To Will and to Do

An encouragement for Christians

Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. ~ Philippians 2:12-13, King James Version (emphasis added)

"What would Jesus do?"

My Sunday school teacher took issue with this popular phrase one week and remarked, "You can't do what Jesus would do." I think I understand what he was getting at: We're not perfect, we're not God (or the incarnate Son of God), so we can't do exactly as Jesus would do.

But I still disagree with his assessment. Philippians 2:12-13 shows that the Christian can, in fact, do what Jesus would do. And numerous exhortations throughout Scripture suggest that God expects His children to live as His Son did (Matt. 5:48; 1 John 2:6, 3:3; 1 Pet. 1:15-16, 2:21; 1 Cor. 11:1; Eph. 4:1, 5:1-2; Phil. 1:27, 2:5; Col. 1:10; etc.).

I've been meditating on this lately as I read and study Scripture. Over and over, particularly in the Psalms, Scripture presents a strong connection between obeying God and receiving blessing, between keeping God's precepts and flourishing, between following God's ways and having abundant life (Ps. 1:1-3, 119:1-2, 128:1; c.f. Isa. 58:13-14; Luke 11:28; John 12:17). Abundance sometimes includes the material, and sometimes not; but the obedient child of God always experiences spiritual growth and blessings (Ps. 92:13; John 15:4,8; Rom. 2:7).

There is, of course, a problem: Obedience is hard. Becoming a Christian transforms a person from a sinner to a sinner saved by grace, not a perfect creature with the complete ability to do all of God's will without a struggle. Christians are described as being "born again" (John 1:13; 1 Pet. 1:3; Jas. 1:17) — and birth brings forth babies, not fully developed adults. Just as a baby has to grow and mature, so does the Christian.

But, just as babies aren't left on their own to figure everything out, Christians aren't sent out into the world without guidance. We have a Father in heaven Who wants to see us mature into the likeness of Jesus (Rom. 8:29; 2 Cor. 3:18; Eph. 4:22-24). And, given that the Bible repeatedly highlights God's merciful and compassionate character (Ex. 34:6; Ps. 103:8, 145:8; Lam. 3:22-23), it makes little sense to assume that He would set us on a course that He didn't also equip us to follow.

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The Reformed tradition has a tendency to downplay the full power of God's work in us and underemphasize the joy and encouragement we should draw from it as we seek to follow Him. In the Reformed view, man is often portrayed as utterly, completely, and hopelessly sinful — even after salvation. Citing passages like Psalm 22:6 (c.f. Job 25:6), where the psalmist describes himself as a "worm, and no man" (along with "total depravity," the T in the Calvinist TULIP acronym), many Reformed teachers paint a picture of the human condition that suggests no person is capable of pleasing God.

Isaiah 64:6 and Romans 3:10-12 are often cited to support this, but I disagree with the application. Isaiah is speaking of the nation of Israel in his day, which kept God's law outwardly as tradition but had no true heart to follow Him (Isa. 29:13, 58:2-7; Ezek. 33:31). The Israelites anchored their "righteousness" in practices that were meant to be performed with a humble and repentant heart, not as a matter of ritual. The act of sacrificing animals and sprinkling their blood on the altar should have caused them to think on the severity of sin and the holiness of God and turn their hearts back to Him.

Instead, the nation of Israel relied on their ritualistic approach to God's law as an excuse to continue in their sin. They figured that, as God's chosen people, they were fine no matter what they did. The rituals were enough to make them right with God regardless of their heart attitude (Isa. 48:1-2; Ezek. 14:3-8; Micah 3:9-11)

Paul makes a direct and severe argument against this attitude throughout his letter to the Romans. He goes to great lengths to demonstrate that ritualistic law keeping never could — and never would — make a person right with God (Rom. 3:19-20). By the standard of a holy God, there is "none that doeth good," with "good" carrying the sense of moral integrity characterized by perfect obedience in every part of the law. No work of man, no religious practice, no amount of prayers or human penitence can erase sin and produce righteousness.

Both Isaiah and Paul, then, emphasize that a person can't justify himself before God. We can't represent ourselves in God's court, as it were, and make a winning case. Perfection is the reasonable standard of a holy God, and sinful humanity will always fall short.

But, as far as I can infer from my studies, their conclusion doesn't mean it's impossible for a Christian to do what Jesus would do — to indeed "do good" according to God's standard. The author of Hebrews gave insight as to why when he states, "Without faith it is impossible to please Him (Heb. 11:6, emphasis added)." And again, in Romans, Paul writes, "With the heart man believeth unto righteousness (Rom. 10:10, emphasis added)."

