For many years, Christianity has been divided into two groups regarding how to live the Christian life. One group teaches that the Christian life is to be lived out quietly by allowing God to work. You must totally yield yourself to the Spirit, allowing the Holy Spirit to rush in. We are to become a channel through which the Spirit of God should flow. We have to be led by the Spirit, not by the flesh. Any personal effort means you are operating in the flesh, not in the Spirit. We are to be passive, with a mindset of “Let go and let God” and “Not I, but Christ lives in me.” This is very mystical, somewhat subjective, and emotional. They often use words like “fully surrender,” “putting your life on the altar,” and “crucifying yourself.” They teach that if you learn to live like that, you will attain a consecrated, surrendered stage, and then you will realize and unlock the great secret to the Christian life. This movement is called quietism, where the believer is quiet. This became popular and spread everywhere after 1875 from England through Keswick conventions and is very famous even today. This has led to Arminian perfectionism, which teaches that at some stage in life, in a moment, you can become so totally surrendered to God that you would never sin again. These people look at any teaching to consciously put in effort, fight, wrestle, or use our faculties as a cursed heresy. It deluded many people and never allowed them to truly progress in authentic Christian experience. Can you believe J.I. Packer confesses that he struggled with this for many years, and it was only the Puritan John Owen’s book, The Mortification of Sin, that opened his eyes to this foolishness?
While this quietism did a lot of damage, the opposite view is pietism. It is a movement of intense effort toward personal piety. They teach that the Christian life is all about our efforts, our struggle, warfare, and agonizing, disciplined efforts. It had many admirable features, such as a strong emphasis on daily Bible study, holy living, spiritual exercises, and self-discipline. They took the very opposite view of the quietists. It stressed the need for good works, believing that any faith that didn’t lead to works was not a saving belief. It had an overemphasis on self-effort, making the Christian life a cold-hearted, unemotional, almost wooden obedience to commands. Any teaching that talks about the work of God in us, allowing God to do his work in us, or strengthening us, they see as the height of mystical fancy. Although this seems so good, the problem with this view is that all your spiritual progress is based on your ability, efforts, and discipline. When they achieve any progress in their eyes, they will be filled with pride, judge and look down on others, and then if they fail, they experience complete despair and doubt whether they are saved. You’ll have pride because you take all the credit. You’ll have despair because they rely on their own strength. So these two divisions plague Christianity even today. Quietism says, “God does it all,” and Pietism says, “We do it all.”
For years, these two groups were pointing out the errors of each other. It used to happen in old-time debates, and later, it was a fight over books, with lakhs of books written by both groups fighting one another. Today, in the digital age, there is a YouTube war, with people fighting one another. If all those fighting could just understand the two verses before us today, so much energy could be saved and used for the spread of the gospel. History shows both failed in living a proper Christian life. Why? What is the answer to living the right Christian life?
Philippians 2:12-13 answers that question clearly. They are critically important verses. If verses 6 through 11 are the most critical New Testament passage about the person and work of Christ, verses 12 and 13 are the most critical verses in the New Testament on how we are to live the Christian life now. These two verses, perhaps more than any other passage in all of Scripture, give us a distillation of the biblical balance on this great subject of how to live the Christian life. So we are going to study these verses today, so wake up and gird up the loins of your mind. If you don’t understand this, you will go wrong in how to live the Christian life.
The Apostle Paul brings out an important biblical balance in these two verses by joining these two groups. Paul says we must work out our salvation with all intense effort like a pietist because we believe like a quietist that God himself is working in us. It’s an amazing balance. That is the Bible’s teaching. The key command of the passage is we must work out our salvation.
Let’s understand this in three sections:
- We must first be saved before we can work it out.
- Once we have salvation, we must regularly work out our salvation with fear and trembling.
- The great motivation to work out our salvation is because God works in us. We work because God works.
You Must Be Saved First
We must first be saved before we can work it out. Notice in verse 12, Paul starts with “Therefore,” and then says “my beloved.” “Therefore” tells us the context, and “beloved” tells us to whom Paul gives this command: not to everyone. The context, as we saw, is that he calls the Philippian church to live a life worthy of the gospel. One way is unity, and that unity comes with a lowliness of mind, for which he gave the great example of Lord Jesus Christ. Now, based on all this, he says, “Therefore.” The primary application of “work out your salvation” is not just personal. Paul is not telling individual Christians to individually work out their personal salvation, as is often taught. Rather, he is appealing to the church, based on the example of humility seen in Jesus Christ, to work out the practical implications of their salvation in their relationships with one another.
If you are truly saved, work and show it outside in your family and church relationships. The motivation for that is because God himself is at work in their midst as a church; they need to lay aside personal pride, selfishness, and rights and humbly serve one another, putting others ahead of themselves. In so doing, they will stand out as lights in this dark, selfish world (2:15). That is the context.
He calls them “beloved.” Paul uses this word only for believers whom he is sure are truly saved. Paul was not writing to people who lacked salvation, telling them that they needed to work in order to obtain it. Rather, he was writing to people in whom God had begun the good work of salvation (1:6), telling them to work out the practical implications of the salvation they already possessed.
So, the first step is you must be saved before you understand this command. How does one obtain salvation? It’s amazing how people don’t understand the simple gospel. We have to repeat it again and again so that children hear it: how you are saved. You are not saved by saying, “I like coming to church,” “God healed me when I was sick,” “my debt was cleared,” or “he gave me peace.” You have to see yourself as what the Bible shows you are: a perishing sinner under God’s wrath and condemnation. All miseries in life are because of original sin; you are born in sin, and you stand before God’s law as a sinner. Unless we are saved, we will go into eternity bearing the penalty for our sins, which means eternal separation from God and punishment in the lake of fire. Unless we see our desperate condition, we will not call out to God to save us from our sins. So we will not understand “salvation” if we think it just means that Jesus can give you a happier life, a godly life, or heal your diseases. It refers to God’s work in our hearts where he enables us to believe in Christ and his work on the cross, and we experience his forgiveness and peace in our hearts.
The Bible is clear that we can never work for salvation, to earn or merit it, since it is the free gift of God (Eph. 2:8-9). Good works can never gain heaven for anyone, because no amount of good works can ever atone for our sins and satisfy God’s holiness and justice. We are not saved by our good works. I can’t emphasize this point too strongly, because by far the most prevalent error people make about salvation is to think that God will accept them because of their good works. The world operates on a merit system. Every religion in the world, except biblical Christianity, is built on that system: “If you’re good enough, you’ll earn salvation.” I’ve sometimes been amazed at how deeply this is ingrained in us. I’ve had people sit under my preaching when I have labored to make it clear that we are not saved by any works that we have done. But then you ask them, and the reason they think God will accept them into heaven is because they’ve tried hard to be good, godly, and to love others.
Because the point is so crucial, let me be blunt: If you think that you’re going to heaven because you’re a pretty good person, you are not going to heaven! The only ones going to heaven are those who have recognized that they were lost sinners and have come to Christ, repenting and trusting the blood he shed on the cross.
Yes, the Bible shows that salvation is a complete work of God. “No one can come to Me, unless the Father who sent Me draws him” (John 6:44). When we teach that, people sitting here, even a child, can deceive themselves and become a quietist. Some of you may like that and say, “If the Lord alone can save me, I don’t have any part. I am not saved because the Lord didn’t save me; what can I do? I am a sinner. I will just passively wait. If God wants to do it, he will do it without our effort.” But God saving you doesn’t stop you from your responsibility of believing and repenting. This may seem like double talk, but it is clearly what God’s Word declares.
On one side, the Bible shows we are dead in our sins, unable to do anything. Yet God calls on us to be saved, and Peter said to the Jews, “Be saved from this perverse generation!” (Acts 2:40). You say, “How can you exhort someone to be saved when he can’t be saved by his own will or effort?”
Perhaps an illustration from the ministry of Jesus will help. On one occasion, Jesus encountered a man in the synagogue who had a withered hand. He had nerve damage that made it impossible for him to move or use his hand. Jesus commanded that man to stretch forth his hand (Matt. 12:13). Humanly, that was an impossible command. But Jesus told him to do it, and when the man in faith obeyed, his hand was restored. On another occasion, Jesus told a man who had not been able to walk for 38 years to get up, take up his pallet, and walk (John 5:8). The man did it!
In both cases, the Lord called those men to do something they could not do in their own strength. He imparted to them the supernatural power required to fulfill his command. But they still had to do it. If they had said, “I can’t do it,” and sat passively, they would not have been healed. God worked mightily, but they had to work, too.
Hear me carefully on this, because I could easily be misunderstood: There is a sense in which receiving God’s salvation requires diligent effort on your part. If you sit back and say, “Well, I’m not sure whether I’m one of the elect, and there isn’t much I can do about it anyway,” you’ll go to hell! Complacency about your soul is deadly! You must have a desperate concern for your eternal soul. If you are not saved, you have a great responsibility to believe, repent, and be saved. God commands you to use the means that bring faith. Listen to God’s word carefully and prayerfully. God may speak to you. You have to regularly hear the gospel, listen to messages preached, and read the Scriptures. Try to grasp the gospel clearly. Think of what a sinner you are before God’s law. Men may not see it, but God sees your heart. All those sins you are accumulating are building up God’s wrath for this life and the next. You have to realize the danger without Christ. Jesus talked about men taking the kingdom of God by force (Matt. 11:12; Luke 16:16). He urged his hearers, “Strive to enter by the narrow door.” While you are on that path, God marvelously saves you. If you are careless, even as an unbeliever, what can you do? You are angering God and increasing the wrath and curse of God in your lives. Many deceive themselves like the quietists.
So we must possess salvation before we can work it out. If you are not saved, God’s command to you is not to “work out your salvation,” but to “believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and repent of your sins,” so you may be saved. In that sense, coming to salvation requires our diligent effort. If you are uncertain about your salvation, do not be passive or relaxed; do not rest your soul until you know that God has saved you.
The Believer’s Diligent Effort
Secondly, once we have salvation, we must regularly work out our salvation with fear and trembling. “Work out salvation” is an action word. The verb comes in the form of a present imperative. That means it is a duty that is continually to be performed. It means to be engaged in a constant and conscious, energetic labor. It is not working to attain salvation; salvation is already yours inside. You have to work it outside.
The Greek word for this expression is like the mining of gold in a big land. The gold mine is deep inside the land, and you work to bring the treasures out. In the same way, there is a gold mine of salvation that God has richly deposited inside me. I am to mine it out and bring it outside in my daily conduct and day-to-day holy living. Don’t just say you are saved, but show it outside by your life. Manifest it in your conduct and your behavior. That is the way you are bringing it to completion, to fulfillment. As a saved person, your diligent, sustained effort should be in working out what has already been planted within.
In the context, you show you are a saved person outside by cultivating a lifestyle worthy of the gospel, in the church and family, with an attitude to do nothing with selfish ambition or vain pride, but with a lowliness of mind. Consider others better than yourself and don’t look to your own things, but to the things of others. These things will not automatically come. You have to work out these things with effort. When you do that, what are you doing? We are working out our own salvation.
This is a command. How does Paul tell us to do this? He says two things about the manner of obeying that command. First, consistently, always. Don’t work out your salvation only when someone sees you. Don’t act like a saved person only when you are in church. Don’t pretend to be a saved believer before men, just for show. See verse 12: “as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence.” Work it out at all times, consistently, in all places. A critical sign that you are truly saved is that you obey even when no one sees you. Those truly saved by God want to please and obey God, who sees their hearts always and in all respects. They are not one person inside and another outside. That is the evidence of true salvation. You can act very humble before your pastor, or pretend to be a saved believer before people in church, but when you go home and no one sees, how do you behave? That shows whether you are truly saved or not. The world will know you are a fake. Even your family and children may know you are just acting. How will that be living worthy of the gospel? How will you be a witness? Paul says, whether people see it or not, if you claim to be a believer, behave like a believer. So the first manner you should work out your salvation is consistently, always, in all places.
Secondly, you should work out your salvation with intense diligence. Look at the language: it’s very forceful, “with fear and with trembling.” What does it mean?
First, it doesn’t mean with a fear of losing my salvation. “Okay, if I don’t work out my salvation, I may go to hell.” He already told these people in verse 6, “being confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Jesus Christ.” So it’s not the fear of uncertainty. That kind of working removes all the joy of salvation that makes us want to work it out.
So, what is it then? It is a fear that comes from knowing how great the salvation God has given him, and from a consciousness of the power of his remaining sin. If a believer realizes these two things, this should be the top concern of a believer. We are worried about 101 other things. A true believer’s greatest worry, as Hebrews says, is how can we escape from punishment if we are careless and unconcerned about such a great salvation.
