Philippians 2:12-13 "Wherefore, my beloved, as ye 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. (13) For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure."
Before looking at these verses, let us consider eternal salvation. We know it
is a gift from God. Right? We know eternal life is not the result of our works;
rather it is accomplished by the work of Jesus Christ on the cross. He shed His
righteous, holy blood to pay the debt of sin that was against us. According to
Hebrews chapter 9, Jesus offered His blood to the Father on our behalf. We know
God the Father accepted that offering. How do we know? Jesus came out of the
tomb alive. If the Father had not accepted the blood of Jesus as full payment,
He would not have risen from the dead. If Jesus paid it in full and the
Father accepted that payment, then what is left for us to do in order to gain
eternal life? If the work is finished. If payment was accepted. What
could I possibly do to make that work more finished? The answer is
nothing.
So, if my salvation is paid in full, what is under consideration in the two
verses we are looking at today? God's Word specifically says, "work
out your own salvation." Doesn't it? We could easily take a wrong
turn here if we were to take those words out of context. One of the greatest
keys to understanding Scripture is to consider it within the context it is
written. We are not permitted to take a word here, another word there, a phrase
here, a phrase there and then build our theology on something out of context.
Let us now look at the context. "Work out your own salvation with fear and
trembling. FOR it is God which worketh in you..." Did you notice
anything now when it is taken all together? How can you or I work anything out
if God has not already worked it in you? I submit to you that verse 12 is
not speaking of eternal salvation; rather, it is speaking to us of the daily
deliverances that we need from situations and circumstances in life. Paul's
subject concerns our being in the will of God as we live each day. God works
into us the desire and ability to please Him. If God does not first work into
us, there is no way we can work out something that is not there.
I spoke of context. Looking back at the previous verses, we see that we cannot
"have this mind in" (verse 5) us unless the Lord works it into us. We
cannot truly humble ourselves unless we have seen the degree to which Jesus
Christ humbled Himself in order to secure our eternal life. We cannot even
declare Him as our Lord unless the Holy Spirit has revealed His majestic
greatness to us.
Paul is speaking to us concerning our walk of obedience with the Lord. He is
exhorting the Philippian Church, and each of us, to walk in humble obedience
unto the Lord. Work it out each day because our natural being is such that we
want preeminence. Work it out because our natural tendency is to seek self
exaltation. Work it out because true peace and joy only comes through walking
by faith with the Lord.