Our Work & God's Work

Therefore, my dear friends, just as you have always obeyed, so now, not only in my presence but even more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who is working in you both to will and to work according to his good purpose.

This is the Word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God.

One of the important things about teaching through an entire book of the Bible, verse-by-verse, is that we are going to face passages that are hard to understand or may come against our own ideas of how we believe God works.

I saw a video of a Christian talking with Orthodox Jews. And in this video he asks them where these words are found:

Yet he himself bore our sicknesses,

and he carried our pains;

but we in turn regarded him stricken,

struck down by God, and afflicted.

But he was pierced because of our rebellion,

crushed because of our iniquities;

punishment for our peace was on him,

and we are healed by his wounds.

The answer that all of them give is that these verses are from the New Testament. Their reasoning is because they say these verses are obviously meant to describe Jesus, because this is what Christians say Jesus did. They are amazed to find out that these verses are from Isaiah 53 and the prophecy of the suffering servant.

There are some who claim that it is because Isaiah 53 is a “forbidden chapter” in the Tanakh that some rabbis will not read in the synagogues. Jewish scholars say that Isaiah 53 is wrongly translated by Christians as a prophecy about Jesus.

Either way, Orthodox Jews, who tend to be the most vigilant about reading Scripture and prayer, did not know this all-important chapter in the prophecy of Isaiah. In these videos of Christians presenting Isaiah 53 to Jews, you can almost see this crisis of faith happening in their eyes in real time.

Sometimes when reading Scripture, we face passages that are hard to understand because we lack some context, or it may seem contradictory to other parts of Scripture, or we don’t like how the passage describes us and how we want to live our lives.

When facing passages like this, we cannot ignore them. We must face them. And so, we must start with prayer. We should ask God to show us what the passage means. We should look for other passages of Scripture that refer to the same passage (cross-references in Bible margins). We must find trusted resources that provide comprehensive teaching about the Bible. We must approach the topic with humility, letting the Word of God show us the meaning of the passage, and be willing to say you were wrong about how we originally understood the passage.

Lastly, we have to be willing to say that we don’t completely understand how some things in the Bible work. It is okay to say that you don’t have all of the answers. The trinity, (hypostatic union) Jesus as fully God and fully man, these are just a couple of examples of theological topics that can be very hard to fully comprehend. Any picture or analogy we may use to try and help others understand these topics will be wildly incapable of fully helping someone understand that topic.

Today’s passage presents us with one of those topics that can be difficult to wrap our heads around and has caused many disagreements within the universal church. The interplay between human choices and the sovereign work of God. I hope to provide some clarity to the passage and help us all have a more comprehensive idea of what Scripture tells us.

(Bible Sword Drills)

Big Idea: God's Sovereignty works through our choices and actions.

Let's dig in to the God’s Word.

Philippians 2:12a

Therefore, my dear friends, just as you have always obeyed, so now, not only in my presence but even more in my absence…

After sharing his ultimate example of humility in Christ and showing how God exalted Christ because of that humility, Paul now gives the Philippians a conclusion or a teaching point that he wants them to understand in light of his example of Christ. Paul implores his readers to continue in their obedience to Christ, as he says, “not only in my presence, but even more in my absence…”

This instruction to continue in their obedience to Christ would seem to infer that Paul is not talking about his presence physically with these believers in Philippi but the fact that he was still alive on the earth. Paul has already mentioned in this letter the adversity he has been facing from the Romans due to his own preaching, along with the preaching of others, who wanted to stir up trouble for him. His life was constantly in danger, so while Paul stated that he believes that God will deliver him from his imprisonment, he is still acknowledging that God may have different plans for him. The apostle wanted the Philippians to continue in obedience even if he was to lose his life here on earth.

(Thoughts on Integrity)

Philippians 2:12b

…work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

The specific obedience that Paul is referring to and wanting the Philippians to continue is the working out of their salvation. This is not a working that will guarantee salvation — that is the work of Christ. Jesus secured and guaranteed our salvation with his life, death, and resurrection.

In theology, there is a concept called the “Covenant of Works.” A covenant is like an agreement or a contract. In the Covenant of Works, God told Adam that he would have everlasting life if he obeyed God’s commands, mainly, fill the earth and subdue it, and do not eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge. Adam and Eve failed to live up to their part of the contract. Their sin, as the representatives of humanity, brought the negative effects of the Covenant of Works in the form of a curse.

