This post is part of a 40-Day Prayer Journey through the season of Lent. Click here to learn more and read other posts in the series.
“My dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose” (Philippians 2:12-13).
Whoa, whoa, Paul—what are you saying here? I thought the Bible clearly taught that we can’t do anything to work out our salvation.
Don’t you even write elsewhere, “It is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9)?
Paul isn’t contradicting himself with the verses quoted above. Nor is he contradicting what the Bible teaches elsewhere about how we are saved.
We can do nothing to win or work out our salvation—not even a little bit. Jesus did it all for us through his perfect life, his innocent suffering and death on the cross, and his triumphant resurrection from the grave. Eternal life is ours because of him and him alone.
So what is Paul talking about here?
Verses like these that are challenging at first glance make me appreciate biblically sound, Christ-centered commentaries on what the Bible teaches. To help us correctly understand what Paul is encouraging Christians to do in these verses, Pastor Harlyn J. Kuschel wrote this in his commentary on Philippians, Colossians, Philemon in The People’s Bible® series:
When God saves sinners by bringing them to faith in Jesus through the gospel, he makes them spiritually alive in Christ. Believers are now capable of spiritual work and the spiritual effort Paul calls for in our text. This is not a work that earns or tries to earn salvation. It is a working by which believers, who know that they have been saved by the blood of Christ, make the best use of the spiritual gifts and powers with which the Holy Spirit has supplied them to grow in faith, bring forth the fruits of faith, and remain steadfast in faith unto eternal life. With his encouragement to work out their salvation with fear and trembling, the apostle wants to remind the Philippians, and all believers, that believers’ lives in the world are a constant struggle. (p. 55)
In short, do as Jesus encouraged his own disciples to do in the Garden of Gethsemane: “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Matthew 26:41).
Watch out, dear Christian!
You and I would be wise to give careful attention to how we live our lives. Jesus has taken away our sins, we’re God’s dearly loved children, and heaven is ours. Don’t become complacent. That’s the encouragement and warning for us.
Let’s help one another.
Let’s help one another stay alert and active in our faith lives, to be in the Word, strengthening our faith in our Savior through God’s means of grace. Let’s encourage one another to return again and again to the source of spiritual water so that we do not become dehydrated and weakened in our faith.
As we encourage one another to return, God promises to work through his means of grace—his Word and sacraments—to strengthen our faith in him and keep our attention focused on what our Savior has done for us, to hold on to the spiritual treasures that he has won for us and has freely given to us out of his great love.
Today as you pray, ask that God would help his people not to become complacent in our lives of faith, but to continue growing faithfully in faith, serving God and others with our lives of faith, and, by his grace alone, to remain steadfast until we get home to heaven.
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Alex Brown is the marketing and content copywriter at Northwestern Publishing House. He has his Master of Divinity degree from Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary and enjoys reading, writing, and spending time in God’s creation.
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