We are not finished products yet! (2)

Philippians 2:12-13 …continue to work out your salvation …for it is God who works in you …
In the previous instalment the emphasis was on refraining from being too hard on yourself when you sin. It was also emphasised that the right interpretation for the bad feelings that accompany our fall into sin is that we have the holy nature of God that shrinks from filthiness of the spirit and of the flesh. This understanding points to confession of sin and repentance of sin as the remedy.
It is against this background that this week emphasises the process of becoming holy. And this process of being made holy and righteous is called sanctification. It is this process that converts us from being raw materials into finished products. Philippians 2:15 reveals what a believer should be like when he or she has successfully gone through the processing mill. It reads, “that you may show yourselves to be blameless and guileless, innocent and uncontaminated, children of God without blemish (faultless and unrebukable) in the midst of a crooked and wicked generation among whom you are seen as bright lights in the dark world.” Such words as innocent, blameless and without blemish all point to the glorious and beautiful finished product.
But have you ever observed that when a thing is being processed its glory and beauty is hidden. For instance, if you judge the taste of bread at the dough stage you will not like bread. It looks bad and tastes awful. However, when you exercise patience and let the dough go through the heat of the oven, you will have a nice-looking and delicious-tasting finished product called bread. Likewise our process of becoming holy involves go through the heat of adversities, allowing the Holy Spirit to govern us, allowing the Word of God to renew our minds and taking practical steps to avoid things that defile the body and the spirit.
There are two main parties involved in the process of sanctification namely God the Holy Spirit and the believer.  At the moment of salvation, God imparts in us holiness. This is called positional or instantaneous sanctification. It happens promptly or instantly. This happening is entirely the work of God by His Spirit. Once positional sanctification has occurred the nature of the person involved is changed from being evil to holy. This is the meaning of spiritual rebirth. The person who was dead spiritually suddenly becomes alive. His or her spirit begins to desire communication and fellowship with God. And the desire to live a holy and righteous life is planted in the spirit of that person. It is important to note at this juncture that all this work of positional sanctification is accomplished by the Spirit of God and it takes place in the spirit of man called the inner man. Our opening scripture says that it is God who works in us. God is at work in us to cause us to will and to do what pleases Him.  So the inner work is God’s work.
Progress sanctification, however, requires human involvement. God starts the process of sanctification by changing our inner nature from being evil to holy and He plants in us the desire to will and to do. Now it is our duty to work out what God works in. Our key text admonishes us ‘to work out our salvation with fear and trembling.” Working out our salvation means taking practical steps to be right and to do what is right. Good examples of working out our salvation include putting God’s word into practice, choosing to do God’s will instead of pleasing Satan, obeying the Holy Spirit when He leads and guides us. Practising righteousness involves avoiding things that displease God like idle words and foolish talking and consciously refusing to gratify the desires of the flesh.
As you can see, our processing into finished products takes a long time, so take it step by step. However, believers who commit to walking by the Spirit’s guidance and putting into practice God’s word grow faster into maturity than those who neither cooperate with the Holy Spirit nor try to live according to God’s word.
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