Was That Me or God?
“Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.”
These two verses are highly important verses in the Bible. They are important for understanding how God’s sovereignty relates to man’s responsibility. I remember talking to a friend after I was leading praise at my old Christian Union. He was giving me a compliment saying I had done a good job that particular evening. I suppose around that time I was thinking a lot about God’s complete sovereignty over creation, and at the time didn’t know how to respond, I was probably thinking of how it is all God’s grace that I am able to breath never mind sing. So, could I actually receive this compliment, was it me who did a good job, or was it God?
Many Christians struggle with the question, ‘was that me or God?’. And it is because they don’t understand that there is a relationship between God’s sovereignty and human responsibility, if I responded to the person “oh no that wasn’t me that was God”, well surely that means I think everybody in the meeting that evening just heard God singing, somehow, I don’t think that was on anybody’s mind. However, if I responded, “oh thank you, it was all me up there, raw talent”. The person giving me a compliment would be thinking I am an arrogant prig. Both of these responses fall very far short of the truth.
Was it me or God? The answer is, yes. It was 100% God and 100% me. There are many paradoxes in Christian doctrine and this is one of them, “work out your own salvation… for it is God working in you”. Now Paul isn’t talking about receiving compliments, but he is talking about obedience in the Christian life. The end of verse 13 is very important, we would probably be satisfied with him ending the verse with, “for it is God working in you” but he doesn’t finish there he goes on, “both to will and to work for his good pleasure”.
Let me talk about a couple of passages which may help us to understand how God affects our will, and our work. Firstly, 2 Corinthians 2:8
“But thanks be to God, who put into the heart of Titus the same earnest care I have for you. For he not only accepted our appeal, but being himself very earnest he is going to you of his own accord.”
So, God put this earnest care into the heart of Titus, causing him to go to Corinth. So it was God affecting his willingness to care for them and to go to them, and it was Titus who cared for them and went to them. And another verse, Colossians 1:29,
“For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.”
So, Paul is struggling - exerting effort - but he is doing that in the energy God has given him or worked in him. God is working in him, and he is doing the work.
So, God is working in our hearts, affecting our will, and he is giving us the strength we need to act upon our will, it is all God’s sovereign grace yet we are the ones who are willing, and we are the ones who are doing the work in God’s strength.
To take it back to this passage, when we desire to obey God, and do obey God, that is 100% God working in us, and it is 100% us willing and working, this is a mystery to me, but it causes me to rejoice in a gracious and sovereign God, and it causes me to sit up and take obedience seriously for I am responsible for my own actions.
May we long for God to work in us putting it in our hearts to obey him and giving us the strength to obey him so that we can obey him.
