Living the Confirmed Life
Philippians 2:12,13
Therefore, my dear 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 will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.
This Sunday two of our young people will be confirmed. For the last two years, they’ve been studying the teachings of the Bible in Catechism instruction. We’ve covered the Creed, the Ten Commandments, the Lord’s Prayer, Baptism, the Lord’s Supper and the Ministry of the Keys. We looked at what the Bible says about sin and grace, law and gospel, salvation and sanctification.
So what does confirmation mean? Maybe when you went through confirmation courses yourself, it felt like Confirmation Sunday marked the end of all this hard studying. You wouldn’t have to memorize any more Bible passages unless you wanted to. If you heard the question “What does this mean?” one more time you might explode. Confirmation meant you became a full member of the congregation. Now, you could take the Lord’s Supper. You’d finished!
Nearly 2,000 years ago, the Apostle Paul wrote to believers in Philippi, a city on the coast of Greece facing Turkey. He hadn’t spent a great deal of time in Philippi initially, although Scripture tells us that several people had come to faith in Jesus through Paul’s preaching (Acts 17:11-40). During those few days, Paul taught the people what they needed to know about Jesus.
But Paul didn’t want these Christians to stop with the basics of the faith. In his letter, he encourages them to “continue to work out [their] salvation with fear and trembling” (Philippians 2:12). What does it mean to “work out your salvation”? Paul, who by inspiration of the Holy Spirit writes elsewhere, “Since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1) isn’t contradicting himself by saying that we must strive to one day attain salvation. Instead, he calls us to persevere in this salvation through Jesus.
After confirmation, the opportunity to take the Lord’s Supper isn’t for us to prove that we’ve reached a higher level of Christianity. Christ has given us this sacrament for our perseverance in the faith. He says, “Take and eat; this is my body. … Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins” (Matthew 26:26-28). And he says, “Do this in remembrance of me” (Luke 22:19; 1 Corinthians 11:24,25). In this sacrament, he once again forgives your sins, strengthens you with the promise of life and salvation, and empowers you to live a new and holy life.
Not only are we called to persevere. We are also called to grow in the depths of God's love and Christ’s forgiveness. The post-confirmation life isn’t necessarily about adding more broadly to our knowledge. It’s about plunging the depths of the knowledge we’ve received. You might be surprised to learn that Martin Luther wrote two Catechisms. The Small Catechism and the Large Catechism. The Large Catechism also teaches about the Ten Commandments, the Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, Baptism, the Lord’s Supper, and the Ministry of Keys. But it does so in greater detail, sounding the depths of what this teaching from God's Word means. Maybe you grew tired of the question “What does this mean?” The whole Christian life is returning to Scripture with new perspectives formed from the experiences of life and asking God, “What does this mean?” The Word doesn’t change. Its meaning doesn’t change. But as we grow, its meaning continues to deepen for us as we work out our salvation with fear and trembling.
Finally, we are not alone in this call to persevere and grow. The Holy Spirit tells us through Paul, “It is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose” (Philippians 2:13). By faith in Jesus and his cross, God sends his Holy Spirit into our hearts. The Holy Spirit creates in us the desire to persevere and grow. He leads us on to carry out God's will. With his help, we can continue to work out our salvation here on earth until Jesus comes to bring us the full measure of his salvation.
This week, keep our confirmands in your prayers. Ask God to bless them with a lifelong faith that will endure until life’s end. Pray that God would give them wisdom to follow his will throughout their lives that he may use them for his purpose. Pray also for yourself, for your family, for this whole congregation, and for believers throughout the world, that God would lead us to persevere in his truth until we see the full scale of his salvation for us. Pray that many more would come to know Jesus and his saving work.