Salvation is ours by faith alone in Christ alone. There is no question that we cannot be saved by our own effort, nor that we need to add to Christ’s finished work on Calvary’s cross – for the sacrificial offering of Himself on the cross for our salvation, was all-sufficient in the eyes of God – and it is finished.
As the sinless Son of Man, Christ’s death on the cross fully met God’s redemption price. God accepted Christ’s offering of Himself as the full and final payment for the salvation of all who would believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. His work on the cross was enough fulfilling all the righteous requirements of the Law demanded by God, in order that mankind might be redeemed, saved and justified in the eyes of a righteous God. For salvation is a finished work for all those who are “in-Christ’.
But Paul is calling his beloved brethren in the Philippian assembly, (and us too), to work out your own salvation with fear and trembling . This appears to contradict the clear, biblical teaching that salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. But Paul is not calling us to work FOR our salvation. We are not expected to save ourselves; to justify ourselves; to sanctify ourselves and glorify ourselves – for it is God Who is working in us and God has promised to finish all the good work that He started in us, when we first trusted Christ as Savior.
God made a decision before the world began that all who trusted in Christ for salvation were to be conformed into the image of His Son. The Holy Spirit is to carry out this beautiful transformation in each of His children, but we are to be willing to go through the training programme that God has planned for each of us, which is set out in His holy Word.
We are to live holy lives in the power of the Holy Spirit by trusting His unchanging Word and living in utter dependence upon the Lord. We are to walk in spirit and truth and in the power of His might. We are to acknowledge that His grace is sufficient in every detail of life, so that in His strength we may put to death all the sinful deeds of the body – the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. And when we are confronted with the problems and difficulties of life, we are to work these out in the power of the Spirit, by looking to Jesus, and by facing every life-challenge through prayer and praise, (with thanksgiving) – YES, we are to ‘work out our salvation’ in our own lives.. by living our life for the Lord.
It is through living our lives for the glory of God and not for our own self-glorification that we work out our own salvation. It is by setting our heart on things above and on spiritual matters. It is by humbling ourselves in the sight of God and fulfilling His call on our life – it is by not being influenced by the enticements of the flesh nor is it being impacted by an unbiblical world-view, that we are enabled by God, to work out our own salvation with reverence and fear of the Lord.
It is by heeding the voice of the Lord and the commands of God, no matter what the cost to our pride and not by trying to live our Christian life by imitating other giants in the faith that we fulfil this important command to work our our own salvation. It is by heeding the call of God on our own, individual life that we are enabled in HIS strength, to work out our own salvation in reverential fear and trembling – for when we consider the heavens and the work of God’s fingers – the moon and the stars, which He has made – who are we that God is mindful of us – and yet He desires in this brief span of time:- (between our justification and our glorification), that we work out our own salvation, in humility of heart and to His praise and glory – so that in the ages to come He may show forth the incomparable riches of His grace, which He has expressed in His kindness towards us, in Christ Jesus.
My prayer
Heavenly Father, thank You for all that Christ has done for me. I pray that in the power of the Holy Spirit I may work out my own salvation in reverential fear, by living my life to Your praise and glory by trusting You in all the difficulties and dangers of life and by relying on You in all circumstances of life. And I pray that by abiding in Christ and He in me, I may produce fruit, more fruit – much fruit in the power of the Holy Spirit – to Your praise and glory, in Jesus’ name I pray, AMEN.
We are a Grace organization proclaiming the salvation by grace through faith in finished work of Jesus Christ in the cross of Calvary.