HOW GOD MAKES LIVING THE CHRISTIAN LIFE DESIRABLE AND DOABLE

One of the most encouraging passages in my life is the statement that the apostle Paul makes in Philippians 2:12-13, "“Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” In verse 12, God tells us what He wants for our life. Many Christians hear just that part of the verse and get very very discouraged because it seems as if God is saying something that we must do on our own, "work out your salvation with fear and trembling."

Now let us first understand what Paul is not saying. The verse does not say, "Work for your salvation." There’s only one person who has worked for your salvation and that’s Jesus Christ. He alone worked for your salvation. Nor does Paul command the church here to work on their salvation. Our salvation cannot be improved upon. The rescue is complete. The salvation equation is very simple: Christ = salvation. There’s no plus sign in this equation. You dishonor Christ if you try to add a plus sign, if you try to work on your salvation, because a plus sign suggests that Christ’s sacrifice on the cross wasn’t enough for you.

So what then does Paul mean when he says “work out your salvation”? Christians sometimes struggle with growing in grace because they don’t understand how it works. Either they think that God does something like this…He says, ‘OK, I’ve saved you by Jesus Christ, I’ve forgiven you, and now you’re on your own. Get crackin’! Get to it.’ And other times, they think, ‘Well, God saved me, and He’s at work in me changing me, so I don’t have to do anything.’ And the Apostle Paul with this exhortation is both encouraging us and correcting us at the same time.

The ideal behind the words "your own salvation" is that God has a plan for each of our lives. He has a design for you and He has a duty for you. Paul says in Romans 8:29 that we were predestined to be conformed the very image of Christ. We are to fulfill that plan so that our lives will bring forth fruit to the glory of God. So one thing Paul is saying here is that as Christians we must strive to get the greatest potential benefit from our salvation. God puts tremendous capacity for good in our lives-like the mother lode in silver mine or a field full of ripe crops-and He wants us to realize that capacity to its fullest. It is as if Paul is saying, don’t stop halfway; don't be satisfied with partial benefits when it comes to your relationship with God. Get the full benefit of the gospel.

The Christian life is not just a one time commitment. It is an ongoing walk, a race to be run, a fight to be fought. As Paul writes in Colossians 2:6-7, “As you received Jesus Christ as Lord (past tense), so (now, presently) walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him.” God wants to continue His saving work in us everyday-refining, strengthening, making us more into His likeness. Discipleship is a lifelong process. So Paul urges us here to get on with that process-to continually strive to work out our salvation-to mine all the benefits we can from it-to constantly seek to grow and mature and be more and more like Christ. 1 Corinthians 9:24, “Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it.” Colossians 1:29, “To this end I also labor, striving according to His working which works in me mightily.” 2 Peter 1:1, “Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your calling and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble.” Believing does not make the Christian passive. It makes them hopeful, energetic, and courageous. Each day there is work to be done and we are commanded to work.

BUT...

How many of you have lived in verse 12 and felt completely discouraged, defeated, debilitated, and downcast because you cannot do what verse 12 seems to demand of you? You battle your desires to work out your salvation, your will to work out your salvation, and your ability to work out your salvation. Perhaps you feel defeated before you even get out the door.

Thank God for verse 13!It is here that we find the key to the door of living verse 12. In verse 13, He tells us how this is brought to pass. “For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” Do not get stuck in verse 12 dear reader!

"It is God who works in you.” Is this good news my friend? Paul is telling us that the Christian life is not our attempt at the imitation of Christ but the incarnation of Christ who lives in me (Galatians 2:20). The Christian life is not a series of “ups and downs” it is rather a process of “ins and outs.” God works in and we work out. Paul is saying that God is the decisive worker in your life! We work, but we work by and through and because of His working in us.

There are two great needs in every Christian life. First, there is the desire to do God's will and the second is the ability to do His will. If I only have the desire chances are on the basis of what I have seen in my life I will not do God's will. I will want to, but because of my flesh, I won't do what I want to do. I need the power and the ability to do what I want to do. That is why Philippians 2:13 is such stupendously good news to you and me.

God does more than merely strengthen our willing and doing. He does not add just a little help so that I can partner with Him. Paul's explanation goes deeper. "God himself is working in us both to will and to act: He works in us at the level of our wills and at the level of our doing God works in us, not merely with us. It is not the thought that my work plus God's work gets it done.

