The Christian's Humble Obediance

Paul has taken us a long way since the ending of chapter 1. He has challenged and commanded us to be united. Just as there is no division in the body there is to be no division in the body of Christ. We are to be of one mind and focus as we live our Christian lives.

He exhorts us to live humbly and selflessly just as we were taught by our savior.

Paul showed us the depths of the humiliation of Christ in His incarnation that He might save for Himself a people. And then His exaltation and glorification as He ascended to the right hand of the Father.

Paul now moves back to his practical instruction for the church.

Paul begins yet again with another “therefore.” He is a master of directing our attention and focusing our minds on the point that he is trying to make. He has given us the example of Christ’s humiliation and His exaltation. Of Christ’s obedience unto death, and His receiving a name above all names at which every knee will bow, and tongue confess.

He says because of all of that you must now do this. And we see that it is to the believer that he is speaking. He uses one of his favorite terms to believers, and that is beloved. God specially loves the believer. It is as if Paul says, “You are set apart and loved by God.” He uses it exclusively for believers. And he refers to them as my beloved as they are his spiritual children. He spent his life for those the Lord put in his care and deeply loved them.

So, making clear that we must look to the preceding verses before continuing, he assures the believers of their standing before God and then moves into his next exhortation. “So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling.”

Paul says that they have always obeyed. I do not think this is hyperbole or that he is puffing them up. The Church at Philippi, as we saw several weeks ago, was a faithful church. And this verse ties back to what he said previously in the chapter. Paul said in 1:3-5, “I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always offering prayer with joy in my every prayer for you all, in view of your participation in the gospel from the first day until now.”

This church was living out the Christian life, they were participating in the Gospel. This epistle does not have the tone of a rebuke, but an encouraging exhortation. Paul is both joyfully reminding them of their faithful living and using that to encourage their continuation in it.

He is saying. “Look. Christ humbled Himself and died for you. And you have been ever faithful.” And as we see in this verse he also says, “Not only that, but you have done this even when I am absent.”

What a testimony for this church! It is a church that, for a change, does not cause Paul any heartburn. They do not toe the line when he is around, and then let loose as soon as he turns a corner. They are obedient whether he is there or not. They were not Christians on Sunday and then practical atheists Monday through Sunday. They were an obedient and faithful church.

This presents us with several points on the practical application of obedience in the Christian life, which we must take away from before moving on.

As was mentioned last Lord’s Day, there is this sentiment within the church that believes Christ can be Savior but need not be Lord. This ties into another problem within the church considering obedience. And by obedience, I do not mean to the pastor or elders, but obedience to the law and commands of God. They say that required obedience negates that we are saved by grace alone through faith alone.

Again, time does not permit us to dive into the subject of Law and Gospel, but let it suffice to say they get the balance between the two wrong. They believe we would argue that obedience is required for salvation while we affirm that obedience is evidence of salvation. And there are three reasons, though this is not an exhaustive list, why obedience to the law and commands of God are part of the Christian life.

First, because it is commanded of us to do so by the Word of God. Deut. 13:4, “You shall follow the LORD your God and fear Him; and you shall keep His commandments, listen to His voice, serve Him, and cling to Him.” This commanded obedience is better than sacrifices, 1 Sam. 15:22, “Samuel said, “Has the LORD as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices As in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, And to heed than the fat of rams.” We obey and live lives of obedience because we are commanded to.

Second, we live lives of obedience because we show our love for God by doing so. When Jesus was comforting His disciples and explaining the Father to them in the upper room, He told them in John 14:15, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” And John repeats this in his epistles. In 1 John 5:3 John writes, “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome.” And in 2 John 6, “And this is love, that we walk according to His commandments. This is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, that you should walk in it.”

We have seen in the previous weeks what Christ endured, not just in His crucifixion, but also in His coming in the flesh. How could we not lovingly obey Him and His commands which are for His glory and our good?

And third, we live lives of humble obedience because that is what Christ has done. In previous verses, we saw the humility of Christ in His coming in the flesh and His obedience unto death. The God of the universe was obedient. And Paul exhorts us to be obedient by that example.

So, the life of a Christian is one of humble obedience and we have seen just a few of many. And Paul has remarked specifically on the obedient lives of the Philippians. They were not like the covenant people of God under the Old Covenant. Who, as soon as Moses was away, sinned grievously. But rather they are obedient whether or not Paul is there, and we should strive for the same attitude.

It recalls the old definition of what character is. Character is being who you are when no one is watching. That who you are in public is who you are in private, and the Christian who knows that God sees all should be the first to act thusly.

