Sometimes it causes me to tremble: The adventures of will and conscience, Part 2

So it's really a question of obedience (see "The Adventures of Will and Conscience, Part 1" below to catch up on why this is the question): To obey God, OR to obey the "perversity and obstinacy" within (a.k.a. "my sinful nature," see Rom. 7:15-25). And this is where the passage of Scripture from today's My Utmost for His Highest devotion comes in.

"Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose" (Philippians 2:12-13, NIV).

I looked up the Greek words that Paul uses for "fear and trembling." Did you know that he uses this combination of words in a couple of other letters also? I confess, if I've seen these before, I forgot them. Check out Ephesians 6:5 and 2 Corinthians 7:15 (and read the surrounding context if you have time too).

Paul connects fear and trembling with obedience in all of these passages (Philippians 2:12, Ephesians 6:5, and 2 Corinthians 7:15).

But, Alex, what does "fear and trembling" mean? And what is the cause of this concerned quaking? Those are good questions.

The word used for "trembling" has a different connotation than I expected:

"..used to describe the anxiety of one who distrusts his ability completely to meet all requirements, but religiously does his utmost to fulfil his duty."

Hmm.

So, when I work out my salvation with fear and trembling, I'm supposed to distrust my own ability to do all it would require of me.

And what did our salvation require? Just look back a little further in the letter to the Philippians, 2:6-11. Jesus' obedience to God required him to go all the way to the cross (2:8).

So I can handle distrusting my own ability to completely meet all the requirements of my own salvation. And Jesus says a lot about trusting Him, so this makes sense. We have to distrust our ability to save/deliver ourselves from the mess we're in if we're going to allow Jesus to do it. (If you're wondering what the mess is, remember the struggle for obedience described in the last post or Romans 7? That's part of it.)

But this doesn't remove the obligation that we have to religiously do our utmost, i.e. to live obediently to God's Word, knowing that Jesus has rescued us from this "body of death" (Romans 7:24). (In fact, we will one day have new bodies entirely. These will be like His glorious resurrected body. They won't be corrupted by sin, or "perversity and obstinance," as Chambers says. For more on this, see 1 Corinthians 15. Also, check out any of Jesus's post-resurrection appearances in the gospel and you can try to get some sense of what this new body is like.)

Maybe that's why Philippians 2:12-13 sounds a little confusing at first: "[you] continue to work out your salvation...for it is God who works in you..." We have to work out (how?) what God is working in us.

We'll give Chambers the final word for this post: "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."

All for now.