Is forgetting the past biblical? Does the Bible instruct us to forget the past?

Thus we see here the power of a risen and a heavenly Christ, not now treated doctrinally as in 1 Corinthians 15 or 2 Corinthians 5 and elsewhere, but as that which bears on the Christian for the constant experience of every day. Hence that which judged and put aside religion after the flesh, righteousness after the law, all that was now left completely and for ever behind, and the saint is set on the road that nothing can satisfy him but being in the same glorious condition with Christ Himself. Hence he says, "Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect; but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind." This, carefully remember, does not mean forgetting sins. Far from losing sight of our past ways, it is a very wholesome thing indeed to remember them: we are never safe in forgetting what we are and have been. What he means by forgetting the things that are behind is, that we should not think of any progress we may have made in following Christ, — that we should lose sight of everything calculated to give us self-satisfaction. This were to spoil all, because it would please the flesh.

"Not as though I had already attained either were already perfect" — for there is no perfection of condition known in Scripture, short of reaching Christ in glory — "but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus." He is not speaking here of any mental apprehension of things. He is using a word that is only used, so far as I know, in modern English, in the language of the police court: we know what it means by a policeman apprehending a man. It is then: If that I may lay hold of that for which Christ has laid hold of me. What did He lay hold of you and me for? Nothing short of being with Himself and like Him in the glory of God for ever. Now, he says, that is what I am set for. "Brethren, I count not myself to have laid hold of it, but this one thing I do" — Not many things, as so often thought desirable. And what is it? "Forgetting the things that are behind" — that does not refer to the failures of the past: we were not meant to forget them — it is very profitable that we should remember the failures of the past, to be humbled by them. It means that he is not occupied with the milestones, the past points of progress or of victories won. He has no time to take account of the length of the way he has traversed. He views the race set before him with his whole mind on the end of it. "Reaching forth to the things that are before." He is using the most forcible words of the race-course: the attitude of a man in running, with his head and neck extended out beyond the rest of the body, in the earnestness of pressing on to the goal and the prize. "I press toward the goal for the prize of the calling on high of God in Christ Jesus."

"Brethren, I count not myself to have laid hold [whatever others might dream]; but one thing, forgetting the things behind, and stretching out to the things before, I pursue … ." v. 13. The Apostle does not mean that one ought to overlook, or that he did overlook his past sins and failures. On the contrary, it is most evil to forget what Christ has suffered for our sakes, and also the manifold ways wherein we have dishonoured God. This will not at all interfere with settled peace — rather the reverse. A man can rejoice so much the more in the Lord if he fully judge his failure. It is the tendency of a conscience not thoroughly happy to desire to escape from thinking of anything in which we have consciously turned aside to the grief of the Holy Ghost. It is a right thing to search ourselves through and through; it is right to ask God to search and try us, and to lead us in the way everlasting. Confidence in grace, so far from weakening the sense of our own shortcomings or covering over our failure, is the very spring that enables us to see and deal with the reality of things in the presence of God. Thus the Apostle speaks of "forgetting the things behind," not with reference to his failure, but rather to his points of progress, the steps or stages in which he had made advance in the knowledge of Christ. Instead of dwelling upon any attainment, as if it were something to be thought of (like the Pharisee comparing himself with his neighbour), here we have this blessed man forgetting all that might have fed self-complacency or been creditable to himself. His back was on the ground traversed. "Stretching out to the things before, I pursue toward the goal for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." v. 14. This can only be in the resurrection state. Till then he was content to run. This was his one business. It was to live Christ, because Christ was his object.

We lose the fine sense and force of this by applying it to our failures. But in that noble passage, the third chapter of Philippians, Paul was not recounting failures. Far from that! He states how he had renounced everything that belonged to him in the flesh: "what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ." This was one of the things behind him: it was at the beginning of his course. But had he failed about this? And was it failure that he referred to, when he spoke of "forgetting those things that are behind"? Had he lapsed from the high standard with which he started? No! It was still his mind. Not only had he counted all things loss for Christ, in the fervour of first love; he still did so. "Yea, and I count (present tense) all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord." Was his mind a bit less strong now? Nay; it was stronger. Had he sobered by time? No, he was more enthusiastic; for while in the past he had counted all things but loss for Christ, now he counts them but filth (dung, ver. 8). This is not failure; it is success. His soul has grown in the strength of its sentiments, and he cannot find figures too strong or words too forcible to convey his sense of the superiority of Christ, and the inferiority of all things else. The simple fact is that they are beyond comparison. This was the vantage-ground from which the apostle spoke of "forgetting"; he would forget the past and go forth to fresh achievements.

Now, however uncommon it may be, this is normal Christian experience. Christian experience is not a perpetual series of restorations after failures. It is rather making good one step, and not resting there, but pressing on towards the goal. It is here that the forgetting things that are behind finds its place. But how often it is said, after some sad breakdown, "Let us forget those things which are behind, and reach forth unto those things which are before," etc. Is it not a debasement of this passage to apply it to our miserable failures? Indeed it is doubtful whether we ought to lightly forget our failures. On the contrary, are they not often a wholesome recollection that helps us to humility? While the forgiveness on confession of our sins is full, we sometimes miss the moral lesson that they should teach us. Was it not so with Peter and his triple denial of the Lord? On the seashore after the resurrection, the Lord thrice asks Peter if he loved Him. He doubtless saw that though Peter was now ready to thrice avow his love, and indeed was grieved at his love being questioned, yet that he needed to be reminded that he had three times denied the Lord. Jesus took this delicate and gentle method to remind Peter of his fall, without even mentioning it. How like that is to the truth and faithfulness, as well as the grace of the Lord! Was He not doing thus, what He had done before — washing a disciple's feet? We may take our failures too lightly, and if we do, the Lord may have to remind us of them, as He did Peter. But when He does so, it is for our good, for our blessing, and for promotion in His honourable service. Thus it is in this episode, so trying to Peter's soul, that Jesus confers upon him the high commission to feed His lambs, to shepherd His sheep, and grants that even his old age should be crowned by martyrdom for His name's sake (John 21:15-19; 2 Peter 1:14).

