Grace Reformed Baptist Church, Bangalore

Philippians 3:12-14: 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.

The Holy Spirit blesses the preaching of God’s word when people open their Bibles and eagerly want to understand the passage that is being preached. It is a form of worship where we open our Bibles and sit with open hearts. God is pleased. Can I ask you to sit with that mindset with open Bibles? Oh, we pray, “Give us illumination to see the unsearchable glory of Christ.” We pray, “You give us some measure of the longing that was in Paul’s heart that made him count all things loss, and even after 30 years, this man sees an infinite beauty in Christ that he keeps pressing on, so eager to grow in Christ, and he is pressing and progressing.” We confess we don’t have that; we want this zeal and eagerness. It is the grace of the Holy Spirit. We pray you may give us some measure of what Paul had. Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, it is you we want. It is you who can open our dark hearts and make us see the infinite glory of Christ and inflame our hearts to desire Christ.

There is a false, dangerous teaching called Perfectionism. Perfectionist ideas come in different forms again and again in church history and have attacked the church, such as Pelagianism and Arminianism. In the modern world, it was made popular in the 19th century by Wesley and his Methodist movement. In the 20th century, it became very popular, with names like “Higher Life” or “Victorious Life” by people from the Keswick Convention, Oswald Chambers, Watchman Nee, and Bakht Singh. Hannah Whitall Smith wrote a book, Christian’s Secret of a Happy Life, which was a bestseller with millions of copies. I loved that book so much; I had many copies and still have two. I don’t want to give it to anyone; maybe I will burn them.

They teach that the believer in this life, before death, can reach a place of spiritual and moral perfection, total sanctification. This achievement is not because of a step-by-step progress of sanctification, but as a result of a sudden, instantaneous becoming perfect. For them, salvation is the first work of grace, a full work, but there is a second work of grace which is perfectionism, where we are made completely sinless. This is called the baptism of the Holy Spirit by fire. This sowed the seed for Pentecostalism and became popular among Pentecostals, which is why they tell you to earnestly seek for Holy Spirit anointing.

There is a subtle attractiveness in this teaching for all Christians. When I first heard this, I just loved this teaching, and in a way, we are all natural perfectionists, with a very natural tendency, an idea to which the Christian mind is prone. Think of its attractiveness… no longer struggling with sin, a long process of growth, but suddenly a deeper, higher effusion of God’s Holy Spirit grace that lifts you above the humdrum Christian life. You reach a stage where you cannot not sin, your hearts are always filled with love for God, not disturbed from a divine state by any sin, and in fact, they teach you reach a stage where your sinful nature is removed from you.

Isn’t that attractive? Compared to what the Bible says… The Bible’s view of the Christian life is sometimes discouraging, difficult, demanding, and it is ever disappointing. We struggle against sin; we have to protect ourselves by the regular use of means of grace and kill sin regularly, doing all this even after many years. We will never reach perfection in this life, so we have to keep growing and fight against sin all our life until we die. So discouraging… so to these discouraged Christians, perfectionists come and preach a gospel of perfectionism. “Do not fear, brother… relax… chill… let me show you a secret of a victorious Christian life.” It is so appealing. We would all love to know we have attained enough for now and could stop, relax, and rest.

What is the problem with perfectionism? First, it is not taught in the Bible. Second, it is all a deception, and you never attain that stage. Third, and a great danger, it will hinder you from any Christian progress, and if you don’t wake up, it will finally take you to hell.

Because nobody achieved that state… All who claimed to have attained sinless perfection may have escaped the outside world, but they had a very difficult time convincing the people who were close to them that it was really true. The only way they manage is when they sin, they say there is a difference between willful sin and making occasional, unintentional mistakes. In that sense, I can also say even most of us say we have attained perfection. That is foolishness. But the great danger of this teaching is that it does terrible harm to Christian progress.

It came to the church in Philippi in the form of the Judaizers’ teaching. To struggling Christians, they taught that you can arrive at perfection by circumcision and following Moses’ rituals. Paul feared that if Philippi was affected and people started thinking they had arrived, if they were self-satisfied, they would not persevere in spiritual growth or strive forward in the Christian life. So he terribly warned, “Beware of dogs.”