It is easy to be obedient when others are watching and quite another to do so when alone. To paraphrase something John Piper once said, “How often have our private sins been stopped by the sound of approaching footsteps.” May we, and especially I myself, strive to have a life of obedience like the Philippians.

But now Paul progresses and speaks of this obedience, this living out the Christian life, in terms of working out our salvation.

Now this is a very curious statement. Paul instructs us to work out our salvation. What on earth does this mean? Well, there are a lot of things that it is not saying and only one thing that it is, but before we get there, we have to make sure we know who he is speaking to, otherwise, we’ll come away with the wrong idea.

While it is curious to speak of working out salvation, and that could lead us to think that Paul is speaking to everyone, or perhaps the lost exclusively, in this context Paul is still speaking to the saved.

Throughout this portion of Philippians Paul has repeatedly spoken to the individual believer. And while he is here speaking in a plural sense, “All of you work out your salvation.” Or, since we are in the South, “Work out y’alls salvation.” Paul is still speaking to the individual, and, more specifically, the individual believer.

With that in mind, how are we to understand this concept of working out our salvation? Is Paul suddenly advocating and promoting a works-righteousness form of salvation? The short answer is of course no. A simple survey of Scripture shouts that salvation is of the Lord alone and that we are saved by grace through faith in the finished atoning work of Jesus Christ.

But remember what we saw concerning obedience just a few moments ago? Obedience is the natural posture and the proper act of one who has been joined to Christ. We cannot help but be obedient.

This charge to work out our salvation is something of a repetition to live a life of obedience to God. Why? Because our obedience is a product of our salvation.

Scripture is clear. Before God regenerated us by the Spirit, applied the saving work of Christ to us, and saved us, we were rebels. We were enemies of God. And this salvation work is something that only God can do. There is nothing we can do to save ourselves. But this does not absolve us of laziness. The sovereignty of God over salvation does not set us free from work, in this case, the working out of our salvation.

Let us not forget that work was not a part of the curse that befell man after the rebellion of our first parents in the Garden of Eden. Work was a part of Adam’s life before he fell. Why should we believe it to be any different for us, particularly when it comes to the work of living for Christ?

The rest we have in Christ is not a rest of indifference to His Word and the instruction we find therein. The 19th-century evangelist Henry Drummon wrote, “Whatever rest is provided by Christianity for the children of God, it is certainly never contemplated that it should supersede personal effort. And any rest which ministers to indifference is immoral and unreal—it makes parasites and not men. Just because God worketh in him, as the evidence and triumph of it, the true child of God works out his own salvation…not as a light thing, a superfluous labor, but with fear and trembling as a reasonable and indispensable service.”

We have been saved. We have been saved by the free gift of grace. But this is not a license to have an attitude of apathy towards God’s instruction. Rather, as Paul has said, we are to have the attitude of Christ. That of humble obedience.

So, let us take heart that in this passage we are not called to work and earn our salvation which is, of course, something we could never do. But rather it is an exhortation to live a life of humble obedience. And that we can take heart that because we belong to Christ we can. Not perfectly of course, as we await His return. But one day.

This verse ends with the how in which we are to work out our salvation. It is interesting to note, however, that the last half of this verse is actually in the reverse of the original Greek. “With fear and trembling” comes at the beginning for emphasis.

So, this could be better rendered, “With fear and trembling, work out your salvation.” And what this means is the reverent posture with which we are live out our Christian lives.

This is not the fear and trembling of the unbeliever who on that day certainly will. That is a fear of terror and dread. But the believer who knows and loves the Lord fears Him with a sense of awe. Make no mistake, this is a fear that recognizes the power of the Almighty.

When the Lord calmed the storm on the sea the disciples trembled not at the storm but at the power of the one who could command the elements. I believe it was John MacArthur who, speaking on that passage, said, “The only thing more terrifying than the storm outside of the boat was the God of the universe standing inside it.”

We have a fear of recognition and a trembling that comes with being awestruck at the power and glory of the Creator. And it is with this awe, this adoring acknowledgement of who God is and what He has done on our behalf that we bend the knee, confess His Lordship, and live obedient and humble lives in accordance with His Word.

And finally, we come to that previously mentioned work of the Lord within us, and we see His sovereignty at work in our lives.

“for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.”

This verse does the work of explaining why we work out our salvation and how we do so. The for at the beginning ties these two verses together and shows us where our will, our desire, and even our faith comes form, and that is God Himself. It shows us that the reason we work is because God is at work in us.

