PRACTICABLE BECAUSE OF NEW LIFE BESTOWED

PRACTICABLE BY NEW LIFE

 

            In writing to the Philippians, Paul says, "For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to work, for His good pleasure." (Phil. 2:13). This state­ment occurs between two injunctions. The first has reference to personal salvation, and the second declares the duty of man in relation to the world. The first reads, "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling"; (Phil. 2:12) and the second, "Do all things without murmurings and disputing that ye may be blameless and harmless, children of God without blemish, in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom ye are seen as lights in the world." (Phil. 2:15) The declaration referred to brings both the positive and relative statements within the realm of practical possibility, "For it is God which worketh in you." This Divine in-working makes the human outworking easy, and simple, and delightful. For every demand made upon us as Christian men and women, there is sufficient, overwhelming supply in the communica­tion of Divine energy.

            "God worketh in you." (Phil. 2:13) This implies the actual presence of God at the center of our being. The very simplicity of these words renders them diffi­cult of understanding; for no man understands the complex and marvelous mechanism of his own personality. God worketh in you—not outside, but in—in the place where thought is born, and the throne of the will is set up, and the affections have their seat; in the inward shrine of the being God worketh.

            Put emphasis now on another word. "God worketh in you." He is there, not merely holding possession while we work, but also to:

"Direct, control, suggest each day,

All we design, or do, or say;

That all our powers, with all their might,

In His sole glory may unite."

            "God worketh in you." The value of this state­ment may be learned by inserting another word in place of "in." "For it is God which worketh for you." By this alteration the message is robbed of its power in a moment. To work for us, may be to work apart from us, without consultation with us. This is suggestive of duality, which is not always necessarily a harmony.

            Try another preposition. "It is God which work­eth with you." That would indicate someone by the side of us, willing, when the burden becomes too heavy, to help to bear it; willing, when the pathway becomes difficult, to come into consultation. This also is suggestive of dual personality, and perhaps conflict.

            "God which worketh in you" implies perfect union. God in you, creating desire, energizing the will, so that the will becomes, not merely as a poetical sentiment, but as a glorious fact, the Will of God. That is, indeed, the utmost glory of the Christian position—"it is God which worketh," not "for" merely; not "with" only; but "it is God which worketh in you."

"It is God which worketh in you both to will and to do." Two facts are here stated which are yet one, for willing and doing are always united. "To will"—that touches the inner life, the springs of action; "to do"—that touches the outer life, the streams of action.

            Think first of the inner, "to will." This word has within it the thought of active determination of what is to be done. Not determination apart from ourselves, but God in us, taking hold of our wills, creating our desires—sometimes through indirect agencies—giving us desire in a certain direction, affecting and molding our wills, draw­ing them into the avenues of true action, by His own indwelling. "It is God which worketh in you to will." If this be true, then the will, so created, must necessarily result in the harmony of our wills with His own.

            The work of God does not end here. "It is God which worketh in you to will and to do." As the thought of the in working God, willing, touches the springs of action, so necessarily the thought of God doing touches the streams of action. "It is God which worketh in you to will and to work." It might truthfully be translated "to effectually work." The suggestion is not of the doing that fails, but of the doing that succeeds: not of the effort that tries, but of the effort which

triumphs.

            This union of the purified will, and the energized life, is equal to the accomplishment of the double purpose: "Work out your own salvation," and "be blameless and harmless . . in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world." The poor, weak, paralyzed, sin-smitten soul rises into the dignity of a new life, confronts the future with hope, faces his enemies with defiance, and says: "I can do all things in Him that strengtheneth me. I will work out my own salvation: I will live the life which is blameless, harmless, without rebuke, because it is God which worketh in me to will and to do."

            What will be the result? "His good pleasure;" that which gives His heart satisfaction. If we shrink from that, we shrink from all the blessed­ness within the thought. "His good pleasure," the thing that pleases Him. Go back to the story of creation. When God had made the earth, and put man upon it, "God saw everything that He had made, and, behold, it was very good"—God's good pleasure. God was pleased with His own work; found delight in its perfection.

            There came a day when God could say this no more—a day when sin had entered. The sigh and sob of humanity began amid the trees of the garden of God, and the great surging sorrow of the race was born amid the hills of perfection. From then onward the heart of God was not at rest until, long, weary, and yet necessary centuries having passed, there came "the last Adam, the Lord from heaven, the quickening Spirit."

            If we would know the good pleasure of God man must be seen in all his perfection. In Christ we have the revelation of perfect manhood. Think of His perfection of tenderness, His beauty of character, of all the great overwhelming strength which centered in His sacred Person. In beholding Him, behold the "good pleasure of God." "It is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure."

            To make us what Jesus was, God works within us; and until that is finally accomplished, the heart of God will never be at rest concerning us: not until that moment dawns, which must come for all who put their trust in Him, when the perfect Son of the living God shall present the many sons whom He brings to glory, in the presence of His glory, without blemish in exceeding joy. That is the intended issue; that is the consummation; that is the crowning and the joy. A perfect sacrifice presented to the Father and brought by the perfect and most beloved Son.

            This view of life contained within vital Chris­tianity is a declaration of our possibilities. We are equal to this, because God is equal to it. We have nothing which we have not received; but we have received something in our creation which makes us equal to that. Before any being can reach the altitude of true success, there must be within that being the possibility of reaching the altitude. We are made in the image of the invisible God, with the stamp of Divine posses­sion upon us. Shall we not swing the heart's door widely open that He may come in, to work in us "both to will and to work, for His good pleasure?"