As he walked along the stream, the sidehill attracted Bill’s attention. He stopped and laid down on his stomach as he studied the formation long and carefully. His eye went up the slope to the crumbling canyon wall and back down to the steam at his feet and with a smile he muttered… Looks good to me. He picked up his pan and a scoup of dirt and dipped it into the stream. He began the painstaking and strenuous process of swirling the water over the sand in a constant motion, slowly removing it little by little. When there was nothing but black silt in the pan his eye caught the glimmer of a little speck of gold in the thin black steak around the edge of the pan. He repeated the process and found seven specs of gold. He looked back up with a confirmed eye, knowing there was gold in that sidehill and moved a little further downstream and panned once again. But this time he found only five specs and as he continued downstream the number continued to decrease until there was no gold to be seen… He was going the wrong way!
Bill returned to where he started and began to work his way upstream… and then it was as dozen specs, then eighteen, twenty and two dozen. But then the number began to decrease as he continued upstream until he was panning no gold at all. So he decided to take a sample from higher up on the sidehill and once again he got gold. He repeated this process again and again, crosscutting the hillside line by line. He began to realize that each time he extended his line laterally the results declined as he went higher and higher. It was like an inverted “V” as he moved up the slope… the higher he got the narrower and richer the vein. He now focused on getting to the top of the inverted V where he knew the the gold was coming from.
As he got higher he began to dig deeper and by the third day he was digging down three feet and carrying the dirt a greater distance to be panned. By the fourth day he was digging test holes down to six feet. He decided to try a short cut to finding the top of the inverted V and he guessed where it would be. But when he panned the results there was no gold. He tried it again and again but got the same results, so he went back down and began the slow process of crosscutting once again.
Slow an’ certain Bill told himself. Short cuts to fortune ain’t in your line… get wise. Slow an’ certain.
Jack London’s story of old Bill in All Gold Canyon paints a perfect picture for the bride of Christ as to how we must follow the “panning” directions Paul gave us in his letter to the Philippians… Slow an’ certain.
Phil 2:12 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling;
There are no short cuts for working out our salvation and we need to be very cautions of listening to those who say there are. Our goal is clear, just like it was for Bill. The apex of our inverted V is to become like Jesus…
Rom 8:29 For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.
We are to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit and slowly and steadily “work out” the righteousness we have been given in Christ. But we must constantly bear in mind that we are not working for our salvation… we are working at our salvation. Bill already had the gold, he just needed to uncover it and bring it forth. And we need to work out our salvation with fear and trembling because there are enemies. Bill found that out when the prize appeared to be within his grasp… he had to fight to get what he had been given.
And so it is for the bride of Christ. But God doesn’t expect us to work out this “gold mine” called salvation on our own, depending on our own strength, resources, opinions or initiative. That will end in nothing but failure as Bill found out when he tried shortcuts that led him away from the right path. God has given us His Holy Spirit to indwell us, fill us, anoint us and lead us into His truth. The question is, are we seeking His advice and are we being obedient to it when we have it?
It is only by working out our salvation to it’s one and only conclusion through the leading of the Holy Spirit that we will move toward the goal of Romans 8:29. And our “working out” has nothing to do with “justification” for that was settled the moment we believed. Our work has to be done in “sanctification,” learning to live the life that is pleasing to God by submitting to His leading as He transforms us into the image of His Son.
Slow an’ certain!