On one side, a believer growing in the knowledge of the truth finds his mind amazed at the great salvation Christ has given. “Oh, what a great salvation it is!” Last week, when teaching about covenant theology, this salvation was rooted in the eternal covenant between the Father and the Son, and then revealed to Adam after the fall in various stages of covenants with Noah, Abraham, Moses, and David. God took so much infinite pain to bring this salvation to me. The greatest sacrifice was done by a self-existent God. He put his own name and eternal glory on the line for my salvation. There was an infinite sacrifice by Christ to save me, for he, being in the form of God, thought it not a thing to be selfishly retained, to remain equal with God, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, and died on the cross to save me. The Holy Spirit, with all the attributes of God, is also equal to God. He humbles himself to dwell in me as a pledge for my redemption. When I realize what great salvation, what it cost God and the Son, and how the Holy Spirit is working in me, I realize that the eternal honor of the Godhead is at stake and depends on my salvation. My greatest concern in life is not what I will eat, drink, my future, my children, or my family, but the salvation of God.
Secondly, a Christian growing in grace sees the corruption and power of his remaining sin. He is filled with fear and trembling. “Oh, I shouldn’t dishonor the name of such a gracious God, such a glorious Savior before the watching world. My family, husband, wife, and colleagues are watching me. I am to live a life that reflects the power and the glory and the magnitude of the grace of God in the gospel.” My failure to work out salvation at home—living in a form of godliness in church and then speaking and acting as I like at home—can be a stumbling block to my children’s salvation. Oh, what chastening I will get! If I am careless about such a big salvation, how other religions fear and tremble.
In the light of that, there is a fear and trembling carefulness that comes—a fear of deep and anxious concern, lest I live beneath my privileges and bring reproach to my savior. It is a fear of offending God. Sometimes, it is so much fear that it leads to shaking, shaking when you contemplate the consequences of such an offense, what chastening. Trembling grows out of the recognition of our weakness and the power of temptation.
Do you have that fear? You do not want to dishonor the one you loved so much, because you do not want to bring upon yourself terrible chastening, because you do not want to destroy your witness to the watching world. There is a trembling that grows out of the awareness that though I am called to such a high calling, and though the grace of God has been given to fulfill that calling, I know that in my flesh dwells no good thing. There is a constant vulnerability from my remaining sin.
This is so important. This fear creates self-distrust, a tenderness of conscience, vigilance against temptation, and a lowliness of mind. It is taking heed lest we fall. It is a constant fear of the deceitfulness of the heart and of the insidiousness and power of inward corruption. Why do I fear sin? Because I am weak in my flesh, because temptation is powerful, and because I don’t want to offend God. My own weakness and propensity toward sin lead me to fear and trembling.
What does this fear and trembling do for a person? This brings maximum and best efforts from a person to live a life pleasing to God, which theologians call the perseverance of the saints. The Bible in many places calls for that kind of effort. The New Testament shows that even the Spirit-filled life requires that I must strive against sin (Heb. 12:4); radical repentance of sin—plucking out an eye, cutting off a right hand; Romans 8—putting to death the deeds of the flesh; I must fight the good fight of faith (2 Tim. 4:7; Eph. 6:10-18); I must run the race so as to win (1 Cor. 9:24), like an Olympic race, which takes maximum effort. In verse 27, Paul says, “And I pummel, or I punch my body and make it my slave.” Now, that’s a lot of effort: running, boxing, and punching his own body. It’s a tremendous effort. There are many more verses like that. If quietism is true, what do we do with all these verses? If I just yield and let go, why does the New Testament tell us to put in all these efforts? All these verses tell us that the believer is responsible to put in maximum effort to work out his salvation.
Okay, so far, listening to me, you may wonder, “Paul is not a quietist; he must really be a pietist.” He speaks so much of effort, an active and aggressive pursuit. You are wrong. Paul is neither a pietist nor a quietist. He is a biblical Christian with both balance. See, he brings a beautiful balance in verse 13. He shows that the motivation to work out our salvation comes because it is God who is working in us. We work because God works.
“Oh, Paul, you are telling us to work out our salvation with maximum effort and care. Do you know our struggles? How can I? I try, but many times I fail. I decide to live differently, but people test my patience. When temptations come, I fall. It’s easy to say ‘lowliness of mind,’ but how can I live like that?” Here is the great motivation to work out our salvation with fear and trembling: the conscious realization that God is working in us. See verse 13: “for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.”