And right off the bat, what a comfort this should bring us. As we live out our daily lives and as we strive to live as Christ would have us live it is very easy to fall into something of a depression about it when we fall short.

Now, I’m not talking about when we fall and we sin and we know we did wrong. When we are ashamed of our actions and so we go to God in repentance and prayer and ask for the Lord to strengthen us against that sin. I mean that it is easy for us at times to fall into melancholy, joyless, malaise over our weakness and inability to obey God.

And we can tell ourselves that of course, we’re not perfect. We cannot perfectly obey God in all that we do so how can we expect us to do so? But we can fall into seasons where we trip up in a manner that seems constant.

Our attitude is bitter when we see the wicked flourish and we become discontented. We hang around the wrong crowd at work or social gatherings and slowly our language and reactions become colorful. It can be these slow almost imperceptible compromises and then suddenly we realize where we’re going, we get down on ourselves and suddenly we see ourselves as the worst Christians on earth.

And we make the fatal mistake of taking our eyes off the Lord and looking only inwardly. And when we do so we see only failure and weakness. We see only our frail and feeble strength. We ask ourselves, “How could I ever live the life God wants me to live? How can I live obedient to the Word of God when I am such a failure.”

And yes, we must recognize that we are weak. That will sin. That we will fail to live in perfect obedience even though we are called to be perfect because our Father in Heaven is perfect. But praise be to God that we do not live for Christ and strive for obedience based on our own strength, our own will, and our own desire.

Why should we work? Why should we strive for obedience? Because it is God who is at work within us.

If it was only our will. If it was only our strength. If it was only our desire of course we would shrivel up and die. Before Christ, our will was only oriented towards ourselves. After union with Christ, our will is now realigned but we are still strapped in sinful flesh and we cannot perfectly obey and live as God would have us.

But God did not save us, regenerate us, and then set us to an impossible task saying, “Good luck.” Rather He is the one working in us. And we should have joy and comfort in knowing that we need not rely on our feeble attempt to generate a desire to obedience and service, but it is God working in us.

And what is He working in us? Well, He works many things in us. Until we finally stand before Him in heaven, or He returns and we see Him in the new Heavens and New Earth He continues to sanctify and conform us in many ways. But Paul is focusing here on our will and our actions. He is at work in us to will. This is our driving force. This is our desire to obedience to Him.

Man’s natural desire and inclination is turned inward. We seek to fulfill our basest desires. Our first parents are examples of this. While they were still without sin and possessing the capability to choose not to sin, they turned their will and desire out of alignment with God and followed their own path. The consequences of which we still see today.

But here Paul is assuring us that just as our faith and repentance are gifts from God so is our desire to live for Him. Yes, we can get lost along the way and stray into error. We can have seasons where we ignore the conscience God gave us and follow our own will. There is no excuse for this of course and so we repent and ask for God’s help. But we are not left to our own devices. We are not left to generate obedience and humility but are supplied by the indwelling Spirit to live for God.

And the same goes for the working out of our salvation. It is God who is at work within us to produce good works. And this is the defining difference between so-called good works before our salvation and after. Before Christ, our good works were for ourselves and not for the glory of God. Our righteous acts were in fact not righteous at all but for our own self idolization.

But now, being united to Christ, our good works are for His glory. So, they’re not really our good works, but His. Paul, writing to the Corinthians and speaking of his ministry as an Apostle, wrote in 1 Cor. 15:10, “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me.”

Paul commands us that we are to live lives of humility and obedience and that by the grace of God, the Lord is the one working those things within us. So take heart, dear Christian. We are not working alone.

And I would point out that this word here for work, where God is working within us, is a present tense participle. This work is ongoing every day. Just as Paul will say in chapter 3 he has not yet arrived or become perfect, so it is for us. This work of God will continue until that final day. He who has begun a good work in us will perfect it until the day of Jesus Christ.

Lastly, we are given the why. And that is for God’s good pleasure. Despite what popular Christian music might have us believe, God does not exist so that He can bless us. And He did not create us because He was lonely. Question and Answer #1 of the Westminster Shorter Catechism asks: “What is the chief end of man?” The answer: “The chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.” We were made and we were saved so that we would glorify God and be given to the Son as a bride.

Our future in the new heavens and new earth is one of praising and blessing our King. In that new world where there is no Temple for the Lord will be our Temple, we will no longer need to strive to be obedient, but we will be made new and perfectly capable of obeying our King.

But until then, let us be like Christ. Humble and obedient. And let us rely on the strength of God who is working within us to will and to work to those ends. Let us pray.