A Biblical Theology of Philippians 2:12-13; Why Paul is not Synergistic in our Salvation by Grace through Faith

Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. — Philippians 2:12-13

Over the years, many Christians have cited Philippians 2:12-13 -- “Work out your salvation with fear and trembling” – to make the argument that “Oh yes, here is where the apostle Paul diminishes divine sovereignty in favor of human responsibility in our salvation. You do your part, God does his part.”

Given all that we know about the apostle Paul’s theology, that interpretation would be a surprising departure from the rest of his theology. Is there human responsibility before God? Yes. We are all responsible for our sin!

  • “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands, no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” (Rom 3:10b-12)

  • "For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil". (2 Cor 5:10)

Therefore, here are 10 distinct reasons why “you do your part, God does his part” as you earn your own salvation is a misinterpretation of Pauline theology in general and Philippians 2:12-13 in particular.

Reason #1: Paul is not saying: “Work toward your salvation.” Or, “Work for your salvation.” Paul is encouraging you: Work out your salvation. That is a huge difference! Paul is talking about the process of sanctification – of growing in grace & holiness — not a matter of justification whereby you might earn your salvation by working for it.

Reason #2: Paul is not of two minds. Only a few verses earlier, Paul clearly and unequivocally writes: “This is a clear sign…of your salvation, and that from God.” (Phil. 1:28)

Reason #3: Paul is consistent throughout the epistle to the Philippians: In chapter 3, Paul denies any possibility of earning righteousness by working and obeying the law. Paul declares: “not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith.” (Phil 3:9)

Reason #4: Faith is a gift of God. Paul admonishes the Ephesian Christians: do not even make your faith a “work”. Paul calls faith a gift given to you by God: For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. (Eph 2:8-9).

Reason #5:  Paul is in agreement with the prophet Jonah: “Salvation belongs to the Lord!” (Jonah 2:9). I trust the witness of anyone who miraculously gets vomited out of a fish by a sovereign God!

Reason #6: Paul is in agreement the apostle John: John describes children of God “who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.”( John 1:13)

Reason #7: Paul is consistent throughout his theology. Paul writes his younger protégé Timothy about the God “who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began” (2 Timothy 1:9).

Reason #8: A dead person cannot “choose” anything, let alone God. A person in a casket no longer has any “choice” left in life. This is our condition apart from the saving act of God in regeneration. As Paul says, “You were dead in your trespasses and sins.” (Eph 2:1)

Reason #9: Obedience is the Pauline call to the Philippian believers directly after the Christ hymn (“my beloved, as you have always obeyed…,” Phil 2:12). Paul is saying; “Embrace Christ’s pattern of life based on his example in the Christ hymn (Phil 2:6-11). Don’t merely be spectators of Christ’s humble obedience, walk it out in your own life. Thus, “obedience” fits into the overall Pauline meaning of the passage, like he admonished the Philippians earlier: “Walk in a manner worthy of Christ (1:27). Paul is not suddenly talking about working “for” your salvation in Philippians 2:12-13. The imperative is “work out” your salvation by simple and humble obedience to Christ who Paul has set before them.

After admonishing the believers to walk in a manner worthy of Christ, it surely would be jarring if Paul suddenly decided to thrust them back on themselves in a way that would produce pride that they, in fact, are the ones working “for” their salvation.

Reason #10: God gets all the glory in your salvation. Not you. Paul admits no boasting before God in your salvation. DeYoung writes: “If we contribute or cooperate in any way in our regeneration, then we can be proud of contributing some small part to our salvation, of which Paul says, ‘But far be it from be to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.’” (Gal. 6:14)

So here is how not to interpret Phil 2:12-13:  

“Oh, the apostle of the free grace of God suddenly is retracting his gospel that God justifies by grace through faith and now is talking about your contribution in working for your salvation. Paul even adds “with fear and trembling” because he wants to make salvation a point of ‘nervous insecurity’ in your life. Indeed, you now ride on the spiritual roller coaster of emotions because your Christian life (after joyously coming to Christ) is ALL UP TO YOU: self-satisfaction with yourself when “you get it right” and self-condemnation when you “get it wrong”. I guess this is just the Christian life.”(1)

Better to “Fall on Grace” and “Fall on Humility” because Philippians 2:13 literally reads: “For God is the working one.” God promises to work powerfully in your life by faith, by the Holy Spirit, by the Word of God, and by the fellowship of believers. For God is the working one! This is such good news!

