by Larry Ferrell | February 2, 2018
I don’t know who it was who first thought that being spiritual means withdrawing from the world, but the idea certainly entered the Christian church at an early period and has had detrimental effects ever since. In the early days of the church a Syrian monk named Simon Stylites sat on top of a pillar fifty feet high to avoid contact with the world. The Egyptian hermit Anthony lived most of his life in the desert, and there were others like him. These men were thought to be spiritual primarily because of their withdrawal. The Bible does not support this view of spirituality! No Christian must ever say that spending time alone with God is unnecessary, especially time spent in prayer. Yet the Bible never allows us to think that meditation has achieved its purpose for us unless it results in practical application. Truth leads to action, and there is no value to a mountaintop experience unless it helps us to live in the valleys.

Philippians 2:12 is a problem for Christians who neglect the context and assume, as a result, that the verse supports the idea of a “self-help” salvation. But the verse does not teach that. On the contrary, it teaches that because you are already saved, because God has already entered into your life in the person of the Holy Spirit, because you, therefore, have His power at work within you – because of these things you are now to strive to express this salvation in your conduct. This should be evident for a couple of reasons. First, it’s the clear meaning of the sentence itself. It says “work out your salvation (not, work toward or for or at your salvation). And no one can work his salvation out unless God had already worked it in.

The second reason why this verse refers to the outward conduct of those who have been saved is that there is a clear parallel between Philippians 2:12-15 and Deuteronomy 32:3-5. The parallel shows that Paul was thinking of Deuteronomy as he wrote to the Philippians. Paul was about to be taken out of this world himself, as Moses was. He did not know whether he would be killed immediately or whether he would be delivered for a short time, but he knew that this would probably be his last charge to his beloved friends at Philippi. But God has delivered the Philippians, and now, because of this deliverance, they were to work out the salvation that God had so miraculously given. They were to strive for the realization of God’s love, peace, holiness, goodness, and justice in their lives.

We have seen that we are to work out our salvation that God has worked in, but to see the whole picture one more thought must be added: Even as we work out our salvation we are to know that it is actually God’s Holy Spirit in us who does the working. Paul writes, “Therefore…work out your salvation with fear and trembling” (v. 12). But no sooner has he said this than he immediately adds, “for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose” (v. 13). It is actually God who does the working. God’s working begins with our wills, for the verse says that God works in us first to will and then to act out His good purpose. Willing always comes before doing.

We will never understand the doctrine of God’s working to form a person’s will until we realize that apart from the work of God in his or her heart through Jesus Christ a person does not have free will where spiritual realities are concerned. I know that someone will want to reply, “What! Do you mean to tell me that I cannot do anything I want to?” The answer is, “yes, you cannot.” You have free will to decide whether you will go to work or pretend you are sick. You can order turkey over roast beef at a restaurant. But you cannot exercise your free will in anything that involves your physical, intellectual, or spiritual capabilities. By your own free will you cannot decide that you are going to have a 50 percent higher I.Q. than you do or that you will have, or run the 100 dash in four seconds. You do not have free will in anything intellectual or physical.

More significantly, you do not have free will spiritually. You cannot choose God. Adam and Eve had free will to obey or to disobey God’s command regarding the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. When they disobeyed they fell away from God. They lost the free will to choose God. Since Adam and Eve, all people are born with the same inability to choose Him. Some are complacent; some are angry. Some are silent and philosophical. Some are resigned; some are anxious. But all are unable to come to God. No one does come to God until God reaches down by grace into the mud pit of human sin and impotence and lifts him up and places him again on the banks of the pit and says, “This is the way; walk in it.” This is what God does in salvation.

We must face this truth. Even if every generation of mankind and every city and village on earth had a John the Baptist to point to Jesus Christ to call us to Him, or if God rearranged the stars of heaven to spell out, “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved,” no one would come or believe. If God sent His angels with the sound of a celestial trumpet to call us to repentance no one would repent. If you have come to God, it is only because God has first entered your life by His Holy Spirit to quicken your will, to open your eyes to His truth, and to draw you irresistibly to Himself. It is only after this that you are able to choose the path that He sets before you.

If you have seen this truth, you are ready to see that the same God who works in you to will also works through that will to do according to His good purpose. Ephesians 2:8-10 speaks twice of our works, the things that we do. One kind of work is condemned because it comes out of ourselves and is contaminated by sin. The other kind of work is encouraged because it comes from God as He works within the Christian. The verses say, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works [that is, of human working], so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works [that is, the result of God’s working], which God prepared in advance for us to do.” These verses are really Paul’s own commentary upon Philippians 2:12-13, for they tell us that although God can never be satisfied with any good that comes out of human beings, He is satisfied and pleased with the good that is done by Christians through the power of Jesus Christ within them. Through that power the tyranny of sin is broken, the possibility of choosing for God is restored, and a new life of communion with God and holiness is set before the Christian. The power of Christ within is a wonderful reality for Christians, for through it we may act according to God’s good purpose. We do not boast of ourselves or of human attainments. But we do boast in God! In Him we have all things and are enabled to work out our salvation.

Philippians 2:12-13 Reflection Questions:
Are you working out your salvation in your daily conduct by showing God’s love, peace, holiness, goodness, and justice in your lives?
Have you ever felt the power of God within enabling you to do what God desires?
What is God asking you to do?

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