Good morning…
“God in stereo!” she emailed me after yesterday’s post, What’s The True Purpose Of Prayer?” She shared with me a devotional message she had just read, a message amplifying the process of metamorphosis, God’s Spirit gradually transforming ordinary people, like you and like me, into the very image of Christ.
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“Truth For Life Daily: Alistair Begg Devotional” August 9, 2023 – Work Out Your Salvation, Philippians 2:12
Every parent knows what happens when a child receives a gift that comes with a lengthy set of instructions. There the child sits, staring at the pages, trying to discern how to put the thing together. At that moment, the gift has been received; now the thing is to work out what to do with it.
When we come to faith in Jesus Christ, we receive salvation as a gift—and then we spend the rest of our lives learning by God’s word what to do with it: how to live as new creations. At times, we wish it were an instantaneous transformation, in which everything would become immediately apparent to us. But that is not how God designed it. Instead, the Christian life is a joyful—and at times painful—voyage of discovery.
And so Paul exhorts us to “work out” our salvation. He is not saying that we are to work for our salvation. He is not thinking of good works that we must contribute to gain or maintain salvation but about how we are to respond to the salvation that is already ours in Christ. He is not telling us how to be saved people but how to live as saved people. Once we understand that, we are in a position to act upon Paul’s instruction.
The call to work out our salvation is a call to consistency. Just as we called on the name of the Lord to save us at the start of our Christian lives, so we must continue to call on His name. This takes very ordinary, practical forms in our lives. We continue to come before God in prayer. We continue to gather with fellow believers for worship. We continue to hear from Him in Scripture. We continue to strive to walk in His grace, putting sin to death and growing in spiritual fruit. We work at the Christian life, for we remember that no one matures as a believer by accident.
…Today, you do not need to work on your salvation—Christ’s finished work has already secured it for you. But today, you are called to work out your salvation, so that it shapes you more and more.
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And now just as you trusted Christ to save you, trust him, too, for each day’s problems; live in vital union with him. Let your roots grow down into him and draw up nourishment from him. See that you go on growing in the Lord, and become strong and vigorous in the truth you were taught. Let your lives overflow with joy and thanksgiving for all he has done (Colossians 2:6-7, TLB).
God’s full time job is saving and nourishing, growing and strengthening. Our full time job is trusting Christ’s finished work of salvation, living securely rooted in vital union, letting our daily lives overflow with the joy of the Lord. We must diligently work at this Christ-centered life, for we remember that no one matures as a believer by accident. As God is creatively teaching us in stereo, the purpose of our prayer time is to gradually become more and more like Christ. Like newborn babies, you must crave pure spiritual milk so that you will grow into a full experience of salvation. Cry out for this nourishment, now that you have had a taste of the Lord’s kindness (1 Peter 2:2-3, NLT).
…Sue…