Wow! It starts with “FOR.” We can work like this when we realize the motivation. The motivation has three parts: First, the amazing reality of God’s work inside us; second, the extent of his work; and third, the sovereign goal of God’s work in us. Notice, there is no condition here: “if you yield enough,” “21 days of fasting,” “waiting in a dedicated meeting,” “putting yourself on the altar,” “if you surrender enough,” or “if you believe enough.” If you are a believer saved by grace, it is an infallible truth of God’s word that God works inside you. It is a certain statement of the reality of God’s working. In all in whom he has begun a good work, he is continuing to work, and he shall yet work until his work is completed.
“For it is God who is at work in you.” Oh, what a great statement. God is in you. He’s not working on you; he’s not working for you. He is working in you. What a profound reality. He is at work in you. It becomes the thrill of all thrills if you have some faith in who God is. Who is the one at work in us? The immutable, unchanging, glorious, sovereign, majestic, righteous, holy, gracious, and merciful God—the God who rules all things and never fails, who always accomplishes his will, whose works are perfect. The God who is never thwarted. The great Yahweh, who had to humble himself infinitely to see the great things of heaven. Who am I, a worm? And he is at work in me. The God who was at work before the foundation of the world to choose me, to make a covenant with Christ that if he offers himself as a sin offering, he will perfectly redeem all those for whom Christ died—that same God who saved, justified, and accepted me, works in me to complete my sanctification.
It’s an amazing truth. But then look at the extent of his working. And here the language is amazing. He is at work in you. How? Doing what? Two things: “both to will and to do.” In other words, God’s working touches the deepest workings of my soul, the springs of my personality, at the level of my choosing. “To will.” He is not working superficially, pressuring or compelling me to do something. He is working deeply in me to will. He is working to cause us to will to do what is right and what he desires. See, all behavior rises out of our will. We will to do something, so we behave in a certain way. Because we have willed to do something, it is the will that brings about outward behavior. Willing doesn’t happen automatically; there are a few things that work in us to will.
Now think of all the factors that influence the activities of the will. Why do I will to do something? First, my mind must think of something, clearly understand something, understand its consequences, and realize this is the best thing to do. The judgment of the mind must be convinced: “Yes, this is right.” It plans the intent. I keep thinking so much that my heart is affected; my heart desires it, the impress of the affections. All of these things put pressure upon the will so that it chooses in terms of what it deems a worthy object. My mind’s thoughts must approve, my heart must desire, and the intent must be planned. For example: you will to call your daughter and lovingly talk to her. That is an action. How does it start? You are at work, and suddenly your mind thinks of your daughter—not angrily, but lovingly, missing her. You keep thinking, which affects your heart, and then your heart responds with affections for her. Both put pressure on your will to call her. Do you see? Here is the marvelous statement that God is at work, not in some general, distant way, but in a most intimate and immediate way, in the deepest areas of our soul, to will. It is amazing. He works in a way so that though our wills are not obliterated or suspended in all of their conscious acting, it looks like we are thinking, desiring, and willing, but it is God who is at work to will. But I can will so many good things, but I may not be able to accomplish them.
Wait, look at what the verse says next: “for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.” He also works in you to do the act. He energizes you to be energetic. He works in you, so you will work, not just to will but to do the work and bring about godly behavior. “To will and to do.” Wait a minute, I thought. I’m to work it out. And now you tell me it’s God that’s doing the willing and the working? Is it God or is it me? Well, it’s not either-or. It’s both. We don’t have to just take one or the other. He so works in me to will and to work that he does not cancel my working.
So we have the reality of God’s working: He is at work in you. Secondly, the extent of his working: to will and to work. And then, the sovereign goal of God’s working: to will and to do what? “for His good pleasure.” Wow. He is at work in us to will and to do for the fulfillment of his free, sovereign purpose of grace. All for his “good pleasure”—what pleases him. It’s mind-boggling. Depraved sinners with damaged souls, with every part infected with depravity, who always want to do what is opposite to God and what is displeasing to God, are now, in redemptive grace, being worked in by God to will and to do, so he causes us to do what pleases him. All his sovereign good pleasures. What satisfies him. What gives him great satisfaction.
What a thrill to think that God is working in us! He is ultimately, infinitely, and perfectly satisfied already. His happiness and satisfaction aren’t dependent on any creature. This verse, however, speaks of his covenant condescension. In some way, he is working in me to will and to do what gives him great satisfaction and pleasure.
