Pressing Onward

7But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9and 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 and is by faith. 10I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.

12Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13Brothers, 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, 14I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.


I was reading through Philippians and ran across the above passages. I want to focus in on verse 13b-14:

...Forgetting what is behind and straining toward I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

If we are to press ahead and forget the past, does that mean not dealing with past or present sin in our lives? Now when I talk about dealing with our sin, I am talking about more than just saying: "Sorry God. I goofed. Please forgive me." I am talking about gut-level dealing with your sin. What does that look like as you deal with this particular passage? Should we move forward and kind of act like our sin in the past never happened? Or that there really isn't a need to really deal with it since Jesus died for those sins?

It sure would be easier - and probably feel a lot better not having to feel the guilt and shame of having to relive and deal with God and those we have offended with our actions. The reason bring this up is that I have known myself and others who have take this route. Somehow, since Christ has already paid the penalty for our sins past, present and future, then I shouldn't have to deal with them other thansimply asking forgiveness.

What do you think?

Comments

Anonymous said…
Thanks for the uplifting words. I read them on Thursday, just when most of us need something to keep us pressing on during our ministry/work week.
Alan Paul said…
No kidding. Especially you and what you have been through the last few weeks.

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