What is the goal that we should press toward (Philippians 3:14)?

The word "high" simply means "above." The same word is used in Colossians 3:1, where we are bidden to "seek those things which are above." The prize, of the calling to the things above, is surely that full and perfect knowledge of Christ Himself, which will be possible for us when our bodies are changed and fashioned like to His body of glory at His coming.

Having, through the excellency of the knowledge of Christ, discovered the vanity of religious flesh and the things that are gain to us as natural men, and having Christ in the glory as his one Object, the Apostle can freely express the desires of his heart as all being bound up with Christ, as he says: "That I may win Christ"; "Be found in Him"; "That I may know Him"; That "I may apprehend that for which I am apprehended of Christ Jesus."

When the Apostle says, "that I may win Christ," he is looking on to the end of the journey. He is running a race, and he sees that the goal is to be with Christ and like Christ in the glory. Christ down here is the pattern for the Christian life; Christ in the glory is our Object, the One to Whom we press on.

In Philippians 3. Christ is presented in glory as our object, giving energy to the Christian life. The key word being "I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus" (Phil. 3. 14).

(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.

The apostle's eye was upon the mark of the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. What is this prize? Surely it is our likeness to the Lord Jesus Christ, and this likeness is the consummation of the Christian race. There is a reward for works certainly, concerning which we are instructed elsewhere, but here we have what is the common aim of all believers. We are not any of us apostles; we are not all teachers; and some of us are nothing at all. But eventually all the children of God will be like Him. And we all should be striving to attain this end. In this competition we all get prizes, if we do not take our eyes off the goal. "Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in anything ye are otherwise minded, even this shall God reveal unto you; only, whereunto we have already attained, by that same rule let us walk." W. J. H.

Three classes are spoken of here, the "perfect," those otherwise minded, and those who are the "enemies of the cross of Christ." The perfect are those who have entered by the power of the Spirit of Christ into this truth of being perfectly like Him. Many a Christian knows only the forgiveness of sins; he has not got the thing that is before him, but the thing that is behind him. The thought of having Christ in glory and being like Him governed Paul completely; but, like a man going through a strait passage with a lamp at the other end of it, he got more of the light as he went on, though as yet he had not attained. Every step the Christian takes he has got more of the light: "beholding … we are changed into the same image," though in a certain sense we have none of it. One has not merely seen redemption that has given him the object, but he is running after the object. He has got what Christianity gives - got all of it, and this in a certain sense is perfection. "I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling (calling above] of God in Christ Jesus." Till we are above, we have not got the caring - the effect of it, I mean. It cost Paul suffering, it cost him difficulty, but it filled his heart with joy - filled it with Christ.

Whatever line of truth Paul is engaged with, his objective is the same, he is looking towards the prize, "the high calling of God in Christ Jesus". The full realization of it is seen at the end of the chapter, when we shall be with and like Christ for ever. As "God's high calling" it does not refer to things down here, it stands in relation to Christ up there. A calling away from earth altogether.

The words which follow show that this is the true meaning of the desire he expressed. "Not as though I had already attained (obtained), or am already made perfect, but I press on if so be that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do not count myself yet to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting the things which are behind, and stretching forward to the things which are before, I press towards the goal for the prize of the calling on high of God in Christ Jesus." The goal had not yet been reached, he was still on the way and had not yet obtained nor was he made perfect. He constantly presses on towards the goal, Christ in glory. He knew that he had been apprehended, taken possession of, by Christ Jesus and for Christ and therefore he also wants to take possession, to apprehend it. He forgets what is behind and even stretches forward to the things which are before, the blessed goal. This was his constant attitude, ever occupied with the Lord Jesus Christ to be like Him and with Him in glory.

"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.

So was it with the apostle Paul. Few servants of Christ, if any, had so many strings to their bow as he had. Yet he writes to the assembly in Philippi, "This one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth to those that are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus!" He compares himself to a runner in the stadium, fastening his eyes upon the goal ahead where the prize is in view, and straining every nerve to be foremost in the race. He bends and concentrates his entire energies upon the attainment of the object before him. To relax his attention even for a moment would be to court failure.