The Vision (3.13.26): Work out your own salvation

 

Image: Pear tree blossoms, North Garden, Virginia, March 2026.

Note: Devotion taken from last Sunday's sermon on Philippians 2:12-18.

“…work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:12b-13).

Paul’s command to the saints at Philippi to work out their own salvation with fear and trembling (2:12b) represents an apparent tension.

Salvation is by grace alone through faith alone. It is the gift of God. It is not by works lest any man should boast (Ephesians 2:8-9). How then can Paul ask the brethren to work out their own salvation?

A command from the apostle Peter also reflects this tension: “Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall” (2 Peter 1:10).

How are we to understand this teaching?

We might first note that salvation can be understood in three tenses.

I have been saved. It is an accomplished fact. I was saved on the cross when Christ died for my sins, and that salvation was realized the moment I received the effectual call of God in the preaching of the gospel and was justified by faith in Christ.

But also, I am being saved. The ramifications of my salvation are being worked out in my ongoing sanctification. Related to my present salvation is the fact there is being worked out in me the fruit of good works which God has prepared for me. As Paul said in Ephesians 2:10, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”

Finally, I also will be saved. When Christ comes again in power and glory, I will receive my resurrection body and enter into the final state of glory.

In commanding the saints to work out their own salvation Paul is not being man-centered. The apostle can and will only be relentlessly God-centered.

That is made clear in Philippians 2:13. It is God who is working among his people. The Lord alone is the author our salvation, and it is God who works in us so that we produce the godly fruit which issues from and adorns the lives of his saints.

He works out his will, his decree of election, his decree of sanctification, and, ultimately, his decree of glorification in us. He works out his good pleasure. It all serves his ends and results in his divine satisfaction and glory. We become the trophies of his grace that rightly bring all glory and honor to Him.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle