Philippians: Portrait of a Mature Christian
Part 5
7th June 2014
After his wonderful description in Philippians 2v6-11 of the work of our Lord Jesus Christ, who came to earth in human form, died to pay for our sins, rose from the dead and is now seated at the right hand of His Father in heaven, the next thing Paul writes is:
Philippians 2v12-13
Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed - not only in my presence, but now much more in my
absence - continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling,
for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.
Because of Jesus's sacrifice, and because of His absolute authority, and because one day we will all kneel before his throne, Paul urges us to continue to work out [our] salvation. I want to be as ready as I can be for that day. I want to be a holy as I can be, as pure as I can be, as mature as I can be. I want to be as unashamed as I can be. So I need to keep working out my salvation.
I accept the forgiveness of my sin, and I work at reducing my sin. I ask God to increase my love for Him and for others, and I try to refuse the urge to be selfish. I give thanks to God for the Holy Spirit, and I ask Him to keep working in me to sanctify me. And I try to cooperate with Him in that process.
I often fail, but I confess my sins to God and I keep going. Sometimes my sin gets me down. I admit that anybody who's been a Christian for as long as I have should have a purer life and a purer heart than I do, but I refuse to give up. I continue to work out [my] salvation. It's hard work and sometimes I get discouraged, but I put my trust in God. As Paul says elsewhere:
2 Timothy 1v12vb
I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that
day.
My confidence of eternal life, of being accepted by God on the Day of Judgement, depends not on myself but on God, who promises to forgive me through the blood of Jesus Christ. And my confidence that I am slowly becoming a better person depends not on myself but on the work of the Holy Spirit. However, I understand that I have a responsibility to cooperate with Him.
Paul says we should "work out [our] salvation with fear and trembling". I've heard Christians try to water that instruction down, they say that the fear of God just means "respect" or "awe" but Paul adds the word trembling to make his meaning clear. Paul is saying that we should shake with fear before God. Elsewhere, he writes about our peace and joy in God. We should both trust our heavenly Father and be afraid of Him (I think a really good father and a really good school teacher are a bit like that, inspiring both fear and trust). Otherwise, we may forget how serious sin really is. As both the Psalmist and the writer of Proverbs says, the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom (Psalm 111:10, Proverbs 9:10).
Some people imagine that as we become mature Christians, we cease to have any fear of God. I suspect the opposite.
The more we see and understand God, the more awesome we realise He is. Yes we become more assured of His forgiveness, but we also become more aware of how much we need it. We become more aware of how holy He really is, and how much we fall short of that kind of holiness. A truly mature Christian is humble because he knows these things. He trembles in the presence of God.