But while it’s unmistakable that the Spirit is the sovereign agent of sanctification, that fact in no way contradicts the reality that He effects this transformation through the use of means which the believer must appropriate. God has ordained that the Spirit accomplish this glorious work through means. So when Scripture commands us to work out our salvation with fear and trembling, it is commanding us to make diligent use of the means the Spirit employs in effecting our holiness.

Yesterday, we looked into some baseline biblical facts about the nature of sanctification. We saw, first, that sanctification is a fundamentally internal and supernatural work. And so true holiness of heart is not something that we can accomplish directly in ourselves. Instead we learned, secondly, that sanctification is a sovereign work of the Spirit of God. The Scriptures everywhere attribute that work to Him.

But while it’s unmistakable that the Spirit is the sovereign agent of sanctification, that fact in no way contradicts the reality that He effects this transformation through the use of meanswhich the believer must appropriate. God has ordained that the Spirit accomplish this glorious work through means. So when Scripture commands us to work out our salvation with fear and trembling, it is commanding us to make diligent use of the means the Spirit employs in effecting our holiness.

Today, I want to look into what Scripture has to say about five of those means of sanctification—five means which we can appropriate, and, by doing so, put ourselves in the way of the Spirit’s sovereign, sanctifying work.

1. Scripture

First is Scripture. And I hope you would have expected me to start here. The Word of God itself is often hailed throughout its own pages as a means of sanctification and spiritual growth. In that “ground-zero” text on bibliology, Paul tells us if we want to be equipped for every good work, we must go to the Scriptures, which teach us, reprove us, correct us, and train us in righteousness (2 Tim 3:16–17). In Psalm 19:7–11, David tells us that the Word of God restores the soul, makes the simple wise, makes the heart rejoice, enlightens the eyes, and warns us from engaging in what is dishonoring to God.

The Scriptures are also likened to a mirror that reveals the true condition of a man in James 1:23–25; to a probe that discerns the thoughts and intentions of our hearts in Hebrews 4:12; and to a light and a lamp that guides our path in Psalm 119:105. And so the Scriptures are an aid in our sanctification, because they “disclose the state of the heart and point out the remedy for failure” (Thiessen, Lectures in Systematic Theology, 292).

And so it’s no wonder that Peter exhorts the churches that have been entrusted to his care to “long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation” (1 Pet 2:2). See? By the pure milk of the Word of God, we grow in respect to salvation. And no wonder Paul, though sorrowful over the prospect of no longer seeing the Ephesian elders, is nevertheless confident to commend them to the word of God’s grace, because God’s Word is “able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified” (Ac 20:32). And of course, we have the matter stated so plainly on the lips of the Lord Jesus in His prayer to the Father in John 17:17, in which He prays for you and me: “Father, sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.”

And so one of the ways we can be working out our salvation with fear and trembling is to be diligent and disciplined in reading the Word of God. And not just reading it, but studying it—meditating on it and ruminating on it throughout the day, submitting our thinking and our opinions to what we find in its pages. If we are commanded to be transformed by the renewing of our minds (Rom 12:2), we must saturate our minds with the Scripture by which our minds are renewed.

2. Prayer

A second means of grace that we must appropriate as we work out our salvation with fear and trembling is prayer. Now, the very nature of prayer identifies it as a means of grace, because the Father has ordained that His children receive the good gifts of His grace by means of theirasking for them. And He has ordained it to be that way because He is glorified by demonstrating Himself to be the all-sufficient fountain that meets each of our needs.

Jesus teaches that the gracious operation of the Spirit in transforming the soul into Christlikeness is obtained by petitioning the Father in prayer (John 14:13–14). The writer of Hebrews teaches us that prayer is a means of finding grace to help us in our various times of need (Heb 4:16). One example of that comes in Philippians 4:6–7, where Paul says that prayers of supplication and thanksgiving are the means of banishing anxiety from the spirit and bringing peace.

And so if we acknowledge that the work of sanctification in our own hearts is fundamentally a sovereign work of the Holy Spirit, we need to ask Him to do His work. We need to confess our sins, because He is faithful and righteous to forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9). We need to ask Him to increase our faith, to strengthen us against temptations, and to cause us to walk in His way. We need to do battle against specific sins that we face, praying that God would incline our hearts to Him, and that our various temptations would lose their luster in our sight (cf. Ps 119:37).

And besides serving as a means of obtaining divine blessings, even the very act of humbling ourselves before God and expressing our dependence on Him in prayer exercises the soul in grace. Fred Zaspel, quoting B. B. Warfield, writes,

“Prayer by the nature of it is a confession of weakness, need, and dependence. It is a cry for help. And ‘no one can take this attitude once without an effect on his character,’ for in it we learn to look away from ourselves to one higher and greater and acknowledge our utter dependence on God.”

Warfield eventually concludes, “What is prayer but the very adjustment of the heart for the influx of grace?” (The Theology of B. B. Warfield, 503).

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