Verse of the Day 6/3

Philippians 2:12-13  So then, my dear friends, just as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence, but now even more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. ¹³ For it is God who is working in you, enabling you both to desire and to work out His good purpose.  Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)

For ages the debate has raged within Christianity regarding election, predestination and our free will, our accountability for our actions.  I read the following quote yesterday from Charles Spurgeon who must have dealt with this topic over his decades of preaching God's Word in the late 19th century.

"There it is--man is a free agent in what he does. He is responsible for his actions, and truly guilty when he does wrong--and he will be justly punished too; and if he is eternally lost the blame will rest with himself alone.

But yet there is One who rules over all, who, without complicity in their sin, makes even the actions of wicked men to subserve His holy and righteous purposes. Believe these two truths and you will see them in practical agreement in daily life, though you will not be able to devise a theory for harmonizing them on paper."

The quote brought me back to a church that we were members of that had split over this issue this debate  (before we started attending).  I remember the ruckus that took place when the interim pastor announced a series on "John Calvin's Bible".  He ended up not going through with the series.  His intention was to try to settle the matter and to show what Charles Spurgeon is saying here.

Our call our challenge is to work out our salvation, to reason together with God and with others in these matters.  Not  to take sides, not to berate and belittle but to come to our own understanding.  We are to agree on the tenets of our faith and hold on in faith, persevere in the things that we don't understand or haven't yet come to grips with.

How they can be made to agree, I do not know, or care to know. I am satisfied to know anything which God chooses to reveal to me--and equally content not to know what He does not reveal.  - Spurgeon

In these areas may we persevere "with self distrust, serious caution, tenderness of conscience,... and timidly shrinking from whatever might offend God and discredit the name of Christ."  The Amplified Bible.

--   In Christ,  Mike    Folllow the Verse of the Day blog at http://mikesvotd.blogspot.com  Ephesians 1:7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins,  in accordance with the riches of God's grace.  NIV    

Philippians 2:12-13Amplified Bible (AMP)

¹² Therefore, my dear ones, as you have always obeyed [my suggestions], so now, not only [with the enthusiasm you would show] in my presence but much more because I am absent, work out (cultivate, carry out to the goal, and fully complete) your own salvation with reverence and awe and trembling (self-distrust, ^[a]with serious caution, tenderness of conscience, watchfulness against temptation, timidly shrinking from whatever might offend God and discredit the name of Christ).

¹³ [Not in your own strength] for it is God Who is all the while ^[b]effectually at work in you [energizing and creating in you the power and desire], both to will and to work for His good pleasure and satisfaction and ^[c]delight.