Willing, Working, and the Sovereignty of God
Philippians 2:12-13
Introduction: There is a famous story about Earl Weaver when
he managed the Baltimore Orioles… Outfielder Pat Kelley had come to faith in
Christ and told Weaver that he had learned to walk with God. Weaver
replied, “I’d rather have you walk with the bases loaded!” The
Christian life is incomprehensible to those who don’t know the Lord (1 Cor
2:14). What does it mean to walk with God? It’s a lifelong process of learning
and growth as we strive to do that! For Paul theology is always
practical – it should make a difference in how we live. What we have in our
head, has to make its way to our heart, and then to our hands and our feet. In
our context in Philippians, Paul has just pointed to Jesus in his
self-humiliation and exaltation as our example: “Have this attitude in
yourselves which is yours in Christ Jesus…” Jesus, the sinless, perfect
Son of God, is our example of a humble spirit and the attitude of a servant,
C.S. Lewis well said that “humility is not thinking less of yourself, it Is
thinking of yourself less.” Jesus is our “model” of looking out not only
for your own interests, but also for the interests of others. But there is no
way that we are going to come close to his level of obedience.
The Christian life is
not difficult, it is impossible if we are trying to live it in our own
strength! The good news: God is working in us! We can “work
out” our salvation, with fear and trembling, because God is at work
“in” us, giving us the will, and the ability, to live a life that is pleasing
to Him. We work it out – God works in us. If the question is, How
shall we then live? The God-breathed answer Paul
gives us is…
The BIG Idea: God
is pleased as we obediently live out the implications of our salvation,
trusting in His plan and empowered by His presence, acknowledging His work in
us. We’ll see that from two perspectives: 1)Human responsibility; and 2)
Divine Sovereignty. First,
I. Human Responsibility: Recognize the empowering presence of God as you
strive to live your life in humble, reverent recognition of His sovereign
hand (2:12). Before talking about God working salvation “in” us, Paul
implores the Philippians to work out their own salvation with
fear and trembling. How many of you like to “work out”? We have at
least one personal trainer in our group that can help you with that! As we look
at these two verses, let’s think of the Christian life as a spiritual “work
out.”
“12 Therefore,
my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much
more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling…”
With the word “therefore”
Paul again draws a logical connection with what he has already said… Remember
the context, “So then…” In light of what has come
before: In view of the fact that God has given us abundant reason to trust him,
considering the example of Jesus in humbling himself and obediently carrying
out the Fathers plan (2:5-8), and in view of his exaltation to the throne at
the Father’s right hand (9-11), and even going back to 1:27 when Paul said, “…Only
let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ…” In fact, if you
take a pencil and start in 1:27 right down to 2:11, just underline the
imperatives, the commands, that Paul gives… Let your manner of life be
worthy of the gospel (1:27); complete my joy by being of the same
mind (2:2); Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit; in
humility count others more significant than yourself (3); look out not only for your own interests, but
for the interests of others (4); have the attitude of Jesus,
who took the form of a servant (5). We are called to “Work out our salvation
with fear and trembling…” Is this “working out” of our salvation a
contradiction to the Gospel of salvation by grace alone, through faith alone,
in Christ alone?
Before we look at the
admonition Paul is making, let me mention again the way Paul
addresses the church… “Therefore, my beloved…” The
heart of Paul for his people is evident. He is speaking to brothers and sisters
in Christ who he knew and loved. Remember that this is, at its core, a letter
of friendship, and the love of the brethren that he urges the Philippians to
excel in is also modeled in Paul’s life. Remember the words of Jesus, and how
they are reflected so often in the apostolic writing… “By this men will know
you are my disciples, if you love one another.” And so, he is not ordering
the Philippians in his apostolic authority, but urging them to obedience, to
working out their salvation, as a beloved brother in Christ. This then,
is how to live!
You might think, “Wait a
minute, I thought salvation was by grace, God’s unmerited favor, what’s all
this about work?” Aren’t we undercutting the Gospel? Know that Paul is not saying
that we should work for our salvation. The Bible is
very clear that there is nothing we can do to earn eternal life. We
can’t work our way into heaven. Eternal life is a free gift from
God. For example, Paul said in Rom 6:23, “The wages of sin is death, but the
free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord…” (NASB).
