Kingdom Passion (7)

⁷ But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. ⁸ 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 ⁹ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which isfrom the law, but that which isthrough faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; ¹⁰ that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, ¹¹ if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Philippians 3.7-11

Full circle
We return to the Apostle Paul and his “one thing”, where we began this series, in which we have discovered what is most important for us as followers of Jesus Christ. The passage above comes immediately prior to the passage with which we began this series, Philippians 3.14. Paul intends to know Christ; knowing Him is the “one thing” toward which he presses with all his passion and might.

What we’ve seen is that the various “one things” which Moses, David, and Jesus held out as most important are really facets of the same one thing – knowing God in a deeply personal, intimate, and transformational way by growing in the knowledge of Jesus Christ. When we know God, really know Him, when we sustain a daily relationship that draws us into His presence and glory, so that we actually participate in Him, then no one has to teach us to fear or love Him. We see His beauty, the moral and spiritual perfections of the Divine Essence, and we seek His face and wait on Him to reveal Himself more fully. To that end we listen to His Son, Jesus, as He speaks to us from the works and Word of God.

The one thing
The one thing that matters in the Christian life, therefore, is precisely this: To know God and Jesus Christ as the manifestation of the Father.

This is eternal life, as we have seen. This is what we have been created and redeemed to enjoy. And this is only available to us in Jesus Christ. Not with Jesus or even from Jesus. But Jesus, Jesus Himself.

In Jesus we discover the beauty, majesty, wisdom, goodness, mercy, kindness, awesomeness, and power of God Almighty. In His face we see the radiance of God’s glory. In His Spirit we are led into the secret recesses of divine truth and empowered to live increasingly into the very image of Jesus Himself. The upward calling that God has prepared for us is that we should know Jesus Christ, and through Him, to know, enjoy, and glorify God in every aspect of our lives.

But let’s listen carefully to Paul (v. 13): “But one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press…” At the end of Paul’s “one thing” is the upward prize of the calling of God in Christ Jesus: knowing Jesus Christ in the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His suffering.

But the “one thing” Paul does is to “press on.” Knowing Christ doesn’t just happen. We have to apply ourselves diligently to this one thing, or we will never know Him at all.

Notice the language Paul uses to describe this one thing. First, he refuses to be mired in or limited by his experience. He “forgets” what lies behind; whether what was in his past was sinful or glorious, Paul didn’t dwell on it. He would not allow either the burdens or the accolades of his past experience to keep him from pressing on to an even deeper and more intimate knowledge of Jesus Christ. Paul would not allow himself to plateau, and would not wallow in the swamps and snares of his past failures or any of the treachery done to him by others. All that was behind him, and he determined to keep it there.

Instead, Paul described himself as “reaching forward to those things which are ahead.” Paul knew that the Christian life possesses infinite promise for increasing in righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. He understood that God had assigned him a mission field, which he was determined to work and to enlarge. He had known the power of God’s Spirit working within him to make him willing and able to do the pleasure of God, and he was aware that that same Spirit was able to do exceeding abundantly more than he had ever dared to ask or think (Eph. 3.20). He remained passionate for more of the same.

It was that “exceeding abundantly” more of Jesus that Paul was passionate to know – the love of Christ, as he put it, which goes beyond knowledge (Eph. 3.19). So he strained forward – in prayer, in seeking the Lord in His Word, in evangelizing the lost, in repenting of sin, in growing into Christlikeness, in doing works of ministry, in making the most of every moment of every day of his life – so that he could know more of Jesus, experience more of His presence and power, and be more and more conformed to His image in glory.

This is the one thing that mattered to Paul. This is what he was passionate about as an ambassador of Jesus Christ. We must ask ourselves: Do we share this passion?

If you’ve made the Kingdom turn, you’ll know.

Nest steps: What’s involved in your daily “reaching forward to those things which are ahead”? How can you encourage a fellow believer to share with you in this Kingdom passion?

T. M. Moore

Additional Resources

This week’s study, Kingdom Passion, is the third of an eight-part series on The Kingdom Turn, and is available as a free download. T. M. has written two books to complement this eight-part series. You can order The Kingship of Jesus by clicking here, and The Gospel of the Kingdom by clicking here.

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Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.