Just to think that I, a worm of time who lives today and dies tomorrow, am doing something that brings great satisfaction to the heart of the eternal Jehovah—it’s mind-spinning. This is the God of grace and mercy. We have become so very dear to him in Christ. He is working for our best. What could be the best thing in the universe for you and me but to will and do what brings pleasure and satisfaction to the heart of Jehovah? He wants your best because your best is what pleases him most. He takes pleasure in you; he takes pleasure in me. And what he wants to produce in us is for his own satisfaction. Isn’t it a great thought to think that I can bring satisfaction to the heart of God? Think about that as you go home today.
What have we learned today?
- We must first possess salvation before we can work it out.
- Once we have salvation, we must regularly work out our salvation with fear and trembling.
- The motivation to work out our salvation is because God works in us.
Let me now bring several lessons to your practical life.
Lessons for a Practical Life
First, this truth should greatly motivate and encourage us to trust God’s ways in our life. Are you wondering what is happening in your life? Why all this pain and suffering? Here is the answer: there is a certain sovereignty in this. We all find our lives on different paths, and we don’t know all of God’s reasons for some of the convoluted trips we take. May this passage assure you that, of all the people on the face of this earth, you and I are so uniquely blessed because the infinite God works in us.
This God, whose wisdom is unsearchable, whose understanding is infinite, whose ways are infinitely beyond my ways, is working in ways beyond our ability to understand. Do you realize that the great Yahweh who said, “I will never leave or forsake you,” is always present in me, always supporting, always guiding, always upholding, always supplying, always strengthening, always shielding, and never out of his care, always producing sanctifying effects in my life? It’s the absolutely unbelievable truth that the infinite, independent, very God who created the universe, who keeps an everlasting covenant based on everlasting promises, who can see all things from beginning to end, is that personal, that intimate, that concerned, that he literally works in us.
The God who is sovereign over everything for all eternity lives in us. God, who unendingly, unshakably, and immutably commits himself, takes the responsibility to work in me the greatest miracle, so intimately engaged in the most minute activity of my being—not just what I am talking about or acting on, but what I am thinking and desiring—so as to affect my will. That is why the Psalmist was so thrilled and could say in Psalm 23, “The Lord (in all caps, meaning Yahweh) is my shepherd.” When he is so intimately engaged in me, what do I lack? Because this God is doing the greatest miracle inside me. That’s an astounding realization. In the midst of all the storms of life and struggles with sin, this is the anchor of our souls. It’s a great motivation you and I should grasp and stand in awe of. God made us, God knew our constitution and makeup, he knew our temptations, the temptations that would assail us, and our capability. God, who is the God of providence and rules every event in the world and in our lives, knowing what events will bring what effect in us, is working in us and allows things only as he thinks fit. He is working the greatest redemptive miracle.
The God of eternity, with infinite power, is working in me with his power. Why do we continue to persevere in the midst of 101 temptations, enemies, and trials? His power continues to drive us to glorification. His power expels sin and increases holiness. God can accomplish, and does accomplish, through you that which is unimaginable, unthinkable, and beyond your ability to plan, reason, or dream.
Personal Examination
The second lesson is personal examination. If you grasp that great truth—that God is working in you—what is he working to cause you to will and to do? Have you thought about it? What does he want you to will? What does he want you to do? What habit does he want you to change? What attitude does he want you to change? What sins does he want you to confess and repent of? What lusts does he want you to kill? What relationship does he want you to make right? What desire does he want you to have? What ministry does he want you to do? What spiritual duty does he desire that you will? And in what area does he want you to be faithful? What wrong does he want you to make right? He’s working in you to cause you to will and to work what will please him—all the pleasure that he has revealed in Scripture.
Next, let us not forget the primary context of this application. This is the main point of Paul’s appeal here: God is working in us to live a life worthy of the gospel, both at home and in the church. God is working in us to have the mind of Christ and follow his example of a lowliness of mind, not doing anything out of selfish ambition or vain pride, but with a lowliness of mind, considering others better than yourselves, not looking to your own things, but to those of others. Are you working that out with fear and trembling at home and in the church?
If you claim to be a believer, you must believe God is working in you, and you must give up your rights, pride, and selfishness and serve others. How is your life in your relationships with your husband, wife, and children? That is where you work out your salvation first. If you persist in selfishness and vain pride, in refusing to yield your rights, in demanding your own way, whether at home or in the church, always fighting because of your pride, what is your testimony to the world?
