Whose Job Is It, Anyway?

Introduction

As long as there have been theologians, there have been conversations, disagreements, debates, books, lectures, and more about various matters of theology and Biblical doctrine.

My personal favorite story from such debates throughout history is the story of Bishop Nicholas listening to the heretic Arius argue for his view that Jesus Christ was created and was not truly God in the sense that God the Father was. Nicholas became so enraged as he listened to the heresy that he got up from his seat and slapped Arius across the face. That story is not my favorite because I think that’s how we should handle disagreements....don’t slap people....but it’s my favorite because it’s a slightly comical mental image, and because Nicholas is one that is eventually called Saint Nick and we know him as Santa Claus.

But I digress.

There have been points of heated contention surrounding some areas of theology, and one of those areas is that of Sanctification. If that is not a familiar word, allow me to define it: To sanctify something means to make it holy, to set it apart. Sanctification is the word that is used to describe the process by which one makes something else holy. The Bible uses the word sanctification in two ways:

In one sense, it is a completed act; we are sanctified. We are set apart as God’s children, holy and beloved.

In another sense, we are still being sanctified, and it is a lifelong process. It is this second sense that Christians usually refer to when speaking of sanctification. It is the process of being progressively made holy. We could say it’s our growth as Christians, or our increasing maturity in the faith.

The debates surrounding the topic of sanctification have taken a variety of forms, but they all revolve around a handful of central issues:

How does sanctification work?

Are we sanctified by grace or by works?

Is it all my responsibility?

Is it all God’s?

Some mix of both?

How connected is justification to sanctification?

Are they related at all?

Is sanctification optional?

How far does sanctification work itself out in this life? Will we attain perfection in this life?

I will not be able to answer all of those today because many of those questions are outside the scope of our text and we simply don’t have the time to explore all the Scriptures that speak to this topic, but I wanted to raise the issues so that you would be aware that this debate exists and these issues are related to one another.

The main focus for today is trying to grapple with the question of how sanctification works. How it is that we are progressively made holy before God?

Though I’ve set this message up to answer a theological question as it relates to our practical experience as believers, we do not want to lose sight of the fact that we are moving through a book of the Bible.

We’ve just come out of the glorious passage where Paul has expounded to us the glories of Christ. Because of his great humility and sacrifice God has highly exalted him and given him the highest reputation! Jesus Christ is Lord!

Now, in light of what Christ has done, and in light of what God has done, and in light of who Christ is and where he sits now, Paul begins to shift back on over to how we live our lives as Christians who acknowledge this reality: Jesus Christ is Lord.

To Paul, this is the logical conclusion. This is what we should do in response to what we have learned. Any other response fails to grasp the significance of what we just came through

Philippians 2:12-13

Philippians 2:12–13 ESV

12 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, 13 for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

There is a central command in these two verses, and everything else is attached to it to tell us more about that command. The central command is this: work out your salvation

There are two clauses that tell us how to do that, and one to tell us why. Two hows, one why.

Here’s how we will work through this: We’ll address the central command, than talk about the hows and the why.

Work Out Your Salvation

What does it mean to work out your salvation?

First, we can confidently say what it does not mean. This is not referring to earning or meriting justification. Paul is crystal clear when he speaks of justification being by faith apart from any works of the law. There is nothing that needs to be added. Jesus paid it all! Anything you think you can do to earn salvation, retain, or maintain your salvation diminishes the work of Christ who said “it is finished!”

Paul is not saying “add to your salvation” “accomplish your salvation” or anything of that nature.

He says to work it out.

The word used by Paul there refers to that which is produced by something. It refers to the manner of one’s life.

So when he says to work out your salvation, he is assuming that you have salvation and is calling you to live in light of it. The NLT phrases this in a helpful way: “work hard to show the results of your salvation”

We’re not earning, retaining, or maintaining salvation. But our effort is to be a reflection of our salvation. We work because we have been saved, not because we are trying to get saved.

I find a bit of a parallel between the future glories that await Christ and what Paul is calling us to here. It’s almost as he’s looking ahead to our final state and saying as you look into the future and see the glory that awaits you, live out your life right now in light of what’s to come.

This word for work has the sense of “continually work” or as the NET Bible translates it: “continue working” out. It’s an ongoing task. This isn’t something that we do once and then can coast through the rest of life. Salvation has certain effects and we are to work to show those effects in our lives.

I’m stressing the work side of this because that’s what in our text right now, but we need to be careful here, because we can so easily slip into works righteousness. We can so easily come to rest in our good works rather than in the finished work of Christ!

I was listening to a podcast this week and there was a story of a man who felt guilty that he wasn’t sharing the gospel. He felt that this was something he ought to be doing and it there were tremendous feelings of guilt. His pastor was talking to him one day about this and sought to clarify something. He said “you know you don’t have to evangelize to be saved, right? That’s not a requirement for your salvation. Jesus did everything. There’s nothing you could do to make him love you more…or less”

This is an important point! Jesus’ love for you is not contingent on your performance! But it is that very love that should motivate us to living for him.

