Reach Forward to What Lies Ahead

Key Scripture: Philippians 3:7-16

What motivates us?

What motivates a person to continue living as a Christian? A common tension of a Christian is trying to keep up a long list of duties—reading Scripture, praying, attending church, resisting false teaching, disciplining sinful behavior, etc. These duties are important, but diligence by itself is not the same as love for Christ. A person or church may be doctrinally careful, morally serious, and outwardly devoted while becoming spiritually cold. As addressed from last week’s sermon, the church in Ephesus is our example of this danger. It opposed evil, tested false teachers, and persevered faithfully, yet Christ rebuked them for leaving its first love. Hatred of error or sin cannot provide the deepest motivation for Christian living. Opposition to false doctrine, cultural wickedness, political corruption, or moral decline are surely a motivation, but without love, it produces a cold and joyless religion.

I warn you, that a visibly devout life does not necessarily prove genuine affection for Christ. The Pharisees practiced fasting, prayer, and strict obedience, and they were admired by many as examples of holiness. Yet Christ condemned them. This is the same with the Christian asceticism. Monastics withdrew from marriage, possessions, ordinary pleasures, politics, and commercial life to avoid temptation and pursue holiness. While we see some godly men who led a monastic life, nevertheless, harshness, deprivation, and separation from society do not equal a godly Christian living. When celibacy, physical severity, or withdrawal from ordinary life becomes the standard of superior holiness, the means of fighting sin can replace love for Christ. No method of self-denial can give life to Christianity without first love. The essential question is not merely, “How disciplined am I?” but, “What drives me to follow Christ every day?”

Justification

Paul answers here in Philippians by declaring that everything he once regarded as gain has become loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ. His ancestry, education, reputation, religious achievements, and social standing cannot give him righteousness before God. He counts them as rubbish so that he may gain Christ and be found in Him. Just look at Paul’s conversion. Though he persecuted Christ and had blood on his hands, Jesus, instead of cursing him or striking him down, confronted Paul personally and mercifully. Paul realized the enormous debt Christ had paid for him while he was blind for three days. The warmth of first love is deeply tied from seeing both the seriousness of your own sin and the greatness of Christ’s forgiveness. What about the woman who anointed Jesus’ feet in Luke 7? The one who understands that much has been forgiven will love much. A small view of sin generally produces a small view of grace and, consequently, a small love for Christ. 

Healthy churches must therefore preach and teach honestly and clearly about sin, but they must also proclaim its remedy. Merely replacing “sin” with softer language is dangerous, but constantly speaking of sin without speaking of Christ’s mercy is also spiritually destructive. The center of justification is that God forgives the believer’s debt and gives the righteousness of Christ through faith. Salvation does not rest on being less corrupt than someone else or earning God’s favor. It rests entirely on divine grace and Christ’s completed work.

Sanctification

When we look at the overall passage, Paul is talking about how to live a Christian life. His desire to know Christ, the power of His resurrection, the fellowship of His sufferings, and conformity to His death. He wants to leave everything behind, not look back, and see what’s ahead. This describes sanctification: the lifelong work by which Christians put sin to death and increasingly live in a way that pleases God. 

Sanctification does not earn justification. Paul does not conform himself to Christ’s death in order to obtain righteousness. He first possesses righteousness from God through faith; then, in union with Christ, he seeks to know Him more deeply through resurrection power, suffering, and conformity to His death. This process necessarily includes suffering. Some suffering is outward, arising from persecution, hardship, and obedience in a godless world. Other suffering is inward, arising from the conflict between the flesh and the Holy Spirit. Christians experience discomfort as the Spirit confronts sinful habits, speech, thoughts, desires, attitudes, loves, and dislikes. 

The growth in our sanctification can be marked in various ways such as gratitude, conviction, and changed habits. However, the inner warfare itself is also evidence that God is at work. A believer who is fighting sin feels the tension between the old man and the new man. Saying, “I have done enough. I am good enough” does not show maturity or a life of a godly Christian. Satan does not always seek an immediate destruction of your faith. His main method is simply making sure that you are loosening your grip, delaying obedience, and assuming that you are doing well. You will let your guard down.

Even Paul himself is saying that he has not obtained the goal yet. No one will, as long as they are living in the sinful flesh here on earth. Even as someone we all look up to, he says that he has not already obtained perfection. He presses on because Christ has taken hold of him. The mature Christian increasingly recognizes indwelling sin. At the same time, he sees an increasing need for Christ.

Glorification

So, what motivates Paul to push forward, even though he knows he will not obtain perfection here on earth? Paul endures these sufferings because he knows what lies ahead. He forgets what lies behind and reaches forward toward the prize of God’s upward call in Christ. His motivation is not a love of suffering or an attempt to punish himself. He presses forward because he longs to be with Christ. This future hope is glorification. In justification, God removes guilt and declares the believer righteous in Christ. In sanctification, God progressively breaks the power of remaining sin. In glorification, sanctification is completed: sin, suffering, pain, and corruption are entirely removed.

However, the final goal is greater than merely becoming sinless or escaping punishment. The believer’s supreme reward and crown is the unhindered union and fellowship with God—resting in His presence, worshiping Him, and enjoying Him forever. The Christian life on earth prepares believers to enjoy Christ in heaven. Through the Spirit, they learn now to love Him, please Him, and find joy in Him. Many people say they want to go to heaven, but the question is whether they would enjoy God of heaven. Heaven will be a miserable place for those whose only interest is avoiding hell or discomfort. From conversion through sanctification and finally glorification, salvation is centered on knowing and enjoying Christ.

Only Christ

We are selfish beings. We make salvation primarily about us. Salvation is not about becoming the kind of person you want to be, gaining a better lifestyle, building a successful career, improving health, or achieving emotional peace. Look at what Paul focuses on in the verse that talks about justification. Look at what he focuses on when he talks about sanctification. When he talks about glorification. It’s not about himself. That died with him when his eyes were opened through Ananias in Damascus. His only focus is on Christ.

Paul’s attitude is a holy dissatisfaction with his present spiritual state. He doesn’t despair, because his righteousness rests in Christ, but neither does he become complacent. He continues pressing forward—putting the flesh to death, seeking to please Christ, and fixing his hope on final communion with God.

True holiness is not the enemy of Christian joy. Matter of fact, it should be our highest joy! Sanctification becomes burdensome only when Christians treat it as a self-centered project accomplished in their own strength. The love received at conversion and the believer’s responding love for Christ make obedience joyful. Rather than merely completing a religious checklist, the Christian asks: How can my words please God? Which habits grieve the Holy Spirit? How can my attitude become less self-serving? How can I know Christ more fully?

The Christian life begins with Christ’s gracious justification, continues through Christ-centered sanctification, and reaches its goal in glorification with Christ. Brothers and sisters. Leave everything behind what defined you in the past. What you wanted to become. Pride, complacency, past achievements, and worldly measures of improvement. They are all useless in Christ. No, they are more than useless as Paul calls it. They are absolute filth and disgust compared to it. They weigh you down as you try to march forward. Our true joy comes not from a low standard of holiness and sanctification. It only comes from a high standard.

Philippians 3:15-16
15 Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, have this attitude; and if in anything you have a different attitude, God will reveal that also to you; 16 however, let us keep living by that same standard to which we have attained.