{"id":315,"date":"2006-02-03T09:16:31","date_gmt":"2006-02-03T17:16:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tgdarkly.com\/blog\/?p=299"},"modified":"2006-02-03T09:16:31","modified_gmt":"2006-02-03T17:16:31","slug":"forgetting-what-is-behind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/davidopderbeck.com\/tgdarkly\/2006\/02\/03\/forgetting-what-is-behind\/","title":{"rendered":"Forgetting What is Behind"},"content":{"rendered":"

But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. (Phil. 3:13-14<\/a>).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I’ve always loved studying history. It was one of the few subjects to which I applied myself in high school (owing to a fantastic teacher, Miss Atkinson, who believed in me), and I majored in history in college. I would’ve become a historian if I hadn’t gone to law school. But this passage always bothered me, as I spent hours pouring over my history texts. What does it mean to “forget what is behind?”
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\nThe context of Phillipians 3 should have allayed my concerns about whether this passage denigrates the study of history. It’s clear that Paul is referring to his personal past, and specifically to his efforts as a religious person, before he met Christ, to live a righteous life. Paul is saying here that his strict observance of the religious law did not earn him salvation and does not allow him to rest in complacency. His consuming reality now, after the Damascus road, is to know Christ. As Paul says in verses 8-9 “I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ\u2014the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.” The academic discipline of history, as a means of gaining wisdom, understanding, and knowledge, and as a way of glorifying God, is a different question, and may be part of learning to “know Christ.”<\/p>\n

How hard it is, though, to “forget what is behind” as Paul intends here. How often we keep mental lists of things we’ve done that establish our bona fides<\/em> as Christians. I’ve served on this or that committee, I’ve led worship for such-and-such years, I’ve been involved in this or that Bible study, I’ve blogged about my faith, I’ve contributed to some or another organization. Good things all, but not reasons to boast. It is all about knowing Christ.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. (Phil. 3:13-14). I’ve always loved studying history. It was one of the few subjects to which I applied myself in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spirituality"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p824rZ-55","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidopderbeck.com\/tgdarkly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidopderbeck.com\/tgdarkly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidopderbeck.com\/tgdarkly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidopderbeck.com\/tgdarkly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidopderbeck.com\/tgdarkly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=315"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/davidopderbeck.com\/tgdarkly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidopderbeck.com\/tgdarkly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidopderbeck.com\/tgdarkly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidopderbeck.com\/tgdarkly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}