06/06/2023
Are we working out our own salvation, or are we sitting on a church pew on Sunday while depending on someone else to tell us what we must do to save ourselves? What is our role in salvation, and has God been working in us 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 tribe, nation, culture, or community of men that does not innately know there is a god and then begin the process of searching for him, or them. However, many of these seekers are like a rudderless ship that is blown about, unable to set a direction for themselves. Yet still they pray in some manner for deliverance, even without knowing to whom they pray, or by putting forth any effort to determine who it is that they are meant to praying to.
But, we are different… We know the one true God, His Son Jesus, and that within us we have a will that we realize was placed there at the moment of creation, and that it is subordinate to the perfect will of God Himself. Our will isn't foreign to God, but is of Him, and leads us to seek and attempt to be reunited with Him. What perverts and obscures our own will is sin, and from the fall of Adam until we will ultimately rest in Jesus, this sin is like a wind that attempts to blow us away from God.
As I read Oswald Chambers this morning, he made a point regarding our personal will and how it contributes to the quest for God's perfect will. He spoke of our own wills as being the tool by which we find God's will within ourselves, and He spoke of removing what I have come to call the "wind of sin" from our sails by obeying 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 the Spirit’s 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 maps and charts which is meant to guide us from unknowing to knowing Him. Jesus is the rudder and compass of our ship that allows us to follow the course God has set 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 are commanded to seek for, and work out, our own salvation, but that quest ultimately unites our will with His.
“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 our will understands truth, and begins to rejoin God's perfect will within us, we think we are in control of our lives we think we are steering the ship, and that we are our own captain, but in fact that is an illusion. We are being blown here and there by sin. Sure, we are able to adjust our moral sails somewhat and tack a bit to the east or to the west, but only as far as our own devices are able to achieve. All the while, we are sensing God's will through my own, but we don’t know how to reconcile them. We don't know how to work out my own salvation... we are much 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 comes into our lives, and when He does, it is as if we have awakened Him within us, and the violent sea of our life of sin is suddenly stilled, and the Spirit within us sings out to Him in thanksgiving! Peace will come over us as the will of God reveals itself to our own... and we become 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 we meet Jesus, we begin to work out our own salvation in earnest, but without the help of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, that would still remain impossible, and the will of God would be doomed to become a distant thought to us... an unrealized wish... a dream from which we 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 having installed a new rudder, about picking up a compass and realizing that it is not the device that guides us, but rather an unseen force that moves the needle within it; this is what directs us. Most of all, it is about allowing God to teach us to sail. Are we willing to do that today?
Prayer:
Father, we thank you for the will you have given us that seeks your presence our entire lives. We thank you Lord for the relentless desire we have to find your plan and seek your will for our lives. Holy Father, we thank you for your Son Jesus who stilled the wind of sin in our lives, and for your Holy Spirit who guides us... even as he did for Jesus in the desert. Most Merciful God we lift you up, and praise you above all things. We revel in the sound of your mighty breath as it fills our sails; we take comfort in the warmth of your love that courses through us, and we marvel at your grace which moves the needle of our faith while stirring our will more perfectly into yours. You are our God, and you are the Captain of our lives. Praised be your name, and may you be glorified as our will and yours become one.
Rich Forbes