I fear that could be the reason some of you don’t progress in your grasp of all the teachings, various different theological constructions, and your understanding of the truths of justification, sanctification, and glorification. You have somehow been thinking you have already made a lot of progress and attained some level. We may not be perfectionists in our theology, but we are often perfectionists in practicality. The undeniable sign and evidence of a perfectionist is that he stops progressing. He will not strive or strain forward to reach what is ahead. Why? Because somehow you feel that you have arrived. We would vehemently deny that we have reached perfection, but the practical effect of your life shows you are a perfectionist. Somehow you are affected by this poison.

If I ask, “Why are you not making strenuous efforts to progress, working very hard to move forward spiritually?” it’s because somehow, somewhere you decided you didn’t any longer have to. We might have stopped pressing forward out of weariness or frustration, feeling the effort was useless, we’ve disappointed ourselves too often, but given the fact that we haven’t given up being Christians, the practical effect is that we have obviously concluded that what we are now is good enough. We might have stopped striving out of laziness or worldliness, but since we are still Christians and intend to be Christians, the practical effect is that we have concluded that what we are now is good enough. “This growth is enough.” Is that not perfectionism of a kind? Is it not, in effect, that we say or claim that we have gone as far as we need to go and have reached as high as a Christian needs to reach?

What difference does your theology make if the practical effect is the same as a practical perfectionist? You’ve stopped moving forward and growing. Practically, you are infected with the poison of perfectionism teaching. The danger of that, as I said last Friday, is that the final proof of our salvation is not justification or the claim of faith, but perseverance, regular progress. If there is no perseverance, no moving forward, you are perishing.

The passage before us gives a death blow to all forms of perfectionism. May the Holy Spirit use this passage to wake us up from our lazy, dangerous poison of perfectionism and make us run the race.

We should also remember the flow of thought and the context. Paul is warning the Philippians against the Judaizers. He lists his seven Jewish qualifications as a loss, and then lists his seven Christian gains. I grouped them into three blessings of justification: gaining Christ, being found in Him, and being clothed in His perfect righteousness; three as sanctification blessings: the power of resurrection, the fellowship of suffering, and being conformed to His death; and one as a glorification blessing: to attain to the resurrection from the dead.

So the next natural question is, “Paul, you have attained all this, have you arrived? Are you perfect now?” Paul concludes this passage by answering that in verses 12-16. Verses 12-14 will be our focus today. There are two basic units of thought: Paul’s emphatic, total disclaimer and negation of perfection attained, and then Paul’s graphic description of perfection pursued. He denies perfection and describes how he pursues perfection.

“Yes, I have counted all Jewish qualifications as a loss. I am justified. I am growing in sanctification for 30 years… after all my ministry and growth… But don’t think I have attained perfection… nothing more to become, nothing more to seek, nothing more to pursue. No, I have not arrived. I am not fully sanctified. God has not accomplished in me his own work of perfection.”

While he denies attaining perfection, he tells us he pursues perfection. He uses vigorous athletic, running-race language to describe his pursuit. Have you run a running race? I have in my school days. I was fat; my one aim has been not to be last. That is something we know. But I think, with all his religious interests, Paul could have been an athlete. His favorite sports are boxing and running. You see him regularly using that as an illustration of spiritual truth. Paul no doubt had seen some famous Greek games at big stadiums in Athens. We see him using the example of a running race in this passage. The runner to him is the picture of the Christian; the race is the Christian life; the goal and prize are perfection. Verse 14: “I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” So the theme here then is pursuing the prize. That is how Paul is pursuing his perfection.

I can see Paul teaching four principles to pursue perfection. Let us learn them quickly.

• Dissatisfaction
• Desired Goal
• Intense Efforts
• Single-mindedness

DDIS. If you and I have to avoid the poison of perfectionism and not stop progressing, we have to practice these four things in our Christian life. If we can achieve spiritual success with these four, in fact, we can achieve any worldly success with these four.

Principle 1: Dissatisfaction

All progress starts with dissatisfaction—a dissatisfaction with your present condition, your status quo. We see that in Paul in verse 12, the first two words. It’s a negative phrase: “Not that I have already attained.” That is a clear, direct disclaimer to correct any erroneous impression. “What have you not attained, Paul?” He clarifies in the next phrase: “or am already perfected.” “I haven’t become perfect.”

