You Ain’t Good Enough (KCBV)

By Kyle Blackwell

What did Jesus Christ die for on the cross? Did He die so that we can go on living the same old life as we always did? Did he die so that we could work our way into Heaven? Absolutely not! Our good works are nothing but filthy rags to God. Or, at least that is what the Bible says. There is nothing I can do on my own that will get me into Heaven. Even accepting Jesus as my Lord and savior does not get me into Heaven. I did not choose Him; He chose me. The passage I want to talk about today is sort of controversial. Well, it is controversial if you do not know who God is and the mercy and grace He offers. Philippians 2:12 states:

Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling

Now, the first thing I want to point out is that the verse starts with “Therefore”. This means that verse 12 is a continuation of what was written before. I love how the Bible was separated into chapters, sections, and verses in the 12th and 16th centuries. However, these sections within chapters will sometimes have us missing the point of scripture in its entirety. The previous section talks about being humble and counting others more significantly than ourselves. This is what Jesus preached during His entire ministry.

 Paul then goes onto say that you have always obeyed but I want you to continue obeying. In the same way that we must humble ourselves before others, we must also humble ourselves in both the Word and in prayer. When God calls us to Him, we go through a process of Sanctification. We are not automatically made perfect. Perfection is something that we will never see on this Earth. Just read 1 John 1:8 and you will find that nobody is without sin. Does this mean that followers of Christ are able to live as they please? Of course not. Read 1 John chapter 3 and you will find that the true followers of Christ will not live in sin. But still, this does not make them perfect. 

And now for the controversial part: “work out your own salvation”. I love this part of the verse so much because it says that we must work out our own salvation. We all want to work out others’ salvation. Right? That is the easy part. I can always tell someone, in a loving way, how to fix their life. The difficult task comes when we work on ourselves. The good part is that we do not do the work. Yes, God does require a willingness to change, but the work is through what Christ did on the cross. So how do we work on our own salvation? We get closer to the Almighty. We do this through both the Word and prayer. Remember what I said earlier though. We must approach God humbly. We do not pray and read God’s Holy Word because it is a duty. There are people all throughout this planet who read and pray, yet that does not mean they will be in Heaven when Jesus returns. James 4:8 states:

Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you.

The closer we get to Him and allow for change, the more His Spirit will indwell and transform us. 

The final part of the verse states that  we must not only work out our own salvation, but that we must do it “with fear and trembling”. I know that a lot of Christians do not really study the Old Testament because they feel that it is outdated. I could write about that for days but it will have to be another time. The truth is that there is so much in the old testament that shows the reverential fear that the Israelites had toward God. I think about even the simple things like God’s name. In the original texts, we find God’s name spelled “YHWH” . We translate this as Yahweh but we do not really know God’s true name as it is only a guess. Some people say that His name is Jehovah, but that is not true either. That name comes from separating the consonants of Yaweh and the vows of Adonai. I’m sure your mind is swirling now trying to figure out how this happened. You must realize that the Hebrew alphabet is different from ours and certain letters are translated differently. The main point is that the Israelites had so much of a reverential fear of God that they were afraid to spell His name in full. This comes through both respect and awe.

The meaning of Phillipians 2:12 is to make sure that we are craving solid food and not only milk. We must be consistently growing and cultivating our hearts. We must not be judgemental in others’ salvation. We must focus on our own relationship with God. I find it saddening that there is controversy in verses like this. While other religions speak of trying to be better in order to have a good afterlife, Christianity says that nobody will ever be good enough to make it to Heaven. Christ is the only way. He is the Way, the Truth and the Life. And apart from Him, we all deserve Hell. 

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge -Hosea 4:6