From DesiringGod.org…
Is Sanctification God's Effort or our effort?
Philippians 2:12-13—
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.
Jonathan Edwards writes,
In efficacious grace we are not merely passive, nor yet does God do some and we do the rest. But God does all, and we do all. God produces all, we act all. For that is what produces, viz. [namely] our own acts. God is the only proper author and fountain; we only are the proper actors. We are in different respects, wholly passive and wholly active.
(The Works of Jonathan Edwards, Vol. 2, p. 557)
John Piper writes,
…it is a good fight because we are not left to our own strength in the fight. If we were, as Martin Luther says, "Our striving would be losing." In other words, when a child of God fights for joy in God, God himself is the one behind that struggle, giving the will and the power to defeat the enemy of joy (Philippians 2:12-13). We are not left to ourselves to sustain the joy of faith. God fights for us and in us. Therefore the fight of faith is a good fight.
God's work in us does not eliminate our work; it enables it. We work because he is the one at work in us. Therefore, the fight for joy is possible because God is fighting for us and through us. All our efforts are owing to his deeper work in and through our willing and working.
(When I Don't Desire God, pp. 38, 41)
C.S. Lewis,
On the whole, God's love for us is a much safer subject to think about than our love for Him. Nobody can always have devout feelings: and even if we could, feelings are not what God principally cares about. Christian Love, either towards God or towards man, is an affair of the will. If we are trying to do His will we are obeying the commandment, 'Thou shalt love the Lord thy God.' He will give us feelings of love if He pleases. We cannot create them for ourselves, and we must not demand them as a right. But the great thing to remember is that, though our feelings come and go, His love for us does not. It is not wearied by our sins, or our indifference; and, therefore, it is quite relentless in its determination that we shall be cured of those sins, at whatever cost to us, at whatever cost to Him.
(Mere Christianity)
This is one of the topics that I’ve been thinking a lot about recently.
Real faith produces fruits. It’s obvious that this is true if you read the Bible. You have passages like James 2:22-25, or John 15. And it makes sense! If you believe and know who God is and who you are, I believe God’s love and grace would be irresistible; so much so that you would long to worship and serve Him. Out of worship for God, fruits will come.
I think it’s good for Christians to stop and reflect on their lives. Are you bearing fruit? Is your life transformed by the gospel? And for the past year, I’ve been thinking a lot about that in my own life. But it’s only the last month or two, that I realized that I had a complete wrong response to all of it. When I saw my lack of fruit, it wasn’t to Christ that I turned to, but to myself. I questioned my faith, my passion…. I looked to my own self and forgot to look at Christ.
It is in Christ that we have FREEDOM. Do we know what that means? to have freedom of sin?
I remember 1-2 weeks ago, I had a week full of assignments and a midterm to top it all. I was up late for a few days, and had to wake up early to finish an assignment. When my midterm was over on Friday night, I literally felt a burden lift off my shoulders. I was like “YAYYYYYYYYYYYYY, I’m done, I’m done, I’m done, I can relax and not worry!”
Do we say that of our sin? Is sin so sinful to us that we feel the weight of it? Such that when we realize that Jesus bore the sin of the world..OUR sin, and that He did it to free us because He loves us? Do we see how much GRACE there is?
I look to Christ and trust that He is at work in me. That in and of myself, I can’t do anything.
Yes, faith produces good deeds. But you can’t have faith, or love without first looking at Christ. Worship Him!
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