The Divine Exchange
How can we strive for a deeper spiritual life without falling into legalism or self-reliant, works-based burnout?
There is a divine exchange that happens as we combine our efforts to love God and expand His Kingdom. God does not want us to merely use the fuel of our own efforts to somehow work our way into sanctification, anointing, or intimacy with Him. On the contrary, the New Testament is clear that the Holy Spirit provides supernatural “energy” for us to put the word of God zealously and joyfully into action.
Is it the empowerment of God or our own endeavours that make us grow spiritually?
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Is it my effort or God's grace that leads to spiritual growth and kingdom advancement?
Yes! As explained in this video, we draw on the empowerment and the energy that God provides through grace to act. This is not like the world’s slogans of self-reliance and grit; it is radical dependence on the Holy Spirit and faithful obedience to the simple words of Christ. Philippians 2.12-13 tells us to “work out (energeia) our salvation… for it is God working (energeia) in you.”
Can you think of ways this God/you dynamic has worked in your personal history?
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Talk it Through
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1.4 Working from the Energy of God
Read Philippians 2:12 and 1 Corinthians 15:10 and consider what this means for your faith-life using the Discover, Share, Obey approach. Share your reflections in a paragraph.
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11 Replies
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It is only by the grace of God that I Have learned where he was leading me and why he saved me
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I agree with Darla. In the same way I lived in sin and addiction for many years and it’s by the Grace and energia of God I becoming the man I am supposed to be through him!
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@hope_dealer Thanks for this! God’s grace truly makes a difference in our lives.
Have you ever heard this quote: “There but for the grace of God go I.” This quote supposedly comes from a mid-sixteenth-century statement by John Bradford, “There but for the grace of God, goes John Bradford”, in reference to a group of prisoners being led to execution.
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These passages really speak to the mutual participation of us and God working together as we mature in our faith. While I am called and accountable to live for Christ, it is also God’s empowering Spirit and his immeasurable grace which are at work in me to live for him! Is it me working? Yes. Is it God at work? Yes! There’s a strong call in the Philippians 2 passage to live faithfully for Jesus, and the reminder in 1 Corithinas 15 that our striving to live faithfully is not found in mustering up our own strength and ‘pushing through’, but in relying and resting in the grace and goodness of God. This both energizes us and restores us. We are energized to live, knowing that it’s not based on ‘being good enough’ on our own strength, and we can also rest in the restorative power of Christ, knowing that God’s grace is at work in me.
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Well said @Nikolas
I often think of the old quote, Christianity isn’t a “do” religion, it is is a “done” religion. We work together with the Spirit not to prove we are saved, but out of love for what God has done for us. Somebody put it like this, “Grace is the root, and works are the fruit.”
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Wow, I had never thought of the significance of this passage in Greek before. Thanks, Sean! Great stuff! In my own personal life, I can only see from whence I came and where He has brought me to today. The amazing transformation that His energizing power has worked in me and continues to work in me. It is a joy to be alive–in Him!
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