So here is part 3 of Catalyst Faith (Tom Cox) series of questions in his recent post "Time Out!" stemming out of Philippians 2:12.
QUESTION #3: IF WE BELIEVE “ONCE SAVED, ALWAYS SAVED,” THEN WHAT EXACTLY ARE WE TO BE FEARFUL AND TREMBLING OVER? IN OTHER WORDS, WORK OUT YOUR SALVATION OR ELSE WHAT’S GOING TO HAPPEN?
I KNOW IT'S LONG....BUT STAY WITH ME ON THIS.
We want to believe in the saying “once saved, always saved,” and growing up Southern Baptist I am no different, because it is nicer, it makes us feel better about our sin that we continue to live in. The danger of this saying is that it implies that there is no obligation beyond the moment of our belief in Jesus. It assumes that we can continue in our life with no alteration or even a desire for such. And left to ourselves, we are not really inclined to make change. This simple thinking of the Christian life negates any urgent requirement on our part to allow Christ to change us, to “work out our salvation.” To accurately complete the implied in this man-made theological statement, it should read; “Once you say the sinner’s prayer you are saved, and you will always be saved no matter what you do, even if you do nothing different in your life.” This is not in align with what Christ requires of us to follow him. So what needs to motivate us to change – to allow the love of God to change us? Fear!
Fear, drives us to change, whether its fear of terror or fear of reverence, the net result is behavior that is altered. Fear in Phil. 2:12 is describing a reverential fear of God, as a controlling motive of the life, in matters spiritual and moral, not a simple fear of His power and righteous retribution, but wholesome dread of displeasing Him.
It is a healthy thing to fear God. John Charles Selner’s book, The Teaching of St. Augustine on Fear as a Religious Motive, summarizes the theologian’s insight on fear, which apply across the board. “Augustine taught that human beings are designed to love, and the goal of life is to order one’s love so that it has a worthy object: God. There are four principle emotions that shape us as we pursue love: Desire attracts us to what we love. Joy accompanies the experience of love. Grief is what we feel when we lose love. Fear is the emotion we experience when we believe we may lose love.” Therefore fear is far from a negative emotion for Augustine. It is a God-given emotion to prompt us to love truly.
I think Paul is using fear to highlight the ominous circumstances of living outside of God’s will. However, fear is not a means to an end. Fear can temporarily cause us to change our behavior in order to avoid embarrassment, lose or injury. For instance, I may be tempted in a moment to view pornography as an escape from my pain. However, the fear of getting caught by my family or employer will stop me from doing it. It will not inevitably change the forbidden desire in me, but it prevents me from fulfilling that desire, at least this time. Mark Galli in his book, Jesus; Mean and Wild, says, “To be motivated by fear, however, is to remain in our sins, even if we obey God’s law perfectly – because our ultimate desire is not God but to avoid the pain of judgment. This is why the law cannot save. Though it can temporarily prevent us from fulfilling wrong desires, it cannot fill us with the love of God and the desire to please him. Only the grace of God can do that.”
What Galli and St. Augustine are saying is that fear comes before love. In this vein, fear must step aside and allow love to take its place. This is not something that happens instantly. Galli says, “While we are praying to learn to love God for himself, fear can motivate us to break with evil, to correct ourselves, to watch for the enemy, to begin to love the interior life. The closer we grow to Jesus, of course, the more we will be motivated only out of love.”
Thoughts?? Am I off?