That is crystal clear.
Eternal life is not earned or deserved, it is a free gift. Likewise,
he wrote in Ephesians 2:8,9…
For by grace
you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourself, it is a gift of
God, not as a result of works, that no one may boast…
So, we certainly do not
work “for” our salvation! Rather, we are to “work out our
salvation” in the sense that we are to live out the implications of being a
saved person, God’s child, forgiven, not yet perfect, but changed, carrying
out our part in Christ’s mission in the world. We see the interplay between God
working in us, and our responsibility to live our lives in obedience to Him.
“How’s your workout going?”
In other words, we
are saved “unto” obedience. I Peter 1:2 says, “…who are
chosen 2 according to the foreknowledge of God the
Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to obey Jesus Christ and
be sprinkled with His blood…” Paul writes in Eph 2:10 that “We
are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which
God ordained beforehand that we should walk in them…” A changed,
transformed life is characteristic of biblical Christianity. James
2:17 says that “…faith, if it has no works, is dead being by itself…” A
changed life, conduct that is characterized by a growing obedience to Jesus is
normal, healthy Christianity. This kind of change comes from the inside out, it
results from God giving us a new heart. I like the way John Ortberg put
it: "Spiritual growth doesn't mean a life of doing what I should do
instead of what I want to do. It means coming to want to do what I should do."
We start to think more like Jesus.
“Fear and
trembling” are almost always used together in the Bible in contexts
that speak of God’s sovereignty, or of his holiness and power. For
believers, it does not mean that we are to be “fearful” of God, rather it
implies a deep reverence and respect for the majesty and holiness of God. So,
we are not to live out our Christian life arrogantly or presumptuously, but
rather with a “humble reverence.” Why? V. 13 goes on to give the
reason, God is working in us! Remember the BIG Idea: *God
is pleased as we obediently live out the implications of our salvation,
trusting in His plan and empowered by His presence, acknowledging His work in
us. So, we see 1) human responsibility connected, amazingly interwoven in these
two verses, with 2)…
II. Divine Sovereignty: We live the Christian life in humble reverence of God,
recognizing His work in us, as we strive to live out His good purpose for our
lives (13).
“…for it is God who
works in you both to will and to work for His good pleasure…”
Why should
our striving to live the Christian life, learning and growing in our walk of
faith be “with fear and trembling…”? For [that
is, “for this reason”] it is God who works in you… How great
is our God! We need to live our lives in humble, reverent
recognition of the sovereign hand of God working in us! Here Paul gave the
explanation of why our striving to grow in faith and
faithfulness is carried out with “fear and trembling,” we recognize that
our mighty God, the majestic Creator of the universe, is working in us to shape
our will, and to energize and equip us to do His work.
Think of it, the One who
shook the mountain with His presence when He gave Moses the Ten Commandments,
the One who parted the Red Sea, who sent fire to consume the sacrifice of
Elijah on Mount Carmel. The One who hurled a storm after Jonah when He thought
he could run from God’s presence, and then sent a great fish to swallow him
alive and give him a three day “sea-taxi” ride back to the beach. He is the God
who raised up kings and kingdoms and who brought them down, who spoke through
the prophets and in these last days has spoken in the Son, THIS God, the One
true God, knows you, and is with you, and is working in you, both
to will and to work for His good pleasure! Does that stir some fear and
trembling in you? What a mighty God we serve! I thought of the story of David
and his men, carrying the arc back to Jerusalem. I recently read again this
scene in 2 Samuel 6:2-9,
2 And David arose and went with all the people who were with
him… to bring up from there the ark of God, which is called by the name of the
LORD of hosts who sits enthroned on the cherubim. 3 And
they carried the ark of God on a new cart and brought it out of the house of
Abinadab, which was on the hill. And Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of Abinadab, were
driving the new cart, 4 with the ark of God, and
Ahio went before the ark. 5 And David and all the
house of Israel were making merry before the LORD, with songs and lyres and
harps and tambourines and castanets and cymbals. [A big celebration! What could possibly go wrong?] 6 And
when they came to the threshing floor of Nacon, Uzzah put out his hand to the
ark of God and took hold of it, for the oxen stumbled. 7 And
the anger of the LORD was kindled against Uzzah, and God struck him down there
because of his error, and he died there beside the ark of God. 8 And
David was angry because the LORD had burst forth against Uzzah… 9 And
David was afraid of the LORD that day, and he said, "How can the ark of
the LORD come to me?"
