Work out your salvation

Acts 11: 1-18. It may seem strange to us that the things we take so much for granted about not being bound by dietary laws, or the universality of Jesus, still needed to be fully accepted even by Peter, and he then had to explain to other Jewish Christians the significance of Jesus after he had been convinced in a vision. The deciding factor in convincing Peter and the others was the gift of the Holy Spirit poured out on all people.

Revelation 21: 1-6. A reading familiar from funeral services. In this vision John sees the glorious future awaiting mankind. A new heaven and a new earth and God dwelling with his people in eternal bliss. This is the music of the future. In order to dance to it now God gives us His Spirit described as “water as a gift from the spring of the water of life”

John 13: 31-35. This text is sandwiched between episodes of betrayal and denial so stands as a beacon to followers of Jesus. The command to love one another stands as a continual challenge to church communities to model this, but it should help that even though our response may be wanting, we are always recipients of unmerited love ourselves. “ Just as I have loved you..”(v34)

The way we interpret the ministry of Jesus nowadays seem to suggest that it was always obvious that Jesus overturned the Kosher food laws and that his ministry extended far beyond the Jewish people.

But that only became obvious on reflecting on what Jesus said and did. The Biblical witness was written decades later whilst discerning what the Holy Spirit was telling the church.

According to the book of Acts, Peter - post resurrection - was still adamant that the kosher food laws remained intact and was far from convinced that gentiles were included in God’s plan of salvation.

It took three visions and an accompanying voice from heaven to convince Peter that all foods were clean, and there was strong opposition from lots of Jewish Christians to the inclusion of gentiles. It was only seeing the Holy Spirit fall on them and them speaking in tongues that finally convinced most of them. 

This is important for us because it shows us that revelation and insight are ongoing and continuous because the Spirit of God is living and active.

Certain things are set in stone – the life, ministry death and resurrection of Jesus are central facts but how the Christian faith is understood, interpreted and lived is a dynamic ongoing process.

In a poignant verse in Philippians 2:12 Paul writes “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling”

What salvation looks like as lived out by you will differ to ow it looks in other people.

How we work it out is by keeping close to God in worship and prayer and desiring God’s Spirit to work within you.

The result of us all living in Christ won’t result in a monochrome culture with us all looking and sounding the same – the Spirit will enhance and work through your character and likes and dislikes – so you become a better version of yourself.

Life in all its fullness takes into account your personality, and gifts and talents, your likes and dislikes.

You become more truly “you”.

Nearly all of us wear a mask when interacting with other groups of people – we are only ever really ourselves usually with our close family, and sometimes not even then, when we can let the mask drop and just be yourself. We often wear a mask when we approach God also.

But there is no need. God knows the true “you”, the you have become adept at hiding from other people – He knows your innermost thoughts.

The process of repentance, of re-orientating our lives is an exciting sometimes painful and unsettling process which means that the church is always in a natural state of flux, of change and development – an ossified church where nothing ever changes is a church that is not connected to the Spirit of God.

The thing that does remain constant is love. This is the commandment Jesus gave us as a church to embody so that we would be an example to the world by modelling a different way of living.

Taking the commandment seriously puts us under a certain amount of pressure. I mean “do we really embody love within the congregation?” is a continual and open question.

But if that pressure makes us feel a bit guilty and nervous, that is no bad thing - the Spirit is a disturber as well as a comforter - and those feelings should inspire us to re-double our efforts and we should rest easy that no matter how weak our response we can be sure of one thing;

That God loves us regardless of our response. Of course God wants us to respond but we are not judged on our response. Our response is a state of continual correction and refining as we attempt to work out our salvation with fear and trembling, knowing that yes we are loved and yes we are saved.