(continued from Part 1 and Part 2)
So according to Philippians 2:12, working out your salvation means living in continual obedience, spiritual independence, and holy fear. Easy enough on paper, but close to impossible in real life. So how do you do it? Look at verse 13:
For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
Let’s put it another way: “God gives you the desire and the power to increasingly act according to His will.”
Or even simpler: “God gives us everything we need to do everything he asks.”
Notice the word that’s repeated twice in verse 13? Work. It’s from the Greek word “energein” – the word we get “energy” from, and there are two important things about this word:
- It’s always used to describe the work of God.
- It’s always used to describe work that is certain. That’s fully effective. That can’t be stopped or thwarted.
There are lots of Christians who say, “I would love to be a better Christian – I would like to obey the Bible more, I’d like to please God more, but I can’t! You don’t know the deep sins I’m struggling with. You don’t know what I face at work. You don’t know the problems I deal with in my family. It’s impossible to follow Christ!”
According to Paul, you’re exactly right. It is impossible to follow Christ… on our own.
Many people who have been doing the Christian thing for a while have become cynical. They’ve had too many mountain-top experiences – maybe at a retreat or a conference – where they rededicated our lives to following God, only to fall right back into the same patterns again and again. They’ve seen too many great Christian heroes fall. They’ve seen too many healthy churches split into warring factions, and deep down they’ve decided that it’s never going to get any better.
They’re exactly right – as long as we keep trying to serve God out of our own wisdom and strength. But the good news of the gospel is that Jesus died on the cross in order to unleash God’s grace in our lives, and the more open we are to God’s grace, the more he will empower us to continually work out our salvation.
God gives you everything you need to do everything he asks. You just need to receive it.