Be Who You Are, Part III

DECLARATION WITHOUT OBLIGATION

"In contrast to these moralists, the libertine is the Christian who’s heard something of God’s grace in Christ but hasn’t grasped the fact that God’s grace, when it’s really there, will eventuate in a changed life… The grace of God trains us to renounce ungodliness, live temperate, godly lives, and in the life of his beloved ones he rules with sovereign grace, mercy and love. But we mustn’t assume that his grace trumps the expectation that we should be holy, for he is holy and his Holy Spirit indwells us. Yes, God is sovereign over our sanctification, but recognition of that truth doesn’t excuse us from zealously pursuing it.

KEEPING DECLARATION AND OBLIGATION TOGETHER

The imperative, “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling,” is framed by and anchored to the indicative, “for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” Let me reiterate that we must firmly hold to the truth that God’s command to “work” is impossible to obey unless he has already worked in us the desire to work—the “willing”—and the ability to work— the “doing”—but the command to work is there, nevertheless.

Here, quite plainly, “the work of God is the incentive for the work of man.” Pula doesn’t contrast the work of God with the work of man, but rather says that all our work is possible only because God has already worked in us. So, who’s working? Does God work or man work? The answer, in accord with the astounding logic of heaven, is a resounding yes. Because God has said that he has given us a new heart with new motives and a new ability to work, we are wholeheartedly to pursue holiness, always assuming that it is God’s will that we obey him. ..

This perspective frees us and gives us confidence in our eventual sanctification because God says that he continues to, by his Spirit, makes us both willing and able to do the good he has ordained for us to do. This is what it means to walk by faith and not by sight. My faith tells me that Christ is in me. I am assured that the resurrected, ascended Lord dwells right now within my mortal body, and therefore I have the confidence I need to continue to pursue imitation of the unseen Christ…

We can boldly pursue godly living because he has given us the grace we need to do so…

“But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.” 1 Cor. 15:10

Paul says that he worked harder than any of the other apostles. It was actually Paul who preached, who traveled, who suffered hardship. But it was also the grace of God in him that was motivating and energizing the work… Paul said that he “worked harder” than anyone else but he knew that it was really “the grace of God” that was working in him.

This is our hope, and it’s not some pathetic wish.

It’s a joyful confidence in his power to transform. In fact, he is so sure of our sanctification that he speaks of it as thought it had already happened: “We have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (Heb. 10:10, see also 1 Cor. 1:2, 30, 6:11).

God’s purpose in our redemption isn’t simply our justification; it is our complete transformation.”

- Elyse Fitzpatrick, Because He Loves Me