Since that time, humanity has had to struggle with this sinful human nature that was brought on by Adam and Eve’s disobedience. But that is not where the story ends. Through God’s grace, he sent a better Adam who could completely obey the Law of God, earning the blessing of God through obedience. That greater Adam was Christ. It is through his obedience to the law of God, taking the punishment for sin that he did not deserve because he had never sinned, that we can be made right with God.

Jesus fulfilled the Covenant of Works for us and then offers us the benefits of obedience to that Covenant when we put our faith in Him. Putting our faith in Christ puts the guilt of our sin on Christ on the cross and Christ places on us the righteousness and blessing that he earned through his own works.

It is when we understand that our works cannot save us, when we realize that we do not have the ability to save ourselves, that we put our faith in Jesus, in his works, trusting in him to give us the everlasting life that his works earned, it is there that we find our salvation.

So why is Paul telling the Philippians to work out their own salvation? Charles Spurgeon said that this “working” is about the inner spiritual life. This is the continual dying to self and killing the old sinful nature that is still within. The Puritan John Owen famously made the statement, “Be killing sin, or sin will be killing you.” There is an active part of our life in Christ that we must continue to work on and cultivate if we are to live our lives fully for the glory of the Lord.

Turn with me to Ephesians 5, starting in verse 15. In this passage, Paul tells his readers what it means to work out their salvation. Throughout this entire chapter of Ephesians, Paul tells believers to stay away from what he calls, “the fruitless deeds of darkness.” Instead, he tells them to walk as children of light. As we look at these verses here in Ephesians 5 we will see Paul tell his readers how to be consistent in their lives of following after God.

Ephesians 5:15-21

Pay careful attention, then, to how you walk—not as unwise people but as wise— making the most of the time, because the days are evil. So don’t be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. And don’t get drunk with wine, which leads to reckless living, but be filled by the Spirit: speaking to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and making music with your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another in the fear of Christ.

According to Paul, working out our salvation means paying attention to the way we live out our lives. We are supposed to use wisdom in how we conduct ourselves. As Christians, we believe that the ultimate source of wisdom is the Word of God. (hold up Bible) This collection of books and letters is God’s instruction on everything about righteous living. This is the most comprehensive manual for life and Godliness that there ever has been, or ever will be put together.

2 Timothy 3:16-17

All Scripture is inspired by God (God breathed) and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

(Not for some good works but for EVERY good work)

If we want to find wisdom, we must look to Scripture. We do not find wisdom in self-help books…because we cannot help ourselves. When you try using a “self-help” book or podcast, you are being helped by a person who cannot help themselves — yourself. You will find yourself in the same place you started. Trying a different “self-help” book or teaching is not going to help either. It is still an attempt at “SELF-help.” In trying to help yourself, you will find that you are unable to help yourself because you cannot change yourself. I believe Einstein called that insanity (Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result). That is not wisdom. We must be in the Word of God daily, soaking ourselves in its truth and applying its teachings to every aspect of our lives daily. That is how we will understand the will of God. That is where we will gain wisdom.

Paul then tells his readers not to get drunk on wine, which leads to unholy living, but to instead be filled with the Spirit. If you grew up in a more Charismatic tradition like I did, you may understand or at one time understood this filling by the Spirit to be speaking in tongues. I have heard people claim that some of the most amazing preachers and Bible teachers are not “Spirit filled” because they haven’t spoken in tongues or prophesied, or because they have a different view on the gifts of the Holy Spirit than someone else.

I personally believe this to be an extremely narrow, and uninformed view of the filling of the Holy Spirit in someone’s life. What Paul is talking about here is more than just a one-time experience that a Christian may or may not have. Instead this is a process of maturing in holiness and living a life that seeks to honor the Lord.

I heard a pastor preach on this passage of Ephesians and he said the Greek grammar here that we have translated in our text as “be filled with the Spirit,” the verb we read as “be filled” is actually a present, active verb. So the best way to understand what Paul is saying through the Greek text would be to read this phrase as, “be being kept filled” by the Holy Spirit. We are to continue to be filled with the Spirit of God in our lives. We are not filled up with the Spirit once, with no need for that again. Instead, this is a continual, ongoing process that does not stop after we submit our hearts and minds to Christ.

How do we continue to be filled with the Holy Spirit?

Singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to each other.

Singing and making music in our hearts to the Lord.

Giving thanks to God for EVERYTHING you have in your life.

Submitting to one another. (Humility and putting the needs of others first)

Doing all of this in the fear of the Lord.