If we talk about Jesus saving us from our sins, but we can’t get along with one another in love, either in the church or in our homes, the world laughs at our message. But when the world sees Christians laying aside selfishness and regarding one another as more important than themselves (2:3), they will be more inclined to listen to the gospel. That’s Paul’s main message here: that we need to work out the practical implications of our salvation in relationships. This passage is a great encouragement. “Oh, pastor, it is so difficult for me,” you say. “Yes,” I reply, “God, who is working in you to will and do, will make you like that.”
John Wesley and George Whitefield were both used by God to bring thousands of people to faith in Christ in the 18th century. They were good friends, although they differed greatly on the matter of God’s sovereignty versus man’s responsibility in salvation. Wesley put such an emphasis on human responsibility that he was unsure of his own salvation on his deathbed, after a life of preaching the gospel. Whitefield, on the other hand, was a firm believer in God’s sovereignty in salvation. A man who was trying to find a juicy bit of gossip once asked Whitefield if he thought he would see John Wesley in heaven. Whitefield replied, “No.” “Do you mean that you do not believe that John Wesley is converted and thus won’t be in heaven?” the man asked, hoping to procure his bit of gossip. “You asked me if I would see John Wesley in heaven,” Whitefield replied. “I do not believe I will, because John Wesley will be so close to the throne of God and I will be so far away, that I will not get a glimpse of him.” George Whitefield was applying what Paul is teaching here.
If, by God’s grace, we have been saved—if it is none other than God who is at work among us, both to will and to work for his good pleasure—then we must be diligent to work out the practical implications of that salvation in our relationships with one another in obedience to God.
How are your relationships at home? With other Christians? If God has saved you, you’ve got to follow the example of the Lord Jesus Christ, who laid aside his rights and went to the cross on our behalf. Work out your salvation by denying yourself and loving others for Jesus’ sake.
You’ve got to work out your individual salvation in your relationships with other Christians, both in your family and in the church. And, I might add, it is work! It’s a lifetime process, and it isn’t automatic. But as we work through such problems or differences, we learn more of Christ. We grow in humility and servanthood. As we work out our salvation in loving relationships, lost people will see the difference God makes in our daily lives and so be drawn to him.
Concurrent Realities
The next lesson is to learn that God’s working and our working are concurrent realities. Now, what do we mean by “concurrent”? They’re going on at the same time. My speaking and the air conditioning running above your heads are concurrent realities. I’m speaking, and the AC is running. My speaking does not stop the AC. They are concurrent realities. This passage clearly teaches that in the Christian life, God’s working and our working are concurrent. Don’t be deceived by so many YouTube videos and books that teach quietism or pietism. Always learn the biblical balance. Look at the text and circle in your minds with two eyes, these two things: you have to work out, for God is working in you. See the concurrent realities.
In every area of the Christian life, we can see progress from this beautiful balancing principle. When it comes to preaching, there are men who say you should not put in effort or show any emotion, just be an instrument in preaching, and let God speak through you, and they just keep blabbering today. Spurgeon beautifully said, “Prepare as if everything depends on you, and pray as if everything depends on God.” Yes, I have to prepare as if everything depends on me, but unless God takes those words and penetrates them through the outer ear and reverberates them on the inner ear, bringing light to the soul, there will not be any benefit. So we prepare with all our might and pray, “Lord, send your spirit.”
Next, God’s working should greatly encourage us to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. Oh, we have so many duties in the Christian life: to overcome sin, to strive for a greater use of the means of grace, and to read the Scripture. “Oh, will I be able to complete reading the whole Bible?” Be encouraged. God is working in you to will and to finish reading the whole Bible. The same goes for your prayer life and for overcoming temptations. “I am miserably failing in personal sanctification.” Be encouraged, God is working in you. You will overcome that sin.
“Oh, we have to share the gospel. How can I? I am a shy guy; I have never spoken before.” “But how can I be sure we will succeed?” We so miserably fail when we put in efforts. “Will any good come out of our effort?” But Paul says the great motivation to work out with all our strength is because “it is God who is at work in you both to will and to work according to his own sovereign, gracious purposes.”
We should learn to see our working according to the Scripture as a sign of God’s working. He works in us, too, making us willing to work well. How can I know he’s working in me? Is it because I’m carried off into great mystical flights, or into great subjective experiences and tingles up and down my spine? No, no. I know he is working in me as I am willing and doing the good, acceptable, and perfect will of God as revealed in the Holy Scriptures. The only solid evidence that he is at work in me is that I am willing and working to do the thing that he has revealed to be his will in the word of God.
Grace Reformed Baptist Church, Bangalore 