Paul the Apostle, 30 years after his conversion and after all the progress and incomparable ministry he has achieved, more than any other apostle, is not satisfied with his growth. He is saying, “I’m not what I ought to be. I have not reached God’s perfect standard. I am still in process.” “Self-dissatisfaction lies at the root of our noblest achievements.” Whatever we achieve spiritually begins with dissatisfaction. “I am not pleased with where I am in my spiritual life. I am not content with my spiritual condition.” If you are content, you have reached a very dangerous point.

Please note, I didn’t say we have to be dissatisfied with our position in Christ. Our position in Christ is glorious and fixed. We are perfect in the sight of God. We have to enjoy that. We regularly preach and bask in it. You are to be completely satisfied with your position in Christ. You are accepted before God as perfectly righteous. You come to God anytime as His adopted children. You are welcomed before God. That you should enjoy and use it to grow. On the other hand, you should live with total dissatisfaction with your present condition. Position and condition are different. Understanding the difference between these two is so important. Many confuse one with another and get discouraged and don’t progress. The starting point is, “My position in Christ is fixed. I should enjoy that and use it to improve my spiritual condition.” A healthy Christian life is to live with these two tensions: you are completely satisfied with your position in Christ, but completely dissatisfied with your present condition.

You are perfect in Christ positionally, but you are not what you should be experientially; you are not what you can be. So this dissatisfaction should push us to pursue a better condition. You see that in Paul. He is completely satisfied that he has perfect righteousness in Christ. “Yes, I have gained Christ. I want to experience the power of His resurrection, fellowship of His suffering, and conforming to His death, but I don’t have it perfectly in my life in that I never sin and never fail.” “I can still sin…” You see his struggles in Romans 7. In fact, in 2 Corinthians 12, he says God had put a thorn in my flesh to restrain so I don’t sin in pride because of my many revelations. “I have all these things but not in perfection in my own life. I must grow. I must pursue the prize.”

The danger of Perfectionism is, it completely removes this dissatisfaction, makes you content with your condition, gives you a sense that you’ve reached it, and gives you no awareness of pursuing a better condition. So spiritual growth, this whole pursuing, starts with dissatisfaction, a recognition that you’re not where you ought to be. You haven’t arrived. There is so much more to grow, learn, and experience the power of the resurrection, the fellowship of His suffering, and conforming to His death.

Let me ask you, do you have this dissatisfaction in you? “Oh, I need to grow…” If you have gotten to the place where you feel satisfied, that’s a very dangerous place to be, very dangerous. For if not theological perfectionism, you have arrived at a sort of pragmatic perfectionism where you’re as perfect as you care to be. You’re misjudging your present condition. It hinders your perseverance. May God give you this blessed discontent, a blessed dissatisfaction, a recognition that you’re not what you ought to be.

Principle 2: Desired Goal

Secondly, you need a desired goal. You know you are not where you should be. The second thing you need to know is where you have to go. It should be a passionate, moving, and motivating goal. Paul was dissatisfied with his present condition, his status quo. Secondly, he had a passionate goal. What is it?

Verse 12: “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.”

This is an amazing verse. What is his goal? He’s after something specific. He wants to get a hold of something. “What are you running after, Paul?” “I’m running after to catch something for which Christ caught me. I’m pursuing the very thing for which Christ pursued me.” What was the goal of Christ’s in saving us? Why did God elect us in eternity? Why did Christ come into the world and suffer and die such a horrible death and through the Holy Spirit pursue us and save us? What is His goal in all that? What was the goal of redemption? What is the goal of election? Romans 8:29: “For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of… whom?… His Son.”

This is a glorious goal. Depraved, imperfect, hell-deserving sinners like you and me are not only forgiven, justified, and sanctified, but glorified and transformed and conformed to the image of the spotless, infinitely glorious second person of the Trinity, the spotless, glorious Son of God. So for all eternity, the universe may praise the height of God’s grace showered upon us. In other words, our full glorification where we are glorified with Christ. We don’t even fully realize what a marvelous state that is. The enlightened heart of Paul was so thrilled with this goal. His heart’s passion burns to achieve that goal. He says the reason Christ redeemed me has become the passionate goal of my life. I have so much understood the glory of that goal, it has become an Olympic medal prize.

Notice verse 14: “I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”

This was the motivating goal for Paul. He calls it “the prize of the upward call.” This is not a cheap Olympic medal given by men that happens every four years, but this is an eternal gold medal given by God himself. There is going to come an upward prize through a glorious upward call when Christ comes. What’s going to happen when that upward call comes? Resurrection is the upward call when God calls believers from the grave, and all believers rise from the dead, they will be fully transformed to be like Christ, body and soul. We saw that glory last week.

