God's two-part device

“There are two types of knowledge. One is knowing a thing. The other is knowing where to find it.”--Samuel Johnson (1709-1784), English writer, poet, playwright, essayist, biographer, lexicographer, sermonist

Paul writes in Philippians 3: [13] Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,
[14] I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

People have asked me over the years, “Well, if he says there’s one thing, why does he list two?” says Richard Jordan.

The answer is it’s really two parts of the one thing; in order to have the one thing you need the two parts. God uses these devices to make you think.

Really there are two things you have to do to accomplish that one thing of pressing toward the mark.

One is a negative (things I forget) and one is a positive (things I reach unto). One is the “putting off” and the other is the “putting on” and it takes both of those things to be able to press toward the mark.

So if that’s the goal in the passage, and it is, verse 12 is a powerful verse: [12] 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.

Paul knew that he never was going to be able to plumb the whole depths of what’s in Jesus Christ. He would never be able to apprehend in his life, to possess in his life, the infinite greatness and completeness God had given him in Christ.

Even the great apostle that he was, he didn’t ever feel like, “I have reached the pinnacle and I have no further realms to conquer in my spiritual life.”

I learned early on in adult life never to consider yourself a scholar; always be a student. A scholar is someone who’s assumed to have arrived, and once you’ve arrived you don’t need to keep studying.

The basic assumption in being a student is that there’s something more for me to learn; that is, there’s something right now that I don’t know. What a thought.

Here’s what I do: “I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.”

Paul said, “I want to get a hold of it. I want to apprehend; I want to reach out and grab and hold on to that which Christ reached out and grabbed me for. I want to bring into my possession, into my experience, the very things God saved me to possess.

“I don’t just want to know in letter that I’m complete in Christ; I want to know in my experience. I want to have it living in me, that fulfillment of life, of being a whole, complete person. I am that in Christ; I want to bring that into my experience.”

Verse 11: [11] If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.

That’s literally what God apprehends us for. Verse 20: [20] For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ:

God has this plan in His universe. It’s a thrilling thing to me—I think about creation. God, when He created, He didn’t say, “Hmm, let me just throw spaghetti on the wall and see what happens.”

He had a plan. He had something He was doing. He prearranged the plan. Like the great architect designed it, then when Jesus Christ goes out and begins to create, He’s creating off of the blueprint.