God does not stand back and say: “Hey pal, The Cross! The Resurrection! I’ve done my part. What more do you want? Now it’s up to you!” That is not God’s heart, and that is not the biblical vision of the Christian life. God is always the working one in our initial salvation and throughout our lives in our sanctification.

*****

“The work of God in regeneration is monergistic (by the one working) not synergistic (by a work of cooperation). That is to say, regeneration is God’s work and his alone. Being dead in our sins and trespasses, we are passive, helpless, acted upon in the new birth, rather than working jointly with God. The Reformed confessions all reject the synergism of the [Roman Catholic] Council of Trent whereby the will is said to be “excited and assisted” by divine grace…We are not mostly dead; we are all the way dead.

Given the monergistic nature of the new birth, we must also conclude that regeneration precedes faith. We don’t believe unto new life; we are given new life that we may believe….In the miracle of regeneration, we bring nothing and do nothing. That’s why Paul likens regeneration to a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17) and to a resurrection (Col. 2:12).”

– Kevin DeYoung, Daily Doctrine

(1) Paraphrase by Jason Carter & Dennis Johnson in Philippians: Reformed Expository Commentary.

Jason Carter
Atheistic Arguments Put to the Fire

Apologetics is having a cultural moment.

Apologetics is a reasoned defense of the Christian faith, derived from the Greek word apologia, meaning a “formal defense or reply”. Apologists provide rational and evidence-based objections to various objections against Christianity — such as the existence of God, the reliability of the Bible, the problem of evil, and the resurrection of Jesus.

Twenty-first century apologists have found a comfortable niche on media platforms like Youtube and are even making the rounds of uber-popular secular podcasts. Conversations about the origins of the universe, the reliability of the Bible, and the ultimate meaning of life seem to be back in the consciousness of mainstream western culture.

#1: Wes Huff

Wes Huff

Wes Huff (left) has appeared on the #1 Podcast in the World (The Joe Rogan Experience).

Wes Huff is a Canadian biblical scholar and vice-president of Apologetics Canada and has been featured on The Joe Rogan Experience (The #1 Podcast in the world) and featured on The Diary of a CEO.

Wes Huff has appeared on the popular “Diary of a CEO” podcast with Steven Bartlett. You can listen here.

On the Wes Huff website, he has a series of excellent videos entitled “Can I Trust the Bible”?

  • Episode #1: The Right Books

  • Episode #2: The Right Text

  • Plus Q & A Videos about the Bible

Wes Huff appears with John Lovell in a program entitled “Top 7 Atheist Arguments Debunked”. For the last 30 minutes, Wes Huff provides succinct answers to some of the biggest objections to Christianity in a very helpful way (best to begin at the 31 minute mark).

#2: William Lane Craig @ Reasonable Faith

The Fine Tuning of the Universe by William Lane Craig’s “Reasonable Faith” ministry is a succinct, pithy, and convincing argument for theism. The Fine Tuning argument is often conceded by atheist-scientists as one of the more difficult theistic arguments to counter.

William Lane Craig is widely regarded as as one of the premier philosopher-apologists of our era.

#3 Gavin Ortlund @ Truth Unites

Gavin Ortlund is a Christian apologist from a Reformed Baptist background with a Ph.D. from Fuller Theological Seminary. Ortlund runs a very popular Youtube channel called Truth Unites. He is engaging, intellectually honest, and comes from a Reformed-Evangelical perspective. Here are some videos and podcasts that I’ve watched or listened to and some that I want to engage with in the future.

Gavin Ortlund

Gavin Ortlund has a podcast and Youtube channel dedicated to apologetics as well as engaging with biblical, theological, and church history topics.

Gavin Ortlund’s Why God Makes Sense in a World that Doesn’t was one of the best books that I read in 2025.

