What can save us from our murmurings and reasonings? In 2:12 and 13 Paul charges us to work out our own salvation, for “it is God who operates in you both the willing and the working for His good pleasure.” However, the matter of God operating in us may be merely a doctrine. When we face certain situations at home, we may not have the reality of the inward operation of God. Instead, we may be fully in ourselves. Nevertheless, if we are to experience constant salvation, we need to realize that this salvation is God Himself operating within us.
For years I was bothered by the fact that in 2:13 Paul speaks of God and not of Christ or the Spirit. Paul deliberately speaks of God in this verse in order to indicate that our constant salvation is nothing less than God Himself. However, there is a difference between the God revealed in 2:13 and the God revealed in Genesis 1:1. By the time we come to the book of Philippians, God has passed through incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension. According to Isaiah 9:6, the child born to us was called the mighty God. The One who was born in a manger in Bethlehem and who lived in a carpenter’s home in Nazareth was the mighty God. By this we see that the living God experienced human life. In a man, the mighty God lived among human beings for more than thirty years. Then for the accomplishment of redemption, He was crucified, entered into death, took a tour of Hades, and came forth in resurrection. Furthermore, our God, Jesus Christ, ascended to heaven and was made the Lord of all. Now He has the lordship, the kingship, and the headship. Today our God is not only the Creator, the Redeemer, the Savior, and the Lord. He is the all-inclusive One. The word God in 2:13 points to this wonderful, processed, all-inclusive God. This indwelling God is now operating in us. The indwelling and operating God is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Furthermore, He is our pattern, the word of life, and the all-inclusive Spirit.
This indwelling One is not passive; on the contrary, He is active and energetic, moving, working, and operating in us. The Greek word rendered operates in 2:13 means “energizes.” The English word energize is an anglicized form of this word. The indwelling God energizes us from within to be the source, power, strength, and energy for our constant salvation.
To be saved from murmurings and reasonings is not an insignificant matter. Apart from the indwelling and operating God, we have no way to be saved from these things. We also need to be saved from crookedness and perverseness. In certain ways we all are crooked and perverted. To be perverted is to be warped, twisted. It is not easy to be saved from these things in a practical way.
In Philippians 2 Paul refers to murmurings, reasonings, blame, guile, blemishes, crookedness, perverseness, and darkness. By contrast, in Romans 1 he speaks of gross sins such as idolatry, fornication, and murder. Actually, to be saved from gross sins is relatively easy, but to be saved from murmurings, reasonings, crookedness, and perverseness is very difficult. We may not commit gross sins, but day by day we are still bothered by the negative things listed by Paul in Philippians 2. We need salvation not only from gross sins, but also from sins that may be considered somewhat refined, such as murmuring and reasoning. If we would be blameless and guileless, we also need a constant salvation.
The only one who can possibly save us in this way is the Triune God who has been processed to become the all-inclusive, life-giving, compound Spirit. Today our God is such an all-inclusive Spirit. This wonderful God now indwells us and is working, energizing, operating, within us, looking for the opportunity to rescue us day by day.
When I was young, I heard only two aspects of God’s salvation. First, I was told that Christ died on the cross to save us. Second, I learned that, as the almighty One, He is in the heavens, able to save us to the uttermost if we trust in Him. For years I did not know specifically how the Lord Jesus saves us in a practical way. Now in the book of Philippians we see that we have a constant salvation both for particular situations and for ordinary daily life. The One who saves us is not merely the almighty One in the heavens; we are saved through the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ and by the inward operation of the indwelling God.
Today our God is subjective. He has become our inward supply to support us in any particular situation with His riches, all of which are now our portion in the bountiful supply of the Spirit. As we enjoy this bountiful supply, we are spontaneously saved from our particular situations. Furthermore, this Spirit is the God who dwells in us to operate within us to save us from the common situations of daily life.
During the years I have been in this country, I have continually ministered to the saints the all-inclusive Christ as the life-giving Spirit and the processed God. In Philippians 1 we have the all-inclusive, life-giving, compound Spirit, and in Philippians 2 we have the processed God. Today our God is no longer merely the object of our worship. As the processed One, He dwells in us. God is no longer unprocessed, no longer “raw.” Having passed through the steps of a process, He now dwells in our spirit for our experience and enjoyment. Hallelujah, we have the processed God as our portion! He is operating in us to save us day by day. Eventually, He Himself becomes our constant salvation.
Actually, the indwelling God who operates in us is the all-inclusive Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Because He is such, we simply cannot systematize Him. This God is Christ and also the Spirit. The source of our constant salvation is the processed God who is the all-inclusive, life-giving, compound Spirit. With this Spirit we have the bountiful supply, and with the processed God we have the inward operation. The supply and the operation are the source of our constant salvation. By means of this wonderful source we are saved from our particular situation and from the common situations of daily life. In this way we can be saved from murmurings, reasonings, crookedness, and perverseness. This is not a theory; it is practical and experiential. When we enjoy this constant salvation, we live Christ. We live Christ by enjoying constant salvation in our daily life.