Work out your salvation with fear and trembling
Question: What does Paul mean when he says to “continue to work out
your salvation with fear and trembling” (Phil. 2:12)? I am trying to understand
his meaning of “work” and “fear and trembling.”
Answer: The difficulty you may be having in
understanding the apostle’s meaning may be due to the fact that we often
conceive of salvation too narrowly. “Salvation” is a comprehensive term. We
tend to think of only one aspect of salvation as if it were the whole of it. We
tend to use the term exclusively of the moment of our conversion. We tell
people, “I was saved when I was 12 years old.” Or, “I was saved when I lived in
Wichita.”
When we say things like this, we are thinking of
the moment of our
conversion and equating it with “salvation.” There is nothing wrong with
this as long as we remember that there is more to our salvation than this
initial conversion experience.
The Bible uses the word “salvation” to refer,
not only to conversion, but also to all of the various aspects of our
redemption. According to the language of Scripture, we have been saved,
we are being saved, and we shall be saved. In
other words, there is a past, present, and future element to our salvation.
Note the past, present, and future tenses in the following verses relative to
our salvation.
Past tense: “He saved us,
not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own
mercy” (Titus 3:5).
Present tense: “For the
word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being
saved it is the power of God” (1 Cor. 1:18).
Future tense: “Since,
therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved
by him from the wrath of God” (Rom. 5:9).
These are just a few passages that speak of the
various “tenses” of our salvation. At conversion we are justified. Justification
is an act of God’s grace by which he pardons all our sins and accepts us as
righteous in his sight through the merits of Jesus’ blood, accepting his death
in the place of our punishment. It is a one time, once for all work of God in
the life of the believer that takes place at the moment of our conversion. This
is the past tense of our salvation,
and is usually what we have in mind when we speak of “salvation.”
Following justification comes sanctification;
and whereas justification is an instantaneous work that God
does for us, sanctification is a progressive work that God
does in us. In justification God reckons us to be righteous; in sanctification,
he makes us so in practice. By the working of his grace in us, he brings us
into greater and greater conformity to his will. We are justified at the moment
of our conversion, and it is a completed work. But sanctification begins with
conversion and continues till the moment of death. This is the present tense of our salvation.
At death, the Christian is “glorified.” That is,
he is finally and fully delivered from the power of sin. He is fully
established in righteousness, and sin is no longer even a possibility. In this
life we must contend with the world, the flesh, and the devil in our fight to
live righteously. But in heaven we will be delivered from all our enemies, and
the fight will be over. The culmination of our redemption, of course, will take place when
Christ comes again to raise the dead. Then we shall experience the redemption
of our bodies and our salvation will be complete (Rom. 8:23). This is the future tense of our salvation.
We have been saved (justified), we are in the
process of being saved (sanctified), and one day will be saved (glorification/resurrection).
When Paul said, “work out your own salvation
with fear and trembling,” he was referring to the process of
sanctification—working out in practice what God is working in us. The very next
verse says, “For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his
good pleasure” (Phil. 2:13). This helps us to understand what he means. God is graciously at work in us, moving our
will to will what he wills, and to do what he would have us do. This is a work
that we are to yield to and cooperate with. But why with “fear and trembling”?
Because, as Scripture says, “our God is a consuming fire” (Heb. 10:29). Peter
said, “If you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each
one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile” (1
Pet. 1:17). God is holy, and he impartially judges with temporal judgments both
saints and sinners. In fact, Peter would say just a little later, “It is time
for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what
will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?” (1 Pet.
4:17).
Comments
Fellower of Christ
Glad you found it helpful.
Did I mean to say "Roman Catholics"? No. It is true that Roman Catholics do incorporate Works Righteousness into their theology but in a very different manner than Evangelicals. It is my opinion that the Evangelical Doctrine of Salvation relies more heavily on Works Righteousness than even that of the Roman Catholics! Let me explain:
Roman Catholics teach that Jesus alone saves you, but then the believer, the Christian, must do good works to complete or assist in his salvation. However, salvation itself was initially given without any merit of the sinner.
In the Roman Catholic Church, any infant (who is a sinner by way of Original Sin) brought to them with the consent of the parents or guardians, will be baptized and receive God's gift of salvation, even if the parents themselves are not believers. So what did this child do to merit salvation? Answer: he was breathing and present at the time and location that God chose to save him. That's it.
In Evangelical theology, the sinner must choose or decide that he wants to be saved. Now some evangelicals may nuance this position and state that this decision is only possible due to the work of the Holy Spirit creating faith in his heart, but bottom line, most evangelicals believe that the sinner must choose to believe. "We are not automatons or robots in the act of salvation: we have to choose to be saved!" they will say.
So who did more work to be saved in these two theologies: the Catholic baby at the baptismal font or the evangelical adult or older child who used his maturity, his intellect, and his decision-making capabilities to make a decision as a prerequisite for God to save him?
http://www.lutherwasnotbornagain.com/2013/10/salvation-is-much-simpler-than.html