In “Why God Makes Sense”, Ortlund sets up his apologetic shop at the intersection of beauty and truth:

  • “Beauty is a powerful tool for cutting through disenchantment and apathy because it has a kind of persuasive power that reaches down to the heart.” (pp. 7)

Ortlund’s book taps into the longing for beauty inside every human heart. Ortlund describes the truth of Christianity so richly and beautifully that people, even outside the faith, might say: “I want this to be true. I ache for this to be true, because this Christian vision of a life with God is so beautiful and compelling.” This is an apologetic that provides a rich invitation to “taste and see that the Lord is good” (Psalm 34:8).

Jason Carter
Per Crucem Ad Lucem: Suffering in the Apostle Paul

To listen to the March 29, 2026 sermon entitled “Per Cruce Ad Lucem - Through the Cross to the Light”, click here.

“Suffering is not evidence of God’s absence, but of God’s presence, and it is in our experience of being broken that God does his surest and most characteristic salvation work. There is a way to accept, embrace, and deal with suffering that results in a better life, not a worse one, and more of the experience of God, not less. God is working out his salvation in our lives the way he has always worked it out—at the place of brokenness, at the cross of Jesus, and at the very place where we take up our cross.”

– Eugene Peterson, Embracing Brokenness

Per Crucem Ad Lucem is a Medieval Latin phrase meaning “Through the cross to the light”. During the middle ages, it was a Christian axiom signifying that suffering, sacrifice, or hardship (the cross) leads to redemption, godliness, enlightenment, and spiritual joy (the light). Per Crucem Ad Lucem represents the spiritual journey and pilgrimage from Good Friday to Easter Sunday.

In Philippians 1:29, Paul writes: “ For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake.” Paul frequently addresses the theme of suffering in his letters.

In our suffering, we often reach for the hardest and most unanswerable question of them all: WHY? “Why is God doing this? Why is this happening in my life?” Quite frankly, you can get lost in the “Why Question”. You can descend down this rabbit hole like Alice in Wonderland, never to emerge again!

Over the years, I have come to believe that the better question is not “Why?” but “What?” “What is God doing?”

[Of course, the best response to trials and sufferings is simply to put one faithful foot of obedience in front of the other. Honestly, you often only know “The What?” of suffering after the trial ends — and even that is still often hidden from you. (Sometimes, no question — however cleverly or carefully worded — seems capable of bearing the full weight of the chaos and disappointments of living in this fallen, broken world.)]

In 2006, John Piper wrote a blog post, which eventually became a book, entitled “Don’t Waste Your Cancer”. If beauty and benefit can emerge from trial and suffering, like the medieval axiom suggests, what are those benefits of light that God may shine into our lives? What do we find in Paul (and a few other places) about the WHAT of suffering?

I believe it is wise to ask: “What is God — typically — up to in our suffering and trials?” “What does the Bible say?” “What does the apostle Paul say?” If the Bible tells you WHAT God is (typically) doing in suffering and trials, we would be wise to pay attention.

Benefit #1: In our suffering, grace is experienced as sufficient (2 Cor. 12:7-10).

And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure. Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And He said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness." Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Cor. 12:7-10)

Benefit #2: You experience the strengthening of Christ in your sufferings (Phil 4:12-13).

I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. (Phil 4:12-13)

Benefit #3: You recognize, in suffering, that the Weight of Glory in Heaven towers infinitely high above any earthly suffering because you begin to anticipate release and freedom from the brokenness of this life rather than making this earth your home (Rom 8:18; 2 Cor. 4:17-18).

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. (Romans 8:18)

For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal. (2 Cor. 4:17-18)

Benefit #4: The Gospel is adorned and goes forth in power precisely in our sufferings.

But I want you to know, brethren, that the things which happened to me [namely his imprisonment in Rome] have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel (Phil 1:12)

Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church (Col. 1:24; see also 2 Cor. 6:4-7)

Benefit #5: You are conformed to the person of Jesus Christ in your sufferings and made ready for the Kingdom of God.

The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,  and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. (Rom 8:16-17)

that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death (Phil 3:10)

strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God. (Acts 14:22. see also 2 Thess 1:5)

Benefit #6: You learn obedience through hardship and suffering by continuing to walk in simple obedience.

though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. (Heb 5:8)

Benefit #7: Your inner man (your heart and your guts) is being renewed each day by the Living God in strength, in faith, and in godliness.

Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. (2 Cor. 4:16)

  • “Do you want to be holy? Then you will suffer.” – John Stott

  • “I am certain that I never did grow in grace one half so much anywhere as I have upon the bed of pain.” – Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892) was a Reformed Baptist preacher who pastored Metropolitan Tabernacle in London for 38 years; often referred to as “The Prince of Preachers”.

Benefit #8: You experience Christ as your most treasured possession (when there is no where else to turn).

Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ. (Phil 3:8)

  • “You can never learn that Christ is all you need, until Christ is all you have.” – Corrie Ten Boom

Benefit #9: Suffering produces patience and an ability to wait on the Lord and his perfect timing.

My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. (James 1:2-3)

Benefit #10: You may learn to pray to God (a great gift!) in your sufferings (and perhaps we only really learn to pray in our helplessness).

In trials, you let your requests be known to God rather than living in anxiety (Phil 4:6). Requests to God, arising from our afflictions, are to be brought to God with thanksgiving: “give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1 Thess. 5:18).

  • “Trials are intended to make us think, to wean us from the world, to send us to the Bible, to drive us to our knees.” – J.C. Ryle

John Charles Ryle (1816-1900) was an English Evangelical Anglican clergyman best known for his book entitled Holiness (1879).

Benefit #11: You learn to be content in all circumstances (Phil 4:11-12).

I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want (Phil 4:11-12, NIV).

Benefit #12: You experience the “beatitude blessing of Jesus” in persecution.

Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you (Matthew 5:11-12; see also 2 Timothy 3:10-12)

To listen to the March 29, 2026 sermon entitled “Per Crucem Ad Lucem - Through the Cross to the Light” click here.

“The darker the night, the brighter the stars; the deeper the grief, the closer is God!”

– Apollon Maykov (frequently attributed to Fyodor Dostoevsky in Crime and Punishment; the poet Maykov was a close friend and contemporary of Dostoevsky)

Jason Carter
Church: A Training and Equipping Station

In a recent sermon, I indicated my hope for Trinity Wellsprings Church over the next five years: that our church would increasingly become a central hub of training and equipping. Here’s the vision simply stated:

People increasingly come to our campus to get Trained & Equipped for life-giving ministry, and our vision for deep discipleship is increasingly coupled with a telos (purpose/goal) that places people on a pathway for ministry, whether that ministry is serving sacrificially in the church or being “salt” and “light” (Mt. 5:13-16) in the neighborhood, workplace, and community.

On the Main Campus: we focus on studying and applying the Word of God to our lives– not only to grow in the faith but also to become an instrument in the hands of the Redeemer and a channel of grace and blessing to those around us. On campus, we worship together, we pray together, we sit under the preached Word of God, we experience a surplus of joy and love as we fellowship together. Our lives are changed by experiencing the simple rhythms of grace – worship, prayer, scripture, relationship – all focused on Jesus.

What eventually happens in the training and equipping station? Little life-boats of ministry get launched out for ministry!

As people experience the “deep discipleship” of Jesus at Trinity – they are filled up with worship, prayer, community, and the scriptures – we are increasingly sent out as ambassadors of the gospel. People increasingly sense a confidence that they have been trained and equipped for life-on-life gospel ministry. People are sent out as ambassadors of biblical counsel, ambassadors of global impact and local service, ambassadors of outreach and friendship evangelism, ambassadors of reading the Bible one-on-one with people far from God, and ambassadors of healing and hope. YOU become one of the many life-boats of ministry launching out from the mother ship of Trinity.

I believe this is the pattern we see in the life and ministry of Jesus. Jesus did not teach the Word of God for his disciples’ heads simple to swell up with more and more knowledge (a bloated-head kind of discipleship). The goal of Jesus’ ministry was not to draw big crowds that never went out to proclaim the hope and grace of the Kingdom of God (a consumer-based, entertainment-style ministry).

In Matthew 4:19, Jesus is walking by the Sea of Galilee, and he gives a paradigmatic discipleship call which rings true for all believers in every church, in every culture, and in every generation (not only for Simon Peter and his brother Andrew in the first century): “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.”

