Dave's Diary

Daily Readings: Philippians 2:12-13 and Philippians 3:12-14

Every follower of Jesus has a wondrous privilege. We have been created in Christ Jesus to be a display of the beauty and glory of God. By His grace He has caused His own Spirit to dwell in us. From within us, the Spirit goes to work to transform us into the image of Christ, who was Himself the perfect manifestation of the glory of God. As the Holy Spirit tells us in 2 Corinthians 3:18 we are being transformed into the image of Jesus with ever-increasing glory. Praise be to God for wonderfully saving us from a meaningless life of ordinariness, into this great purpose of displaying the beauty and glory of God.

With this in mind, we can think about our verses from Philippians 2 and 3. Philippians 2:1-11 is a description of the self-giving love of Jesus (v.6-8) and our call to emulate Him (v.1-5). It is a call to display the beauty and glory of God like Jesus did – through a life of self-giving love.

Philippians then instructs us clearly in the effort we need to put in to fulfil our call. We are instructed to “work out your salvation with fear and trembling” (2:12), to “press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me” (3:12), and to “press on towards the goal” (3:14). These verses highlight the truth that, as people with free will, we will always retain the freedom either to cooperate with the Holy Spirit or to resist Him as He works to transform us into the image of Christ. The Lord wants us to surrender every attitude, thought and behaviour to His Lordship and to cooperate with His Spirit in every way and with every ounce of our energy and focus, so that we can be fully transformed into His likeness.

This great call and purpose can feel overwhelming, but the Lord Himself gives us both the desire and the power to do this (2:13 NLT). It is all grace from beginning to end. Even our own effort to cooperate with the Spirit is empowered by God’s grace. In his book, For the Love of God, D.A. Carson beautifully describes this balance between God’s grace and our effort: “People do not drift toward Holiness. Apart from grace-driven effort, people do not gravitate toward godliness, prayer, obedience to Scripture, faith, and delight in the Lord.” (emphasis mine)

Lord, today I commit myself to grace-driven effort and focus in my quest to display Your glory and beauty in this world. Amen.