There can be no mistake about the good faith and firm emphasis--as of a
man who knows his own mind, and _knows_ that his word is true--with
which the Apostle holds up here the two sides of what I venture to call
the one truth; 'Work out your own salvation--for God works in you.'
Command implies power. Command and power involve duty. The freedom of
the Christian's action, the responsibility of the believer for his
Christian growth in grace, the committal to the Christian man's own
hands of the means of sanctifying, lie in that injunction, 'Work out
your own salvation.' Is there any faltering, any paring down or cautious
guarding of the words, in order that they may not seem to clash with the
other side of the truth? No: Paul does not say, 'Work it out; _yet_ it
is God that worketh in you'; not 'Work it out _although_ it is God that
worketh in you'; not 'Work it out, but then it must always be remembered
and taken as a caution that it is God that worketh in you!' He blends
the two things together in an altogether different connection, and
sees--strangely to some people, no contradiction, nor limitation, nor
puzzle, but a ground of encouragement to cheerful obedience. Do you
work, '_for_ it is God that worketh in you both to will and to do of His
good pleasure.' And does the Apostle limit the divine operation? Notice
how his words seem picked out on purpose to express most emphatically
its all-pervading energy. Look how his words seem picked out on purpose
to express with the utmost possible emphasis that all which a good man
is, and does, is its fruit. It is God that _worketh in_ you. That
expresses more than bringing outward means to bear upon heart and will.
It speaks of an inward, real, and efficacious operation of the
Indwelling Spirit of all energy on the spirit in which He dwells.
'Worketh in you _to will_'; this expresses more than the presentation of
motives from without, it points to a direct action on the will, by which
impulses are originated within. God puts in you the first faint motions
of a better will. 'Worketh in you, doing as well as willing'; this
points to all practical obedience, to all external acts as flowing from
His grace in us, no less than all inward good thoughts and holy desires.
It is not that God gives men the power, and then leaves them to make the
use of it. It is not that the desire and purpose come forth from Him,
and that then we are left to ourselves to be faithful or unfaithful
stewards in carrying it out. The whole process, from the first sowing of
the seed until its last blossoming and fruiting, in the shape of an
accomplished act, of which God shall bless the springing--it is all
God's together! There is a thorough-going, absolute attribution of every
power, every action, all the thoughts words, and deeds of a Christian
soul, to God. No words could be selected which would more thoroughly cut
away the ground from every half-and-half system which attempts to deal
them out in two portions, part God's and part mine. With all emphasis
Paul attributes all to God.
And none the less strongly does he teach, by the implication contained
in his earnest injunction, that human responsibility, that human control
over the human will, and that reality of human agency which are often
thought to be annihilated by these broad views of God as originating all
good in the soul and life. The Apostle thought that this doctrine did
not absorb all our individuality in one great divine Cause which made
men mere tools and puppets. He did not believe that the inference from
it was, 'Therefore do you sit still, and feel yourselves the cyphers
that you are.' His practical conclusion is the very opposite. It is--God
does all, therefore do you work. His belief in the power of God's grace
was the foundation of the most intense conviction of the reality and
indispensableness of his own power, and was the motive which stimulated
him to vigorous action. Work, for God works in you.
Each of these truths rests firmly on its own appropriate evidence. My
own consciousness tells me that I am free, that I have power, that I am
therefore responsible and exposed to punishment for neglect of duty. I
know what I mean when I speak of the will of God, because I myself am
conscious of a will. The power of God is an object of intelligent
thought to me, because I myself am conscious of power. And on the other
hand, that belief in a God which is one of the deep and universal
beliefs of men contains in it, when it comes to be thought about, the
belief in Him as the source of all power, as the great cause of all. If
I believe in a God at all, I must believe that He whom I so call,
worketh all things after the counsel of His own will. These two
convictions are both given to us in the primitive beliefs which belong
to us all. The one rests on consciousness, and underlies all our moral
judgments. The other rests on an original belief, which belongs to man
as such. These two mighty pillars on which all morality and all
religion repose have their foundations down deep in our nature, and
tower up beyond our sight. They seem to stand opposite to each other,
but it is only as the strong piers of some tall arch are opposed.
Beneath they repose on one foundation, above they join together in the
completing keystone and bear the whole steady structure.
Wise and good men have toiled to harmonise them, in vain. The task
transcends the limits of human faculties, as exercised here, at all
events. Perhaps the time may come when we shall be lifted high enough to
see the binding arch, but here on earth we can only behold the shafts on
either side. The history of controversy on the matter surely proves
abundantly what a hopeless task they undertake who attempt to reconcile
these truths. The attempt has usually consisted in speaking the one
loudly and the other in a whisper, and then the opposite side has
thundered what had been whispered, and has whispered very softly what
had been shouted very loudly. One party lays hold of the one pole of the
ark, and the other lays hold of that on the other side. The fancied
reconciliation consists in paring down one half of the full-orbed truth
to nothing, or in admitting it in words while every principle of the
reconciler's system demands its denial. Each antagonist is strong in his
assertions, and weak in his denials, victorious when he establishes his
half of the whole, easily defeated when he tries to overthrow his
opponent's.
