2/20/2004 08:16:00 PM|||Andrew|||Philippians 2:12 So then, my dear friends, just as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence but even more in my absence, continue working out your salvation with awe and reverence,15 2:13 for the one bringing forth in you both the desire and the effort—for the sake of his good pleasure—is God.

Though I do like the NET Bible a lot, sometimes I think they don't quite choose the right translation for whatever reason. Of course the phrase "awe and reverence" in this passage is, according to them (which is why I'll still support them; they will Tell you when they make a stupid translation choice...heh) "Grk “with fear and trembling.”" But let me brush past that translation issue and talk a little about these two verses and why I think they teach a really important Biblical truth that sometimes gets ignored or overlooked.

In verse 12, Paul admonishes his readers to "continue working out your salvation," and this idea, if not this phrase, is one that I've always been taught at great length about. See here, says a pastor, first there is justification, which is wrought by faith and makes the believer positionally holy, and then there is sanctification, the "outworking" of your salvation (I'm sure that this term must derive from this passage) over time, as you become more and more actually holy by following Jesus' commands.

While I'm not going to say that this is a wrong view of the believer's life, I do think that the emphasis given in such explanations is misplaced. Too often I see Christians, myself most of all, caught up in the "fear and trembling," broken and despairing and miserable because they cannot seem to follow God's commands. And it's absolutely a good thing to be broken before God, one need only look as far as James 4.8-10! The problem that I've found in my own life, and I suspect the problem is other's lives also, is that when I fail, it will burden me to the point where I can barely move spiritually. So many times we as Christians feel we must always carry these immense burdens around, when Christ holds out the promise, not only of justifying our sins once for all, but of helping us up when we fall, of carrying us when we cannot move.

I think that much of this could be resolved if people only took the time to examine and teach verse 13 of this passage. We are not alone in our struggle to work out our salvation! God does not sit back and watch us try to work out this salvation by our own strength or power. This verse tells us something marvelous; it tells us that, were God to let us alone that we would never succeed in pleasing him, never obey his commands, "for the one bringing forth in you both the desire and the effort—for the sake of his good pleasure—is God." We would not have the desire to do good were that desire not given to us by God. But even more amazing is that we can't even act on that desire, won't ever make the effort without this effort also being the gift of God. In other words, the only time you or I will ever succeed at pleasing God, at following his commands, is when God himself allows us, for his own good pleasure to do so.

This is a marvelous teaching. Not only does God give us the gift of faith (more on that later), but he gives us the gifts of a desire to do his will and the effort to do that desire. Surely this, more than anything, should bring us to our knees, in fear and trembling, in awe and reverence, before an glorious, holy, and loving God!|||107733701433270215|||