Reaching for the Prize

Now, why were you saved? Why did God choose you and then save you?

In order to make you like what? His Son. What's the goal of your Christian life then? It's the same thing for which you were saved. He saved you to make you like His Son, and that purpose for which He saves you becomes the purpose for which you live. Welcome to Grace To You with John MacArthur.

I'm your host, Phil Johnson. When a runner places his feet in the starting blocks and waits for the gun to sound, he is not wondering where the finish line is. He knows the goal, and he keeps his eyes on the prize. What about you? As you're living the Christian life, are you pursuing the right prize?

Are you focused on what truly matters? Consider that today as John MacArthur begins a study titled, Reaching for the Prize. Now, John, with the idea of reaching for the prize in mind, one thing that comes to my mind is a story I've heard you tell from your days as a college athlete. I'd love for you to share that story.

I think it's a perfect introduction to this study. Yeah, well, I know the story you're talking about. I was a sprinter in college, and I ran the 100 and the 200, and occasionally the 400, but I also ran in what would be the 4x400 relay with three other guys. And we were in a big meet, a multi-university meet, and we came to that race.

It's usually toward the end of the day. We had a good lead leg, and I ran second man. I wasn't the fastest at that distance, so I could give you two guys to make up whatever I might lose. So I'll never forget, I ran a really good leg, got a good handoff for the baton after the first leg, and I ran probably the best leg I'd run, and I came in holding first place, and we had really a strong third and a real blur for a fourth, so we were thinking we were in great shape. So I remember handing the baton to the third leg and watching him go down around the curve and go to the other side of the track and stop and walk off the track and sit down, and that was it. Obviously, everybody kept running. We were done. Our anchor never got the baton because he was sitting on the other side of the track on the grass, and I thought he must have pulled a hamstring or torn his Achilles or something to do that, so I ran across the grass and I said, what happened?

He said, I don't know, I just didn't feel like running. I was incredulous. What? What are you doing? You're not in this alone. There's a lot at stake.

What about all the rest of us? You can't do that. Of all the experiences I had in college athletics, and I had a lot of them in football and baseball and track and all of that, none is as vivid as that one in my memory. You're still frustrated about it.

I still, and if I saw him today, I'd have a hard time dealing with the guy because it was such a terrible thing to do. But at the same time, it was a great lesson. Oh, what a profound lesson.

You don't do that. I think about what the Apostle Paul said, the things you've heard from me, the same commit to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. So that's a relay. Paul to Timothy to faithful men to others also.

That's four generations. You pass the baton to the next one, and I thought about that so often. None of us as believers can step off the track. We have to continue to run. We have to run to win.

We have to run to reach the prize. And that's what I believe the Apostle Paul is talking about in Philippians chapter 3, and this is going to be a tremendous study for all of us. Over the next week and a half, I'm going to help you see clearly your God-given goal in life and how he has designed for you to pursue it.

This study is going to make a difference in your life, so stay with us. Yes, friend, this series will unpack what your main goal is as a Christian, and it gets very practical, showing you what you need to do to accomplish that goal. So let's get to the lesson, and here's John to kick off his series titled Reaching for the Prize. Let's open our Bibles now as we come to the study of God's Word to Philippians chapter 3, Philippians chapter 3. We're going to be looking at a great, great portion of Scripture. Verses 12 through 16, I am sure in many ways the most familiar portion in this whole epistle.

Now obviously the heart of this passage is the very familiar fourteenth verse. I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. The theme here then is pursuing the prize. The analogy is that of a runner who is running to win in order that he might gain the prize. The spiritual point here is the matter of pursuing the spiritual prize. If you will, Paul is talking about Christian effort toward growth. In this passage we have six principles for pursuing the prize, and I want to share them with you.

Six necessary elements if we are to effectively pursue the prize. Number one, an awareness of the need to pursue a better condition. Please note I didn't say a better position. Your position in Christ is fixed by God's grace through Christ, but your condition must be improved. You are not what you should be. You are not what you can be. You are not what you will be someday when you see the Lord.

It all starts with a dissatisfaction. Please note verse 12. Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect.

And that's where he starts, an awareness that he hasn't arrived. Paul the Apostle, thirty years after his conversion, is saying, I'm not what I ought to be. I'm not what I ought to be.

I can stand here and echo that testimony after all the years of walking with the Lord and all the years of ministry. I am not what I ought to be. I haven't arrived. I'm not spiritually perfect. I'm not morally perfect. I haven't reached Christ's likeness. I have not reached God's perfect standard. I am not what I ought to be.

I am still in process. There is still a pursuit in my life as there is in the life of every believer. Awareness of the need to pursue a better condition is where all spiritual progress starts.

You start out of blessed discontent, blessed dissatisfaction, a recognition you're not what you ought to be. Number two principle. If you are going to pursue the prize effectively, you must give maximum effort to pursue that better condition. First, to know you need it. Secondly, to pursue it.

