Pressing Toward the Mark A Meditation on Philippians 3:13–14

Pressing Toward the Mark

A Meditation on Philippians 3:13–14

“Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” — Philippians 3:13–14

The apostle Paul was no stranger to spiritual privilege. He had seen the risen Christ, received an extraordinary apostolic commission, endured persecution for the gospel, planted churches, preached among nations, and been carried into profound experiences of divine revelation. Yet he refused to speak as though he had already reached the end of his course. “I count not myself to have apprehended,” he confessed. This was not the language of unbelief, nor was it a denial of the grace already bestowed upon him. It was the honest confession of a mature believer who knew that all he had experienced was still less than the fullness awaiting him in Christ.

Earlier in the chapter, Paul declares that he counts all his former religious advantages as loss for Christ. His ancestry, circumcision, Pharisaic discipline, zeal, and outward righteousness could never give him the knowledge of Christ or establish him acceptably before God. He therefore desires to “win Christ, and be found in him,” possessing not his own righteousness derived from the law, but the righteousness that is through the faith of Christ. Paul’s pressing forward does not arise from uncertainty about whether Christ’s righteousness is sufficient. It arises precisely because Christ has already laid hold of him.

Paul makes this clear when he says, “I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.” Christ’s grasp upon Paul precedes Paul’s pursuit of Christ. The apostle does not run so that Christ might decide to save him; he runs because Christ has already seized him by sovereign grace. His perseverance is not the cause of his salvation but its consequence. The hand that arrested him on the Damascus road will not release him before the journey is complete.

“I count not myself to have apprehended” is therefore a declaration of spiritual humility. Paul had advanced far beyond many of his contemporaries, but he did not measure himself by comparing his progress with theirs. He measured himself against the perfect knowledge, conformity, and fellowship to which Christ had called him. Those who compare themselves with others may easily become satisfied. Those who behold the perfection of Christ know how much remains unfinished in them.

The closer believers are drawn to Christ, the less inclined they become to boast of their attainments. Grace does not persuade them that they have become impressive; it reveals how entirely dependent they remain upon their Savior. Christian maturity is not demonstrated by claiming to have arrived. It is demonstrated by an increasing hunger to know Christ, a deeper consciousness of personal weakness, and a stronger desire to be conformed to his image.

Paul then concentrates the whole movement of his life into a striking expression: “This one thing I do.” His life was filled with labor, controversy, travel, suffering, preaching, prayer, and pastoral concern, but beneath that great variety lay one governing purpose. He desired Christ. Everything else was subordinated to that pursuit.

The divided heart lacks spiritual strength. It attempts to serve Christ while retaining rival ambitions, worldly measurements, and confidence in the flesh. Paul had abandoned that divided course. He did not mean that believers have only one earthly responsibility. Rather, every responsibility must be gathered beneath one supreme calling. Whether preaching, working, suffering, resting, giving, or dying, the believer’s life finds its unity in Christ.

Paul describes this concentrated pursuit as “forgetting those things which are behind.” He does not mean that Christians should erase their memories or refuse to learn from the past. Paul frequently remembered his former persecution of the church. He recounted God’s mercy toward him and warned others from the history of Israel. Biblical forgetting is not mental amnesia. It is refusing to allow the past to govern the present pursuit of Christ.

Some things behind Paul might have encouraged pride. His apostolic labors, sufferings, revelations, and successes could have become a spiritual monument before which he stopped to admire himself. But yesterday’s faithfulness could not substitute for today’s dependence upon Christ. Past usefulness is no excuse for present complacency. The grace that sustained us yesterday must not become a trophy of human achievement. It should make us seek Christ more earnestly today.

Other things behind Paul might have produced crushing shame. He had consented to the death of Stephen, persecuted believers, entered their homes, and attempted to destroy the church of God. Paul remembered those sins, but he did not permit them to overturn the verdict of divine grace. He knew that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. The blood of Christ was greater than his guilt, and the righteousness of Christ was greater than his shame.

Many believers remain chained to events that God has already placed behind them. They continually rehearse failures that cannot be changed, injuries that cannot be undone, opportunities that cannot be recovered, and words that cannot be recalled. Repentance is necessary, restitution may be required, and painful lessons must not be discarded. Nevertheless, the child of God must not attempt to live backward. Christ calls his people forward.

