06/06/2017
Working out our own salvation; this is my contemplation this morning. What is my role in salvation, and has God been working in me willfully to His good pleasure?
“Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.”
Philippians 2:12-13 KJV
It has always amazed me that there is not a single people, nation, culture, or community of Man that does not innately know there is a God and then goes about the process of searching for Him. Many are like a rudderless ship that is blown about, unable to set a direction for themselves, but still they pray in some manner for deliverance even without knowing to whom they pray.
Within us we have a will that has been instilled from creation, and is passed in birth from generation to generation. This will isn't foreign to God, but is of Him, and leads us to seek and be reunited with Him. What perverts and obscures our will is sin, and from Adam until our resting in Jesus, it is a wind that blows us away from God.
As I read Oswald Chambers this morning, he made a point regarding our will and how it contributes to the quest for God's will. He spoke of our own wills as being the tool by which we find God's perfect will within us, and He spoke of removing what I have come to call the "wind of sin" from our sails by obedience to the Holy Spirit. Let's read his words as he describes his thoughts...
"God is the source of your will, therefore you are able to work out His will. Obstinacy is an unintelligent 'wadge' that refuses to be enlightened; the only thing is for it to be blown up with dynamite, and the dynamite is obedience to the Holy Spirit.
Do I believe that Almighty God is the source of my will? God not only expects me to do His will, but He is in me to do it." - Oswald Chambers
Jesus told of the coming of the Holy Spirit, and He spoke of its guidance...
“When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.”
John 16:13-14 ESV
The Holy Bible, God's word, is a book of charts which guide us from unknowing to knowing God. Jesus is the rudder and compass of our ship that allows us to follow the course God has laid for us, and the Holy Spirit gives us relief from the swirling winds of sin, by replacing them with the true and straight breath of God's will. All of this is happening for us and within us, but we must accept the guidance of Jesus and agree to the course of God's will. We must be seeking, and attempting to work out our own salvation.
“For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.”
Romans 8:13-14 ESV
Becoming a son of God...
Before my will understood truth, and began rejoining God's perfect will within me, I thought I was in control of my life. I thought I was steering the ship and that I was my own captain, but in fact that was an illusion. I was being blown here and there as sin and the world dictated. Sure, I was able to adjust my moral sails somewhat and tack a bit to the east or to the west, but only as far as my own devices were able to achieve. All the while, I was sensing God's will through my own, but I didn't know how to reconcile them. I didn't know how to work out my own salvation... I was like the lament of Tyre.
“"Your rowers have brought you out into the high seas. The east wind has wrecked you in the heart of the seas.”
Ezekiel 27:26 ESV
Then Jesus came into my life, and when He did it was as if I had awakened Him within me, and the violent sea of my life of sin was stilled, and the spirit within me cried out to Him in thanksgiving! Peace came over me, and the will of God revealed itself to my own... and my will became His.
“And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, "Peace! Be still!" And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. He said to them, "Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?"”
Mark 4:39-40 ESV
In that moment when I met Jesus, I began to work out my own salvation in earnest, but without the help of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, that would have remained impossible, and the will of God would have been doomed to become a distant thought... an unrealized wish... a dream from which I would awake too soon.
Working out our own salvation is not about steering our own ship... it is about finding relief from the winds of sin, about installing a new rudder and picking up a compass to direct us, but most of all, it is about allowing God to teach us to sail.
Prayer:
Father, I thank you for the will you gave me that has sought your presence my entire life. I thank you Lord for the relentless desire to find your plan and seek your will for my life. Holy Father, I thank you for your Son Jesus who stilled the wind of sin in my life, and for your Holy Spirit who guides me... even as he did for Jesus in the desert. Most Merciful God I lift you up, and praise you above all things. I relish in the sound of your mighty breath that fills my sails; I take comfort in the warmth of your love that courses through me, and I marvel at your grace which leads my will deeper into yours. You are my God, and you are the Captain of my life.
Rich Forbes