I sometimes jokingly say that the sentence “Work out our own salvation with fear and trembling, because God does it all for you” is Philip's translation of Philippians 2:11-13. The first part is correct, the last part more correctly says “.... for God is at work in you both the will and to do, His good pleasure”. In other words when we fulfill the first part, God is at work in our desires and in the wherewithal to do what needs to be done. The Philip in “Philip's translation” is me, not the J.B. Phillip's (one “l”, two “p”s in Philip) of the well known Phillip's translation.
The type of thing involved in “working out your own salvation with fear and trembling” is expressed well in 12 step programs – admitting (confessing) our faults to one other, making fearless moral inventories and acting on them, making amends etc. etc..
“So what has this to do with the title of the post”? It is this, the passage illustrates the trinity of helps I am referring to. The trinity is Bible help, self help and God's help, the essential theme of the book I am writing (see blog heading). In terms of self help, we do have a part to play, namely the radical turning over of our lives to God, and the obedience to His agenda for our lives. But this is not just “God as we understand Him” (as the 12 steps would have it), but the God of the Hebrew Christian Scriptures as we progressively come to know Him in and through His Word. Thus the help the Bible brings us is through its “teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness” (II Timothy 3:176). Then finally the help that God brings is not only the ability to do what we cannot do without Him, but also to work in us to want to do what is good and right and wholesome and profitable. This single verse however does not even begin to describe the fullness of the help that He brings to us in and through His extravagant healing love.
And this is a trinity, three interconnected helps that reenforce one another, draw us close to Him and bring peace and healing, purpose and fulfillment. In other words this trinity is a vehicle to bring us into the abundant life that Jesus promised to those radically connected to Him (John 10:10). This fullness is progressive, as we allow Him to heal our hurts, lead us into all truth, free us from the past and minimize and ultimately remove the diabolical influences that keep us stuck (see comment on this post). And the abundant life He promises will, if we have faith to believe it (Mark 9:23), permeate the whole trinity of who we are in Him (body, soul and spirit).
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These four problem areas are areas we encounter and need to address in any integrated Biblical inner healing ministry. They are expressed well and addressed in Chester and Betsy Kylstra's book “Restoring the foundations”.
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