Results of Our Salvation

Hi everybody, It’s Pastor Dave at Word By Mail. Thank you for jumping in and joining us in another “Daily Journal” guide. We use the Alone With God journal to walk you through these meaningful, daily times alone with God. If you have an Alone With God journal, grab it. Turn it to a “Daily Journal” page.

If you don’t have an Alone With God journal, get one. Go to wordbymail.com and grab yourself an Alone With God journal. Then, use these audio guides to walk you through a meaningful daily time alone with God. If you don’t have an Alone With God journal, grab any journal you have. If you’re not a journaler – either way, grab your Bible. You’ve got to have your Bible for sure. I pray that you’re taking enough time with this audio guide to sit down with your Bible and, at the very least, really focus. Really give God one hundred percent of your attention—and, better yet, journal.

Turn in your Bible to Philippians Chapter 2. We’re going to be looking at the second half of verse 12 and verse 13.

Philippians 2:12(b)-13 (NLT)
12 . . . Work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear.
13 For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.

Work hard to show the results of your salvation . . .  You may have heard this verse translated in a way that makes you feel you have to work for your salvation. NOT true. Not true. Jesus did it all. You just receive it. This is not saying work hard to keep your salvation. We can’t work for our salvation and we can’t work to keep our salvation. That is all God’s part. We receive our salvation. But what the Word of God is saying is that we do have a role in showing the results of our salvation.

Let me give you an example. I do a lot of counseling, a lot of marriage counseling—a lot of helping people follow Jesus and have their lives transformed by the renewing of their minds. Often, I’ll give somebody something – let’s say, for example, on forgiveness. In marriage, we have a “God’s Design For Marriage” workbook that I wrote many years ago. And so, there’s a chapter on “Divine Forgiveness in Marriage.” I’ll give a couple that chapter, and there’s homework and everything. The goal is to dig in.

And so often, people will read through a chapter on some major truth, like forgiveness. And then, when I meet with them again, the same problem just comes back. The bitterness, the resentment, the refusal to forgive. And we’re saved people, we’re Christians, and we just read about God’s Divine Forgiveness. But then, a week later, a few days later, or even immediately, we can set that down and completely not live out – almost ignore, at least in our actions – that command to forgive.

So, consider that when you read this verse. Again, Philippians 2:12(b) says, 12 . . . Work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear. That means to be in awe of God. And verse 13 says, 13 For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him. So, let me read this “backwards” to you – I mean, read verse 13 first.

13 For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him. The Holy Spirit, if you’re saved today, is in you, and the new life of Jesus Christ is in you. You have been born again. You have the desire and the power to forgive because of the new life of Christ in you. But the previous sentence says work hard to show the results of that, obeying God with deep reverence and fear. And so, whether it’s unforgiveness or some other sin – and unforgiveness is a sin, guys. It’s really clear in the Bible because God calls us to forgive as we’ve been forgiven. (You can contact us, and we’ll send you much more information on “Divine Forgiveness.”)

But I’m just using it as an example to say just because we read the Bible or especially just because we go to church, none of that automatically changes us. But when we actually commit, surrender, crucify the flesh, draw close to God with everything we’ve got in reverence and awe of God, and we begin to work out our salvation – to work hard to show the results of our salvation – then, that desire and power that God’s put in us will actually begin to transform us. But we do have a part. That’s all I’m saying today.

We’ve got to dig in deeper. We’ve got to receive God’s Word. We’ve got to walk it out. Work it out. We’ve got to obey. We have to obey. That’s what this verse says. Verse 12(b) says, 12 . . . Work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God . . .  “Well, I obey God, I just, you know, I just can’t forgive.” Well, maybe you should reconsider. I know I’m being hard on you, but I’m being hard on myself too.

Listen, guys, we have to work hard to show the results of our salvation. And that doesn’t mean “work for,” and it doesn’t mean “work to keep.” It means that we have to get into a place where we are crucifying our flesh and allowing the new life of Christ to live in us. I hope this gets it across.

If you have your journal, grab it. Meditate. The first step is Meditate. Meditate on what “God’s Word is saying in these verses and what the spiritual principle is.” I just tried to share this with you.

And then Apply it to your life. That’s the next step in the Alone With God “Daily Journal” page. Apply it. “How does this apply to your life, personally and specifically?”

And then Respond. How will you put in the effort, the spiritual effort, the crucifying the flesh effort, the obedience effort? How will you put in the effort to show your new life in Christ and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in your life? The “Daily Journal” page says, “What action will I take today in response to this truth?” So, dive in. Wrestle with God about this today. Don’t just listen to me wrestling with it. When we’re done here, you set time aside. Just say, “Okay, God. What are you saying here? How does it apply? And what am I going to do about it?”

And then the fourth step is Pray. Write your prayer to God. So, I’m going to pray for you and with you, and then I am going to release you to spend quality time alone with God.

Let’s pray. Heavenly Father, you have given us all we need, Lord, in the knowledge of you, Lord. In the new life, as we know you better and better, you transform us from glory to glory into your image, Lord. We’re transformed by the renewing of our minds through your Living Word. We have the same power in us that rose Jesus from the dead. Lord, show us our part. Show us how we can put in the effort to show the results of the great salvation that you’ve given us, Lord. We pray. God, that you would speak to us on this matter today. In your mighty, life-transforming name, Jesus, amen.

Amen. That was a little hard. I was a little hard on you this morning. Don’t take it personally; just wrestle with God about it.

Listen, we love to help people be transformed by the renewing of their minds. We love to help people see the results, the fruit of the power of God living in them. So, keep joining us. Wordbymail.com is where you get your info. Download the Word By Mail phone app. Go to your app store. Search Word By Mail. Download it. And text us if you need anything at all. Text us if you need prayer (or if you’re angry at me for this devotion) – text us. (877) 790-WORD. (877) 790-9673. Text us for any reason, and join us again tomorrow for another Alone With God “Daily Journal” guide.

Love you guys. Have a life-transforming day. Bye-bye.