All Glory to God
John Edgerton
July 27, 2021
Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for God’s good pleasure
~Philippians 2:12
This is my favorite passage in the whole bible. I wrote a senior thesis on Soren Kierkegaard’s work “Fear and Trembling” which places this passage as the inscription for the inside cover. To me, it helps to remind me of something as a person of faith. Anything that I might do to further God’s realm, I am only able to do those things because of God. The power to achieve any Godly end rests not in my own abilities, but in God. And even if my own abilities play some part, God is the source of those abilities as well.
Most radically, this passage teaches that even my desire to do what is right comes from God as well. From root to branch to flower, I rely upon God to do what is right.
The life of faith is just that, a life built upon faith in God. From my will to do what is right, to the hard work of building the realm of God, the glory of any achievements I might reach goes exclusively to God.
On days when I am feeling puffed up, this passage helps get me get back to my own right size again. Because God is God and I am not. On days when I am feeling utterly deflated, this passage helps me get back to my own right size again. Because God is God and I am not.
Thanks be to God!