When a person accepts Jesus as Savior by faith, he receives Jesus' righteousness, the very righteousness he couldn't achieve on his own (Phil. 3:8-9), and is legally declared not guilty of sin before God. Along with this, Holy Spirit regenerates the believer and makes him a new creation in Christ after the image of God in righteousness and holiness (Eph. 4:24).

And, since Christ is the exact image of God (Heb. 1:3), it follows that to be created after God's image is to be made like Christ. The old nature, though still present as long as the Christian is in the flesh, dies in the sense that the desire to sin no longer reigns. The Holy Spirit creates and empowers the new nature to overcome the temptation to sin and instead do what pleases God.

Paul's choice of words when he says God works in us "to will and to do of His good pleasure" (Phil. 2:13) bears this out. He uses the Greek eudokia, which means God's favor or will. Thus, for the Christian to will and do God's will means to live in harmony with what God says is good, right, and moral. As one commentator puts it: "[God] works in their hearts that which is agreeable to him, or leads them to 'will and to do' that which is in accordance with his own will."

The Holy Spirit working God's power in the Christian enables him to defeat sin, have spiritual victory over the temptations and snares of the enemy, and bear the fruit of the Spirit despite even the strongest fleshly desire to do that which is contrary to God.

It becomes possible to choose to do what Jesus would do.

My pastor drove this point home in a recent Sunday School lesson on Jesus' humanity. It's easy to get so focused on Jesus as the Son of God that we forget He also had a human nature. He was fully God and fully man. And, as a man, He faced the emotions, limitations, and temptations that every other human has faced since Adam and Eve fell into sin.

And yet, He never sinned. Why?

An argument can be made, and rightly so, that, being God, it was impossible for Jesus to sin. But that doesn't negate the reality of what He faced in His human nature. He got hungry. He got tired. He spent the majority of His time with people who were challenging, frustrating, and unreliable. People argued with Him (Mark 8:11; John 8:6), rejected Him (John 1:11, 8:31-43), and tried to kill Him (Luke 4:28-29; John 8:59), pretty much everywhere He went. He was tempted of the devil while alone in the wilderness (Matt. 4:1-11). Through it all, the physical and spiritual torment of bearing the weight of the world's sin on the cross loomed before Him. The weight of it burdened Him so much that He sweat drops of blood as He wrestled in prayer the night before His arrest (Luke 22:41-44).

But He never sinned because He always kept His focus on God and anchored His life in God's will (John 4:34). He regularly spent time alone in the Father's presence to seek strength and guidance. When circumstances were overwhelming, He reoriented Himself in prayer. And the same Spirit that was with Him is in every Christian. The same God Who strengthened and walked with Jesus, His own Son, strengthens and walks with every believer.

I find this encouraging, as should everyone who claims the name of Christ. We are sinners, yes, but sinners saved by the grace of a God Who never leaves or forsakes His own (Deut. 31:6, 1 Sam. 12:22, Heb. 13:5). And even as He asks us to do what seems impossible, He equips us to obey through the power of His Spirit and the guidance of His Word. He gives us the privilege of coming before His heavenly throne to ask for strength, wisdom (Jas. 1:5), and mercy (Heb. 4:16) as we face the temptations of life and strive to live like Jesus.

We will inevitably stumble, but He will lift us up (Ps. 91:9-11). No matter what we face, we will never utterly fall (Ps. 16:8, 37:30-31, 55:22, 62:6, 121:2-3). Whether we walk with toddling, uncertain steps of in our early Christian life or encounter circumstances that send us to the brink of despair and doubt in our maturity, He leads us in the right way (Ps. 16:11, 32:8; Isa. 41:13).

Proverbs 22:17-21 shows how to receive that leading:

Bow down thine ear, and hear the words of the wise, and apply thine heart unto my knowledge. For it is a pleasant thing if thou keep them within thee; they shall withal be fitted in thy lips. That thy trust may be in the LORD, I have made known to thee this day, even to thee. Have not I written to thee excellent things in counsels and knowledge, that I might make thee know the certainty of the words of truth; that thou mightest answer the words of truth to them that send unto thee? — Proverbs 22:17-21, KJV

God's Word — read or spoken — implants wisdom in our hearts (Ps. 119:11) if we seek to know it and understand it in all its truth. The Holy Spirit brings God's principles to mind and shows us how to apply them so we may live out His commands in any situation (John 14:26). God's Word also reminds us that He is faithful to do what He has promised, including giving us the wisdom, strength, and heart to obey Him despite the desires of our flesh.

So when we face a situation that tempts us, we can look to our Savior as our example and be confident that we have the resources to act or react as He did. We won't get it perfect. We'll mess up a lot. But our heavenly Father bestows on us the strength and power to choose not to sin. We can ask, "What would Jesus do?", know the answer — and do it.

This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. — Gal. 5:16, KJV

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Featured image by Marcel Strauß on Unsplash