AM Bible Study Group: April 2, 2025 from Philippians 3:12-14

Theme: Joy in Christ comes from both resting in what He did for us and pressing on to lay hold of that for which He laid hold of us.

(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).

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This morning, we come to one of the most encouraging passages in the Book of Philippians. It has, in fact, been the encouragement of countless believers throughout the centuries. In Philippians 3:12-14, Paul wrote of his own experience in the Christian life and said;

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 (Philippians 4:12-14).

In these words, the apostle Paul—the man that we look up to as the great example of living the Christian life—admitted that he hadn’t become perfect yet. He was still growing. That alone is a great encouragement to all of us who struggle along in the Christian life. But also in these words, he encouraged his fellow believers to do as he was doing. With the determination and discipline of an athlete—he pressed on to “lay hold” of the upward call of God in Christ.

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It would be very important to remember that these words weren’t meant to apply to everyone. They only rightly apply to someone who has first placed their complete faith in Jesus. It would be spiritually dangerous to apply them to anyone else. They need to be seen in the context of what Paul said earlier in Philippians 3. Paul began in verses 1-3 by telling his readers that real, lasting, prevailing joy comes through being ‘in Christ’ by faith. He wrote;

Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. For me to write the same things to you is not tedious, but for you it is safe. Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the mutilation! For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh … (vv. 1-3).

Paul was warning his believing friends in Philippi not to be taken in by false teachers who would try to bring them under the bondage of religious rules and regulations and rituals in an effort to earn God’s favor. ‘Legalism’ is an oppressive system of ‘works-righteousness’ that robs us of the joy that we’re meant to have in Christ. Instead, Paul encourages his readers to make sure that they keep their rejoicing in the right place—that is, “in the Lord”. He even set himself before them as an example, saying,

… though I also might have confidence in the flesh. If anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so: circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee; concerning zeal, persecuting the church; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. 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 (vv. 4-11).

Real joy is found not in working hard to make ourselves righteous before God on the basis of our own religious works but instead in resting completely on the work of Jesus Christ. He died on the cross for our sins and was raised again to prove that God declares us righteous in Him. And that’s why it’s important to remember that our passage this morning is only for those who have already placed their complete trust in the atoning work of Jesus—and who have ‘no confidence in the flesh’.

But as Christians who have placed our faith in Jesus Christ, and who have learned to rest completely in full confidence in His work on our behalf, we could easily grow complacent. We could grow to think that, since Jesus has done it all for us, there’s now nothing more that needs to be done by us—that we can now simply relax and enjoy the ride to heaven without concerning ourselves with any change in our daily lives. And so, after establishing that he counted all his former religious works as ‘rubbish’ so that he could rest completely in Christ, he went on to say what he said in this morning’s passage.

It’s true that Paul rested completely in what Jesus had done for him. He trusted confidently that he had been made 100% righteous because of the full atonement that Jesus had purchased for him on the cross. He rejoiced that he was now acceptable in God’s sight. But that had to do with his spiritual “position” in Christ. When it came to his everyday lifestyle “practice” in Christ, he was not content. He was not satisfied. He sought—with all the diligence of an athlete running in a race—to ‘press on’ increasingly toward what Jesus saved him to be.

What this passage tells us, then, is key to our joy in Christ. In it, Paul reminds us that joy in Christ comes from both resting completely in what He did for us and pressing on diligently to lay hold of that for which He laid hold of us.

Let’s look closer at what Paul said about his experience in this passage. First, notice …

1. PAUL’S DETERMINATION TO LAY HOLD (v. 12).

Paul saw himself as engaged in a divinely initiated program of growth. He made it clear in verse 12 that the fact that he rested completely in Christ didn’t mean that he had already achieved perfection in daily living. He made this clear when he said, “Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected …” He wouldn’t dare to think that he had ‘arrived’ yet. Instead, he said, “but I press on” as a present tense, ongoing action; “that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me …”

Now; what was the thing for which Christ ‘laid hold’ of him that he so diligently sought to lay hold of for himself? That’s a vital question! After all, Paul was encouraging us as his readers to join him in this great endeavor. But if we don’t know what the thing is that we’re seeking to lay hold of, how can we “press on” to “lay hold” of it?

Well; elsewhere in this letter, Paul gave us some clues as to what the “that” is for which He ‘pressed on’ to ‘lay hold’ of. For example, in verses 20-21, he wrote;

For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself (vv. 20-21).

So, here’s one aspect of the thing for which Jesus gave Himself for us—to, as it were, “laid hold” of us by dying on the cross for us. It’s to one day transform our frail bodies at His second coming so that it may be conformed to His own; and so that it can thus be made fit to live with Him eternally as citizens of heaven. The prospect of being glorified in Christ on the day of His coming motivated Paul to ‘press on’ to live the pure and holy life of someone who fully expected to be glorified like Jesus. In a similar way, the apostle John once wrote;

Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure (1 John 3:2-3).

What’s more, Paul also ‘pressed on’ to live like someone who was securely anticipating an infinite inheritance in heaven. While he wrote this letter, he was suffering great need while sitting in a prison cell. But he nevertheless learned to be content by rejoicing in the eternal riches he was going to share with Christ forever. In 4:12-13, he wrote

… I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content: I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me (Philippians 4:11b-13).

