You Have a Part: God and the Believer Working Together
Drawn from the teaching of Professor Gary S. Maxey · 2 min read
Is holiness something God does or something we do? Professor Gary Maxey answers with a picture from farming. In his book on the Highway of Holiness, he describes a field of cassava, corn or wheat. God provides the sun, the rain and the dew. He creates the life in the seed and the worms in the soil. The farmer must still prepare the ground, plant and harvest.
It would be a mistake, he says, to think we do all the work. It would equally be a mistake to think God does it all while we sit passive.
Synergy
Professor Maxey uses the word synergy, from two Greek roots meaning working together. He says God and the believer cooperate in salvation and in sanctification. Grace is God's great hand reaching down, and we must reach out to receive it.
At the start of salvation, a sinner must hear the truth, repent, confess and believe. A sinner who thought he could be saved without any of that would be like a farmer expecting a harvest without planting a field.
Our part in deeper sanctification
The same applies later. Professor Maxey lists what believers can do. Continue in obedience. Listen carefully to the Holy Spirit when he shows an unclean area. Do not run from what comes to light. Speak the whole truth to God about it.
He then adds the other side. In the end, it is God who is at work in us, both to will and to do his good pleasure (Philippians 2:12-13). Purification begins with God, and our humility lets him do it. Ultimately it must be received by faith.
Gradual and sudden
He teaches that sanctification is both. New birth brings an instant washing. Daily life brings new habits and the shedding of old ones. He says there are also one or more crisis points of deeper cleansing. The answer to whether sanctification is instant or gradual is that it is both.
What this means for you
If you wait passively, you may wait for years. If you strive in your own strength, you will tire and fail. Do the small things in your control. Obey, pray, read and confess. Then trust the work to the Spirit and expect it.
Drawn from the teaching of Professor Gary S. Maxey.
