Moving Forward

Relevant Bible Verses:-

1) Eph 4:13 till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ;

2) Phil 3:13-14 Brothers, I do not account of myself to have laid hold; but one thing I do: Forgetting the things which are behind and stretching forward to the things which are before, (14) I pursue toward the goal for the prize to which God in Christ Jesus has called me upward.

3) Eph 3:8 To me, less than the least of all saints, was this grace given to announce to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ as the gospel

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There are many born again Christians who have left the church and simply refused to continue to embrace the faith in Christ. Majority of these people would be too polite to express the real reason(s) for not returning to the flock. Some have gone to the extent to even condemn and discourage others from believing in the fellowship of Christ.

For centuries now, God has mentioned that the fundamental fault with man is his own very heart, there is something twisted, almost demonic within the very heart and soul of human being. Remember it was disobedience that caused man to fall. The insatiable human heart desires to have plenty of the world’s material things and quest for power continues to dominate mankind, blurring their vision to focus on God’s great economy and plan.

Therefore it is important to nurture and saturate the human heart with the Word of God building the unshakable foundation of truth. “Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming.” (Eph 4:14)

Satan’s cunning ways and persistency in instilling negative thoughts in our mind using religion, culture, philosophy and law that we are not worthy enough to serve the Holy and Gracious God. The unnecessary guilt conscience of not worthy stance and self condemnation naturally have caused people to adopt quickly the “law” to self correct in justification to make right with God.

In the above verses, Paul mentioned of forgetting the past. He encouraged the believers to stretch and move forward for the ultimate fullest enjoyment of Christ in the millennial kingdom as a reward to the victorious runners of the New Testament race. Dwelling on the old teachings can hinder and frustrate our further pursuing after Christ. It is sad we still see many modern day Christians, even the matured ones continue to adopt the old teachings and put upon themselves the burden of the law as bondage on their shoulders.

It is important that we do not fall back to the old teachings (Judaism). We need to keep moving forward with Christ in the new covenant. Christ has come to fulfill the law. The old law has been canceled on the cross (read Hebrews 8). We cannot be justified by observing the law, but by faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.