Paul says, “I live in the light of the resurrection. That motivates me to my goal. I am pursuing that goal.” The ultimate goal of my life is to become like Christ. The goal and the prize are the same. The goal is that which I attain in this life, and the prize is that which the judge confers.

Why did God save us? What’s the goal of the Christian life? It’s the same thing for which you were saved. God saved you to make you like His Son, and that purpose for which He saves you becomes the purpose for which you should live. We’re all in a life-long pursuit of Christ’s likeness. Christ’s likeness is the goal.

One song says, “True soldiers view the triumph from afar and seize it with their eye.” Well, how do you seize anything with your eye? Well, the apostle did. He seized the goal with his eye. He has climbed Mount Pisgah like Moses through meditation and seen the glory of becoming like Christ, knows he will win, and sees his glorification. So he is motivated.

Think of us: God in His grace in eternity, chose us folks, wretched, wicked, vile, godless sinners on our way to hell. He chooses not only to forgive us and save us, but eternally to glorify us, to make us like His Son. What grace! That is the prize. Anyone who grasps that deeply should be motivated to pursue that goal.

Let me ask you, what is your goal in life? What makes you wake up with eagerness? What is driving you in life? Shouldn’t this be your goal as a Christian? Is there a better, higher, supreme goal for this life and eternity? Our goal is becoming like Christ and glorified, which is glorification. It is so marvelous. It is our blessed hope. Oh, how we need to meditate and make it a moving and motivating goal in our life.

From Dissatisfaction to a Desired Goal: You start with dissatisfaction, you see you have a desired goal, you see where you are, and you see you have to go.

We learned about meditation last week. Let me teach you a wonderful way to see your goal. You sit in a chair. Put an empty chair next to you. “Okay, you are here. This is what you are. You know your weakness.” And then in the chair, think of yourself, imagining your future you, three or five years from now. “What are things I should change so I become like Christ after five years?” Personal holiness, Bible reading, daily Bible calendar, prayer that is very close and intense and longer, ministry that is more caring and loving, more souls seeking, more gospel sharing, church commitment, regular attendance, ministry. Family relationships—as a husband, wife, and with children. Work—”how will I work as a Christ?” See your future.

You see your future self as being like Christ. How much of Christ-likeness is there in your life? When you compare yourself with Christ, how far away are you? You realize you can progress toward that goal only by intense, maximum effort.

This is because of spiritual enemies like the flesh, the world, and Satan; it will not be a cakewalk. You have to swim against the current. There must be intense, maximum effort to pursue and make progress toward that goal.

You see intense, maximum efforts in three phrases that are repeated. First, in verse 12b, Paul says, “but I press on.” The word “press on” is dioko, meaning “I run,” “I follow after,” “I pursue,” “I chase.” It’s an Olympic running race word, an aggressive, energetic endeavor. Second, in verse 13b, he says, “reaching forward to those things which are ahead.” Notice in verse 14, “I press toward.” This is vigorous language, all terms of intense, maximum effort. It’s a graphic description of how Paul is pursuing.

Think of the 2024 Paris Olympics. The Ethiopian marathon runner Tamirat Tola won the gold medal. If you watch a video of an Olympic runner with AI technology, you can zoom in and see a lot of details. You can even see his eyes and feet in slow motion, zooming in on every detail, drawing lines and graphics, and seeing every step. If you notice his video, the first thing you notice is that from the beginning of the race to the end, every slow-motion shot or snapshot shows the man’s body posture—his head, legs, and arms are always forward. In every movement, he’s not slightly to the right or left or back, but forward, toward the finish line. Every part of his body—shoulder, arms, stomach, thighs, and legs—is stretched forward toward the goal. I’ve used a picture for the thumbnail; the man is all forward-stretching.

That is what Paul is saying. Verse 12: “I press on.” Verse 13: “reaching forward to those things which are ahead.” Verse 14: “I press toward.” Onward. Forward. Not back or side. It is always forward. Paul says, “I have a passionate goal. I am using intense efforts so that every movement of my being is toward that goal. I make a maximum effort. I am pursuing with all my might that very thing for which Christ pursued me.”

