[Forrest]

More Doctrine on Christian Living

After we receive Christ, I guess most of us develop the mindset that it’s time to go to work and begin doing our part. We reason, “God has done His part by giving me eternal life, now I need to do my part by living out the duties of the Christian life.” We believe that it’s our God-given responsibility (with His help, of course) to fill in the gap between spiritual rebirth and heaven.

This sounds normal, but is it really the way to live a productive Christian life? The passage most people use for supporting the idea of “my part/God’s part theology” is Philippians 2:12–13. Take another look at these two verses.

My part: “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” (Philippians 2:12).

The scripture is clear; we are supposed to be doing something. For further emphasis, some have noted that the words work out denote a command. It’s not a suggestion. We are commanded to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. Furthermore, work out conveys the idea of continual and ongoing action. There should be no confusion regarding the facts; we are commanded to keep on working out our salvation with fear and trembling. That seems to be clear in this verse.

God’s part: The very next verse says, “For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13).

God is the doer or performer of the action in this particular verse. It is God who performs the action of giving both the “will” and the “power” to do His good pleasure. God continues working in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure but at the same time we are told to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. Which is it?

With these descriptive words, it is understandable why many Christians ascribe to the “my part/God’s part theology.” Let us reason together for a moment.

• Does God work in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure?
  
• Does He give you the desire to work out your own salvation with fear and trembling?
  
• By giving you the power or ability to work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, does He thus provide the means and method to obey Him?

The obvious answer to each question is yes. I am not suggesting the Christian life never involves any action on your part. But Holy Scripture teaches us that it is God who not only works within our hearts the will to do what is right, but He also equips us with the strength and the ability to do what is right. I can take no credit for doing my part.

Be honest then. Does the Christian life actually break down to my part and God’s part, or is it really all God? Again, in John 15:5, Jesus is not saying we will or should do nothing without Him, He is saying we can do nothing without Him.

John 15:5 I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.

We will work out our own salvation with fear and trembling as we abide in Christ. Abiding in Christ is the “how to” of verse twelve. In order to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling; let us simply abide in Christ. Take your marching orders directly from the Good Shepherd. Jesus promises that we will bear fruit, more fruit, and even much fruit as we abide in Him.

Perhaps you are asking: if this is true, why don’t we always perform the good works of the Christian life? If God has given us a new life and has equipped us with the power to live the Christian life through Christ, why do we still commit sins?

That’s a legitimate and disturbing concern for each of us who desire to follow Christ. It’s simply because our corrupt mortality continues to battle against the Spirit. There is a very real and present experience of spiritual warfare in our lives. I do not need to convince you of this stark reality because you live with it each day. I reiterate what the word of God teaches. The believer is positionally perfect. As a believer, you cannot be washed in the blood any more than you already are. The blood of Jesus Christ is continually cleansing you and presenting you acceptable to God. You are justified based solely on the completed work of Jesus Christ. Jesus came “in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight” (Colossians 1:22).

If you are like most Christians you’re probably more interested in the operational or experiential aspect of living the daily Christian life. If I am presented “holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight,” why do I still commit sins? Why don’t I live a holy, unblameable, and unreproveable lifestyle?

I guess all of us understand that we have not yet received our ultimate and final condition of sanctification; the final and literal transformation into a glorified condition when the presence of sin will be gone forever.

“In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality” (1 Corinthians 15:52–53).

This is why we are admonished in scripture to actively lay aside, mortify, put off, abstain, yield, flee, walk, trust, believe, reckon, awake out of sleep, cast off the works of darkness, put on the armor of light, and be holy in our present mortal state.

We apply each of these Biblical realities, truths, and exhortations through the instrument of faith. We cease from our own labor when we enter into the Lord’s rest by placing faith in the completed and finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

We can strive to do our very best, but our very best is never righteous. “But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags…” (Isaiah 64:6). Filthy rags refers to the cloth covering a wound oozing with infected secretions. Thankfully, our righteous standing before God is never conditional to our righteousnesses; it is conditional to the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

“For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (2 Corinthians 5:21).

Don’t you agree that it’s time for each of us to get away from the focus of “my part/God’s part theology” and begin resting in the complete and absolute sufficiency of Christ by faith? It’s time we all started abiding in Christ and yielding the fruit He desires to bring forth in our lives. It’s time to be a Christian who is directed by Christ! It's His work in me, not my works for Him!