PRESSING TOWARD THE MARK

“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, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 3:13-14

All have a high calling of God but not all seek to find it IN Christ Jesus. Once we have accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour, religion will present the questionnaires to help us “determine” our calling. At that point we are no longer pressing toward the mark for the prize “IN Christ” but “IN Psychology” and in reality have made the Cross of Christ of no effect.

Having gone down the wrong path, the fruit has not yet developed…but it will. Sin is not stagnant and that wrong path, although it seems right and is taken by sincere Believers, is sinful. If we’re not pressing toward the mark by faith in the Cross of Christ Jesus, fighting that good fight of faith in Jesus Christ and Him crucified, then we are being pushed AWAY from faith in the Cross of Christ. Buried with Jesus when we were Saved, we are IN Him; in His Death (Romans 6:3-5). To be sure, it is HIS Death that broke the power of sin for the Believer.

Jesus came to die on Calvary’s Cross. He was and is the Sacrificial Lamb of God Who took away the sins of the world for whosoever will believe. It is at Calvary that Jesus Christ defeated sin and death. Knowing this, knowing Who Jesus is and what HE has done for whosoever will believe, there is no doubt as to His glorious Resurrection. We know in Whom we have believed because He lives in us and we in Him as we choose daily to deny ourselves and follow Him. The Spirit which quickened Christ from the dead has quickened our mortal bodies and we have been made spiritually alive unto God (Romans 8:11)…we have been Born Again; a new creature in Christ Jesus. It is too late to offer us philosophies from the vanities of man’s mind as the answer to which we seek. We have seen and we know the power of God and it is IN Christ Jesus… Who He is and what HE has done.

Simply stated, we are determined to know nothing else among you because there is nothing else among you that can change the heart of man except faith in Jesus Christ and Him crucified. This is why we lift Him up. This is why we point you to the Cross of Christ. There is a witness in our spirit of the power of God. We have been changed. We’re not who we used to be. We have not apprehended but we continue pressing on IN Christ Jesus. At times it may not be pretty as we are travailing through the storms. At times we may even get our eyes on the storm but it is during those times that the big waves come and knocks us square into the Rock of our Salvation.

“20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me.

21 I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.” Galatians 2:20-21

Do not frustrate the Grace of God…walk in the Grace of God; press toward the mark of the high calling of God IN Christ Jesus; no one comes to the Father but by Him.

-Donna Clark Warren