There must be maximum effort to pursue that better condition. Look at verse 12 again. So he says, I press on in order that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. I press on, dioko, I run, I follow after, I pursue, I chase.

It's used of a sprinter and the word means aggressive, energetic endeavor. He says, I'm running after this thing with all my might. You say, well, what's he after? Now follow.

Marvelous. Verse 12. I am pursuing in order that I may lay hold of. Oh, he's after a prize. He's after something specific.

That's right. He wants to get a hold of something. The verb means to seize or grasp. I'm after something. What are you running after, Paul?

Well, here it is. I'm after that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Now that is a fascinating statement. Do you see what he's saying? He's saying, I'm pursuing the prize so that I may lay hold of that for which I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. What do you mean by that, Paul? I mean that I'm pursuing the very thing that was the reason Christ pursued me.

Did you get that? In other words, my goal in life is consistent with Christ's goal for my salvation. He saved me for a purpose. That purpose of His in saving me has become my purpose in my spiritual progress.

Do you see? That's a very, very significant truth. The reason Christ redeemed me has become the goal of my life. My will is now His will. I want for me what He wanted for me and saved me to accomplish. You say, What was it?

What is it? Look at Romans 8, Romans chapter 8, verse 28. And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. Talking about Christians.

Now follow this. For whom He foreknew or chose, that's all believers, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of whom? His Son. Now why were you saved? Why did God choose you and then save you?

In order to make you like what? His Son. What's the goal of your Christian life then? It's the same thing for which you were saved. He saved you to make you like His Son. And that purpose for which He saves you becomes the purpose for which you live.

You see? That's what we're all about. We're all in a lifelong pursuit of Christ's likeness. Third principle. In pursuing the prize, it is required that there be focused concentration to pursue that better condition.

Not only maximum effort, but focused concentration. Any athlete knows that when you're running in a race, you have to fix your eyes on something ahead of you. You cannot watch your feet or you'll fall on your face.

You cannot watch the people around you or you will trip or somebody will pass you on the other side. Your focus is straightforward on the goal that is ahead. And that is precisely what He is saying here.

In making maximum effort, there's a concentration point beyond you upon which you focus. Look what He says in verse 13 about that. Brethren... And by the way, that's a term of affection. I believe He uses it here as a gentle term of intimacy to move the hearts of the Philippians toward Him because they've been moved toward the Judaizers who have been battling the church. And so in an expression of warmth, He tugs their hearts a little bit His way.

Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet. That's the third time He said that. You say, why is He so repetitious? Because there's a polemic nature to this passage.

That is to say, it carries an argument directed at people who are teaching error so He wants to make His point abundantly clear because a lot is at stake in this particular polemic. So He basically says it again, another disclaimer. I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet and I don't care whether those Judaizers claim to have it or not.

It's not possible. It leads me again to believe that the Judaizers were claiming they had reached perfection through law keeping and circumcision. But He is saying, I do not think, I do not believe that I have laid hold of it yet.

By the way, the word for laid hold here is a compound verb, very strong, with a prepositional prefix meaning I haven't fully, wholly, completely, totally, perfectly attained to it. And He says the same thing again. And then this, but one thing.

And then the editors have added, I do, because it's implied. But all He says in a staccato, brief, impassioned, abrupt way is, but one thing, one thing I do. Boy, there is the key, folks.

One thing I do. The man was so focused. The man had an unbelievable level of concentration. And the focus of his life was one thing, one thing, this one thing.

What was it, Paul? It was pursuing the prize, verse 14. This one thing I press on toward the goal for the prize.

That's the one thing in my life. That's what makes a great man. Now such focused concentration is the result of a negative and a positive. Notice the negative in verse 13. In order to will that one thing, Paul says, forgetting what lies behind.

That's the negative. And then he says, in reaching forward to what lies ahead, that's the positive. Willing one thing means, number one, negative, you eliminate the past. Don't look back. Now what does he mean by the past?

He means the past. Forgetting those things that are behind. What things? Everything. Now follow this, okay? Good things and bad things.

Achievements, virtuous deeds, great accomplishments, spiritual ministries, as well as bad things, sins, iniquities, failures, disasters, all of it. You say, forget it all? That's what? Right, why? Because it has nothing to do with the future. Did you understand that? It has nothing to do with what you're doing right now.

Absolutely nothing to do with it. You cannot live on past victories. You cannot celebrate your value by your past. You should never be debilitated by your past sins, iniquities, and burdens of guilt. And yet most people are so much distracted by the past that they never get around to running the future. From a positive standpoint, well, you know, I used to teach and I used to study the Bible and I used to be in a Bible study and I had...