God is that holy, that transcendent, that awesome. He could only
be approached in the ways He ordained and allowed. That same God, because of
Jesus, is present, working in us. Paul admonished the Corinthians to live
differently when he said “Don’t you know that you are the temple of God, and
that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” The presence of the holy,
all powerful, creator of the universe should cause us to tremble! Here
he goes even further; God is not only with us and in us, he is
purposefully working in us, “…both to will and to do for
His good pleasure.” Does that astound you, that God finds pleasure in us,
as he is working in us? As he sees us responding to Jesus’ example, loving Him
and loving others, striving to learn and grow in obedience, putting off our old
self with its passions and desires, and more and more conforming our attitude
to the mind of Christ, He finds pleasure in us!
The miracle is that as God
is working in us, he will also work through us! As his
plan is unfolding on the stage of human history, he has chosen to include us in
his story! God has worked salvation in us, now “work out your own
salvation with fear and trembling…” as you live out his plan and purpose
for your life.
What is God saying to me in this passage? The BIG Idea is that *God is pleased
as we obediently live out the implications of our salvation, trusting in His
plan and empowered by his presence, acknowledging His work in us.
What would God have me to do in response to this passage?
1) I know that one erroneous
conclusion that people sometimes draw from the doctrine of grace is that it is
a license to sin, or that we don’t really have anything we need to “do” once we
believe, as though we are just along for the ride. Sometimes we hear the
expression, “let go and let God.” Early on, when I was sharing my faith, when they
started talking about their favorite sin, with the proviso, “I am not going
to give up x-y-z…” I told more than one person, “Just believe in
Jesus, he’ll take care of changing what needs to change.” What that person was
really saying is, “I don’t want to repent, my sin is too important to me.” And
I gave them permission, as though believing and repenting were not really two sides
of the same coin! If you believe, really, you will repent. I
should have said, “Do you really believe that Jesus is who he claimed to be?
Don’t you think He gets to make the rules? Trust him, he’ll give you strength to
walk in obedience.” Paul will say in chapter 3:8-14…
I count
everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my
Lord… 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of
my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ,
the righteousness from God that depends on faith - 10 that
I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings,
becoming like him in his death, 11 that by any means
possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. 12 Not
that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make
it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. 13 Brothers,
I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting
what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I
press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ
Jesus.
That doesn’t sound like coasting does it? That doesn’t read like “let
go and let God.” The New Testament clearly teaches the doctrine of Grace. Yet
the recognition of God’s sovereign, gracious work demands a response. Listen to
John 3:36, in the NASB translation, "He who believes in
the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son
shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him." Some English
translations are ambiguous, but two different Greek words are used. Belief is
not contrasted with unbelief, but rather belief is contrasted
with not obeying! The implication is that if we
truly believe, we will obey, and if we are not obeying, we may
not be truly believing!
2) Remember that you are the Temple
of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you. The same God who was present
in the Tabernacle and the Temple, who descended on the Holy place is with you
and in you. Know that, and then, work out your salvation with fear and
trembling!
3) Read and respond to the commands
in Scripture, the Bible is full of them! And they are frequently connected to
indicative statements: in view of what you have in Christ, considering
what God has done for you based on no merit of your own, walk worthy of the
calling with which you have been called. So, “…work out your own
salvation with fear and trembling…” Or, as Paul told the Ephesians, “For
by grace you have been saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is
a gift of God. Not as a result of works that no one may boast. For we are His
workmanship, created in Christ Jesus, unto good works, which God before
ordained that we should walk in them…” Beloved, as you have always obeyed
God’s word, “…work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is
God who is at work in you, both to will and to work, for His good pleasure…” You
may never walk with the bases loaded, but because God is in you, you can learn
to walk with God. Paul said elsewhere, “Walk in the Spirit, and you will be
no means fulfill the lust of the flesh.” AMEN.
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