Running Toward Maturity (Deuteronomy 5:6-21, Philippians 3:12-16)
Rev. David Huffman, January 5, 2025Part of the Morning Worship at North Greenville Church series, preached at a Sunday Morning service
What is the lasting goal for us until Christ returns, as the people of God? Paul resolved to be found in Christ, to know Christ and to share in His suffering. This is, in summary form, justification, sanctification and glorification. By sharing in Christ's suffering, Paul shares in His glory. Resurrection results in glorification for the believer. Paul values the surpassing worth of knowing His redeemer in a richer, more full relationship. Paul makes a confession of humility; he had not attained perfection, yet some around him were claiming superiority. They actually are deceived and lying. Just as the fruit of Paul's sanctification was humility, we confess that we have not arrived to a measure of full righteousness. We know we have far to go. If we are not conscious of our remaining sin, we suffer from spiritual blindness. As Isaiah confessed (Ch. 6), the more sanctified we become, the more need for sanctification we have. Christ makes us clean in the midst of our unholiness. We will not arrive at perfection until we are glorified.
Paul ministers with resolution; he is determined. He can press on because Christ seized Paul as His own and made a union with Him. There are connections here between athletics and warfare. An athlete trains and does whatever it takes to prepare to win. An army's goal is to seize its objective. Salvation is monergistic; it is all from God alone.
Sanctification is synergistic; we assent to the biddings of the Holy Spirit to grow us in righteousness. We adhere to the means of grace.
With Paul as our example, we resolve to take hold of Christ as He has taken hold of us. We work to forget what lies behind us as enemies of God, or by boasting of our righteousness by law-keeping. Whatever we were pursuing in the past, we don't have to fix first before trusting in Christ as our savior. We look to Christ and His righteousness. Paul after conversion had many accomplishments, yet he was not complacent.
The upward call of God shows that He wants us in heaven with Him. We have not arrived; we must continue striving, knowing that all believers WILL be brought to maturity. We keep on running toward the goal.
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Deuteronomy 5:6–21 (Listen)
6 “‘I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
7 “‘You shall have no other gods before me.
8 “‘You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 9 You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 10 but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
11 “‘You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.
12 “‘Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the LORD your God commanded you. 13 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 14 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter or your male servant or your female servant, or your ox or your donkey or any of your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates, that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you. 15 You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the LORD your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.
16 “‘Honor your father and your mother, as the LORD your God commanded you, that your days may be long, and that it may go well with you in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.
17 “‘You shall not murder.
18 “‘And you shall not commit adultery.
19 “‘And you shall not steal.
20 “‘And you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
21 “‘And you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife. And you shall not desire your neighbor’s house, his field, or his male servant, or his female servant, his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.’
(ESV)
Philippians 3:12–16 (Listen)
12 Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. 13 Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. 15 Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. 16 Only let us hold true to what we have attained.
(ESV)