Have You Been Working Out Lately?

Work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. (Philippians 2:12-13 ESV)

The Bible tells us that we play a vital role in deepening our faith. I call it “fitness for your faith.” Did you ever wonder why the Word of God contains so many athletic metaphors for growing and maturing in our faith? It is because our faith is like a muscle; the more we use it, the stronger it becomes. The opposite is also true; the less we exercise our faith, the weaker it becomes.  

D. L. Moody, the great 19th-century evangelist and founder of the Moody Bible Institute, shared profound insight into this truth. Moody wrote, “I prayed for faith, and thought that some day faith would come down and strike me like lightning. But faith did not seem to come. One day I read in the tenth chapter of Romans, ‘Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.’ I had closed my Bible and prayed for faith. I now opened my Bible and began to study, and faith has been growing ever since.” Spending time in God’s Word was the key that unlocked the door to Moody’s ever-increasing “faith fitness.”

Every time we read a passage of Scripture, we gain greater insight into both the Word of God and the God of the Word. As we read the Word, the Word reads us. This process strengthens our resolve to put into practice what we are learning. Never forget that faith without works is dead. Jesus said, “If you love me, you will obey what I command” (John 14:15). Fitness for your faith is the desire to do what Jesus wants us to do, when He wants us to do it, and how He wants us to do it. And when we mess things up, we must remember that we are secure in our relationship with Jesus — not because of our faithfulness to Him, but His unwavering, eternal faithfulness to us.

When the apostle Paul exhorted us to “work out your salvation,” he was not telling us our salvation is in jeopardy. Scripture is crystal clear on that fact; nothing can snatch us out of our Savior’s hand (John 10:28-29). Paul was encouraging us to actively pursue — to work out — our obedience by going to the supernatural Source of our salvation and our sanctification: the Word of God.

This is the Gospel.  This is grace for your race.  NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!