When it comes to your salvation, do you count yourself to have apprehended? Do you believe you have already attained? Are you already perfected? Before you answer these questions, consider carefully the words of the apostle Paul.

He wrote, “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” (Philippians 3:12-14). 

If the apostle Paul considered himself not to have apprehended, not to have already attainted or not to already be perfected, then how can we?

Observe that Paul’s spirit is one of striving for, reaching ahead and pressing toward. This is a far cry from the spirit of one who believes he has already completed the journey! One spirit resonates with complacency, apathy and indifference. The other resonates with diligence, urgency and fervency.

Everything God’s word teaches us about a Christian’s sojourn while in this tabernacle is about growth. Peter says to, “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18). He also says that we must, “desire the pure mile of the word, that [we] may grow thereby” (1 Peter 2:2). There is much that we must “add to [our] faith…” (2 Peter 1:5-11) if “an entrance will be supplied to [us] abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”

Those who have apprehended have no reason to grow. Those who are striving keenly feel the need to grow. Have you apprehended or are you striving?