This is the straining of every spiritual muscle. This is running to win. In 1 Corinthians 9:24, Paul says, “Run in such a way that you may win.” Verse 25: “And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown.” Verse 26: “Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air.” Verse 27: “But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.” Paul is saying, “I run, I pursue, I chase. I haven’t arrived. I use maximum effort.”

This is a four-part principle: dissatisfaction, desired goal, intense effort, and single-mindedness.

Single-Mindedness

The fourth principle, in pursuing the goal, is that you have to be single-minded. There has to be a focused concentration toward the goal. Again, if you watch the Paris Olympics video of Tamirat Tola, you can zoom in and watch the head and eyes of the runner. You can use graphics and draw a line. Throughout the race, until the end, his eye was looking straight at the finish line goal, and not for a single second did it divert here or there. You can draw a straight line directly between the runner’s eyeball and the finish line. His eye didn’t blink for a second, nor did his head turn slightly, even by one degree. He was always focused.

Any athlete knows that when you’re running in a race, you have to fix your eyes on the goal ahead of you. You cannot watch your feet, or you’ll fall on your face. He is not watching the crowd in the stadium or looking back and thinking, “Oh, I have come so far; all the other runners are behind me.” By the time he looks and turns forward, the race would be over. There was no taking his eyes off the gold; he was 100% focused. Throughout the race, his eye was looking straight at the finish line goal. Any backward look would break his stride or lessen his speed. So, there must be single-mindedness.

That is exactly what Paul is saying. In making maximum effort, I do it with a single-minded focus. Notice verse 13: “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.” With a warm, affectionate title, “brothers,” he moves their hearts toward him and away from the Judaizers. Again, for the third time, he says, “I didn’t attain.” “Why is he so repetitious?” Because there’s a polemical, attacking nature to this passage; he is correcting the poison of the Judaizers’ perfectionism to make his point abundantly clear. He says it again, another disclaimer, “I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet.”

And then this, “But one thing I do.” Boy, there is the key: one thing I do. That’s what makes a great man. The man had an unbelievable level of focus and single-mindedness. Such a focus comes from a negative and positive mindset. Notice the negative in verse 13: “forgetting those things which are behind.” And then positively, he says, “reaching forward to those things which are ahead.” Negatively, you eliminate the past. Don’t look back. It is irrelevant. Make a break with the past. This is such good advice. Oh my, so important. Perfectionists? They’re always looking at the past, reminding everybody of their past achievements and experiences. Their present spiritual status is based on the past.

Now, what does he mean by the past? Should we not think of God’s goodness in the past and thank Him? There is a good doctrine that we have to think of past mercies, but this is talking about past personal failures or achievements, either bad or good. Past sins, failures, past guilt, repeated problems, and disasters. If you have to progress, forget all that. It has nothing to do with the future. “Oh my, my life was so bad and I was so wretched and I was so immoral. How can God ever forgive me?” So many are hung up on the guilt of the past. Forget it all. You should never be weakened 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 toward the future. Forget all that. Leave all that.

From a positive standpoint, forget past victories and ministry achievements. How many just live on past victories? People say, “In those days I was like this; I was so holy. You know how I came to Christ, what sacrifices I did. I believed and I was saved. I did that big ministry and taught the Bible to so many. I brought so many to Christ.” Forget it all. People open their mouths and keep blabbering about all the past. Paul says, “Shut up and run the race.” You cannot live on past victories. You cannot celebrate your value by your past. And you can’t move forward that way if you’re anchored to the past. Or it’s all over; move forward. It’s absolutely irrelevant. You cannot have single-mindedness by thinking of the past. The clearest vision is given to the one who forgets the past.

Forget the past and, positively, in verse 13, “reaching forward to those things which are ahead,” means to stretch a muscle to its limit. Stretch, stretch, out after the goal ahead. I mean, your extreme, intense effort is in view here. This is a runner stretching every muscle to reach what is in front of him, focused on the goal, moving as fast as possible.

So single-mindedness is so important. Not only in athletics, but in any field, only those who are totally focused succeed in life. The world is full of people who are clever at so many things but successful at nothing because they never can focus their life. They are doing 101 things, with a lot of energy and fury and action, but no progress. They’re not focused. One man said, “Just do one thing right in your life and you’ll be way ahead of most people.” In the spiritual dimension, it is equally true. When your life has one driving compulsion, and that is to be like Christ, you’re moving in the right direction.