This working out of our salvation is an “active pursuit of obedience in the process of sanctification.” Sanctification is the continual weeding of our hearts and minds. Recognizing the weeds of sin within us and pulling those weeds and throwing them into the fire. Just like in a garden, when we pull weeds, parts of the roots stay in the soil and try to come back up as weeds again. The same happens when weeding happens in our hearts and minds. Though we pull up as much as we can, if we are not careful and watchful, those weeds can come back and make a mess of our garden. The quote I mentioned from John Owen fits this so well, “Be killing sin or sin will be killing you.”

As we pursue obedience to God and knowing him more and more, we must do so with, “fear and trembling.” The last couple of weeks, I have used the example of Isaiah 6, where the prophet has a vision of the throne room of God. Isaiah came face to face with God’s holiness and splendor and had this traumatic experience of becoming fully aware of his sinfulness and unrighteousness in the presence of the pure, holy, and righteous God.

We too, like Isaiah, must have an understanding of who we are because we know who God is. When we know his holiness, grace, power, love, wrath, omniscience, omnipresence, and the rest of his attributes, it will cause us to understand how insignificant we are in light of him. And yet, even in that understanding and feeling small and unholy, we can know that the all-powerful God of the universe loved us enough to send his Son to take the punishment for our sins and welcome us into his kingdom when we submit to his authority.

Philippians 2:13

For it is God who is working in you both to will and to work according to his good purpose.

So Paul goes from telling the Philippians that they need to do this work of obedience and that they have a responsibility to seek after the Lord and obey him in fear and trembling, to saying that it is God who makes this obedience and seeking possible. It is God working in our hearts and minds that gives us the strength to battle sin and to fight the temptations that we face every day. Without the Holy Spirit bringing us from spiritual death to spiritual life, we cannot walk in love, joy, peace, patience, and the rest of the fruits of the Spirit.

But how can we make choices and be responsible for our actions if God is the one doing the work in us to even make those choices?

Here is where a lot of argument and division has occurred in the church over the last 500+ years (even back to Augustine 354-430 AD — 1600 years). I understand that there are very strong opinions within the universal church about how God, being the all-powerful ruler of the universe, directs the world through history while we as humans still make choices and are responsible for our actions.

C.H. Spurgeon was once asked if he could reconcile these two truths to each other. “I wouldn’t try,” he replied; “I never reconcile friends.” Spurgeon argued that God Sovereignly directing all things works hand-in-hand with the choices you and I make every day.

I think that the best example that I can bring to you that God’s sovereignty and human choice do not contradict each other but actually work together in a way that we may never understand is by looking to Jesus. Over the last couple of weeks, we have looked at how Christ came to earth as a human. In that coming to earth, Christ did not cease to be God. He kept his divine nature. One of the main tenets of the Christian faith is that Christ was fully God and fully man. That should not be possible according to basic logic.

This is where arguments have broken out in the church about God’s sovereign reign controlling all things compared to the human choices we make. Many Calvinists would say that God controls everything. There are no maverick molecules. Every single thing in the universe is held in place by God according to his design and his will. The other side of this argument, the Arminian camp would say that God is in control, but he doesn’t direct my every action. God is a gentleman that allows me the free choice to do as I please, like whether to follow him or not. (These are obviously not comprehensive views of where these viewpoints stand.)

I believe that we must take the working of both God’s sovereignty and human choice together in the same way we view the divinity and humanity of Jesus. They are not in conflict with each other but rather are intertwined together.

What I want to do next, is provide passages of Scripture that show God’s sovereignty over everything. Then, I will provide Scriptures that show the command for us as humans to make choices. Finally, I will show passages of Scripture where we will see that both God’s sovereignty and human choices have worked together to accomplish God’s plan of redemption in the world.

Let’s look at some examples to show how Scripture says that God is in control of everything.

Proverbs 16:33

The lot is cast into the lap,

but its every decision is from the Lord.

A “lot” was a stone that had symbols on it. These would be “cast” or thrown to see how they would fall, giving the answer to a question or problem. You can think of it today like rolling dice.

In Exodus, the high priest had the Urim and Thummim. These two stones were part of the high priest’s breastplate and would be “cast” in the presence of the Lord to determine the will of God if there seemed to be no clear direction for the people. Scripture declares that even the “random” outcomes of casting lots are actually the direct decisions of the Lord. In Acts chapter 1, casting lots was how the remaining disciples chose Matthias as the replacement for Judas after he had committed suicide.

