Philippians 2 – our Epistle Lesson for this week – is one of the richest passages in all of scripture. And I think it speaks to our modern Spiritual climate in ways that we don’t want to hear. We are all children of the Reformation. It doesn’t matter Catholic, or Protestant or None really. We have all absorbed a watered down sense of Grace Alone. We have absorbed God and the Spiritual life as one big warm fuzzy. God loves you and everything is going to be ok. Which has the advantage of being true. But the modern add on to that is the conclusion. So, you don’t really have to think or do anything about this spiritual life stuff. It has been taken care of. It is Grace Alone that refuses to confront the Sovereignty of God. It is Mere Christianity that is forever content to live in the hallway.
Paul rehearses the reason for that Grace Alone in Philippians 2:5-11. Christ, who was God – begotten of his Father before all worlds – did not consider that equality with the Father something to be grasped. Instead Christ took on the form of a servant. Descending into that state of humiliation all the way to death on a cross. Christ did this out of his own Sovereign Choice. He did it to free His Father’s creation from the corruption that had taken it. He did it to free you from your sins and eternal death. It is by the Grace of Christ Alone, and because of that every knee shall bow.
But Paul’s rehearsal of Grace Alone is placed within the question of how we should then live. From Philippians 2:3-4, “Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.” This was and is the mind of Christ – loving your neighbor as yourself – and should be ours. And it is here that the world we live in wants to walk a different way. It is completely happy with God as sacrifice for our benefit. But when the Sovereign starts asking that we follow, the world gets dramatically upset. It will take the grace, but living the faith?
Yet living the faith is exactly what Paul demands. He, Paul, cannot live it for you. “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence…. (Philippians 2:12) ” Nobody can live the faith for you. You yourself must “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12).” This is not a negation of that Grace Alone for this is “God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure (Philippians 2:13).” This is the necessary action of faith. His Grace is Sovereign. We don’t get to live in the hallway. You have been made a resident of the house. Do you want your inheritance? And like any inheritance you can compound it or squander it. Work it out.
But then Paul adds one more thought. While he – and we – cannot live the faith for someone else, how we live it is not meaningless. Even if it might appear to be fruitless. You live “in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain. (Philippians 2:15-16).” And we are probably familiar with that metaphor of light, but it is that idea of running or laboring in vain and what follows that hits harder. “Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all (Philippians 2:17).” As Christ was The Sacrifice for all mankind, Paul views his life as a sacrifice for the faith of those who would believe through him and be saved eternally. This is how Paul worked his faith out in fear and trembling.
We are not Christ, THE sacrifice. Nor are we Paul. But we do have the same call. To work out our faith in fear and trembling. To humbly consider others more significant. To have the mind of Christ among ourselves. To serve the Sovereign in the means and manner available to us by his good will and pleasure. That is a strong and meaningful vocation whatever form it takes. And one that should engage the soul – your whole person.
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