That’s why the psalmist prayed, “Lord, unite my heart, give me one thing.” That’s why James warned about a double-minded man who is unstable in all his ways and will not receive anything from the Lord. The Lord said, “One thing is needful.”

These are great principles to pursue perfection: Dissatisfaction, Desired Goal, Intense Efforts, and Single-mindedness. Paul, have you attained? No, I am not satisfied where I am. I know where I have to go; I am goal-passionate. I am doing this with maximum efforts and with a single-minded focus.

Applications

1. Can you describe yourself with this “DDIS” framework? If not, you are somehow infected with the poison of perfection, and this passage gives a most powerful warning against perfectionism. Remember the context; everything is calculated to buttress the warning. “Beware of the dogs.” Don’t allow false thoughts, ideas, or teaching to hinder the Christian life. The Judaizers were offering a way of perfection by the law. In Galatians 3:3, Paul asks, “Are you so foolish, having begun in the Spirit, are you now perfected in the flesh?” So the Judaizers were clearly teaching perfection by rituals. If you think you can attain perfection by your own standards and rituals, it can easily be achieved. You just have to do certain things, follow certain rituals, and you have attained and can be satisfied. Paul says, “Beware of this dog poison. I have done all those rituals, and all those I count as dung.” He is warning us today about the subtle, Judaizing influence of feeling that if you’ve undergone the right rituals and you’re doing the right things, you’ve attained enough. It may not just be the ritual of circumcision. We can have our own ritual religion and say, “Well, I’ve believed in Christ once. I’ve been baptized. I come to church once on Sunday and attend a prayer meeting. I’ve arrived.” That’s a subtle form of seeking perfection. “Just keep doing this; I am okay.” This mindset will take you to hell.

Paul, with all his growth and achievements, says he has still not achieved; he pursues perfection with every fiber of his being. This passage is a warning to all of you who are sitting relaxed, with smugness, carelessness, laxity, and complacency, to see what poison of perfectionism has infected you. How audacious to think you have arrived! Because whatever thought or idea has made you like this is not from God but from the devil. If you don’t wake up from that, it will take you to hell.

2. The Bible reveals that many people always deceive themselves into thinking they are Christians when they are not. So the Bible graciously, in different ways, keeps giving a clear definition of a true Christian again and again in a thousand ways. This passage makes verse 12 capture a most accurate description of a true Christian. What is a true Christian? Well, according to this text, Paul says two things about a true Christian. One, a true Christian is a person who’s been captured by Christ. The word is “arrested by Christ.” Paul describes his conversion as an activity of Christ. He was like a thief who was robbing God, but Christ arrested him. “I was running at a breakneck speed in the direction of hell, or as a self-righteous Pharisee. Jesus arrested me.” No person is a Christian unless Jesus Christ arrests him.

If you say you are a Christian, have you been arrested by Christ? It’s not just “I heard a few notions about Heaven and hell and the cross and death in the world to come. I nodded my head, ‘Okay, I decided to believe in Christ.’ I just added Christ to my life.” When Christ saves a person, He arrests him for good. He arrests him not only to stop him from going to hell, but Christ arrests a person for a specific goal: to make him like Himself.

How do we know if a person is truly arrested or saved by Christ? The text says a true Christian, arrested by Christ, strives toward the goal for which Christ arrested him. That’s a true Christian. How can I tell if I’ve been captured by Christ? The evidence will be this: that you are striving to capture all that God has purposed for you in Christ. Ask yourself, “Am I a Christian according to this definition? Am I striving to arrest for which Christ arrested? Is that my life’s focus?”

3. This passage presents a two-pronged truth. You have to believe both equally to make progress in the Christian life. First, it teaches that perfection cannot be attained in this life. Who can compete with Paul’s spiritual growth, greater advancement in likeness to Christ, and zeal in the service of Christ? If he says, “I have not attained,” surely the argument is conclusive. Perfection cannot be achieved in this life.

On one side, we have to grasp this truth to avoid all kinds of false, attractive perfectionist teachings. When they say to me, “Would you like to be free from the struggle with indwelling sin?” Then you say, “Oh, God, yes. Yes, Lord.” “Would you like to have such uninterrupted communion with Christ as the angels and joy?” You say, “Lord, I would give my right arm and my left leg for that.” You will never be able to sin. It’s so attractive. Please understand that that doesn’t happen before death. If we don’t grasp this, we will fall for so many subtle, wrong teachings in the world.

