God Commands & God Works

Memory – Philippians 2.12-13 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure

I suppose you might think this is somewhat of an oxymoronic statement. On the one hand, Paul is telling his readers to work out your own salvation and on the other hand it is God who is at work within you to will and obey. So, is it God or is it me? Of course, the answer is yes; it is both God and it is you. It may be helpful to review your notes from October 26thwherein I shared some thoughts from J. C. Ryle’s book on Holiness about the difference between what only God can do and what God works within us to do (online link: https://www.myevensong.com/compline/grace-faith-good-works.) In a similar vein Augustine, a 5th century biblical scholar / theologian encapsulates this conundrum with the aphorism, “Give what you command and command what you will” (cf. Confessions 10.29.40). Augustine understood that we need to be able to discern right from wrong, that is, the moral law inherent in the Gospel; but more than that, we need to desire what is good. He also knew that given his own rapacious heart of a sinful man he could not live to a righteous standard that God required. What he needed was the inward working of the Holy Spirit to continue the work begun in him (cf. Philippians 1.6). Thus, he prays, God whatever you require of me give to me. This is the grace of God at work within you. In book one of the Confessions he writes “Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in thee.” As with Augustine, so, too, Blaise Pascal, the 17th century philosopher / mathematician, expresses a similar thought; “What is it then that this desire and this inability proclaim to us, but that there was once in man a true happiness of which there now remain to him only the mark and empty trace, which he in vain tries to fill from all his surroundings, seeking from things absent the help he does not obtain in things present? But these are all inadequate, because the infinite abyss can only be filled by an infinite and immutable object, that is to say, only by God Himself” (Pensees # 425, p. 87 Kindle Edition). So he writes in another place, “the heart has reasons that reason knows not.” 

Many have plumbed the depths of this text – not the least of which is the Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard in his book “Fear and Trembling.” However, the simplest and most direct approach is to keep in mind that whatever God requires of you he will enable you to do. At the end of this epistle Paul writes, “… In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me”(Philippians 4.11b – 13). In his last meeting with the disciples in the upper room Jesus tells them “Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing (John 15.4-5).