What the Bible says about Pressing Toward the Goal
(From Forerunner Commentary)
Was I born into this world merely to eat and drink?—merely to dress up my body and to follow my fleshly desires wherever they might take me?—merely to talk, laugh, work, sleep, and play games?—merely to accumulate money, to travel to see all kinds of sights, to enjoy myself but never to think about time and the fact that my time on earth would end? What happens then?
Hebrews 1:10-12 tells us that this earth—which appears so solid that it will endure forever—and even the heavens are growing old and will perish. II Peter 3:10 confirms this, explicitly saying that the heavens and the earth will "pass away with a great noise." They and all the works that are in it will burn away in "fervent heat." Where will we be?
The works of statesmen, writers, architects, and engineers are all short-lived. Each generation watches the passing of its creative people, only to see them replaced by others with different names and different achievements as the new generation arrives. In Ecclesiastes 1:14, King Solomon, at a time of depressed contemplation on this seemingly endless and pointless process, writes, "I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and indeed, all is vanity and grasping for wind." Either Solomon did not know—or if he did know, did not believe what I know and believe—what we have been created for.
Many are in the same mental state as Solomon. It is not because the opportunity to have a far better life is not available but because their priorities in life are severely misplaced, and they combine this with undervaluing what is open to them through a relationship with God. Paul writes in Romans 3:11, "There is none that seeks after God." He adds in Romans 1:20, "For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and [divine nature], so that they are without excuse."
God is not hiding; mankind is ignoring. Scripture indicates that man's disregard is largely a deliberate choice, driven by terribly skewed priorities resulting from people placing little or no value on a relationship with God. Therefore, they give only passing attention to what He says that man must do with his life. God even challenges mankind: "I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live" (Deuteronomy 30:19).
I Peter 1:17 informs us that God "without partiality judges according to each one's work." Jesus says in Luke 12:48, "For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more." God does not show favoritism, nor does He respect the honors bestowed by men. He rewards no man's heritage, wealth, rank, position, titles, education, or beauty. He is unconcerned whether a person is a millionaire, middle-class, or poor. Because He does not see with a man's eyes, He does not value highly what man values.
He measures our heart and our works against that of His Son, our Savior. What matters is how well we have done spiritually and morally with what we have been given. Those who do well will be those who value highly—as precious above all gifts—what God has given them to attain His Kingdom. Those who do well will be those who, regardless of their station in life, use those gifts to serve God and mankind to glorify God. They will use them because they have caught a vision of their worth. The apostle Paul considered our calling a prize that he pressed toward as a goal (Philippians 3:12-14).
Peter refers to Jesus Christ's sacrificed blood as "precious" (I Peter 1:19). Since His shed blood has been deemed by God to be sufficient to redeem the life of everyone who has ever lived on earth, it is more valuable than all the lives of everyone who has ever lived or will live. Why? First, because of whose blood it was, a sinless God-Man. Second, because it can free us from the shackles of a pointless life that ends in death. Third, because it opens the door for us to an eternity of life with joy, peace, and accomplishment.
Our Savior gives us some precious wisdom: "He who sent Me is with Me. The Father has not left Me alone, for I always do those things that please Him" (John 8:29). Why did He do this? Because nothing was more valuable to Jesus Christ than His relationship with His Father and fulfilling His life's purpose. Like Him, let us seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness always (Matthew 6:33).
John W. Ritenbaugh
Nothing Is More Important
According to Thayer's Greek-English Lexicon, the words let us go on mean "to carry some burden," "to bear with oneself," or "to move by bearing." It can also suggest "to endure," "to endure the rigor of a thing," or "to bear patiently one's conduct." Jesus says, "He who endures to the end shall be saved" (Matthew 24:13). It seems that the writer of Hebrews is warning that we may have to suffer a bit to reach perfection.
This should come as no surprise since Jesus, the One whose example we follow, walked this road: "For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings" (Hebrews 2:10; see also Hebrews 5:8-9). What about the apostle Paul? He writes in Philippians 3:8, 10-14:
Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ . . . that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
What is the goal? It is to be perfected in Christ Jesus! That is the heart and core of the lesson of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which is why our primary focus needs to be on the eating of the unleavened bread. Unleavened bread is symbolic of that perfect unleavened bread from heaven, Jesus Christ (John 6:32-33, 48-51).
In Psalm 138:7-8, David combines these two thoughts of suffering and perfection:
Though I walk in the midst of trouble, You will revive me; You will stretch out Your hand against the wrath of my enemies, and Your right hand will save me. The LORD will perfect that which concerns me; Your mercy, O LORD, endures forever; do not forsake the works of Your hands.
This is why we eat unleavened bread. It is the message of Ephesians 2:10: "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them." Eating unleavened bread reminds us that we are to become unleavened, to be purified, to be perfected!
So, what are we to be perfected in? It can be summed up in one word: love. God is love (I John 4:8, 16). He is fashioning, shaping, and molding us into the likeness of His Son, Jesus Christ, changing our human nature, filled with lusts and sin, into His divine nature, which is love. Notice I John 2:3-5:
Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep his commandments. He who says, "I know Him," and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him.
The apostle John states in I John 3:2 that when Christ returns for us, we will see Him as He is because we will be like Him. We will have been perfected in love! This is why our primary focus during the Feast of Unleavened Bread should be on eating unleavened bread, symbolic of that perfect Unleavened Bread of Life from heaven, Jesus Christ. Our eating of it for seven days also depicts perfection because, in Scripture, the number seven symbolizes perfection.
In II Peter 1:5-7, Peter writes about adding virtue to our faith, knowledge to our virtue, and so on. It is a kind of outline of the conversion process. The final step he mentions is adding love. In the resurrection, when we are finally perfected in love and have received an incorruptible body, we will no longer sin because we will be love like God is love, and our perfect love will not allow us to sin, just as God does not sin. Won't that be wonderful?
All the hard work we put into cleaning our houses and automobiles of leaven profits us nothing unless we put that symbolic act to work, doing our part to replace our sinful, carnal nature with God's divine nature, which is love. This is what the Feast of Unleavened Bread is all about! Remember the words of our Savior in this regard, "Therefore you shall be perfect [in love!], just as your Father in heaven is perfect" (Matthew 5:48).
Clyde Finklea
The Unleavened Bread of PerfectionRelated Topics: Commandment Keeping | Eating Unleavened Bread | Enduring Suffering | God's Workmanship | Going On to Perfection | Pressing Toward the Goal