Failures then were not what Paul referred to as things to be forgotten. The Christian may have a true, not an exaggerated, sense of some service done for the Master; THAT is the thing to forget. Forget the things behind; they are set down in the Master's record, safe in His memory; forget them yourself, and go forth to fresh exploits, pressing towards the mark for the prize of the calling on high of God in Christ Jesus. Some Christians are quite non-progressive, resting comfortably on the past; they recount their conversion and things done in years gone by. They are living on the past, instead of forgetting it and pressing forward. This is the true intention of Philippians 3. It may be wholesome to remember failure, though not so as to discourage ourselves; but it is wholesome to forget any service we may have done, and, filled with thoughts of the future, press forward towards the mark for the prize.

Some Christians have said to me, "There are many things I would like to remember; what are the things behind that we are called to forget? "I think a safe rule is to remember the things that would humble us, and let us forget the things that would puff us up. The difference between the Corinthians and the Hebrews was, that while both were babes the Corinthians were never anything else. The Hebrews, however, had progressed while their leaders were living, but had gone back after their decease, and had become like those that had need of milk; the sad result of bad doctrine through Judaizing teachers.

Verses 13, 14. 'Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended,' etc. He does not beguile his soul by flattering illusions, but passes on. One object engrosses him, and one thing he does. Nor is he singular in this; but is in fact exemplifying a rooted principle of our nature. All men, good or bad, who are really in earnest, keep one thing supremely in their view. The thing desired may be worthy or unworthy, and the race end in life or death; but men who live at all must set their hearts on something. With a common faith, whose supreme object is the Living God, His saints have always had and lived for one special and heart-absorbing hope. 'One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after,' if the recorded utterance of one only of God's inspired scribes,1 expresses faithfully the sentiment of all who know Him in His truth. Unity of object, of desire, of pursuit, has been the mark of God's elect from the beginning. The promise, the birthright, the recompense of rewards — in one word, the Lord — has been the aim and expectation of all upon whose eyes the light of life has shined. Paul's labours were various, but his end was one. To attain it there was need, he tells us, on his part, both of a resolute forgetfulness and a wakeful zeal. The things behind him he forgot, not always easily, but willingly, and with a lastingly-averted mind. For his flesh looked ever backward, while his mind was on the things before. To these his hands were stretched out as he ran, distancing at each step that in which he once had sought his rest, and nearing daily the salvation which should end his faith. Nature and natural things were all behind. The law also, and its righteousness, as Moses taught it, were forgotten in the glad remembrance of Him who is for righteousness the end of that law to every believer. He forgets his own righteousness, but not his sins; these are before him ever, but only as forgiven. He cannot forget them as he contemplates his Saviour's wounds; but they are no terror to him, and their burden is completely gone. His soul is only weighted now by the sweet and heart-constraining pressure of the mercy and loving-kindness of the Lord. He forgets, moreover, his past course as a believer (though able, upon just occasion, to remember and appeal to it, to the glory of Him whose grace wrought so effectually in His servant) in his earnest cosideration of what still remains between him and his hope. Looking off from other things to Jesus as the author and finisher of faith, he runs with a patient eagerness the race set before him, and thinks nothing gained till He is gained who is at once the Judge of the contest and the prize.

But there is another feature of this race: Paul was forgetting those things which are behind. And the forgotten things included not only his natural advantages but his conquests by faith also. Though, for instance, he had striven earnestly a year ago, he was still to strive; though his spirit had conquered a year ago, it was still to conquer. His habitual attitude was to be "forgetting the things which are behind and stretching forward to the things which are before."

51 Paul says to the Philippians, "If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead" - nothing can ever satisfy my soul but that. There is present fellowship with His sufferings, looking forward to the prize of His high calling; but he says, I have not got it yet, "I press toward the mark." "Our conversation is in heaven, from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body." It will be actual glory with and in Christ, "forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth to those things which are before." He would not have or allow one atom of his life to be inconsistent with the resurrection. We ought all to be able to say, "This one thing I do; forgetting the things which are behind, I am reaching forward to be like Christ." "He that hath this hope in Him purifieth himself, even as He is pure."

In a glorious passage of Scripture, instinct with spiritual life and vigour, the great Apostle Paul wrote, “Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, FORGETTING THOSE THINGS WHICH ARE BEHIND, and reaching forth to those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 3:13-14). He was surely right in forgetting the things which were behind in his earnest desire to make speed on the bit of road immediately before him. He was like the athlete making for the goal. To be occupied with the ground over which he had travelled, instead of that which lay before him, would have been foolish in the extreme.

(Vv. 13, 14). If he had not yet attained the prize, neither did he claim to have apprehended in all its fulness the blessedness of the prize. But he could say, "One thing — forgetting the things behind, and stretching out to the things before, I pursue, looking towards the goal, for the prize of the calling on high of God in Christ Jesus." Good for us, if we too could have such a vision of Christ in the glory and the reality of "those things which are before," that we should be led to forget the things that are behind. Paul not only counted them loss but he had forgotten them. We could not boast in something we had forgotten. As with every other spiritual blessing, our calling on high is set forth in Christ.