IT’S UP TO YOU!

Greg invited me to get up and run with him early in the morning. He ran about two miles Monday morning and then about four that evening. He was up again the next morning to go run some more. I felt a little sorry for him when he complained about how sore he was, but no one made him go out to run. Besides I knew that I would feel even worse if I had done even half the running he had. Nevertheless when all is said and done, it is Greg who is getting himself into better physical condition. No pain; no gain! I will never benefit from Greg’s morning run unless I am get up and run with him.

Now before I lose half of you, physical exercise may be of some benefit. But we all need to pay the price and take personal responsibility for another kind of “work out.”

• 12 . . . Continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.
  Philippians 2:12-13 NIV

Some may wonder who is really doing the work out—you or God? Paul encourages us to work out our salvation, but then adds that it is God who is at work with in you. I for one am grateful that God will without doubt bring to completion the work He began in me (see Philippians 1:6). Yet God’s work is a lot like Greg’s morning workout. The only way I will benefit from God’s work is to decide to work together with God.

Your sin is yours alone and will result in your own condemnation. I may participate with others in sinful pleasure, but we will each carry the personal guilt of it. The only way to be set free from the weight of sin that we all carry is to receive a personal pardon, to individually repent of our sin and believe that Jesus paid the price for our sin on the cross by His death.

I must personally pay the price for my sin; I must die. Jesus’ work was to die in my place, to bear the punishment of my sin and yours. The work Jesus did need never be repeated. That’s why from the cross He said “It is finished.”

But God’s work through Jesus is only effective in my life if I choose to do my own spiritual “work out” of my salvation. When I die I will either be personally comforted by the assurance of heaven, or personally fearful of my damnation in hell. What I receive that day will be the result of my personal workout with Jesus. No one else can do it for me and no one else can do it for you. Yes, it’s up to you! What do you think?