The paradigmatic discipleship call of Jesus entails two great ends:

1)     Follow Jesus. The disciples were to keep close to Jesus by observing his rhythms and habits of life. They learned how to live in the Kingdom of God by applying the scriptures to their lives (Matt 5-7). They sought to embrace a life of prayer (“Lord, teach us to pray,” Luke 11:1). From the early church, we understand that the disciples learned from Jesus great compassion and love for the lost (Acts 2:38-41; 3:1-10; 9:32-43; 20:18-21) and cared for the poor and the widows in remarkable ways (Acts 4:32-35; 6:1-6).

2)     Become Fishers of Men. The disciples were to live a life of ministry. Their discipleship had a telos. In educational circles we would say that their discipleship education produced the learning outcome of a life of ministry. In business circles, we would say that they re-invested the profits (of discipleship) back into the business to strengthen it and to promote its future growth. Becoming fishers of men was built into the very fabric of being a disciple by Jesus. Becoming a “fisher of men” was the understood and necessary by-product of agreeing to apprentice under Jesus the Messiah.

May our church be stamped profoundly by the call of Jesus: deep discipleship (“Follow me”) paired with life-on-life ministry (“and I will make you fishers of men”).

Jason Carter
Life, Faith, and Level 3 Autism

Our youngest son, Tristan Noel, was born in Edinburgh, Scotland 12+ years ago. Our lives have been upended almost constantly since his diagnosis with autism 9 years ago. We moved continents (from Central Africa to Central Florida), changed callings (from missionary to pastor), and initially shed crocodile tears upon hearing the diagnosis of autism that would forever transform our lives.

We’ve lived through different seasons of Tristan’s compulsions: from the Lego Batman phase (my personal favorite) to the “not getting in the car without a fight” phase to the ripping paper phase (which included dozens of books in our home) to the peeling phase (which eventually required us to repaint our house exterior because he peeled off layers of paint) to the clogging the toilet phase (my least favorite phase – by far!) to the constantly digging in the sand phase (at the present time). When one compulsion ends, another one inevitably begins. All the compulsions seem to come with their own unique set of stressors.

Tristan has level 3 autism. “I have stage 4 cancer,” a brother-in-Christ recently told me, “and there isn’t a stage 5.” This is like the autism spectrum scale. Tristan has level 3 autism, and there isn’t a level 4.

The Autism Speaks website reads: “In 2013, the American Psychiatric Association released the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), the handbook used to diagnose mental disorders, including autism. The DSM-5 introduced three ASD levels of severity: level 1 (“requiring support”), level 2 (“requiring substantial support”), and level 3 (“requiring very substantial support”).

Tristan is severely limited verbally. He can make his wishes known verbally (mostly) but has little interest in engaging in open-ended conversations. He can follow fairly complex directions (“Tristan, get a new toilet paper roll beneath the sink.”); he loves to take out the trash (“Okay Tristan, you can put the trash into the green trash can outside”); he loves to help take in the groceries (though sometimes potatoes go into the freezer and tooth paste into the refrigerator). He is “above average” with coping with change for level 3 autism because he is easy going and relationally compliant. Yet, when he goes into his “compulsions,” he cannot remotely follow our directions and all “reasoning with” Tristan goes for naught.

Over the years, we’ve heard a myriad of “unhelpful” things about autism:

  • “Every kid with autism is incredibly smart in some way.” For us, Tristan’s extremely limited IQ poses constant stressors for everyday life. Autism’s hidden “smartness” never comes across in our home life with any frequency whatsoever.

  • “Every kid with autism has superhero powers.” While Dustin Hoffman’s performance in the movie Rain Man was Oscar-worthy, the movie undoubtedly put “special abilities” and “autism” in the same sentence in a very unhelpful (and stereotypical) way that is not reflective of the lives of millions of kids and people with autism, especially the more severe “Level 3 Autism”.

  • “Have you tried this or that supplement or this or that diet or this or that cure?” Most parents with autism would have already tried “the cure” if one were readily available. All the antidotes about “curing” autism are exactly that – antidotes (at best) or promoted by charlatans (at worst). It’s extremely frustrating for autism parents for people to offer advice about cures for autism.