I remember when I led a guy to the Lord. It's all back there and you can't move forward that way. You're anchored to the past. Or it's all, you know, my life was so bad and I was so wretched and I was so immoral. How can God ever forgive me?

And they're all hung up on the guilt of the past. Forget it all. Forget it all.

The clearest vision is given to the one who forgets the past. Put your hand to the plow, don't look back and move. Pursue the prize. And that takes us to the positive in verse 13, forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead. Let's go.

Let's move. The word here, reaching forward, I love it. Epectenomai. Ectenase means to stretch a muscle to its limit. Epect is double prepositions added to it. It means to, I don't know what, stretch, stretch. Out after would be eke out, epe after.

Out after, I mean, your extreme effort is in view here. This is a runner stretching every muscle to reach what is in front of him. The prize. Focus concentration. Nothing with the past, just looking at the goal, moving as fast as possible.

Ask yourself a question. Do you have that kind of focus concentration? What are you focused on? Even as a minister of Jesus Christ, my goal in life is not to build a big church. My goal in life is not to succeed in the church.

My goal in life is not to develop programs. My focus goal in life must be to be like Jesus Christ and in the pursuit of being like Jesus Christ, out of that is going to flow an impactful life. That's the pursuit.

That's the one thing I do. It's the one thing Paul did. Perfection in Christ, the only goal, the only legitimate perspective.

Paul said it. We want to present every man perfect in Christ. We want men to come to the fullness of the stature of Christ. Ephesians 4. We want Christ to be fully formed in you, Galatians.

And I have birth pains until I see it happen. That's what he said to the Corinthians. He says, be perfect. That's my prayer. What's Epaphras doing? He's praying for your perfection in all the will of God. Colossians 4.12.

That's the issue. This one thing I do. So what does it take to effectively pursue the prize and grow spiritually? One, recognition of the need for a better condition. Two, maximum effort in pursuit of that better condition. Three, focused concentration on the one goal of that better condition. Number four principle, spiritual motivation to pursue that better condition. Spiritual motivation.

We've already alluded to this and Paul is very repetitious. Notice verse 14, the heart of the passage. I press or I pursue continuous effort, present, active, indicative verb. I continually pursue toward, marvelous word kata means down. It means to bear down on. I continuously bear down on what? The goal. I continuously bear down on the goal. What's the goal?

What do we say it was? To be what? Like Christ. The same thing He saved you for is what you pursue. So you bear down on that goal with that focused concentration, that maximum effort. Why do you do that? Why do you bear down on that? I'll tell you why.

Look at it, verse 14. Here's the motive. For the prize. You say, well isn't that a little crass?

No. You do it for the prize. You want to win the prize. Run to win. You say, well that's wonderful. So you bear down on the goal for the sake of the prize.

That's right. What's the goal? What do we say the goal was? To be what? Like Christ.

What's the prize? To be made like Christ. That's why He says, you bear down on the prize which is the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. What's going to happen when that upward call comes? You're going to be like what?

Like Christ. The goal is the prize. The prize is the goal. So Paul says, look, the goal of my life is to be like Christ and that's also the reward of my race. You say you're going to reach that goal in this life? No, but it's still the goal.

It's still the goal. But someday I will be like Christ. That's the prize that God gives to the one who runs the race. The goal is to be like Christ. Perfection in Christ. The prize is to be like Christ. Perfection in Christ. That's why someday we'll be like Him for we shall see Him as He is, 1 John 3 says. What motivates me?

What motivates you? The upward call. We have to live in the light of the rapture, don't we? We have to live in the light of being called out of this world in the presence of God. And at that particular point we will be given glory. We will be given an eternal reward. We will be made like Christ. And if God is so gracious to be willing to give us that prize, how committed should we be to run the race? I mean look at it folks, wretched, wicked, vile, godless sinners on our way to hell.

God in sovereign grace picks us out, chooses us for salvation in order that He might eternally make us like His own Son. What grace! That is the prize.

I don't know about you, but that motivates me to run toward the goal. Paul saw it at the end of his life when he wrote his last letter. And he said, I have finished the course and I'm waiting for the crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous Judge will award to me on that day. What is the crown of righteousness? It's the crown which is righteousness. What kind of righteousness?

Perfection. I'm waiting for perfection which God's going to give me the day I see Him. That's the prize. So pursuing the prize means realizing your need. Means making a maximum effort. It means focused concentration and it means being motivated by the greatness of the prize itself.

Number five, this too is a very important principle. In pursuing the prize, we must recognize divine resources to pursue that better condition. I'm so grateful for this verse. It gets overlooked a lot, verse 15, but it's very important to me. Verse 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. Now follow this thought here.

Very important. You say, why would Paul throw that word perfect in there? That just confuses the clarity of the text.

I'll tell you why. I think it's sarcastic. And again I think in this polemic against the Judaizers, he's dealing with the fact that the Judaizers were talking that they were talking to the Philippians as if they were perfect, saying, you know, we've reached perfection.

