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Philippians 2:12-13, So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; 13 for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.
These two verses better than any other in the Bible capture the Christian life. They aren’t telling us how to be saved. Paul is talking to believers – “my beloved.” He is explaining how to live as a child of God. This is progressive sanctification. This isn’t justification. Justification is God’s work for us through Christ. Your sins were imputed to Christ on the cross and Christ’s perfect righteousness was imputed to you. God declares you righteous apart from any works of yours. Plus, God regenerated you and gave you a new heart to believe the gospel. You were saved, once for all and forever. God gave you this salvation by His sovereign electing love and grace and mercy. Now God’s salvation is in you and working in you to transform your life from the inside out. That’s sanctification; you are being saved and this is a lifelong process until you enter that Celestial City. Sanctification is God’s work in you and through you as you walk in obedience to God. You are being progressively set apart from sinful attitudes, words, deeds and increasing in producing the fruit of the Spirit. Your nature is being purged by the power of God’s Spirit and truth. If you are a genuine believer, you have been justified by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. Now you are being sanctified by the gracious power of God working in you. And you will finally be glorified when Christ comes to take you to His heavenly home.
Paul begins verse 12 “So then,” or in view of what he just finished writing. He told us in verse 5 we are to have Christ’s mind. That is we are to think as Christ does, having a mind of humility that esteems others as more important than ourselves. Though Christ was God, He humbled Himself to become a man and obedient as a servant to the Father, obeying all the way to that horrible death on the cross. That’s why God exalted Him and gave Him that name above all names. So, Paul now says, “So then, my beloved.” Paul is calling them to obedience just like Christ obeyed. And he wants them to obey now even when he’s not with them just like they obeyed when he was there in Philippi.
What does this obedience look like? Christian obedience is seriously and sincerely working out your salvation. Not working for or working at or working toward but working out your salvation. You have salvation; now work it out. And here is a most amazing truth tucked into one verse. How do you work out your salvation? Paul’s going to explain in verse 13, “For God is working!” You can work out your salvation because God is at work in you. Stop and chew on that for a while. The Almighty God, creator of heavens and earth, sustainer of all things, is at work in you. He is energizing you – energeo. We get our word “energy” from this Greek word. What’s He energizing you to do? He energizes you to “will” and want to obey Him. And then He energizes you to actually “work” and do what He wants you to do for His good pleasure. Ezekiel put the same truth like this.
Ezekiel 36:27, “I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.
Paul is presenting us with two rich truths. One, every believer is responsible to obey God. Two, God enables every believer to obey Him. You used to be a slave to sin but when you came to Christ your bondage to sin was ended. You still have the sinful flesh and are tempted like Paul in Romans 7, but you are now a new creation. Now God is working in you and you are called to obedience. Paul isn’t encouraging passivity, “let go and let God.” And Paul isn’t teaching a burdensome, wearying legalism to obey God in your own strength. He commands us to obey and then assures us we have all the power of deity needed to accomplish God’s will in our lives. Paul will say it again in Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me, or who infuses His power into me.” This is the true Christian life.
Paul clearly calls us to obedience. And while God empowers us, we’re the ones who obey. Disobedience is not acceptable in the Christian life. When God commands us, there’s only one right thing to do – obey! The very word obey (hupakouo) means to put your hearing under – to submissively listen to God with the goal of doing what He says. Do you have an obedient heart?
The Bible is full of examples of disobedience. I want to give you a brief history of disobedience in the Old Testament to highlight the importance of obedience.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF DISOBEDIENCE.