  • “Did you get vaccinated or take Tylenol during pregnancy?” Lisa – alongside millions of other mothers – never took Tylenol during her pregnancy. But here we are with Level 3 Autism. It was heartbreaking hearing stories of kids with autism asking their mothers: “Mom, did you take Tylenol and make me autistic?” A lack of wisdom with that discussion at the level of the federal government was pathetic and shameful. To date, there is no known “cause” or “cure” of autism.

Caregiving for Tristan is constant. Chaos reigns in inexplicable ways in our home. My wife is often under extreme duress. “Only by the grace of God” can aptly be applied to caregiving families.

There is beauty in the midst of the chaos. God is working in our midst, yet I’ll be the first to admit that I am often blind and deaf to the ways of God working through autism because of the constant unsolvable problems that it brings into our home. “Lord, give me ‘eyes to see’ and ‘ears to hear’ you moving in our midst!”

I am extremely grateful for Lisa. She loves Tristan fiercely and deeply with a strength of character and love that comes from her Heavenly Father. I am extremely proud of our eldest son, Kenyon, for his availability and willingness over the years to babysit Tristan and thereby gift us with a life together outside our home. I am extremely amazed by the kindness and gentleness of our middle son, Jackson, for his “arm around the shoulder’ of Tristan leading him around places like church and caring for him with such tenderness. I pray that Tristan’s Level 3 Autism makes all of us “love one another deeply, from the heart” (1 Peter 1:22) - both our own family and others.

Last week: a spiritual breakthrough. I was tucking Tristan into bed when the following conversation occurred. Remember: Tristan is very limited verbally and not often prone to answering open-ended questions (especially the third question).

Dad: “Tristan, who loves you?”

Tristan: “Daddy wuves [loves] me.”

Dad: “Who else loves you?”

Tristan: “Jesus wuves me.”

Dad: “How does Jesus love you?”

Tristan: “Died on the cross.”

The third response brought a couple tears to my eyes. Afterwards, I went into the living room to share with Lisa: “Tristan said that Jesus ‘died on the cross’ when I asked him ‘How does Jesus love you.’”

            “Stop it. Don’t joke around.”

            “Honey, I’m not joking.”

            Lisa: “That’s a spiritual breakthrough.”

Providentially, we had lately been discussing whether and when Tristan might take the Lord’s Supper with the body of Christ. Could he – at his level – somehow understand what it was all about? Could he recognize the symbols? Could he understand the cross of Jesus?

After all, Tristan has grown up hearing about Jesus. We talk about Jesus at home, and he hardly misses a worship service. Tristan occasionally sways to the praise music and often claps (when others do) during the service. One of the hardest things about being a father to Tristan is not being able to hear Tristan’s thoughts. Does Tristan understand more than he can verbally process and communicate to us? It seems like he might.

Tristan is 12 years old yet two-year old toddlers talk circles around him. For all these reasons and more, I am so very thankful that Matthew, Mark, and Luke all included the story of our Savior who, with such love and tenderness, gathered the little children unto himself, saying: “Let the little children come to me.” I have no doubt that if Tristan was a part of that crowd of children on that first-century day, Jesus would have certainly singled Tristan out for love and affection. That’s the kind of love that naturally flows from our Savior’s heart.

Then children were brought to him that he might lay his hands on them and pray. The disciples rebuked the people, 14 but Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.” 15 And he laid his hands on them and went away. – Matthew 19:13-15

Jesus understands Tristan. Jesus loves Tristan. And for that, I’m extremely grateful.

Jason Carter
Is America in Revival?

In our own congregation over the last 16 months, Trinity has experienced several signs of healthy growth:

  • Attendance at our modern worship service (9:00 am) has experienced a 44% increase over the last 16 months [comparing the four-month period, Oct 2025 – Jan 2026, with the same time span 12 months ago, Oct. 2024 – Jan 2025].

  • When we factor in the attendance at our classic service (11:00), our church has experienced a 29% overall increase in total worshipping attendance from Oct. 2025 to Jan. 2026 compared to the same timeframe 12-16 months ago.