Augustine wrote, "Our deeds are our own, because of the free will producing them, and they are also God's, because of his grace causing our free will to produce them." And he says elsewhere, "God makes us do what he pleases by making us desire what we might not desire."' And finally he says, "Give me the grace [O Lord] to do as you command, and command me to do what you will! . . . O holy God . . . when your commands are obeyed, it is from you that we receive the power to obey them."

Notice the enthusiastic heart of God in his working in you. "...it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” The word "pleasure" means "a happy joyful desire or purpose." God is working in us that His desire and purpose for our life to be fulfilled and that brings him great joy.

Second Thessalonians 1:11-12, "To this end we always pray for you, that our God may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you.”
Hebrews 13:20-21, `Now may the God of peace. equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.”
1 Corinthians 15:10, “by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.”
Romans 15:18, “I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me.”

This is encourages me so much, and there are two things that encourage me. He says we can do verse 12 because God Himself is at work in you already, so that you will want to do it, and you will be able to do it, so that you will do it for His good pleasure in you. God is the workman; we stand in need of his services. He is the doctor, we are the sick patient. We are the weak, He is the strong. We have the broken down jalopy, He is the mechanic. That’s incredible.

In short, God makes living the Christian life so desirable and so doable!!!

Do you know what else is encouraging to me about this? It’s that he says this in the present tense. God is working now at this very moment! NOW! Dear reader, say that to yourself! ____________ God is working now at this very moment in me.

Even when we are most actively working out for God, we are still the recipients of His working in us. The power to work out daily our salvation is the power of the living God always there to work for us and in us every moment that we enter. Not only that, He doesn’t stop and wait for you to get working rather He is now and always working The God who in the past worked and changed you is the same God who is at work in you now to change you. And let me tell you, my friends, that truth keeps me from despair, because one of the great realities that I live with every waking moment is that I know that I am not what I ought to be. And the Apostle Paul is simply saying to you here, ‘Child of God, He’s not finished with you yet. He is at work with you, in you, for you, for His pleasure and glory.’

I cannot imagine a more comforting and encouraging thing to know in the pursuit of godliness in the Christian life than that my God is not done yet. It keeps me from going over the edge. It keeps me from the brink of despair. It is the promise (God will work in you!) that sustains and gives hope to the willpower (work out your salvation). Take heart. God will not leave you to yourself. John Newton once wrote: I am not what I want to be, I am not what I ought to be, I am not what I should be, but by the grace of God, I am what I am.”

Can anything be more radical than this? It means every good desire; every Christ-like thought, attitude, decision, and aspiration which I have is something which has been produced in me by God. God controls my willing, it is God who is energizing my very desires and hopes and aspirations and thoughts. He stimulates it all!” It means God understands our weakness and is committed to helping us. It means we are not left to simply work to muster more of our strength but we are invited to tap into His. It means we don't have to worry about falling away in the end because God is working on our desires and appetites so that we won't want to drift away. It means that the victories and accomplishments we have in the spiritual realm should be acknowledged as coming from the Lord and we should give Him the glory. It means that we can live the Christian life.

Oh reader, we need not fear the will of God or flee the will of God on the basis of feeling inadequate or insufficient. God will enable us to do anything He asks of us. God wants to lure you into obedience with his irresistibly beautiful and ineffable promises of enablement! Where God guides, He will provide.

Take the following texts as encouragements from God that He will help you fulfill His purposes for your life:

Jeremiah 31:31 33, `Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel.... I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts.
Deuteronomy 30.6, "The LORD your God will circumcise your heart...so that you will love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul. "
Ezekiel 11:19–20, A new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in my statutes and keep my rules and obey them."
Ezekiel 36:26-27, `I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes.
2 Thessalonians 1:11-12, "To this end we always pray for you, that our God may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you.”
Hebrews 13:20-21, `Now may the God of peace. equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.”
1 Corinthians 15:10, “by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.”
Romans 15:18, “I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me.”
1 Peter 4:11, "Whoever serves" is to do so `as one who serves by the strength which God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
1 Thessalonians 3:12. "May the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another "

Utterly thrilled that God makes living the Christian life so desirable and so doable!
Pastor Bill