A Word from the WORD: "WORKING OUT OUR SALVATION" (Article 185)
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Life Fellowship
Mar 3, 2008, 12:59:30 PM3/3/08
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WORKING OUT OUR
SALVATION
“Work out your salvation with fear and trembling for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.” (Philippians 2:13)
It is ‘God’ who works in you! Salvation of man, from start to finish, is the work of God. It is the Father who takes the initiative. Hence it is only what God works ‘in’ us that we can work ‘out’ of us.
The question really then is whether God is being allowed to reign and do His work within us. Is God given pre-eminence in our hearts? Is Christ truly ‘Lord’ of our life?
Here is where the Christian faces a conflict- between his own will and the will of God. There is a temptation to take the throne, to take control of our own lives.
Either we can play god and live on our own or yield our will to God and give Him all the glory. The root of sin is to be independent of God. When Adam chose to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, he was choosing to be independent of God- he was trying to gain knowledge that he did not have so he would not need to be dependent on God anymore.
Throughout His earthly life, Jesus displayed how men ought to live. The Bible reveals to us that He lived all His life in dependence and submission to the Father. Jesus not only acknowledged His Father in all His ‘works’, but also in every ‘word’ (John 14:10).
The Lord Jesus was never motivated by selfishness. In Philippians chapter 2, where the mind of Christ is revealed, we see that He was always concerned about the Father’s interests and not His own. To follow Jesus is to die to our self and allow God to have His way in us (2 Corinthians 4:11).
We are bound to face temptations to sin- to stop responding in love to the saving work of God. Hence Jesus warned us to be merciless with sin (Matthew 18:7-8). Radical discipleship requires radical commitment like plucking out all stumbling blocks. We must not fool around with sin and we will not, if we really know the price Jesus paid to save us.
The Bible urges us to not receive God’s grace in vain. For “now is the time of His favour, now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:1-2). It is now that we should eagerly work out our salvation with great fear and trembling. We should live carefully, never grieving the Holy Spirit- by neglect of His leading, postponement of obedience or justification of our wrongdoing (Ephesians 4:30).
When God is at work within us, we should cooperate with Him. We should not resist Him like Pharaoh in Moses’ time did.
Many are unable to wholly submit to God’s work in their lives because they are entrapped in a scheme which the devil used against the people of Israel through Pharaoh. His strategy then was to try and keep the people of God busy in their work such that worship and the study of God’s Word could not be pursued (Exodus 5:6-9). This is exactly the same that is happening today.
By failing to study and pay heed to the Word of God through which God is working His salvation within us, believers are becoming hardened and insensitive in their hearts (James 1:21). We need to be mindful that though the same Word and the same Spirit are at work in the lives of people, the results will be different. The type of result will depend on the condition of our ‘heart’ (Mark 4:1-20).
This is why we must be very careful with “how we hear” the Word of God (Luke 8:18). It is in the same measure with which we receive the word of God into our lives that we will experience fruitfulness (Mark 4:24). (In truth, how much we have is only as much as we really want!)
If we do not accept what God is telling us, He will not reveal to us anything more from His Word (Matthew 13:13). What’s worse, we will lose even what we did have! Soon, the Bible will be just another book to us, dull and uninteresting, and its message will be like mere parables or stories!
“Work out your salvation with fear and trembling for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.” (Philippians 2:13)
It is ‘God’ who works in you! Salvation of man, from start to finish, is the work of God. It is the Father who takes the initiative. Hence it is only what God works ‘in’ us that we can work ‘out’ of us.
The question really then is whether God is being allowed to reign and do His work within us. Is God given pre-eminence in our hearts? Is Christ truly ‘Lord’ of our life?
Here is where the Christian faces a conflict- between his own will and the will of God. There is a temptation to take the throne, to take control of our own lives.
Either we can play god and live on our own or yield our will to God and give Him all the glory. The root of sin is to be independent of God. When Adam chose to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, he was choosing to be independent of God- he was trying to gain knowledge that he did not have so he would not need to be dependent on God anymore.
Throughout His earthly life, Jesus displayed how men ought to live. The Bible reveals to us that He lived all His life in dependence and submission to the Father. Jesus not only acknowledged His Father in all His ‘works’, but also in every ‘word’ (John 14:10).
The Lord Jesus was never motivated by selfishness. In Philippians chapter 2, where the mind of Christ is revealed, we see that He was always concerned about the Father’s interests and not His own. To follow Jesus is to die to our self and allow God to have His way in us (2 Corinthians 4:11).
We are bound to face temptations to sin- to stop responding in love to the saving work of God. Hence Jesus warned us to be merciless with sin (Matthew 18:7-8). Radical discipleship requires radical commitment like plucking out all stumbling blocks. We must not fool around with sin and we will not, if we really know the price Jesus paid to save us.
The Bible urges us to not receive God’s grace in vain. For “now is the time of His favour, now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:1-2). It is now that we should eagerly work out our salvation with great fear and trembling. We should live carefully, never grieving the Holy Spirit- by neglect of His leading, postponement of obedience or justification of our wrongdoing (Ephesians 4:30).
When God is at work within us, we should cooperate with Him. We should not resist Him like Pharaoh in Moses’ time did.
Many are unable to wholly submit to God’s work in their lives because they are entrapped in a scheme which the devil used against the people of Israel through Pharaoh. His strategy then was to try and keep the people of God busy in their work such that worship and the study of God’s Word could not be pursued (Exodus 5:6-9). This is exactly the same that is happening today.
By failing to study and pay heed to the Word of God through which God is working His salvation within us, believers are becoming hardened and insensitive in their hearts (James 1:21). We need to be mindful that though the same Word and the same Spirit are at work in the lives of people, the results will be different. The type of result will depend on the condition of our ‘heart’ (Mark 4:1-20).
This is why we must be very careful with “how we hear” the Word of God (Luke 8:18). It is in the same measure with which we receive the word of God into our lives that we will experience fruitfulness (Mark 4:24). (In truth, how much we have is only as much as we really want!)
If we do not accept what God is telling us, He will not reveal to us anything more from His Word (Matthew 13:13). What’s worse, we will lose even what we did have! Soon, the Bible will be just another book to us, dull and uninteresting, and its message will be like mere parables or stories!
The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you!
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