Work Out Your Salvation

Work Out Your Salvations with Fear and Trembling

Bible Passage: Philippians 2:12–18

Summary: In Philippians 2:12-18, Paul encourages believers to work out their salvation with fear and trembling, recognizing that it is God who works in them. He emphasizes the importance of being lights in the world by holding fast to the word of life, even in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation.

Application:

Teaching:

How this passage could point to Christ: In this passage, the call to be lights in the world is fulfilled in Christ, the ultimate light of the world. Paul points to Jesus' humility and obedience as the example for believers to follow. His sacrifice enables us to shine brightly, affirming that we are transformed by our relationship with Him.

Big Idea: Through God's empowering presence, Christians are equipped to shine His light in a dark world by actively living out their salvation.

Introduction

Hello, my name is Ernesto Vasquez. I am a seminary student, and I will be covering for Pastor Tim today. So, about three weeks ago, I received a text message that said, “Pastor Tim reached out and asked if any of the seminarians would be able to fill his pulpit in New Paltz on Jan. 5th.” I raised my hand with “fear and trembling,” ironically, a term we will discuss today.

Let me state a little about myself: I am currently in seminary and have been studying for about four years. I have retired from the New York City Police Department after a twenty-year career. I plan to seek ordination in the EPC, and my hope is to become a full-time pastor. God willing, I will be a candidate under care at the end of this month, which is a requirement for the EPC, and shortly after that, I will begin my testing. As I always say to everyone, your prayers and words of encouragement are always welcomed and greatly appreciated.

Today, we will be in the book of Philippians and look at chapter 2, verses 12 through 18. Let us stand, if you are able, for the reading of God’s wordEnglish Standard Version (2:12-18)

English Standard Version Chapter 2

Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

14 Do all things without grumbling or disputing, 15 that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, 16 holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain. 17 Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all. 18 Likewise you also should be glad and rejoice with me.

Prayer: Lord, we thank you for your word that reveals, that teaches, that corrects and that trains us. We ask that your Holy Spirit applies the words of this epistle to our hearts so that we may live out the work that Christ has done in our lives. Amen.

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i. Hook: Let me begin by saying, that I have not always been reformed. (I am reformed now). The message that I will present today is heavily reformed. I grew up in a non-reformed Pentecostal church. In this church, I never studied concepts such as the sovereignty of God, predestination, and election, and most of all, I have never studied any of the reformed thinkers. The church I grew up in was legalistic in many ways; legalism is the belief that one gains favor and acceptance from God through performing works prescribed by God's laws rather than through faith alone. Salvation, as I understood it, was man’s ability to maintain the gift that they received from God. In other words, God gives you salvation, and it is up to you to remain saved. Maybe this sounds familiar to you, or maybe it sounds completely foreign, depending on your past experiences, but this was mine.

I don’t want to spend too much time on this, but I came to understand what the Scriptures say about salvation. It is a work of God. We can’t save ourselves! We have passages such as Ephesians 2:8-9 “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” I love that verse! Or Titus 3:5-6 “he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit.” So, I knew these verses growing up, and as I looked at them through the reformed lens, I had a new appreciation of what they meant.

ii. Contextual Setup: So, I’m preparing a sermon on Philippians 2, and I come across verse 12 it ends with, “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” I thought to myself, “come on… I thought I had this figured out!” Then I read verse 13, “for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” I said to myself, “exactly!” But there is a big problem here, I can’t ignore or try and downplay parts of Paul’s epistle, especially when he makes such a strong statement. We, as Christians sometimes tend to inject some sort of theological statement into the words of the author. Statements that the author himself does not make. So, before we are to understand the whole passage, we are to first, understand verses 12 and 13. Once we understand we move on to an imperative statement from the apostle. The apostle exhorts us to Christian behavior and attaches a promise to it. Lastly, the apostle instructs us that in our service we are to rejoice.

iii. Main Idea: This passage that we will go through teaches us that we are called to work out our salvation and shine as lights in the world, empowered by the Holy Spirit. Now, let’s begin with verses 12 and 13.

1. A Believer’s Work

Philippians 2:12-13

i. Explanation:

Background – The Epistle to the Philippians was likely written around 60-61 A.D. Most theologians believe it to have been from Paul’s Roman house arrest. They believe this because Paul mentions Caesar’s household in Chapter 4, verse 22, the mention of the praetorium in Chapter 1, verse 13, and Paul’s ability to receive visitors during his house arrest and the likeliness of Paul’s execution. This harmonizes nicely with the imprisonment at the end of the book of Acts.

I won’t go into the breakdown of the entire letter, but it’s important to note two things. This was a letter that was written to an established church. Verse 1 tells us that there were deacons and overseers. Second, Paul was concerned that the Philippians demonstrate the reality of their Christian profession in action. For many Christians, I think there will be a time in your growth when you need to hear this message. You need to be called into action. You need to be reminded that you are running a race. And this means something. A race is something you do. Its an active role.

