Philippians 2:12-13 Work Out Your Salvation

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; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure. [Philippians 2:12-13 NKJV]

Just as Jesus was obedient, so we also must be obedient; not just when we are being watched, but when we are alone. I have heard it said that a person's true character is revealed when no one is watching. What do you do when you are home alone? Do you act the same as you do when your family is there? Or, do you watch blue movies or visit naughty websites?

If you are only godly when other people are around, then you are not working out your own salvation; you are expecting someone else to work it out for you. That someone could be a roommate, a spouse, or your children. You are using their presence to keep you in line, when you are called to keep yourself in line. 

Working out your salvation means to be obedient. That doesn't mean that you are working to earn your salvation. God has already provided our salvation by His grace. Working it out means that you are walking in that grace. It's the difference between theoretical knowledge and practical application. We can study the scriptures and understand, theologically, that salvation is by grace through faith in Jesus. But it is only as we act on that knowledge by confessing Him as Lord, and surrendering our lives to Him that we are saved.

In the same way that we were saved by grace through faith, so our sanctification - which can be defined as "ongoing salvation" - is also by grace through faith. You can't work to earn sanctification or holiness. You can't work to be a "good Christian". You can only work out that which God has already worked in you.

This means living a life of grace. It takes much more faith to live a life of grace than it does to live a life of works.

For example, Charlie is an angry person. Ordinary things in life make him angry; being cut off in traffic, a coworker who doesn't meet his expectations, failure of any person to be polite to him, any slight to his character, whether real or imagined. When things go wrong, Charlie gets red in the face, and lashes out with his words. As a Christian, Charlie knows he should be better, so he tries to stifle his anger, only to have it explode in fury. Anger management classes have given him some tools to redirect his anger, but  do nothing to take the anger away. For Charlie, his anger is like a Chinese finger trap. The more he struggles to get rid of it, the worse it gets.

Charlie's problem is that he is trying to deal with his anger. Any effort on his part to deal with his anger is an act of the flesh, "and those who are in the flesh cannot please God." [Romans 8:8 NASB] By dealing with it himself, he is essentially saying, "God can't help me, so I have to help myself."

Paul said,

For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. [Romans 8:3-8 NKJV]

So, if our minds are set on how we can overcome sin, then our minds are set on the flesh, and we can never overcome sin, nor can we please God. But, if we acknowledge that we cannot overcome sin, and stop trying, we give up on our own fleshly efforts. If we turn our minds to the Spirit of God, and leave them there, then we will learn to walk in the Spirit.

As Paul said, "I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh." [Galatians 5:16 NKJV]

To work out your own salvation, you have to stop working, and allow God to work in you.

Heavenly Father, thank You for the grace you have given me and the salvation that You have so freely worked in me. Please now give me the grace to work it out in my life, for Your glory.