Remember Adam in Genesis 3. God says, “Don’t eat.” He ate and cursed us all with total depravity. In Leviticus 10 Aaron’s two sons brought strange incense into the tabernacle, and God struck them dead. God expects us to obey Him. In Numbers 20 God told Moses to speak to the rock. Instead Moses hit the rock with his stick and blew his opportunity to go into the promised land. In Joshua 7 Joshua told his soldiers, “Don’t take any booty from Jericho.” What did Achan do? He took gold, silver, and a beautiful robe. Not only did he and his whole family die, but his disobedience cost Israel 36 precious lives. What about that flaw in Saul in 1 Samuel 15? Saul was commanded to kill everything of the Amalekites, including the livestock. After the battle Saul announced to Samuel, “I obeyed God’s command.” Samuel responded, “Then what’s this bleating of the sheep I hear?” Plus, Saul let King Agag live. That’s when Samuel said, “Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice. Rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft,” and he went and hacked Agag to pieces (1 Samuel 15:33).
I’ve got one more example to drive the importance of obedience home to our hearts. In 1 Kings 13 God sent a man of God on a mission to declare God’s judgment on Jeroboam up in Bethel with his idolatrous altar. The man of God went up and did what God said. However, God also told the man of God, “Don’t eat or drink anything up there and don’t come back the way you went.” So far so good. As he was obediently returning, an old prophet met him and told him an angel spoke God’s word and told him to bring the man of God back to his home to eat and drink. But the Bible inserts for us, “But he lied to him.” Thinking maybe God changed His mind, the man of God went back with the old prophet. While they were eating and drinking the old prophet cried to the man of God, “Because you disobeyed the command of the Lord you’re going to die!” Sure enough, as the man of God was returning home on his donkey a lion pounced on him and killed him. His body lay there on the road, the lion and the donkey standing beside the body.
We could expand that list of disobedience even to the New Testament. What about Ananias and Saphira? They lied to the church leaders telling them they brought all their profit to the church from selling property when they had only given part of it, and God killed them. Know this – obedience is big stuff in God’s book. Do you have an obedient spirit? Is your life characterized by obedience to what you know of God’s will? God takes obedience seriously. When God tells you to do something, DO IT!
Now, let’s go back to our text and see three characteristics of obedience that pleases God.
YOUR OBEDIENCE MUST BE GOD-MOTIVATED.
Paul wants them to obey whether he is with them or not with them. They’re not obeying him, they’re obeying God. “Just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence.” Have you ever obeyed just because someone is watching? That’s what the Pharisees did. Manny told us Thursday morning that the Pharisees lived to impress one another. They prayed to be heard by men. They gave to be congratulated by men. They fasted to be seen by men. That’s hypocrisy; that’s not obedience. Their goal wasn’t to please God but to be honored by men.
This is what Paul is getting at. Paul loved these Philippians, but he knows it’s easy to obey and follow the Lord when the leader is there but how often have people walked away from the Lord when their disciple or spiritual leader dies or goes off the scene. It’s one thing to obey when Dad is present. The real test of your obedience is when Dad isn’t there. The Philippians were so excited when Paul was there and they had a great revival, but now he’s up in Rome. He doesn’t want them to cool down spiritually. Same goes for us. Don’t be looking back and wishing for the good old days. “My Christian life was really good but now I’m just hanging on by my eyelids. I’m not joyful, I’m not getting in the Word anymore, I’m not excited about God’s Word anymore.” This can happen. Who changed? God hasn’t changed. The Bible hasn’t changed. The Gospel hasn’t changed. Spiritual maturity is being a initiative-taker, a self-feeder, but not in a self-sufficient way. In my early Christian life a good friend, Ron Bergy, would spur my spiritual growth. He was finding stuff in the Word I didn’t see. God blesses us with people like that, and we’re thankful for all those who prodded us on. You may remember a great church where you grew like a rabbit. Everyone seemed excited. Then you moved. Things changed, and for you it was droop, drop, stop. Your obedience must not be slavishly dependent on strong or favorite spiritual leaders but on God Himself. God-motivated obedience.
YOUR OBEDIENCE MUST BE VIGOROUS AND SINCERE.
