Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. 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. –Philippians 3:13–14
Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. –Colossians 3:12–14
Imagine it’s 2:00 a.m. You’ve woken up with a start, and suddenly last night’s argument starts to play over in your head. Or even last year’s argument. Next thing you know, you’re agonizing over the exam you failed, the job you didn’t take (or wish you hadn’t taken!), the words you spoke in anger, the school recital you missed, and even the time you forgot to bring cookies to the potluck!
We all go over our past sins, mistakes, and foolishness, or trip up when others try to hold us to things we have moved past. Beaten down by shame, we could turn away from God and his wondrous life-giving gifts of grace and mercy. But the apostle gives us a priceless piece of wisdom (we could even call it a command): Forget, strain forward, and press on toward the goal.
The Greek grammar of this passage is clear: Paul meant that all the forgetting, straining forward, and pressing on was not merely a simple, one-time event, but a spiritual exercise that he had to repeat, probably often—at first. Much like the end of a full sprint in the 100-meter dash, Paul strains forward toward the tape to win the prize for which God has called him heavenwards. Paul knows it is not in his strength or greatness or as a reward for his exemplary performance, but only in the grace and power of his Lord.
This forgetting and pressing on is not an exercise in pretending. In Christ, our past is truly past. When Jesus declared, “It is finished!” (John 19:28–30), he had accomplished the task of redemption once and for all time. So we acknowledge our need for mercy and accept his ultimate sacrifice in a spirit of pure joy and gratitude.
Our enemy’s strategy is to remind us constantly of our failures and to generate renewed guilt for what God has completely erased and forgiven by Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. But when we focus on our sins and not on Christ’s forgiveness, it weakens our faith and stunts our spiritual growth. It neutralizes our witness to God’s redeeming love and incredible grace.
God created us in his image (Genesis 1:27), but he does not bear ours—the image of fallen humanity. Jesus, the Son of God, condescended to leave his heavenly glory with the Father, come in humble human form to earth to bear the weight of our sin (2 Corinthians 5:21), and liberate us from judgment and death. To put it imperfectly, we know this in everyday speech as “taking a hit for the team.”
That’s the essential truth of it. Jesus took upon himself our sin and guilt on the cross, and then transferred his own righteousness to our ledger. In this “double transfer” lies the reason why we are justified and can leave the past behind. When you belong to Jesus, God looks upon you, his beloved child, through the lens of his perfect Son. He sees not your righteousness (or lack of it), but the righteousness of Jesus. This changes everything in life, and if it weren’t true, there would be no Gospel to preach.
Jesus’ atoning sacrifice is a great scandal to those who foolishly believe that their “goodness” and “righteousness” guarantee them salvation. But Jesus’ death on the cross is literally the most life-giving news to those who know they can’t stand for a second on their own merits in the presence of a holy God.
The practical outworking of this truth means that we can start with a clean slate every morning. With God by our side, we can leave behind every sinful and destructive act, word, or thought, and press on, identified by our future glory, not our inglorious past. By God’s grace, we do not allow the sins or failures of yesterday to drag us down.
By “forgetting,” Paul doesn’t imply that the memories will be erased from our minds. He never forgot his earlier days as a religious killer of Christians and referred more than once to this dark and painful period of his life (1 Corinthians 15:9; Galatians 1:13). He means not letting our past sins or mistakes control our actions or affect our faith. It’s over, done with, dead.
Through Christ, no one can throw the past in our faces, nor do we retry ourselves in the court of our minds (or of public opinion). We refute all failings with the truth of the Gospel. We grant no authority to anyone or anything, even our own memory or conscience, to condemn us (1 Corinthians 4:3). If we have confessed our sins and cried out to our Father, he gives us his word of forgiveness. And he will always have the last word.
(Excerpt from John I. Snyder’s upcoming book,Your Journey to Joy: Discovering God’s Path to True Happiness, available in 2025.)
–Photo by Jenny Hill on Unsplash
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