Whole-Souled Engagement

Pastor Martin completes his treatment of agency in progressive sanctification by showing that the believer himself, as a new man in Christ, is also an active agent. He surveys the general teaching of Scripture (Matthew 5, Matthew 26, Romans 8, 2 Corinthians 7, 1 John 3, 2 Corinthians 3:18, 2 Peter 1) and then expounds Philippians 2:12-13 as the pivotal text that epitomizes the whole biblical doctrine: God works in us both to will and to do, and therefore we work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. He warns equally against sanctification by naked human effort and sanctification by the negation of human effort, insisting that God's working and our working are concurrent realities, neither negating the other.