New Person, Old Habits
“Therefore my friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.”
Old Habits Die Hard
Have you ever caught yourself doing something purely out of habit? My friend told me about a time when he was still in training as a police officer. He had recently graduated from the training academy and was permitted to go on ride-alongs with a more senior training officer. His usual training officer was on vacation and so he was assigned to a sergeant.
Soon enough he and the sergeant got called in for a domestic emergency involving a knife. They sped across the city and arrived at the location of the dispute. My friend noticed that the street was particularly full and found the closest spot and began to parallel park.
His sergeant practically snapped her question at him, “What do you think you’re doing?”
“I’m trying to park…”
She looked at my friend like he was an idiot and yelled at him, “Stop the car, and GET OUT!”
You see, my friend used to be a DHL driver and so he did what he had been trained to do. He fell back into the old pattern of what his job used to be. My friend’s sergeant knew the most important thing at that moment wasn’t whether or not they were properly parked, but that they get to the emergency in time.
What Worked Before Won’t Work Now
Do you catch yourself doing that? Do you find yourself living with old habits and old systems? For those of us who believe in Christ, we are a new creation. This is why scripture tells us, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!”
We die to ourselves now and live for Christ. Another way to understand it is this: what worked for us before, won’t work now! When Paul encourages the church to “work out” our salvation it is not that we work for our salvation because salvation comes through faith, instead, we work out our salvation throughout every area of our lives, redeeming it all for God’s glory.
We can see this in the life of Moses, who grows up in Pharaoh’s household. Moses sees how his people are mistreated and enslaved by the Egyptians, so one day he goes and kills an Egyptian taskmaster. Pharaoh finds out about this and attempts to kill Moses, who flees to Midian. There he stayed for forty years as a shepherd. It isn’t until he is near his eighties that he is called by God back to Egypt to free the Hebrews and lead them in the exodus.
What Moses was doing before wasn’t going to work in the future that God had for him. God needed to work out the old Moses before bringing a new Moses to accomplish the purpose God had for him.
How you relieved stress before Jesus won’t be how you relieve stress after. How you handled conflict before Christ won’t likely work now that you’ve experienced forgiveness. We cannot let our faith be simply an internal thing. It must show itself in practical benefit in our relationships, our jobs, our families, and our communities.
My friend had the trappings of a police officer, but he still had the habits of a driver.
We have the righteousness of Christ, but we still fight the habits of sin.
Time To Start Working
So how do we do this?
Some of the practical things we can do to work out our salvation is through spiritual disciplines. We can practice disciplines like studying the Bible, fasting, practicing generosity, using your gifts and talents to serve others, and especially spending time with God in prayer.
How often do you practice spiritual disciplines? That is where the rubber meets the road. That is where the real work of transformation happens—the work of the Holy Spirit. When we lead with the disciplines, it opens our hearts to the work of the Spirit.
Let us take time today to pray to God, asking him for guidance so we can work out our salvation.
