Work out your salvation - the outworking of salvation

Philippians 1:27-2:18 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

Only conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or remain absent, I will hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel; ²⁸ in no way alarmed by your opponents—which is a sign of destruction for them, but of salvation for you, and that too, from God. ²⁹ For to you it has been granted for Christ’s sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake, ³⁰ experiencing the same conflict which you saw in me, and now hear to be in me.

2 Therefore if there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion, ² make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose. ³ Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; ⁴ do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. ⁵ Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, ⁶ who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, ⁷ but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. ⁸ Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. ⁹ For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, ¹⁰ so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, ¹¹ and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

¹² So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; ¹³ for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.

¹⁴ Do all things without grumbling or disputing; ¹⁵ so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world, ¹⁶ holding fast the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I will have reason to glory because I did not run in vain nor toil in vain. ¹⁷ But even if I am being poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I rejoice and share my joy with you all. ¹⁸ You too, I urge you, rejoice in the same way and share your joy with me.

In today’s text Paul says:  …work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.  In Ephesians 2:8-10 it says:  By grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.    Our salvation is not based on our works, what we do, how good we are. Instead our works are to be a result or a response to our salvation. Paul says working out our salvation, but it is also the outworking of our salvation. Jesus died for our sins, while we were yet sinners. We are not to remain as we were though. The working out of our salvation is what is known as sanctification. It is the lifelong process, we as believers go through, in becoming more like Christ.  In Matthew 16:24, Mark 8:34 and Luke 9:23 Jesus says:   “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross(daily) and follow Me.”    The cross we take up daily is not for salvation. First of all we were unable to earn our salvation by our own work or works. Salvation is through believing in the work that Jesus did; the finished work of His cross. He paid for our sins once for all. We do not need to pay for our sins daily. The cross we take up daily is for sanctification, the daily process of denying self to become more like Jesus.   Paul says:   Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.   That attitude is contrary to what the world teaches and encourages. The world tells us and encourages us to look out for our own interests. They say that you must, because no one else will. It may well be true that no one else on earth will look out for us, but what the world fails to acknowledge or understand is that; one who is in heaven already did. He is the one we are to be like. Paul says:  Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.    Jesus, who was, who is and who always will be one with God, became as one of us, even as one who came to serve us. He humbled Himself, being obedient to death on the cross, in order to fulfill the plan that God had for us from the beginning. God’s plan for us from the beginning, can be found in Genesis 1:26-28 when He said:  “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”   

Our salvation was achieved on the cross of Christ. We can add nothing to the work of our salvation. Two thousand years ago when Jesus was on the cross, He said: “It is finished!” (John 19:30) Ephesians 2:10 says we are: created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.   The daily working out of our salvation is our response to the finished work of the cross. It is the process of our coming into alignment with the plan of God for our lives. We were created in the image and likeness of God to have dominion and authority over the things of this world. Through the cross we are recreated in Christ. We are restored to what God intended from the beginning. In John 14:12-14 Jesus says: “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father. Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.”     We are to do the works that Jesus did. Jesus preached the gospel, healed people of every disease, delivered them from oppression, raised the dead, calmed storms. We too are told we will (He will) do all these things if we follow Him and believe. Mark 16:15-20 says:   “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned. These signs will accompany those who have believed: in My name they will cast out demons, they will speak with new tongues; they will pick up serpents, and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”  So then, when the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. And they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them, and confirmed the word by the signs that followed.      All of that is to be the result, the outworking of our salvation. All of that is what we were created for. Those are the good works which God prepared beforehand. Before we can do any of them though, before we can do the great works, we must:  Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus; we must humble ourselves by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Daily denying ourselves; doing nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regarding one another as more important than ourselves; we must not merely look out for our own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. We cannot do the great things we are called and created to do in Christ without first becoming like Him in humility and obedience. Paul says:  If there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion,  make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose.  

Heavenly Father, Lord Jesus Christ; precious Holy Spirit; thank You for the finished work of the cross. There is nothing I could or can do for salvation. It is finished! I believe. Holy Spirit I yield to You so that daily I can work out my salvation and become all that I was and am created to be, to do the great works and the obedient works of humility like and through Christ the Lord.  Amen.