Moreover, I sense that God is at work more than simply in our rise in attendance.  After all, not all church attendance is created equal: not all surges in church attendance in America is “healthy” nor can it be linked simplistically or automatically with “spiritual vibrancy”. Equally important is the health of the body of Christ and the fruit of its members, and in this, also, I am greatly encouraged.

Simply put, our church is seeing:

  • Pockets of genuine repentance and life change in our midst.

  • Enthusiastic participation in prayer services (about 1/3 of our worshipping congregation recently attended one of the three times of prayer in early January). For American churches, the prayer service often represents “the most boring” type of service. I firmly believe that the body of Christ at Trinity is growing in prayer. Hallelujah!

  • Increased hunger for community and Life Groups with people increasingly warming to the idea of being spiritually formed by the simple rhythms of grace – worship, prayer, scripture, relationship – all focused on Jesus.

  • Greater enthusiasm for relational outreach in inviting people to participate in the community of faith.

  • New believers and people coming back to the Christian faith after a season of dormancy in wanting to get plugged into the life of faith, read scripture together, inquire of baptisms, and generally become re-engaged with Jesus.

The question is – is Trinity part of a national trend or are we experiencing something more localized? Simply put: Is America in Revival?

I, for one, would love to be leading a church where the cultural zeitgeist of the era seemingly paves the way for a massive and authentic influx of people into the church. This would be fruit-picking time for church leaders! I have a friend in Ethiopia who is training and equipping young Ethiopian leaders 22-25 years old to pastor churches of 2,000 to 5,000 people all around the country as the culture has decidedly tilted towards Christianity. The same phenomenon has amazingly occurred in various sub-Saharan African regions over the last 40 years. If this were to happen in America, it would mark the realization of many prayers and hopes for the American church, a kind of Third Great Awakening since the First Great Awakening (1730s-1740s) happened before the signing of the Declaration of Independence while the Second Great Awakening (1790s-1840s) occurred before the Civil War.  

Recently, I’ve encountered at least three national voices that have been encouraging church leaders to “pump the brakes” with the Revival Talk. Why is that the case?

First, the level of Christian identity has been steadily declining over the last 25 years, from 83% to 71%, according to David Kinnaman of the Barna Group. (You can listen to Kinnaman’s interview podcast with Carey Nieuwhof here.) Kinnaman and Nieuwhof cautioned church leaders on the recent national headlines about the possibility of revival amongst Gen Z, beginning with the Asbury Revival of Feb. 2023, due to the overall framework of institutional church decline.

The framework consists of this: (1) people who identity as Christians are decreasing (83% to 71% over last 25 years, (2) the average size church in America is decreasing (the median church size which was 137 people in 2000 has dropped to 60-65 people today, which means that over the last 25 years, the average church size in America has been more than cut in half), and (3) overall church membership is decreasing as well as the number of times/month that people typically attend a church even if they are a member.

Working with another set of data, the Religious Landscape Study (RLS), indicated a 15% decline of US adults who identity as Christian from 78% (in 2007) to 63% (in 2024) though there has been a stabilization of the decline over the last 5 years. To put this decline in perspective, 15% of the US population (of 330-340 million) equates to nearly 49.5 to 52 million people who no longer identity as Christian. This decline represents a massive down-turn of Christian identity in America over the last two decades!

Second, Ryan Burge’s article entitled “Perspective: What the data really says about religious revival and Gen Z: the reversal of a trend would require a transformation unlike anything we’ve seen in modern times” also serves to pump the brakes on the hopeful optimism for revival in America. Burge argues that the narrative of a massive return to church is not born out by actual statistics:

“It seems that a large segment of the American public is eager for any sign that the rise of the nones is over and that churches might begin to fill back up in the years to come…. As the share of adults with no religious affiliation climbed from just 6% in 1991 to nearly 30% in 2020, it would certainly make headlines if that march toward secularism suddenly stopped — and even more so if the ones leading a return to church were teens and 20-somethings.”

Burge argues that anecdotal narratives have often replaced actual statistics amongst mainstream media outlets.