Philippians 2:12c, Work out your salvation with fear and trembling…
“Work out” are words that have caused much confusion. Roman Catholicism gets it all wrong here when they say you work to merit salvation. Other churches claim you can lose your salvation if you don’t do the right things. No, no, no! First of all, you can’t work out what isn’t in you. You can’t come back from where you haven’t been. You can’t get ice cream out of an empty carton. Spurgeon said, “What is to be worked out must first be worked in. An unconverted man can work nothing out, for there is nothing in.” We want to be as clear as possible – there is nothing you can do to earn salvation. Nothing. Salvation from the penalty of sin can never come from you. You can’t work and serve and be nice and read your Bible and get baptized and become a member of a church and give half your income and never use cuss words in order to be given the gift of salvation. Titus 3:5 says, “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us.” Your salvation cannot come from your righteous deeds; your salvation comes according to His mercy. Has God riveted that truth into your soul?
One Bible scholar wrote, “The text does not say, ‘Work to acquire your salvation; God has done His bit, now it’s up to you.’” Nor does say you may have salvation, but keeping it depends on you. Let me put it like this – the moment you trusted in Christ, God justified you and you were as ready for heaven as you’ll ever be. Nothing we do helps Jesus get us to heaven. He alone saves us. The word “work out” has the idea of bringing something out that’s already there. John MacArthur and others note how the Greek geographer Strabo described mining as “working out” (same word – katergadzo) the silver from the silver mines. The silver is down there; now they’re working it out. That’s it perfectly. You have all the wealth of salvation in you – God regenerated you, made you a new creation who has been justified, adopted, forgiven, and sealed with the indwelling Spirit. Now work it out! God worked it in; you work it out. It’s like getting married and living a married life. You don’t work out your marriage in order to get married. No. First you get married with vows said in front of witnesses. Now you are married. Now you begin living out your married relationship. Have babies and enjoy all the other blessings of married life. Get the horse before the cart.
Paul also says we are to work out our salvation vigorously and seriously. That’s what fear and trembling in verse 12 means. We are to have a humble, holy reverence for God. This attitude comes along with the salvation package. You used to lash out or swear or whatever and you didn’t care, but now you have a deep respect for God. You have a fear of sinning. You distrust your own strength in the face of temptation. You have a kind of horror at the thought of dishonoring your God. Jeremiah is referring to God’s future delivering Israel, but we can apply it to us.
Jeremiah 32:38-40, “They shall be My people, and I will be their God; 39 and I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear Me always, for their own good and for the good of their children after them. 40 “I will make an everlasting covenant with them that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; and I will put the fear of Me in their hearts so that they will not turn away from Me.”
Obedience is serious stuff. This isn’t a take it or leave it matter. God saved you to bring glory to Him by your changed and growing life. You take hold and get into God’s treasure of Scripture to find out what God wants you to do, and you start doing it. You aren’t coasting your way through your Christian life, going to church when you feel like it, reading the Bible when you feel like it, praying when you feel like it. No, here in the Bible are God’s instructions, His love letter to you. Open up this book and get to know your God. Don’t wait for someone to prod you. Take personal responsibility for your growth. First Timothy 4:7 says, “Train (discipline) yourself for godliness.” There’s nothing mystical about this. Some people are always looking for a secret key, a mystical shot in the arm, a zap from God that would instantly change them so the Christian life could be easy and successful without their effort. No, that is not God’s way. He is a personal God. He wants us to spend time with Him, read His Word, and learn to apply His truths to our lives. Jesus prayed, “Sanctify them through Your truth. Your word is truth.” We need to remember Thomas Watson‘s words, “God commands nothing but what is beneficial. There’s love in every command.”