On one side, when we understand that perfection cannot be achieved in this life, we must also grasp this equally important truth: you will never attain perfection at the resurrection, at the second coming of Christ, unless you earnestly seek perfection in this life like Paul. You see, don’t divorce the first from the second, nor the second from the first. That is what our flesh wants to do. “Oh, I can never be perfect; I will not try.” That is the devil’s idea. Neither the prize nor perfection will be attained at the resurrection unless they are earnestly sought now.

Paul, if we are already positionally perfect in Christ, why bother? Because perseverance, the earnest seeking of perfection, is an undeniable sign that we are truly justified and saved by our Lord. A lot of things in the Christian life depend on perseverance. It is proof of regeneration. If God has changed your heart, you’re a new creation in Jesus Christ, and you will desire to grow. There is a built-in desire and drive and longing for growth. It makes demonstrable the fact that you are truly regenerated because you’re in the process of making it visible that your life is being changed. Our assurance, so important in the Christian life, depends on spiritual progress. You are making your calling and election sure by progress. Your gospel witness to the world depends on your progress.

Now, ask yourself a question about the DDIS framework. If the great apostle says, “I am putting in maximum efforts and growing,” how dare some of you think you can live without any effort? Do you not have some glimpse of this aggressiveness in your life? Are you just lazing away all your time on your mobile phone or watching TV, coming once a week, and sitting relaxed, thinking you can go to Heaven? When will you wake up from that dream world before it is too late?

Do you see your goal? Do you see God says you should pursue the goal to become like Christ? Can you see where you are now and your future self? Can you see how much you should grow in knowledge, prayer, heavenly-mindedness, holiness, love, and service? You have to be as patient, kind, gentle, generous, devout, grateful, and full of love for God and people as He was. Do you see how far you are from the goal? Then, piece by piece, put on that Christ-likeness. Determine to do it and do it. Decide to do it and do it. It will take pressing, striving, and straining. It will require leaning forward all the time, but what a difference it will make.

Don’t make this more complicated than it is. You know very well that you need to be a better man or a better woman as a follower of Christ. Don’t kid yourself. There are many changes, and large changes, that need to be made. If you don’t know what those changes are, come to me and I will tell you! So set about to make those changes. Exercise like an athlete who intends to win his race. Fix what is wrong with repentance, prayer, and purposeful new obedience.

Can I suggest a few things that help us pursue the prize? Four things:

1. The Word of God: As newborn babies, desire the pure milk of the Word that you may grow. Be constantly in the Word. It will keep you moving. It will keep you pursuing the prize. We have still not finished the year. Why don’t you forget your lazy excuses and wake up your lazy soul? Be dissatisfied with how little of the Bible you know compared to Christ. Set a passionate goal to finish the Bible calendar wherever you stopped. Oh, you have missed so many days. Put in maximum, intense efforts. Stretch yourself. Move forward like an Olympian. Do it with single-minded focus. “I will finish it by this year, come what may.” Don’t allow this year to end with another regret, “Oh, I started, but I couldn’t finish.”

2. Meditation: David says, “So I don’t fall back, I will meditate.” You live such a stressful life and go to the doctor, and he says, “Do meditation.” I taught on Friday how to do meditation. Learn that.

3. Prayer: How is your prayer life compared to Christ’s? If Christ prayed so much, how little you pray? It will help you grow and become more like Christ, not be a short-tempered animal with your wife, husband, or children. Apply the DDIS framework: see where you are, set a goal, use intense efforts, and be single-minded in your prayer life.

4. Church Meetings: It is sad. I have to say this. Every week, meetings are designed to help you grow. I don’t take even Zoom meetings for granted. So much effort is put in. See how Pentecostals go to church daily. We are given the opportunity to attend from home. The Zoom meetings. They canceled the men’s meeting, the women’s meeting. How is it that I don’t see a few people in the Tuesday and Friday prayer meetings at all? Isn’t it because of arrogant perfectionism? You think you don’t need that. You think you have grown enough on Sunday itself. As a member, you have a responsibility to attend the prayer meeting every Friday. I want people to let me know in case you cannot attend. Maybe we should take disciplinary action when they don’t attend.

5. Family: Husbands, are you becoming more like Christ, loving more? Wives and children, set this DDIS framework.

May God help us progress toward the goal. A lot of people have died climbing the European Alps, falling off of precipices. At the foot of the mountain, there 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.