Holiness in life is the consequence of salvation. “He hath saved us and called us with a holy calling.” “Being made free from sin and become servants to God, we have our fruit unto holiness.” I admit that being born of God, and having received Christ as life, the principle of holiness is there (as all human nature is in a child of an hour old); but its conscious development and practical exercise is when the question of justification is settled. Desires there will be before, but ending in sorrow of heart, because the, desire is not satisfied: the heart is really under law. We must be holy; we feel that we are not.
Now at peace with God, and knowing that He who bore our sins is at the right hand of God (surely not bearing them now on Him, but sat down there when He had Himself purged our sins), we are sanctified by the truth, the Father's blessed word, Christ having sanctified Himself as man in glory that we might be sanctified through the truth. “Beholding with open face the glory of the Lord we are changed into the same image from glory to glory.” The affections of the heart are fixed on Christ as having so loved us and given Himself for us, and He is received into the heart, and we are thus, sanctified and grow up to Him, the Head in all things, His walk being the only true measure of ours.
And here it is that diligence of soul comes in, not in connection with redemption and justification. There is legal diligence as to that, but only to discover that we cannot succeed, not only that we are guilty and ungodly, which is the first thing, but that even if to will is present with us we cannot find how to perform that which is good; we first learn our sins in true repentance, and then ourselves, a deeper exercise yet. The former is treated in Romans i.-v. 11; the second in chapter v. 12 to the end of chapter viii.; in each part the answer of God in grace to our need being treated of. But supposing all this, there is still the working out our own salvation in fear and trembling.
Now it is perfectly evident that we cannot work out our redemption; we must, as the Psalm says, let that alone forever. Christ has finished the work and is as man at the right hand of God, because He has; and God has accepted it as complete. There is no more offering for sin. We have nothing to do with atonement; we cannot bear our sins, or we are lost forever. If we have a place with God, it is because Christ has borne them. That is settled forever. When He had made by Himself the purification of our sins, He sat down and is there continually, because all is done. But, further, we are in Christ, if sealed by the Holy Ghost, (that is, if real Christians), and we know it according to John 14.
Now there is no condemnation for them that are in Christ Jesus. Also Christ is in us, found in the same eighth chapter of Romans, verse 10. Now as to Christ's having wrought redemption, borne my sins, I being in Him, and He in me, there is no working out by me. Exercised and brought to repentance we are surely, if it be a real work so as to feel our need, but then to believe in a finished work, and to know if we do that we are in Christ, and Christ in us, and so no possible condemnation for us. Scripture is plain. By One man's disobedience, the many are made righteous; and to him that worketh not but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.
Where then is the working out of salvation? The Christian is viewed in two ways in scripture, (1) as in Christ, and therefore as Christ before God, forgiven all the flesh's sins, no condemnation, boldness for the day of judgment, because as He (Christ) is, so are we in this world, and boldness to enter into the holiest now. But this supposes of course, and evidently, that his faith is genuine. But (2) as a fact, almost all Christians (the exceptions are rare) pass through a longer or shorter period of exercise and testing. They are men on the earth, even if ever so truly men in Christ. There is no doubt that if they are really in Christ, Christ will keep them; they will never perish; none shall pluck them out of the Savior's, hand He will confirm them to the end, that they may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful by whom they were called. Still they are tested and proved in their life down here, and, if ever so truly born of God, have much to hear, much to correct, much to learn of themselves, and of God's tender and faithful love, and what it is to be dead with Christ to sin and to the world; more to learn of the fullness of Christ, and to grow up unto Him in all things. A child a day old has as truly life as a man of thirty, and is just as much his father's child, and the object of his tender affections; but evidently his state is very different.
Now the work of Christ completes our salvation as to redemption, and making us His own. All true believers will be like Christ in glory. On this scripture leaves no shade or doubt. The perfection of His work is such, that while his conversion and faith were singularly bright, the thief with no time for progress cowl go straight to be Christ's companion the same day in Paradise. And we read in Col. 1, “Giving thanks to the Father who hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light;” but as a general rule, there is the race, the wilderness to cross, which makes part, not of the purpose, but in general of the ways of God. And, as to the course here below, salvation is spoken of as the full result in glory when Christ comes again (a salvation ready to be revealed), as well as the accomplished work of Christ at His first coming; and the Epistle to the Philippians always speaks of salvation in the former sense.
There is very little doctrine in this Epistle, but a most full and blessed development of the life of one living in the Spirit. Now, in this our course here below, the proof of reality is just the seriousness which works out the final salvation with fear and trembling, for the snares and dangers are real on the way, though there be the promise of being kept through them. That does not hinder their being there. The force of the passage however is misapprehended. Paul, when present, watched against and met the wiles of the enemy for them. He was now in prison. They were still in the conflict, and had to fight the good fight for themselves. But if they had lost Paul, they had not lost God. It was He that worked in them to will and to do. But it was a solemn thing to be the scene of conflict between God working in them and the power of darkness, though the victory of Him who wrought might be certain. But He works in us, we are kept by the power of God, through faith. Hence it is a moral process in the human soul; it is a testing, proving, sifting, teaching, helping: we learn ourselves and God, though the result in God's hands be not uncertain. But it bears most precious fruit. It teaches and maintains dependence, gives the experience of the sure faithfulness of God—of One who makes all things work together for good to them who love Him. We learn not only to glory in salvation, and in the hope of glory, but in tribulations, and finally in God Himself, whom we thus come to know, who withdraws not His eyes from the righteous.
It is not a question of righteousness. As to justifying righteousness, Christ is our righteousness; but God's constant unfailing watchfulness over, and care of, the righteous. Further, so far as we have learned of Him, we manifest the life of Christ in our mortal flesh; we are set as epistles of Christ. But how is it to be manifested if we have not got it? Let the reader here remark that all duties flow from the place we are already in, and are measured by it. Child, wife, servant, whatever the relation, I must be in it to be responsible for the duties of it. To be responsible to walk as a child of God, I must be one, and moreover, I must know it.
The Christian, every true believer, then, is redeemed and in Christ, where is no “if.” But he is also in fact on the road to glory, and must reach the goal to have it. He has the promise of being kept, but he is morally exercised along the road in dependence, in grace, in watchfulness and diligence, the true proof that it is a reality with him, that he knows himself and the God of love and the snares that surround him. It is a place that belongs to one who is redeemed, where he learns the ways of God, and His faithful unfailing love, and His holy government; and he works out his salvation in fear and trembling, for he is ever in danger as to his daily path to glory, though he is dependent and counts on the faithfulness of Him who keeps him. Christ's grace is sufficient for him, and His strength is made perfect in weakness.