Jesus had laid hold of Paul so that Paul could enjoy the vast riches of His heavenly inheritance eternally. This is very much like what the apostle Peter wrote in 1 Peter 1:3-6;

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials … (1 Peter 1:3-6).

And more, Paul ‘pressed on’ toward the prospect of seeing Jesus Himself. Jesus’ great prayer was that those whom the Father had given Him would be with Him in the Father’s presence and behold His glory eternally (John 17:24). And so, eternal fellowship with his beloved Savior was something that Paul sought eagerly to ‘lay hold’ of. In Philippians 3:7-8, he wrote;

But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. 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 (Philippians 3:7-8).

The prospect of eternal fellowship with Jesus in His Father’s house is something that should motivate us to ‘press on’ faithfully for Him. As Paul wrote in Titus 2:11-14;

For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works (Titus 2:11-14).

Our future glorification in Jesus—a share in Jesus’ own rich heavenly inheritance—the prospect of eternal fellowship Him—these are the things for which Jesus laid hold of us. They’re already ours; and if we are truly rejoicing “in Him”, then we’ll press on to lay hold of them too.

So; how did Paul go about doing that? In the next couple of verses, we find …

2. PAUL’S PROGRAM OF PRESSING FORWARD (vv. 13-14).

Almost as if he was reaffirming his determination, he wrote in verses 13-14, “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.”

When Paul spoke to his readers as his ‘brethren’, he made it clear that he didn’t think of himself as above them. He was like them—with all the human limitations they also had. But in calling them ‘brethren’, he was also inviting them to join him—as those who had also been ‘laid hold of’ by Christ—in his determination to lay hold of that for which Christ laid hold of him. And Paul described four “steps” in the process of his continual program of growth.

First, notice that he made an important admission. He wrote, “I do not count myself to have apprehended”—that is, he had not yet fully taken hold of it all and made it his own in actual daily life experience. In verse 12, he admitted that he was not yet perfected. He acknowledged that, even though he had been declared “righteous” in the sight of God through Christ, he hadn’t yet “arrived” at a state of perfection with respect to how he lived. He was still growing to be more like Jesus Christ. And just think of what an encouragement this should be to us. Even so great an example of the Christian faith as Paul—the most exemplary Christian who ever lived—still needed to grow in his life in Christ. There are some professing Christians who believe (erroneously) that they can attain a state of complete perfection during their lifetime on earth. But not even the great apostle Paul believed such a thing about himself.

To have the mistaken idea that we have “arrived” at perfection is to fall into the kind of pride and self-satisfaction that stunts our growth in Christ. But one of the ways that we can know that we’re truly beginning to grow is when we feel very badly about how short-fallen we are. That’s when we begin to experience a “sanctified discontent” that makes us press on to be what God wants us to be. So; Paul did not count himself to have fully ‘laid hold’ just yet of everything for which Jesus ‘laid hold’ of him. That was a first step in his program of growth.

But he didn’t wallow in discontent. The second step he took was that he recognized that he was not bound to the past, and was no longer a prisoner of what he once was. He had been completely set free in Christ to forget “those things which are behind”. For example, he didn’t dwell on the fact that he once labored hard to make himself righteous by his own prideful efforts—things that he now counted as ‘rubbish’. Nor did he dwell on the fact that, in spite of all his outward ‘religious’ efforts, he was “the chief of sinners”. He, at one time, had been a blasphemer of Christ and a persecutor of Christians. But he had been completely forgiven of his past. And so, he now affirmed that “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17)—including himself. What a wonderful thing it is that, in Christ, we can legitimately “forget what is behind”!

And Paul didn’t just forget the past and leave it at that. He also looked ahead to the future—and on to what Jesus Christ had saved him to be. The third step was to reach forward to “those things which are ahead”. He set his heart on the future glory that would be his in Christ in terms of all those things that we mentioned earlier—that his body would one day be resurrected and conformed to the glory of Jesus Himself—that he would take possession of all the rich inheritance of the heavenly kingdom that Jesus would share with him—that he would dwell eternally in fellowship with the beloved Savior who gave Himself for him. In fact, the particular word that he used meant that he “stretched out” for it and “strained” after it—almost as if he was running in a race and was straining every part of his body forward to capture the prize.

And finally, as a fourth step, he put it all into practical action. Having acknowledged that he hadn’t arrived yet; but continually making it his habit to forget what was behind, and reaching forward to what was ahead—just like a world-class track star who keeps his eyes constantly on the trophy—he pressed “toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus”.

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Some may mistakenly think that such rigorous ‘striving’ would constitute a denial of the sufficiency of Jesus’ sacrifice for us. But the Bible clearly teaches otherwise. The apostle Peter wrote about resting completely in the promises of God’s grace through Jesus; but then added,

But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins. Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble; for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (2 Peter 1:5-11).

If we’re truly resting on the sufficiency of Jesus as our Savior—and are no longer trusting in the works of the flesh to make ourselves righteous in the sight of God—then we’ll prove it by rising up and striving faithfully to ‘lay hold’ of that for which Jesus ‘laid hold’ of us.

And as Paul’s own example shows us, that’s a ‘striving’ that results in joy.

AE