My prayer remains that you understand and embrace the Gospel, which we observed in yesterday’s devotion. We focused on the grace of God in saving sinners because of Paul’s first command in his earliest epistle.  Such a strong command so early in our examination of the imperatives of the Word!

Paul says we literally “are having been saved by grace through faith…not of ourselves” in Ephesians 2:8-9.  In verse 10 though, the Spirit through Paul says that we as believers are God’s “workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works….”  I believe that this is the clearest passage in the Bible that helps us understand the relationship between salvation by grace apart from works and the works that God saved us to perform.

Human conduct is the target of the commands of the Bible.  However, if we read the Word carefully, we will find that the grace-through-faith way of receiving Eternal Life in no way contradicts any the commands we have from Jesus and His apostles to obey God and walk in His Righteousness.  So now I suggest a look at a command from Paul that we have as a consequence of encountering the grace of God received through faith in Jesus Christ.

The Text in Context

“So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure. ” (Philippians 2:12–13, NAS)

This is one of my favorite passages in Scripture.  Here’s why: Philippians 2:5-11.  This is the “Kenosis” Passage, where we find that Jesus is and always has been God the Son Who entered human history as a human being (at Christmas) in order to be the Lamb of God, the sacrifice for our sins on the Cross.  The Son of God, eternally with the Father and Spirit, became the Son of Man who would die for our sins outside the gates of Jerusalem.  He would fulfill once for all (Romans 6:10, Hebrews 10:10, 12) the prophecy of One Who would die for us (ex. Isaiah 53).  In this passage of Philippians we read of His attitude, His humility, whereby He submitted to the will of the Father and was consequently glorified–as Jesus the God-Man.  This glory will extend into all eternity.  It is a glory that God grants as inheritance through Jesus Christ to those in Christ.

Verse 5 begins with the command, “have this thinking in you which was also in Christ Jesus.”  The thinking involves the full submission of ourselves and our prerogatives to God’s will and purpose for us, with the expectation of total fulfillment and blessing in God’s timing.  This is very important: the expectation of blessing from God after a life of willing subjection–and even death “on a Cross”–is not a mercenary motivation.  We are not submitting in order to receive blessing, contra “health-and-wealth” preaching.  If you approach the living God with a selfish, self-advancing motivation or priority, you are missing the point.  Rather, as Jesus perfectly exemplified, it is the believer’s personal willingness to submit to the real, personal relationship with God and all that he expects that draws the exaltation of our loving Creator.  It is always personal with God.  Loving, personal interaction is never mercenary.

Yet God’s desire is always for your best and highest.  Submission to His plan for you is Biblical Wisdom (Prov 1:7), which takes you all the way to the fullness of His desire.  We cannot even begin to imagine His ambition for us, yet we all too often substitute our own myopic ambitions and priorities in place of His (1 Cor 2:9, Is 64:4).

Working Out Your Salvation

So much for the context.  Now for the command:  what does it mean to “work out your salvation”?  This is a puzzling verse, given what we read in Ephesians 2:8-9.  My answer is that Philippians 2:12-13 is talking about the same thing as Ephesians 2:10.  The audience is clearly “saved” people in the way we usually mean “saved” in English.  Philippians 1:1 identifies the audience as “saints”–those set-apart to God in Christ.  There is no question that Paul is addressing born-again believers and only born-again believers.  They are being told to obey and to work.  The key, as I’ll explain next time, is that the identity of the “salvation” which we are to “work out” is determined by its immediate context, the exaltation of Jesus Christ through His humility.

On Monday we’ll develop this command in some more detail.  I want to thank you for taking the time to go this far with me in these devotions.  The insights they afford me are their own reward from God, and any benefit He may make of them to you is cause for my overflowing gratitude to Him.

Three Prefatory Thoughts:

1.  Theology Proper:  God, the Sovereign of His created universe very often issues commands to believers, and He holds us responsible to obey them.  This is Scripture, and the word “obey” does not in any way contradict the notion of God’s grace.

2.  Sanctification:  Obedience to any command involves at least three steps:

1) receiving the instruction

2) choosing to obey it

3) following through on the choice with action

It is likely that most people in your civilization have no idea where to begin with #1, and so they have no access to #2-3!

3.  Bibliology:  Not only do we hold that God is Good, we hold that He is Self-consistent and the basis for all true logic.  This is another way of saying that God is organized and the Organizer of reality.  Therefore His Word does not communicate chaos by being self-contradictory.  When we think we’ve found a contradiction of the Bible either from itself or from the world around us, we need to check again and ask our Father, “How can it be so?”  The contradiction is only apparent because our perception or reason are not lining up with the facts.

Passage to Pray:  Ps 19

Memory Verse:  Ps 19:7-10:

7 The law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul; The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. 8 The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. 9 The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever; The judgments of the Lord are true; they are righteous altogether. 10 They are more desirable than gold, yes, than much fine gold; Sweeter also than honey and the drippings of the honeycomb.