The next week that pastor ran into the man again out in the streets and he was out passionately and joyfully sharing the Gospel with others. The pastor approached him to find out what had happened. The man replied “Jesus did it all! It’s done! It’s such good news that I have to share it!”

He got it! He was working out his salvation. He beheld what Christ did and was motivated to action as a result.

Work out your salvation. Live your life in such a way that shows the reality of your salvation. Not to earn it. Not to keep it. But out from it.

That is the central command in the passage. This command is modified by two “how” clauses, so let’s look at those

Our Striving is for Christ

The first clause is found in the beginning of verse 12

Philippians 2:12 ESV

12 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,

If you recall, Paul was in prison at the time of writing. He legitimately did not know if he was going to be released or executed, but in either case he was determined to honor Christ in His body, as we saw in chapter one.

He hopes that he will be able to come to them again because he desires to minister to them that they might progress in the faith and joy, but it may be that he will die.

As he writes to them, he urges them, “hey, whether I am able to come again to you or not, this is what I want you to do”

Here we see the tenderness of Paul toward the church. “therefore my beloved” these are tender words that remind us of Paul’s affection for the church that he expressed in chapter one when he says he holds the church in his heart and yearns for them with the affection of Christ Jesus.

Paul is not trying to beat the Philippians down. “You need to obey, you wretched sinners!”

There is a tenderness here. There is love here. Sadly many churches are marked by pastors haranguing from the pulpit about one thing or another, completely missing the love and grace that Paul displays here. This is a good reminder for me that I need to pay attention to my own words. As we work through Scripture, there are times when God’s Word bluntly addresses sins. But I must remember the grace that is in Christ as I seek to admonish us in God’s Word.

Paul also does not express doubt in the lives of the Philippians. He says “hey, I know that you’ve been obedient. You’ve sought to honor Christ. Keep that up”

It’s possible that some might have been motivated to obedience because the teacher was in the room. We all know what that’s like. When the teacher is in the room, when the boss is around, when the supervisor is present, that’s when we behave.

But we learn the most about a person when the authority figure is no longer present. When the teacher steps out of the room, when boss takes a vacation, when the supervisor goes to check on another project.

It’s not what you do in public or while being watched that defines your character. It’s how you live behind closed doors when no one can see you.

Paul expresses his delight in the obedience of the Philippians while he was with them. Now he says “okay....do that while I’m gone too. Work out your salvation”

Because here’s the fundamental reality: We do not work for man.

Colossians 3:22–24 ESV

22 Bondservants, obey in everything those who are your earthly masters, not by way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord. 23 Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, 24 knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.

Our obedience, our working out of our salvation, is not for man, but to honor Christ. Just as Paul says he desires to honor Christ in his body in chapter one, so now we ought to living to honor Christ in our body, not because we are being watched, but because we are serving the Lord Christ.

Our Striving is for Christ.

Second, our striving is from a position of worship.

Striving from a position of worship

Work out your salvation with fear and trembling.

These words sound strange to our ears. Why should we be afraid?

We need to understand the biblical significance of these words. In the Old Testament, these words were often associated with reverence and awe of how great our God is. One commentator wrote that these words describe “the appropriate response to God’s mighty acts”

As we strive for obedience, we do so from a position of worship.

Is our God worthy of worship?

Philippians 2:5–11 ESV

5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Is our God worthy of Worship?? look at what he has done! Christ willingly set aside his own glory for the sake of serving us, lowly, sinful, poor, blind, naked human beings. He is worthy of Worship!

God has highly exalted Him, he is LORD! Every knee will bow, every tongue confess that Jesus is LORD!

IS he worthy of our worship? Yes and amen.

As we live out our lives, as we live out our salvation, we do so with fear and trembling. Reverence and awe. We behold the majesty of our God and Savior and we bow before him is humble obedience.

Let your obedience flow from a position of worship of almighty God, of Jesus Christ who was willing to die for you, and how even now is seated at the right hand of God the Father on high.

Our striving is from a position of worship

Those are the two “hows” of the central command. We now turn to the “Why”

Our striving is carried out in God.

The why is found in verse 13

Philippians 2:13 ESV

13 for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

For or because. Why should we be obedient even when teacher is out of the room? Why should we work with fear and trembling, that is in reverential awe of our savior? Because it is God who works in you.

This seem paradoxical to us.

Which is it Paul? Am I to be working or is God working?

Yes.

Thought there is great difficulty in seeing these two verses back to back and logically connected, I praise God for this! In these two verse we see how it is that sanctification, our growth as believers, works!

We labor and work and strive for holiness. Many passages instruct us to do so. But ultimately it is God who is at work within us.

Paul’s words drive the apparent paradox home: you are to work, because God works. The two words for “work” in verses 12 and 13 have the same root.

So all of our working, and everything that we do is undergirded by the working of God!