Burge makes much of the idea of “generational replacement”, arguing that “every day, older Americans die and are replaced by young adults turning 18. This process unfolds slowly — almost imperceptibly — in the short term, but over five or 10 years, it can produce profound shifts in the overall landscape.” Burge is making a case which is pretty easy to understand: older adult Christians are dying and are not being replaced in the church at the same rate as those entering adulthood at age 18.

When you compare generations, the pattern is obvious. The youngest members of the Silent Generation were born in the early 1940s, and just 7% report no religious affiliation. In less than a decade, they — and a growing share of Baby Boomers (18% unaffiliated) — will disappear from survey samples.

Meanwhile, millennials are moving solidly into middle age, and 36% of them say they have no religion. Generation Z, all of whom will soon be adults, are even less religious: 43% are nones. That’s 25 points higher than the Boomers they’re replacing. So if the overall share of nones sits around 28% now, it will inevitably rise as generational turnover continues.

Third, Burge argues that even singular cultural events have not typically sustained any measurable rise in religious attendance in the United States over the last quarter century. Many remember the churches filling up after the terrorist attacks of Sept 11, 2001 only to quickly return to normal. “Likewise, the Asbury University revival of February 2023 received wall-to-wall media coverage, but follow-up reporting showed no lasting change in local religiosity a year later.”

Thus, whereas talk of a full-scale “revival in America” seem to be overblown, there are nonetheless some encouraging signs amidst the overall institutional decline of the church in America:

  • 48% of Gen Zers and 44% of Millennials recently responded “Yes” to the idea: “I am open to Jesus, but do not consider myself a Christian today.” There seems to be a general openness to authentic ways of living for, and talking about, the way of Jesus amongst the younger generations.

  • Bible sales were up 11% in 2025 compared to 2024.

  • Reversing a decades-long trend, men (45%) are now significantly outpacing women (36%) in church attendance with married fathers taking the lead in going to church. Whether this is a net positive (where did all the women go?) over the long-haul remains to be seen, but the hope would be that as fathers take the lead in church attendance, the entire family might follow dad to church in the future.

The Rise of the Nones. Institutional church decline. Declining church attendance. None of these phrases sound overly hopeful for the future of the church in America. Yet these statistics themselves need to be set within the God-centered universe that the scriptures declare is our reality. Two scriptural phrases come to mind which help put these gloomy statistics in their proper place.   

“But God.” Ephesians 2 begins with terrible news: we were dead in our trespasses and sins (vs. 1). We were walking under the influence of the world and following the power of the devil (vs. 2), simply living for the passions of our flesh (vs. 3). No dystopian movie ever produced could give a bleaker, blacker, and more dismal  view of our situation than when Paul says that we “were by nature children of wrath” (vs. 3). That’s personally cataclysmic on an eternal scale! But then Paul reaches for the great phrase – BUT GOD.

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ – by grace you have been saved. Ephesians 2:4-5.

Church trends are nothing compared to the great “But God” of his saving power.

The second scriptural phrase that seems apropos to remember in this cultural moment occurs in Matthew 19. The disciples are incredulous at Jesus. The bar of salvation seems too high to climb for the disciples. The disciples were “astonished” and began saying, “Who then can be saved?” (vs. 25). Jesus was telling his disciples, “Again, I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” (vs. 24). Within the worldview of first-century Judaism, great wealth was often simplistically equated with great spiritual blessings from God. If the wealthy were only saved – with enormous difficulty – what hope was there for everyone else? That’s when Jesus reminded his disciples of the Lord’s great power to save: “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” (vs. 26). Yes, there it is! With God all things are possible.

No matter how dark the culture or how toxic the politics or how declining the church, believers would be wise to remember: With God all things are possible. The possibility of revival is always over the next hill and horizon. God is always free to move with great saving power, bringing his beloved children into his church.

Jesus Christ is, after all, the Head of the Church. I trust that the Great Shepherd of the Sheep (Heb. 13:20) will always pastor us with grace and love whatever season the church is in: whether in retreat or advance, whether in revival or decline. God is still on the throne, whatever the trends say and whatever the culture decries.

With God all things are possible.

Soli Deo Gloria.

Jason Carter