Work Out Your Own Salvation
What does it mean?

“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. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.”—Phil. 2:12-13
There are those who enjoy using this verse as a tool to push a works based doctrine. They claim that works are required in our salvation. Works, are a sign of our faith, between you and God. Works do not save us. This can clearly be seen in the very next verse. It is God who does the work.
As James said, “Faith without works is dead.” Our works show that we believe. Show who? Are we trained apes that perform for people? No. It shows God and ourselves that we believe. It helps build our faith as we actively follow the Holy Spirit and do the things God calls us to do. Our faith grows and is alive as we see ourselves following God. (Jas. 2:24)
The fact is that we are saved by GRACE, not by faith or works. This is very important to understand. It is nothing we do. Even faith is a work, when compared to grace. Any work on our part rejects God’s Grace. If we think we are helping God or paying God back, or obeying Him because of grace, we are rejecting His grace. If I give you something, and you do something or pay for it, you have ruined my free gift. See? When you try to do something nice for someone and they demand that you let them pay you back, this is what we try to do with God and His Grace. When we do it, we are rejecting His free gift, and trying to save ourselves through our own righteousness.(Eph. 2:8-10, Rom. 11:6)
So what does it mean to work out our own salvation?
Well, first it means that it is each person’s responsibility to hear God’s call and turn to Him for salvation. It is also each persons responsibility to make sure they are really saved. Hence, the fear and trembling. (Romans 10:9-10)
We must realize that each of us are born with certain problems in our DNA. This is our corrupted nature from Adam. You can often see it in family traits. Things that are in our flesh and we struggle with. Sometimes, these are mixed with our environment as kids. I don’t want to call it sin, because it doesn’t start out as sin, until you sin in it, or because of it.
Take anger as an example. Some people are born, with quick tempers. But, it’s not a sin, until it causes you to sin. Then, you must deal with the consequences. Addiction is another example; people are born with a proclivity to addiction. They become addicts faster or easier. This is something that leads to more sin and struggle.
These are just a couple of examples. The point is that we are all born with these failings in our DNA, and we are raised in families or environments which impact us. These things lead us to grow up a certain way. It opens doors for the devil to influence our life. It creates who we are.
This is a product of our fallen world, our sin, and the demons who rule it. God does not make junk. But, this world does impact us. (2 Cor. 4:4)
Then, we meet Jesus.
We hear a sermon or a tract, or a friend tells us about Christ.
We are saved. The Holy Spirit comes to dwell in us. We are set free. Our sins are forever gone.
Then comes Monday morning and the world attacks us, along with the devil. We discover that we have power over some things in our lives, that we never had before. But, we also learn that there are still fleshly things we must struggle with.
As we walk with God in the Spirit we have things that will tempt our flesh. We have spiritual enemies seeking to devour us. We will fail. But, we are overcomers through Him. We will sin. But, we are forgiven and confess them to the Lord.
This walk is working out our own salvation, with God. We are saved by His grace. But, we walk in this world.
Let’s take two people. One is born into a nice Christian family. They have everything going for them and they get saved. Now take another person born in poverty, addicted to drugs, prison and all kinds of sin, and they get saved.
Both are saved. Both are equal. Both have problems. But, both did not start out in the same place.
Their journey with God is different. Not better or worse, but different. They have different struggles. They have different sins that they are impacted by. They have different demons.
They work out their own salvation on their own journey with God. They walk through different valleys and over different mountains with Him.
An addict who gets saved, struggles with that issue, while another believer might struggle with anger. Another might struggle with gossip, while another battles anxiety.
The devil attacks our flesh and tempts us any way he can to get our focus off of God, and serving Him. It’s a war. The devil wins by keeping us from sharing the Gospel, building the Kingdom, and bringing light into darkness.
All of this is working out our own salvation, within God’s Grace, as we walk with Him. It’s our sanctification through our relationship with Him.
Do not let the works based doctrines of some beat you down. Just turn to God and keep turning to Him. That is relationship, as we rely totally on Him. Not ourselves.
Praise Jesus.
Bio: Chris Bunton is a writer, poet and blogger from Southern Illinois.
Cover photo by Pexels/Kampus Productions
Checkout Chris’s books.


You might also like this book
