God’s provisions of faith, repentance, and the church are worthy of highlighting how we work out our salvation. Faith, because “the righteous shall live by his faith” (Hab. 2:4); repentance, because it is “leads to life” (Acts 11:18); and committing to the Christian church, because “working out your own salvation” isn’t an individual task only, but there is the need to “comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth” of Christ’s love (Eph. 3:18). We have a common goal for this work. The goal of the work is our Savior, our Lord Jesus, and although our salvation is worked out according to our own persons, personalities, and circumstances, we all as Christians share the same Savior and the same goal.

Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. (Phil. 2:12–13)

I remember as a teenager hearing these verses read in church. It made a lasting impression on me and although we may feel far from fully grasping all this passage entails, I hope you will find the following thoughts a helpful accompaniment to it.

Look to Christ to Perceive What It Means to “Work Out Your Own Salvation”

When we think of salvation, the Lord Jesus is our chief focus because He is our salvation. He committed Himself to the One who could save Him from death (Heb. 5:7) and thereby “became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him” (Heb. 5:9). Through His life, death, and resurrection, He worked out our salvation from sin. He grew in His understanding and wisdom according to His age (see Luke 2:47, 52). His thoughts, words, and actions were aimed at achieving salvation for us. The context of our chosen verses from Philippians 2 tells of His exertions in achieving it. He lived in a God-honoring fashion; “taking the form of a servant . . . he humbled himself” (Phil. 2:7). His whole life was committed to God. He was “obedient to death, even death on a cross” (Phil. 2:8). Accordingly, God saved Him from death and “highly exalted him” (Phil. 2:9).

Christ withheld nothing in His achieving salvation for us. He did not give a part of Himself for us, but He gave Himself. This is conveyed to us in Philippians 2:7–9. He “emptied himself” and “humbled himself.” It is fitting, therefore, that God withheld no honor from Him: “God exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name.”

Working out our salvation entails discovering and believing the truths of God and Christ revealed by Scripture. Yet it also includes much more, because Christ redeemed not a part of us only but our whole being—body and soul. Therefore, working out our salvation means responding to God with the whole of our being: heart, soul, mind, and strength. We are to apply our minds to understand our salvation, we are to exert ourselves putting Christ’s teaching into practice, and we are to allow Christ’s salvation to work through us and permeate our words, thoughts, and actions.

Since salvation was a whole-life work for Jesus, it is also a lifelong work for us. There is always more to learn of God’s saving works and scope for further application in our lives. We are a work in progress until the time, by God’s grace, that He completes the work He has begun in us.

Communion with God Is Key to “Working Out Your Own Salvation”

The accompanying expression “with fear and trembling” offers a valuable clue as to how we may “work out [our] own salvation” (Phil. 2:12). It tells of people who have turned to God and are humble before Him. It is to practice what Paul has already described in Philippians 2 where he taught the need to be humble, presented us with Christ’s example and taught us how to obtain it, “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 2:5). If Christians lack a grace they may then come to Christ for that grace, much as Paul powerfully describes later in the letter.

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