What a wonderful promise this is! Back in chapter one we saw that “He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Christ” and now here we see that God is continually working within us!

Notice too how he works. He provides both the willing an the doing!

It is God who works in you, both to will and to do!

The willing speaks of desire.

The doing speaks of the actual actions themselves.

Now we wrestle with how this works. On the one hand Scripture is clear that we have personal responsibility. The verse immediately before this bears that out: work out your salvation!

Additionally, there are many passages that call us to put to death the deeds of the flesh, to put on righteousness, to flee immorality, to pursue holiness. These are known as the imperatives of Scripture, or the commands. This how God’s Word instructs us to live!

But these commands don’t come in a vacuum. These imperatives are always connected with what are known as the indicatives of Scripture. Indicatives are words that make a statement of fact. You are children of God. Indicative. Christ has redeemed you. Indicative.

What we find is that every imperative of Scripture, every command, is backed by corresponding indicatives. The commands flow out of the statements of fact. And so we get passage like

Ephesians 4:1 ESV

1 I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called,

You have been called. You are a believer. Now, I urge you to walk worthy of the calling. Be who you are. Let your live reflect the reality of who you are!

The imperatives stem from the indicatives.

In our passage the imperative is to work out your salvation. The undergirding indicative is that we do so because God is the one who ultimately is at work within us.

The fact is that we are powerless on our own to live lives of holiness. We cannot do it.

Perhaps as we were going through the first portion of the message you felt that weight. I’m to work out my salvation…but it’s so hard! I try and I try but I keep failing. I’ve got this nagging sin that I can’t seem to get rid of. I’ve can’t seem to shake these habits. How am I to work out my salvation??

We are powerless to do so on our own. But that’s why verse 13 in such good news! We aren’t being asked to do it on our own! God is at work within us! The very fact that you desire to do what is pleasing to God is evidence that God is at work!

And though we are called to work at it, when we do what is right and look back, we will rightly say “look what God has done in my life”

John 3:21 ESV

21 But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”

when speaking about his labors as a minister of the Gospel, Paul wrote:

Colossians 1:29 ESV

29 For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.

He toiled. He struggled. Those two words speak of intense labor. He’s breaking a sweat. He’s battling. He’s fighting. But he doesn’t have to do so in his own strength. His energy powerful works in me!

Isn’t this good news? We can rest in knowing that God is at work! We can rest in him knowing that my labor can be done in His strength!

Praise God!

Now, I mentioned at the beginning of this sermon that there are debates about how sanctification works. These debates or present because of a lack of balance with the texts.

On one hand, there are those who say sanctification is by works. Look at all the imperatives, all the commands! We are called to be holy as He is holy! We have the responsibility to work this out! If they’re not careful, this can tend toward legalism and works righteousness that merits or maintains salvation.

On the other hand, there are those who would say, no we are sanctified entirely of grace! It is God’s work! We are are more or less passive agents in the process. Let go and let God is a phrase that reflects this mindset. If they’re not careful, this can tend toward antinomianism, or lawlessness, where it doesn’t matter how you live because you’re not responsible for you own sanctification!

What we need is biblical balance! We need to see that, yes, we are called to strive for holiness. We are called to work at it. It flows from the realities of our salvation as we behold the exalted Christ, but we are to work. And yes, it is God who works in you! Our works are wrought in God! They have been carried out in God! Jesus himself said “apart from me, you can do nothing!”

This is not some sort of synergism, where there is a division of labor and if we do our part and God does we will be alright.

One commentator put it this way: God’s work and the believer’s efforts are co-extensive.

It’s been said that for a marriage to work, it’s not a 50-50 relationship, but a 100-100 relationship. That is similar to what the commentator refers to when he says our works are co-extensive. We labor and we work. But we do so in the grace of God.

Admittedly, this can be difficult to understand, but it is a glorious truth!

Rejoice, o believer! The one who began a good work in you will complete and is even now at work! The same God who exalted Christ is at work refining you! Your desires for holiness are the result of God’s work in you! Every good deed you have every done is evidence that God has been at work within you!

Take courage, o believer! Though you labor on in this world, though we struggle with sin, though the night is long and the days are hard, we have a promise from almighty God that He is at work! Thus we can move forward with confidence knowing that if I am to work out my salvation I will surely progressively prevail because God is at work! Though it does not happen overnight, though the struggle is real, though we will never achieve sinless perfection this side of glory, we can strive in confidence know that God is at work!

Did we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing, were not the right Man on our side, the Man of God's own choosing. You ask who that may be? Christ Jesus, it is he; Lord Sabaoth his name, from age to age the same; and he must win the battle.

And though this world, with devils filled, should threaten to undo us, we will not fear, for God has willed his truth to triumph through us. The prince of darkness grim, we tremble not for him; his rage we can endure, for lo! his doom is sure; one little word shall fell him.

Go forth in joy and confidence, o believer! Christ is Lord! We obey because God is at work!