Forgetting what lies behind means refusing to make the past either a throne or a prison. We must not sit upon our accomplishments as though we have finished the race, nor remain imprisoned by our failures as though grace has failed. Both pride and despair turn the believer’s eyes away from Christ. Pride says that yesterday’s accomplishments are sufficient. Despair says that yesterday’s sins are sovereign. Faith says that Christ alone is sufficient and sovereign.

Paul not only forgets what is behind; he reaches “forth unto those things which are before.” His language depicts a runner stretching his body toward the finish. Every faculty is brought into the effort. The eyes remain fixed ahead, the muscles strain forward, and the heart is set upon the goal.

The Christian life is not an aimless wandering. Something lies before the believer: fuller communion with Christ, increasing conformity to him, resurrection from the dead, and final entrance into his presence. Paul had already been justified, but he had not yet been glorified. He had received spiritual life, but he still inhabited a mortal body. He knew Christ, but he longed to know him without the obstruction of sin and weakness. His present experience created an appetite for consummation.

“I press toward the mark,” Paul continues. Pressing implies resistance. No athlete presses toward a goal without weariness, opposition, and the temptation to stop. The believer presses through inward corruption, worldly distraction, satanic accusation, disappointment, sorrow, and bodily weakness. At times the progress seems imperceptible. At times the road appears to lead through darkness. Yet faith continues because its confidence rests not in the smoothness of the path but in the faithfulness of the One who called.

The “mark” is the goal toward which the believer’s calling points. Paul is not chasing earthly distinction, ecclesiastical recognition, material prosperity, or the praise of men. His goal is the consummation of God’s saving purpose in Christ. He desires to know Christ fully, to be perfectly conformed to him, and to stand in the resurrection clothed in the righteousness and immortality that God supplies.

Paul calls this consummation “the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” The calling is “high” because it comes from heaven and draws the called ones toward heaven. Its source is God, its sphere is Christ, its power is grace, and its conclusion is glory. God does not call his people merely to improve their earthly condition. He calls them out of darkness into marvelous light, out of death into life, and ultimately out of mortality into the unveiled presence of Christ.

The prize must not be interpreted as though salvation were wages earned by superior human exertion. Paul has already rejected his own righteousness and every ground of confidence in the flesh. The prize is inseparable from the calling of God and is possessed only “in Christ Jesus.” The One who establishes the goal also calls the runner, gives him life, sustains him along the course, and brings him safely home.

The certainty of grace does not make Paul passive. It makes him press forward. Divine preservation does not destroy perseverance; it produces it. Because Christ has apprehended Paul, Paul seeks to apprehend the purpose for which Christ apprehended him. Grace does not teach the redeemed to fold their hands in indifference. It awakens love, longing, endurance, and holy desire.

These verses speak powerfully to weary believers. They tell those burdened by past sins that the race is not over. They tell those who have served faithfully for many years that previous usefulness is not the finish line. They tell the sorrowing that suffering is part of the course, not evidence that God has abandoned them. They tell the weak that the strength of the runner is not the foundation of the promise. Christ is that foundation.

The Christian may stumble, but Christ does not lose those whom he has apprehended. The believer may become weary, but the calling of God does not change. The path may pass through affliction, bereavement, disappointment, and death, but the mark remains before us. Beyond every trial stands the risen Christ.

Therefore, we must not live looking perpetually over our shoulders. The failures behind us have been met by mercy. The accomplishments behind us were produced by grace. The sorrows behind us will be gathered into God’s redemptive purpose. The opportunities before us belong to his providence, and the glory before us is secured in Christ.

The race is not finished while breath remains. There is more of Christ to know, more of his faithfulness to experience, more pride to surrender, more love to express, and more patience to learn. Even in age, illness, or confinement, the believer can still press toward the mark. The final steps may be taken in great bodily weakness, but the weakest saint is upheld by an almighty Savior.

At last, faith will give way to sight. The reaching will end in possession, the pressing will end in arrival, and the calling will open into everlasting glory. The believer will not enter heaven praising the strength with which he ran. He will praise the grace that called him, the blood that redeemed him, the righteousness that clothed him, and the hand that held him to the end.

Until that day, Paul’s words remain our confession and our encouragement: we have not yet apprehended, but Christ has apprehended us. Therefore, forgetting what lies behind and reaching toward what lies ahead, we press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.