“I press on toward the goal to win
the prize for which God has called me
heavenward in
Christ Jesus.”
– Philippians 3:14
Some sixty years before Abraham Lincoln fought to abolish
slavery in the United States, William Wilberforce was fighting to do the same
in Great Britain. Wilberforce devoted fifty years of his life to the fight
against slavery, and at times, he felt like giving up. At one point about ten
years into his fight, he felt very discouraged. But his spirit was
reinvigorated as he read a note in his Bible from John Wesley. Wesley wrote,
“If God be for you [in the fight against slavery], who can be against you? Are all
of them together stronger than God? Oh, be not weary of well-doing. Go on in
the name of God, and in the power of His might.”
With a newfound passion, Wilberforce continued his fight.
And it paid off. In 1807 the slave trade began to be dissolved, and over the
next thirty years slavery was systematically eliminated throughout England.
Wilberforce died on July 30, 1833—almost fifty years after he had begun his
fight. And two days after his death—on August 1, 1833—British parliament voted
to abolish slavery in Great Britain. William Wilberforce fought the good fight,
and he finished the race. And so should we.
In Philippians 4:12-16, the Apostle Paul uses a wonderful
sports analogy to describe his personal pursuit of Christlikeness. And along
the way he makes it clear that it should be our pursuit as well. Just as an
Olympic marathon runner musters every bit of his energy and grit as he strains
toward the finish line, we as Christians should give our full effort to being
conformed to the image of Christ. Remember that sanctification is the process
of becoming more and more like Jesus. It’s the main reason that God saved us
from our sins. Christlikeness is God’s goal for our lives. Therefore, it should
be our personal goal as well.
And in Philippians 4:12-16 Paul lists six vital steps in our
race toward Christlikeness. For the sake of space, here are three. #1: Pursue Christlikeness with maximum
effort. Paul writes in verse 12: “I
press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.” Any successful
pursuit of Christlikeness must begin with spiritual dissatisfaction. You and I
can’t be content to stay where we are spiritually. If we think that our
spiritual growth is “good enough,” we’ll never cross the finish line. But our
dissatisfaction must grow legs. We must give the pursuit of Christlikeness our
full effort. Just as a sprinter persistently presses on toward the finish line
and the hunter doggedly pursues his prey, so too must we as Christians press on
toward the goal of speaking, acting, loving and prioritizing like Christ.
#2: Pursue
Christlikeness with focused concentration. Paul writes in verse 13: “Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But
one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead.” Pastor
John MacArthur summarizes Paul’s teaching very well as he writes: “A maximum effort without focused
concentration is useless…. Believers cannot live on past victories, nor should
they be debilitated by the guilt of past sins.” Very well said! One of
Satan’s schemes is to get you to dwell on the past in order to distract you
from the growth God has in mind for you in the present. At times, Satan throws
our past failures in our faces in the effort to drown us in guilt and fear. And
at other times, he throws our past successes in our faces to get us to rest on
our laurels and embrace complacency. But spiritual growth requires our focused
concentration on the finish line ahead.
#3: Pursue
Christlikeness without giving up. Paul writes in verse 16: “Only let us keep living up to what we have already attained.” Paul
emphasizes that we should never let up on our efforts to become more and more
like Jesus. Until our dying day we must keep striving to become like our
sinless, selfless, God-honoring, life-transforming Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ. We must lock arms with other Christians and pursue this goal with
everything we’ve got. The stakes are very high. And we have no time to spare.
The world can’t afford for us to take a vacation from our holy pursuit.
At the base of one of the Swiss Alps, there’s a marker
honoring a man who fell to his death attempting to ascend the mountain. The
epitaph reads simply, “He died climbing.” If you ask me, this should be the
epitaph of every Christian. On our ascent to the ultimate goal of
Christlikeness, we died climbing.
Here on earth, will we ever become thoroughly Christlike?
No, we won’t. Our character won’t be completely like Christ’s until he grants
us that perfection on Judgment Day. But here on earth we can get very close to
Christlikeness—just like Paul. So, our Lord Jesus Christ has made our mission
clear: With Christlikeness as the finish line before us, we must keep running
with maximum effort, keep focusing our eyes on the finish line and keep refusing
to give up. Paul did it. William Wilberforce did it. And you and I can do it as
well.
Dane Davis is the Lead Pastor of
First Christian Church in Victorville. For more information,
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