“Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.”
—Philippians 2:12-13
The greatest gift God gives us is salvation in Jesus Christ. When we accept God’s gift, we have eternal life. But God doesn’t expect us to sit back and cruise through the rest of life. God expects salvation to be worked out in us for the rest of our days. The longer we live as followers of Jesus, the more our lives should look like His because of God’s work in us and through us. Sometimes this process of becoming more and more like Jesus in every area of our lives can be pretty challenging—and even painful. It doesn’t take long before we’re faced with areas in need of improvement. Christians still struggle with issues such as anger, pride, jealousy, and bitterness. While those sins are indeed forgiven because of what Jesus did on the cross, the effects and consequences of those sins remain. That’s why God desires that we deal with them constructively.
The idea of God with a chisel and hammer chipping away at our lives may not sound like a lot of fun, but such painstaking work is exactly what must take place for us to become the
people God desires. This process of God chipping away with a metaphorical chisel is known as “sanctification.” The Philippians passage (above) demonstrates that there’s a place for both God and people to work in tandem to fulfill the purpose and the pleasure of God’s intended relationship with us. God will continue to chisel His children; His children must continue to take responsibility by doing the good works that God already set up for us to do.
