Grace Forgetfulness

Today’s Reading: Philippians 3:12-16

Philippians 3:13-14 — But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

God promises grace for forgetting. We are all far from perfect. In fact, we are not even good. Yes, we can do good things, but that does not mean that we are good enough to go to heaven. No one who has ever lived, except Jesus, could go to heaven based upon a record of perfect, sinless goodness.

But many people think, “I’m not that bad. I’m a nice person, not a criminal or a degenerate. I’m better than a lot of people.” This is relative righteousness, comparative goodness. But being better than other people on the scale of human goodness does not matter to God. To go to heaven, you must be as good as God, perfectly righteous, pure and holy. Nobody is that good.

This is why we all need God’s grace for salvation. By His grace, Christ blots out all record of our sin: past, present, and future.

Paul realized his desperate need for God’s grace and lived in it every day. His past, pre-Christian life was so wicked, filled with rebellion against Christ and His church. But God’s grace erased Paul’s past and gave him a glorious new future. In Paul’s present, daily life, he did not look back at his past and get distracted by guilt and shame. Paul kept His eyes focused forward, fixed on Jesus.

Paul appropriated God’s grace for his daily life, morning, noon, and night. Grace started Paul’s day. Grace kept him pressing on throughout the day with all its ups and downs, successes and failures. Grace ended Paul’s day with contentment and rest. Jesus came to give us grace upon grace because we always need it.

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