Forgetting what is behind

In the lectionary reading for Morning Prayer today, we find the Apostle Paul's determination to 'forget what is behind and reach forward to what is ahead'.  That kicked off some reflections for me.

What is Paul determined to forget?  In the context of Philippians 3, I think two things.  Firstly, he is determined to forget all of those marks of his identity and achievement which might seem to be a sound basis for confidence before God.  He is an Israelite, he is - in the legal terms of the Mosaic covenant - blameless.  He has lived zealously for God.  All that is behind him now, and to be forgotten.  What he had once considered to be to his credit, he is now happy to regard as loss - because of "the surpassing value of knowing Jesus Christ".  At his conversion - which the church celebrates today - Paul sees clearly that all this stuff is worthless.  I take it there is more than this, though.  He is also committed to forgetting his achievements since his conversion.  He hasn't yet been made perfect or achieved his goal, but he sees Christ ahead of him, and runs toward him with all his might.  There is no time for constant retreading of the course already run.  What matters is to keep running to Christ.

There is a second thing beside his achievements that Paul must be forgetting, though.  When he speaks about his zeal for God before his conversion, he includes the fact that he persecuted the church.  Paul's pre-Christian zeal was misdirected; his understanding of God and his works and ways was faulty.  There is not only achievement in his past, but also sin and error.  That, too, he has to forget, in order to strain forward to Christ.  He is not meant to be endlessly caught up in guilt or regret.  The past has been decisively put in the past by the work of Christ.  Therefore it is to be forgotten, so that with both eyes fixed on the Christ who is ahead of him Paul can respond to the heavenly call of God.

An appropriate forgetfulness seems critical to the Christian life.  It is a part of repentance, which genuinely puts off the sins of the past and turns to face Christ.  It is a part of faith, which genuinely entrusts whatever was good in the past to the care of the Lord, seeing it as his work in and through us, and turns to face Christ.  The surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus our Lord renders everything else... forgettable.