says that the hunter metaphor is just as capable in this context. When Paul says he “presses on” or he is “straining forward” or pressing on toward the prize,” it s equivalent to a hunter chasing after his game. Paul chases after Jesus like a hunter pursuing a trophy game in an African Safari. Whether you are an athlete running a race or a hunter chasing a trophy game, the point remains the same; your goal is the prize at the end the race or the hunt. For Paul, and every Spirit-empowered believer, the prize is Jesus!

If you were to ask the average church person, “What do you hope happens after you die?” Many will likely say, “ I hope I am in heaven.” If i press them further and say, “Who do you hope to see in heaven?” Many will likely say, “ I hope to see my friends and my family. I hope it is a reunion of sorts.” If i press even further and ask, “Who do you hope to see first?” I believe too many people will say, “ I hope to see my children or my parents.” For Western Christians, heaven has become the prize of your Christian faith.

John Piper says,

“The critical question for our generation—and for every generation—is this: If you could have heaven, with no sickness, and with all the friends you ever had on earth, and all the food you ever liked, and all the leisure activities you ever enjoyed, and all the natural beauties you ever saw, all the physical pleasures you ever tasted, and no human conflict or any natural disasters, could you be satisfied with heaven, if Christ were not there? ” ― John Piper, God Is the Gospel: Meditations on God's Love as the Gift of Himself

He goes on to say,

“Christ did not die to forgive sinners who go on treasuring anything above seeing and savoring God. And people who would be happy in heaven if Christ were not there, will not be there. The gospel is not a way to get people to heaven; it is a way to get people to God. It's a way of overcoming every obstacle to everlasting joy in God. If we don't want God above all things, we have not been converted by the gospel.” ― John Piper, God Is the Gospel: Meditations on God's Love as the Gift of Himself

Do you see and Savor Jesus? Is he your treasure? Are you chasing after Jesus, just as he chased after you?

Paul admits that grasping Jesus is not something natural to him. Paul says he wants Christ to be his own because Jesus has made Paul his own. Christ has grasped Paul, or better said, apprehended Paul. Paul is referring back to his encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus in which Christ arrested Paul’s heart. Paul was aiming for the temple, he was aiming for Judaism, and he was aiming for the Torah. Jesus apprehended Paul and turned his life toward a new direction, toward seeing and savoring Christ. As Paul’s prize, his goal now is to grasp Jesus in every capacity of his life, his mind, and heart. He wants full comprehension of faith. Has Jesus apprehended you? Has Jesus seized your heart and turned your life around so that your aim is now Him, not the pleasures of this world? Are striving for eternal life for heaven alone, looking forward primarily to a family reunion? Are you pressing on to know Jesu perfectly?

What does “pressing on” or “striving” look like?

Pressing on to Forget

Striving has two parts to it. On the one hand, Paul says “I stop looking behind me.” In track we have a rule to never look back. You can’t win the race looking backward. Paul stops looking back by forgetting what lies behind. He means to say, “I”m not focusing on my past sins.” I’m not letting my past treason toward God and persecution of the church hinder me from knowing Jesus perfectly.

Good grief our memories can be so paralyzing at times! Some of us have a way of keeping track of our sins, or over indulging in the reality or nuisance of our depravity. Reminding yourself of how broken you are does nothing but store up guilt and shame, even despair. It’s one thing to say I have not arrived, but it is another to wallow in your shame. Christian, everyone is broken. All have fallen short of the glory of God. All of us have exchanged his glory for something else. But may I remind you that you are redeemed? Your sins are forgiven as far as the east is from the west. That God has lavished his love on you by giving you his Son, who has apprehended your heart, and nothing can separate you from his love? Can I remind you that he has given you His Holy Spirit to help you, to empower you to live in your new redemption? Paul uses the present tense, noting that this is something that you do every day.

Striving Forward to Know

It is not enough to just forget what lies behind. At the same time you must look forward, strain forward, strive forward to what lies ahead. Like a runner stretching for for the finish line, fasten your your eyes on Jesus. Concentrate all of your effort to know Him fully and perfectly. Exert yourself in your Bible study, your prayer time, your worship time with the church, your fight agaisnt sin, your interceding for others, your ministry in the church, community, and home, your marriage and your parenting with the same intensity of desire like a runner committed to winning the race, to see, know, and understand Jesus. Your forget you pagan past and you live in your redeemed future by striving to know Jesus. When you live your Christian life like this, you will finish the race. You will see eternal glory, and you will see and savor Jesus your prize.

Strive for eternal glory by recognizing not what you’ve become but what you are becoming (Phil 3:15)

Philippians 3:15 CSB

15 Therefore, let all of us who are mature think this way. And if you think differently about anything, God will reveal this also to you.

The word mature is also the word for perfect. Paul seems to be using some irony in verse 15. In verse 12, Paul said he had not arrived to a perfect knowledge of Jesus. Some in Philippi thought that they had reached the kind of perfection that Paul denied having reached and Paul exhorts them to have the same attitude he described in Phil 3:12.

Perfectionism is a system of beliefs that teaches Christians that moral perfection is attainable in this life. They will quote scriptures like

Matthew 5:48 ESV

48 You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

1 Corinthians 2:6 (ESV)

6 Yet among the mature (telios-perfect) we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away.

Colossians 1:28 (ESV)

28 Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature (telios-perfect) in Christ.