So there's a sort of sarcasm in there that bites a little bit at the claims of the Judaizers. But he says, as many of us who are truly perfect need to have this attitude. He feels that, and every pastor would, Paul says, look, if in any of this stuff you have a different attitude, you don't see the importance of pursuing in this way, or you believe you've already arrived wherever you would like to be, you've settled there, or some of you even believe that now that you're saved you can live any old wretched way you want like those described in verses 17 to 21 who were supposedly Christians whose end was destruction and their God was appetite. If you think anything other than what I've said about pursuing the prize and you won't listen to me, look what he says, then God will reveal that also to you. He simply says, I have to leave you to God. If you're ever going to get the message and you won't get it from me, then you'll have to get it from God. Every pastor does that. I've done that.

I do that. Lord, I've poured out my heart. I've said all I can say, and I know there are people who continue to live non-committed lives and all I can say is, Lord, I can't do it. You're going to have to do it. You're going to have to reveal yourself.

The word reveal is apokalupto, to unveil. You're going to have to open their minds and unveil reality to them. And you know how the Lord usually does it?

Through what? Success, suffering, chastening, things like that, through some special circumstance of life that plunges us instantly back to spiritual reality. So Paul says, look, you'll have to recognize that in this pursuing the prize, you're dependent on divine resources. And for all of us, for all of us, there will be those times when we won't have this attitude and the Lord will have to discipline us to move us along, right? Sure, all of us.

So that's what he says. Paul, I know this for me and I know this for you, that there are times when we have a different attitude and only God can move us. And so he's saying, I want God to do that. I want God to bring into your life whatever it takes to move you on the path of pursuing the prize.

What does it take? It takes recognition of need, effort, concentration, motivation and divine help for those times when we fail to have that right attitude. And lastly, there is one more element in pursuing the prize. Let's call it conformity necessary to pursue that better condition...conformity necessary to pursue that better condition. We're really talking about consistency, which might be a better word.

It doesn't happen by intermittent effort. It demands a consistency. Look at verse 16, however, that really means nevertheless or better, one more thing.

It's often used at the end of a paragraph to express a final thought. One more thing, by the way, let us keep living by that same to which we have attained. In other words, look, keep moving along the path that has brought you to where you are in your spiritual progress.

That's the idea. You'll be interested to know that the verb here is translated keep living. It actually means to follow in line, to line up, that's what it means. So what he is saying is spiritually stay in line and keep moving from where you have arrived by the same standard or principle that got you where you are. Fall in step.

It's used of armies marching in battle order. Stay in line, stay in step, be consistent. Keep moving. Wherever you are spiritually, by the same principles that got you there, keep moving ahead. Consistency, conformity, live up to the level of your present understanding and by the principles that brought you there, keep moving ahead.

Stay in line. Hold the principle tightly and move down the track. Stay in your lane, if you will, and move as fast as you can from where you are. Whatever strength and energy got you where you are, use it to move ahead. If we were talking about the runner metaphor, we would say you've run this far in your lane with great effort. It's gotten you so far.

Keep that same effort up in that same lane until you hit the finish. A lot of people have died climbing the Alps, fallen off of precipices. At the foot of one of the many mountains that has been attempted a number of times is a little grave. It's the grave of a man who tried to climb to the pinnacle and fell off a precipice to his death.

The tombstone there is very simple. It gives his name and then it says, he died climbing. That really should be the epitaph on the tomb of every Christian.

He died climbing. This is Grace to You with John MacArthur, Chancellor of the Masters University and Seminary, showing you how to strive for Christ-likeness and how to avoid anything that would keep you from reaching for the prize. That's the title of John's study, Reaching for the Prize. Keep in mind, if you would like to review today's lesson at your own pace, you can download it for free in MP3 and transcript format from our website, gty.org. In fact, you can get this whole series for free, so get in touch today.

Our web address again is gty.org. And remember, besides the lessons from John's current study, Reaching for the Prize, you can download more than 3,600 other sermons by John, all free of charge at gty.org. So dive into the sermon archive and start listening today. And when you visit gty.org, be sure you take advantage of all the other free resources you'll find there. That includes multiple daily devotions from John, the Grace to You blog with timely articles on issues that affect the church, GraceStream, that's a continuous broadcast of John's teaching, begins in Matthew chapter one, goes verse by verse through the entire New Testament, and then it starts all over again. All of those free Bible study tools are available at gty.org. Now for John MacArthur and the entire Grace to You staff, I'm Phil Johnson. Thanks for making this broadcast part of your day. Make sure you're here tomorrow when John looks at a truth that every Christian needs to embrace in order to become more like Christ. See what I'm talking about when John continues his look at Reaching for the Prize with another 30 minutes of unleashing God's truth one verse at a time on Grace to You.