Fear and trembling before God means taking Him seriously. Obedience isn’t a take it or leave it matter. Lot’s wife didn’t take God seriously when He sent them out of Sodom saying, “Don’t look back.” What did she do? She looked back and turned into a pillar of salt. While we live in the grace and love of God, we don’t presume on God. God means what He says and says what He means. We are to obey Him with deepest reverence and fear. “Well, I’ll start obeying when I get around to it.” No, God is a holy God, a truthful God, a loving and merciful God and a serious God. We obey Him with fear and trembling. Just like power tools. You handle them with respect to their power or you pay. Many years ago I was cutting wood with my circular saw. There’s a guard on that saw to protect you. I was trying to cut odd angles so I put a nail in that hole to keep the guard up, the blade exposed. But one time while concentrating on my work, I forgot the guard was up and nearly cut off my finger. I didn’t respect it, and I still carry the scar on my finger. Your obedience to God should be vigorous, sincere, serious.
“But the problem is, I don’t have what it takes to obey God. I feel so inadequate” You’re right. You don’t. But God does. That’s where verse 13 comes roaring in beautifully.
YOUR OBEDIENCE MUST BE DEPENDENT ON GOD.
Philippians 2:13, for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.
Here’s the reason you can obey and work out your salvation – because of God’s power in your life. Without God working in your life, you’d never have what it takes to obey Him. Let’s carefully look at verse 13. First, the verse begins with God. So God is emphatic. And notice, God IS at work in you. That’s now. If you are a believer, God is right now and will continue to be working in you until you lay down and move to your eternal home. You don’t feel God’s working like you feel an engine when you rev it up. You don’t feel or see His power any more than you see or feel gravity from the moon continually pulling the tides of the ocean. And here is the best news of all, God energizes your spiritual energy.
And what is God’s purpose in energizing you? Why is He working in you? He’s doing two things. He’s working in you to motivate your will and to enable you to actually do what He wants you to do. He energizes your will, your “wanter.” At one time you didn’t want to do stuff God calls you to do; you wanted to do stuff to please your own desires. But now your “wanter” has changed. He is energizing you to desire to obey Him. And along with energizing your will, He is energizing you to do His will for His good pleasure and He gets the glory through your obedience. This is the beauty of the Christian life. Calvin said this about God working in us, “This is the true artillery for destroying all haughtiness; this is the sword for killing all pride when we hear that we are utterly nothing and can do nothing except through the grace of God alone!” He added, “It is by the grace of God alone that we stand, and we will instantly fall down if he even in the slightest degree withdraws His hand.”
Paul already told us in Philippians 1:6, “He who began a good work (salvation) in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.” You have the exact same thing in Ephesians 3:20-21.
Ephesians 3:20-21, Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works (energizes) within us, 21 to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.
Colossians 1:29 ESV, For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works (energizes) within me.
1 Thessalonians 2:13, For this reason we also constantly thank God that when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God, which also performs its work (energizes) in you who believe.
You aren’t on your own in your obedience; God is in you. This is what the Spirit does – He energizes you. Martyn Lloyd-Jones relished this truth, “Can anything be more radical than that? It means every good desire, every Christian thought and aspiration which I have is something which has been produced in me by God. God controls my willing; it is God who energizes my very desires and hopes and aspirations and thoughts. He stimulates it all.” Put verses 12-13 together and you’ve got what you need to live a godly, growing, changing, obedient, Christ-honoring life as you feed your soul on God’s Word and prayerfully ask God to give you more of His inner strength to will and do what pleases Him. Go work out what God is working in!
However, here’s a caution. You’ll never be sinless or perfect in this world. And being imperfect doesn’t mean you as a believer aren’t fighting sin in you and the temptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil. What it does mean is that you are able to overcome sin as you depend on God. Don’t say “I can’t” anymore. With God’s power you can defeat sin in your heart. You can forgive others. You can say no to lust and yes to godliness. You can put off bitterness and anger and malice and all the other deeds of the flesh. And when you give in to sin, which every believer does, you then confess your sin to God and He is faithful and just to forgive you. Then you move on and get back on the track of obedience, living for His glory.
This is the true Christian life. If God hasn’t been moving in your life to will and do of His good pleasure, your first step is to humble your heart, acknowledge your sin, and trust in Christ as your Lord and Master, believing He died on that cross for you.