It was a common belief in the Middle Age church which help establish solitary movements like the monks, nuns, and mystics to leave society to achieve moral perfection. John Wesley, founder of the Methodist Church, was a huge proponent of Perfectionism. He was heavily influenced by Jeremy Taylor and William Law as the Mennonites. As George Kurian notes, “For Wesley perfection was received through faith and confirmed by the Holy Spirit. Some Wesleyans do not use the term perfection, preferring entire sanctification as somehow less threatening. In the United States, the Oberlin theologians Charles Finney and Asa Mahan upheld perfectionism. Wesley’s perfectionism was carried forward by the American Holiness movement out of which sprang the Church of the Nazarene, the Wesleyan Church, and some forms of Pentecostalism.” (Kurian, George Thomas. 2001. In Nelson’s New Christian Dictionary: The Authoritative Resource on the Christian World. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers.)

There are some obvious problems with the teachings of perfectionism. Theologian Andrew Naseli sums up the key issues with this teaching. First, Perfectionist theology misunderstands the nature of the flesh. The flesh is our sinful disposition that we must battle on a regular basis. It it not an enemy that can be weakened or starved to death. It must be sanctified over time, which leads to the second concern. Perfectionism does not understand progressive sanctification. The Bible teachers that God sanctifies his people wisely over a period of time. Finally, perfectionist theology has a low view of sin. Naseli comments, Sin is not limited to sinful actions that you are aware of: “Sin is lack of conformity to the moral law of God, either in act, disposition, or state.”14 The human heart is deceitful and desperately sick beyond cure (Jer 17:9). And the more you mature as a Christian, the more sensitive you will become to how sinful you are. The more holy you become, the more you will see your sin. For someone to be attracted to perfectionist theology is at best an immature understanding of the Bible and at worst a detour on the road to heresy. Paul is, with some degree of wit and cleverness, rebuking those in the church who think this way.

Paul is saying in so many words, “All of us who claim to be perfect must have the attitude that Christian perfection is in reality a constant striving for perfection. But since you have a somewhat different attitude about this matter, God will reveal to you the truth in his time.” (Hawthorne, Gerald F. 2004. Philippians. Vol. 43. Word Biblical Commentary. Dallas: Word, Incorporated.) In other words, as Martin Luther says,

“The nature of a Christian does not lie in what he has become but in what he is becoming.” Martin Luther

The road of maturity is recognizing that the more you know Jesus, the more you see how far short you fall of Jesus, while at the same time, recognizing Jesus is sanctifying you to become like him. You are a work in progress. The work is sanctification. The progress will be when you are fully and completely conformed into the image of the Son. On that day you will be complete, mature, perfect. Until then, you must strive for eternal glory by embracing the process, recognizing your not perfect nor will you ever be perfect in this life, but you will be made perfect int he life to come. Strive in your maturity, your growth as a believer, in the process of what you are becoming.

Strive for eternal glory by obeying what you already know (Phil 3:16)

Philippians 3:16 CSB

16 In any case, we should live up to whatever truth we have attained.

In our final verse, Paul calls on the church to obey what truth they already know. The word “live up” is a military term which means to walk in order, in rank, like a soldier. Whatever truth God has revealed to the Philippians is to be obeyed and manifested among them in the same manner a soldier obeys his commanding officer, and yet with one caveat.

Jesus says, “If you love me you will obey me.”(John 14:15-31). Soldiers obey their commanding officer out of obligation. Jesus calls his disciples to obey out of love for Him. He’s calling you to obey Him out of love in the same way he obeys His Father out of love.

John 15:8–10 ESV

8 By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. 9 As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. 10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.

Jesus has provided you his love, his truth, and his Spirit. Now walk in obedience to the truth that has been given to you. When we gather as a church, we gather as a community of Christians who are at different stages of their maturity and knowledge. Let’s not forget that. Let’s make it our aim to live up to what we’ve attained, and allow our brothers and sisters to do the same. Let’s be faithful to Christ’s work at FBCl and in each other by striving for eternal glory in what we already know. At the end of the day, all of us want to finish the race!

Finish the race!

It is a sad reality that many who start in the church will not cross the finish line. The church on earth will have wheat and tares growing together. There are some in this church who will hear this sermon and walk out of the church unfazed by it. You will not hear the warning nor will you appreciate the truth. If that describes you, friend, you will not finish the race. You are must repent and confess your sin. Call upon the Lord and be saved. Trust in his atonement for your sin and his resurrection of life before its too late. For those who reject Christ will perish under God’s eternal condemnation in hell.

Then there are those who will hear the truth, respond to the truth, even tremble under the weight of the warning to persevere. To you, Christian, I would remind you that Jesus promised not one of his sheep will be lost. All who trust him will rise with him. Paul echoes this in

Philippians 1:6 ESV

6 And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

and

Philippians 2:13 ESV

13 for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

Jesus gave you his Spirit to seal you and empower you to fulfill the good works he planned for you (Eph 2:10). Those who have Jesus ruling their hearts realize they have not arrived, set their eyes on Him as their prize, embrace the process of sanctification, and strive to obey the truth they know. The sermon is a reminder of what you are already inclined to do. Now joyfully do it knowing Jesus is for you and not agaisnt you, and that nothing can separate you from His love.

I close with a stanza from the old hymn “Fight the Good Fight with All Thy Might” from J.S.B Monsell. The Hymn sings,

Run the straight race through God’s good grace.

Lift up thine eyes to seek His face.

Life with its path before thee lies.

Christ is the path and Christ the prize.

Fight the Good Fight with All Thy Might” (J. S. B. Monsell [1863]