As I continue
exploring ways that God’s people work out our salvation with fear and trembling
because God is working in us to will and to work for his good pleasure,[1] I
am putting more pieces of the puzzle together in order to help see the bigger
picture. Today this brought me to another expression that helps us appreciate
what this working out what God is working in looks like.
“Convinced of this, I know that I will
remain and continue with you all, for your progress and joy in the faith, so
that in me you may have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus, because of my
coming to you again.”[2]
The
apostle Paul was working for the things that mattered, so when we look at what
he was working for, and what he wanted to do if he survived his present
experience of imprisonment, we can see the things that we also ought to be
working out in our lives as significant components of our salvation.
Paul
wanted to “continue with” the
believers “for your progress… in the
faith.” Since faith is central to salvation, Paul’s view of working out our
salvation with fear and trembling involved progress in the faith. It is
interesting that it doesn’t say “progress
in faith,” which would indicate our own subjective experience of faith, but
“progress in the faith,” referring to
the objective reality of the Christian life.
As
I think about this, I see the corporate reality of us working together to work
out our salvation, and our experience of God working in us as his church so
that we are all feeling the will that he is working into us, and doing the work
that he is working into us. With that in mind, working out our progress in the
faith would show up in the way that each individual takes care of their own
progress in the faith, and gets involved in fellowship and ministry for the
progress in the faith of the rest of the believers.
This
means that we can expect to see God working in each individual to give us a
will to use our spiritual gifts to serve the whole body, and to have a specific
will to do certain things for certain people. We can expect God to bring to
mind specific individuals, or families, or circumstances, where we will need to
think of how to help people make progress in the faith.
Along
with seeking our progress in the faith, Paul wanted to contribute to the
church’s “joy in the faith.” It is
interesting that Paul does not need to speak of working out “the faith” with fear and trembling, for
“the faith” is the objective reality
of salvation already experienced through faith in Jesus Christ. The Church was
already “in the faith.” We are saved by grace through faith, and do not come into the faith
by any works whatsoever.[3]
However,
once we are “in the faith,” through
faith in Jesus Christ, we do work out our salvation with fear and trembling.
Or, as Paul says elsewhere, “For we are
his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared
beforehand, that we should walk in them.”[4]The “good works, which God
prepared beforehand,” are what we now “work
out with fear and trembling.”
This
working out of salvation means that our progress in the faith is a variable
that we affect by our responsiveness to whatever God is working into us. We are
to “continue in the faith,”[5]be “strengthened in the
faith,”[6] “stand firm in the faith,”[7] “examine yourselves, to see
whether you are in the faith,”[8] be “established in the
faith,”[9]gain “great confidence in the
faith,”[10] and “be sound in the faith.”[11]All these things show that our standing “in the faith,” is a settled issue the moment we receive Jesus
Christ and are saved by grace through faith.[12]What we do once we are “in the
faith” affects both our progress and our joy.
When
Paul seeks the joy of the believers in Philippi, while telling them to work out
their salvation with fear and trembling, it means that the work we are doing in
response to the work God is doing will fill us with joy. Paul wanted the
believers to have joy in the faith. He wanted his life to contribute to their
joy in the faith. Working out our salvation with fear and trembling ought to
increase our joy, not wear us out with a sense that we are never good enough
for God.
Along
with our “progress and joy in the faith,”
Paul wanted there to be “ample cause to
glory in Christ Jesus.” To glory in something seems to be an all-encompassing
experience. It seems to speak of the objective expression of reverence and awe
for Christ Jesus, while experiencing the subjective feelings of glorying in
Christ Jesus.
This
is a wonderful thought, that we would feel like we “glory in Christ Jesus.” It cannot be separated from Christ Jesus
as though we could glory as much in something distinct from him. We can only
truly “glory in Christ Jesus.” To try
to glory in anything else would not be glory, and to have faith in Christ Jesus
without glorying in him suggests that we do not know him very well at all.
What
will help us is if we consider that God is working in us to will our progress,
our joy, and our glory in the faith that is in Christ Jesus, and so we must
work out our progress in this faith, our joy in this faith, and our glorying in
Christ Jesus, with fear and trembling. It is almost like telling us to take
very seriously our progress, our joy, and our glorying in Christ Jesus. These
are the things we can expect God to work into us, so these are the things we
must give ourselves to experience to the fullest.
There
is something wonderful in this to think about how personally God will work in
us to will to make progress, to will to have joy, and to will to glory in
Christ Jesus. God will work in all of us as his one body so that everybody is
working out their progress in the faith with fear and trembling, and everybody
is working out their joy in the faith with fear and trembling, and everybody is
working out their glorying in Christ Jesus with fear and trembling.
However,
even as we think of this as what God is doing, we must consider that our
working out of these things will be in specific ways that God is giving us the
will to desire, and the activity to work. There will be things God puts his
finger on in our churches, and in our own individual lives, that are the
specific steps we must take in order to make progress in our faith today. There
is going to be some way that God will open our eyes to something in our lives
today that must be dealt with, or confronted, or faced, or confessed, or
accepted, so that we are increasing in our joy in the faith. There are things
that God will work in us to will and work that are for our experience of
glorying in Christ Jesus, and we will be able to work those things out with
fear and trembling, always responding to the work God is already working into
us.
In
other words, this is not about how hard we must work to make progress, to feel
joy, and to glory in Christ Jesus. It begins with us realizing that God is
working in us for our progress in the faith. God is working in us to experience
the riches of the joy that is inherently residing in the faith. God is working
on our wills and our plans so that we will know what it is like to glory in
Christ Jesus our Lord.
When
we think of working out our salvation with fear and trembling, it is about
joining our Father in the work he is doing to help us grow up in his Son. He
wants us to have these wonderful experiences of joy and delight in him,[13] even as he has given us his Holy Spirit who is all about “righteousness and peace and joy.”[14]Everything God wants to do in us is for our progress, joy, and
glorying in the faith that is in Christ Jesus our Lord, so we must take great
encouragement in working out these issues of our salvation.
That
is how we can look at the things Paul desired for the believers in Philippi.
They can look at the things that were important to Paul, and know that they
were to watch for ways that God was working these things into them so they
could work out these matters of their salvation. Since they still matter today,
we might as well work out with fear and trembling whatever God is working in us
to will these things, and to work these things, that are for his good pleasure.
And ours.
© 2015 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517,
Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted,
Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English
Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good
News Publishers.)
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