This apparent incompatibility is no reason for rejecting truths each
commended to our acceptance on its own proper grounds. It may be a
reason for not attempting to dogmatise about them. It may be a warning
to us that we are on ground where our limited understandings have no
firm footing, but it is no ground for suspecting the evidence which
certifies the truths. The Bible admits and enforces them both. It never
tones down the emphasis of its statement of the one for fear of clashing
against the other, but points to us the true path for thought, in a firm
grasp of both, in the abandonment of all attempts to reconcile them, and
for practical conduct, in the peaceful trust in God who hath wrought all
our works in us, and in strenuous working out of our own salvation. Let
us, as we look back on that battlefield where much wiser men than we
have fought in vain, doing little but raising up 'a little dust that is
lightly laid again,' and building trophies that are soon struck down,
learn the lesson it teaches, and be contented to say, The short cord of
my plummet does not quite go down to the bottom of the bottomless, and I
do not profess either to understand God or to understand man, both of
which I should want to do before I understood the mystery of their
conjoint action. Enough for me to believe that,
'If any force we have, it is to ill,
And all the power is God's, to do and eke to will.'
Enough for me to know that I have solemn duties laid upon me, a life's
task to be done, my deliverance from mine own evil to work out, and that
I shall only accomplish that work when I can say with the Apostle, 'I
live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.'
God is all, but _thou_ canst work! My brother, take this belief, that
God worketh all in you, for the ground of your confidence, and feel that
unless He do all, you can do nothing. Take this conviction, that thou
canst work, for the spur and stimulus of thy life, and think, These
desires in my soul come from a far deeper source than the little cistern
of my own individual life. They are God's gift. Let me cherish them with
the awful carefulness which their origin requires, lest I should seem to
have received the grace of God in vain. These two streams of truth are
like the rain-shower that falls upon the watershed of a country. The one
half flows down the one side of the everlasting hills, and the other
down the other. Falling into rivers that water different continents,
they at length find the sea, separated by the distance of half the
globe. But the sea into which they fall is one, in every creek and
channel. And so, the truth into which these two apparent opposites
converge, is 'the depth of the wisdom and the knowledge of God,' whose
ways are past finding out--the Author of all goodness, who, if we have
any holy thought, has given it us; if we have any true desire, has
implanted it; has given us the strength to do the right and to live in
His fear; and who yet, doing all the willing and the doing, says to us,
'Because I do everything, therefore let not _thy_ will be paralysed, or
_thy_ hand palsied; but because I do everything, therefore will _thou_
according to My will, and do _thou_ according to My commandments!'
III. Lastly: The Christian has his salvation secured, and yet he is to
fear and tremble.
'Fear and trembling.' 'But,' you may say, 'perfect love casts out fear.'
So it does. The fear which has torment it casts out. But there is
another fear in which there is no torment, brethren; a fear and
trembling which is but another shape of confidence and calm hope!
Scripture does tell us that the believing man's salvation is certain.
Scripture tells us it is certain since he believes. And your faith can
be worth nothing unless it have, bedded deep in it, that trembling
distrust of your own power which is the pre-requisite and the companion
of all thankful and faithful reception of God's infinite mercy. Your
horizon ought to be full of fear, if your gaze be limited to yourself;
but oh! above our earthly horizon with its fogs, God's infinite blue
stretches untroubled by the mist and cloud which are earth-born. I, as
working, have need to tremble and to fear, but I, as wrought upon, have
a right to confidence and hope, a hope that is full of immortality, and
an assurance which is the pledge of its own fulfilment. The worker is
nothing, the Worker in him is all. Fear and trembling, when the thoughts
turn to mine own sins and weaknesses, hope and confidence when they turn
to the happier vision of God! 'Not I'--there is the tremulous
self-distrust; 'the grace of God in me'--there is the calm assurance of
victory. Forasmuch, then, as God worketh all things, be _you_ diligent,
faithful, prayerful, confident. Forasmuch as Christ has perfected the
work for you, do _you_ 'go on unto perfection.' Let all fear and
trembling be yours, as a man; let all confidence and calm trust be yours
as a child of God. Turn your confidence and your fears alike into
prayer. 'Perfect, O Lord, that which concerneth me; forsake not the work
of Thine own hands!'--and the prayer will evoke the merciful answer, 'I
will never leave thee, nor forsake thee God is faithful, who hath called
you unto the Gospel of His Son; and _will_ keep you unto His everlasting
kingdom of glory.'