Job 42:2

I know that you can do anything

and no plan of yours can be thwarted.

Job lost his children, his livestock, his fields, and had his body covered in sores because God allowed Satan to do that to Job. Job’s friends “comfort” him by telling him it's all his fault. Job complains to God saying “I didn’t deserve this.” And God responds by saying with a loud voice from a whirlwind, “I am God. I made you. I made the world. I made the Behemoth and the Leviathan. Who are you to question me?”

In response, Job admits that God is the one with all power and authority and that whatever God commands to happen, will happen.

There are many other Scriptures that say the same thing as these but I know you all want to eventually get to lunch. We must admit that Scripture declares God’s sovereignty over all things.

Next, let's look at passages of Scripture in which humanity is told we have choices to make.

Joshua 24:14-15

“Therefore, fear the Lord and worship him in sincerity and truth. Get rid of the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and worship the Lord. But if it doesn’t please you to worship the Lord, choose for yourselves today: Which will you worship—the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates River or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living? As for me and my family, we will worship the Lord.”

Joshua gives a clear directive to the Israelites that they have a choice as to what God or gods they will follow. They can choose to follow the true God who delivered them from Egypt or to follow after the “gods” of the peoples in Canaan. The people had to make a choice.

Mark 8:34

Calling the crowd along with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.

Jesus told his disciples and the crowds that humanity had a choice to make in terms of following after Jesus. Some will choose to follow after Christ. Some will not. Whatever you choose, you are responsible for the consequences of your decision.

Now, let’s see in Scripture where God’s sovereignty and man’s choices worked together to accomplish God’s purposes.

Genesis 50:20

You planned evil against me; God planned it for good to bring about the present result—the survival of many people.

The choices of Joseph’s brothers were awful. In their jealousy of a brother that was more loved by their father, a brother who said he had dreams of his parents and brothers bowing down to him, they took Joseph’s beautiful coat, covered it in sheep’s blood, told their father Joseph had been eaten by wild animals, and sold him into slavery into Egypt. Had his brothers not committed this evil against him, Joseph would not have been perfectly placed to save his family and all of Egypt from a famine that lasted 7 years. Even in the sinful, evil choices of Joseph’s brothers, God was working to bring health and safety to Jacob’s family.

Acts 2:22-23

“Fellow Israelites, listen to these words: This Jesus of Nazareth was a man attested to you by God with miracles, wonders, and signs that God did among you through him, just as you yourselves know. Though he was delivered up according to God’s determined plan and foreknowledge, you used lawless people to nail him to a cross and kill him.

Preaching to Israelites who were in Jerusalem for the feast of Pentecost, Peter says that sinful people, in the form of the religious leaders, Judas, Pontius Pilate, and the Roman guards, had Jesus put to death on the cross according to what— God’s determined plan and foreknowledge.

Sinful humanity made the choice to be offended by Jesus Christ, to dismiss his teachings as heresy, and to put him to death by nailing him to the cross. God the Father, together with the Son and Holy Spirit, planned in advance that Jesus would die on the cross for the sins of humans. It was not a plan B. It was always plan A. The prophecies throughout the Old Testament that are fulfilled in Christ show us that this was always the plan.

God directs humanity. Scripture makes clear declarations attesting to this as fact.

Humans make choices and are responsible for their actions. Again, Scripture makes clear declarations attesting to this as fact.

These two things are not in conflict with one another, but work together to bring about God’s plan for redemption in this world. There is a working together of our choices and actions that comes together with the sovereign will of God that we will never fully comprehend in this life. Its okay that there is mystery in how God works. (If I can fully understand everything about God, that would make me his equal. And if my sinful, finite mind is equal to God, that means God is not all that powerful or wise, and then we are all in trouble)

In the end, we must also remember that we as Christians serve a good God. If you have repented of your sin and submitted your life to Christ, trusting in his work to save you from your sins, the Holy Spirit is working in you to will and to act through your choices and all of that is according to God’s good purposes.

Romans 8:28

We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.

All of God’s works will bring about his plan, his purpose, his good. God does this through the choices and actions of humans.

Perhaps you are here today and you have felt God working in your heart. You want to know more about him and what it means to follow after him. Today is the best day to submit your life to a good God who will work for your good.

Next Step: I will submit my life to Christ.

Let us Pray.

Communion Instructions

1 Corinthians 11:23-26

For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: On the night when he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”

In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, and said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

Related Media

Related Sermons

Earn an accredited degree from Redemption Seminary with Logos.