Let us look at the first passage.

Verse 12: Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling,

“Therefore,” Our passage begins with a word that connects the ideas that are ahead of us with ideas that Paul previously discussed. This word actually provides us with the basis of the passage that we are dealing with. But I’ll close with that.

“my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence,” As we learned earlier, the church at Philippi was an established church and was also a faithful church, which is why Paul states, “as you have always obeyed.” Paul wants to see a church with a strong testimony whether he is with them or whether he is away.

Now to the core of the passage, “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.”

(Pause and repeat)

At this point every one of you should be asking for more. But let’s just stay with this verse for a minute or two. Repeat the verse with me, “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” I can’t even get to work on time… and I’m supposed to work out my own salvation? I have to go home and clean… I’m defeated by my children… Life’s just beating me up… and I have work out my own salvation…?

(Pause)

And maybe there were some listeners at the church at Philippi that felt the same way.

But Paul tosses us a lifeline…

Verse 13: for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

Aahhh… Reformed theology to the rescue! Just when I felt like I would drown in Paul’s words, Paul tosses a life preserver. (Repeat Verse) God works in me, he gives me the will to work for his good pleasure.

NOT SO FAST…

Paul gives us two statements, not just one. First, “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling,” and second “for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” Oftentimes, our theological inclinations will bring us to promote one of these statements and downplay the other. But that’s not what Paul did. He gives two very strong statements that, maybe he fully understood, but many theologians today write full chapters in books over this topic.

Professor of Practical Theology Dennis Johnson states,

Philippians “Work out Your Salvation” in Hopeful Obedience

Paul describes the dynamic of Christian obedience in the command “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” and its supportive rationale, “for it is God who works in you” (Phil. 2:12b–13). Together they show the mysterious interplay between divine initiative and enabling, on the one hand, and human participation, on the other. Yet the way that Paul words this command has been troubling for many Christians. They wonder, “Is the apostle of God’s free grace suddenly retracting his gospel insistence that God justifies not the person who ‘works’ but rather the one who trusts Jesus (Rom. 4:1–5)?” Suddenly Paul seems to be talking about the contribution of our working to our salvation. Then he compounds our discomfort when he adds “fear and trembling.” Are we not only to work for our salvation, but also to do so in an attitude of nervous insecurity, terrified that we might lose it all at the last moment?

I hope you can appreciate the complexity of Paul’s statement. Let me make this a little more difficult for you. I’ve struggled with this verse for some time and I would like to pass some of that towards you.

ii. Man’s Activity and God’s Activity:

Man’s Activity and God’s Activity – Of course we are responsible beings, right? Afterall, Scriptures are filled with commands, exhortations and imperatives. We’ll go to imperatives in a minute. But, let me give you some Biblical passages that deal with commands that we are given. I hope I can demonstrate that the Bible commands you to ACT; to show what is our activity. We are commanded to:

· yield our lives to God:

o Rom. 6:19 – “ I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.”

· strive for holiness:

o Rom. 8:13 – “For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.”

o 2 Cor. 7:1 – “Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.”

· don the whole armor of God:

o Eph. 6:10–20 – I won’t read this one, but you get the point

· put to death our sinful dispositions:

o Col. 3:5 – “Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.”

We also have passages that deal with God’s activity in salvation…

· Romans 4:5 “And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly”

· Ephesians 2:8-9 “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

· Titus 3:5-6 “he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit.”

So, I don’t want to belabor this point, because we still have five verses to get to, but because my intention here is not to cause confusion. I want to challenge you to understand this Pauline argument. To fully understand it you should wrestle with it. “What is Paul saying?” “Something doesn’t sound right, here?” “How could Paul be asking you to do something that clearly sounds like a divine action?”

(Pause)

Jonah, after being saved from the abyss states, “Salvation belongs to the Lord.” (Jonah 2:9) In the same way Jonah could not have saved himself, we cannot save ourselves. So, what is Paul saying?

iii. Application:

Understanding the Method – First, let us understand the method. Throughout Scriptures we see a grammatical tool called an imperative statement or mood. This is a verbal statement that expresses commands, requests, exhortations. “Do this…” In our case, “work out your own salvation…” This is an imperative statement. But, oftentimes, the authors insert an indicative statement. An indicative statement is a statement that the author presents as true; it indicates something, it asserts something. In our passage for today, the indicative is, “For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.”

This is a very important method used by Paul.

The reason why I’m dedicating this time to this tension is because you will see this a lot in the Pauline letters. This relationship between the indicative and the imperative. “Christ has done…” (indicative), and therefore, “you do this…”

Theologian George Eldon Ladd states,

A Theology of the New Testament Indicative and Imperative

We have found in several of the Pauline motivations for Christian living a tension between the indicative and the imperative. This is a reflection of the fundamental theological substructure of the whole of Pauline thinking: the tension between the two ages. Christians live in two ages. They are citizens of the new age while they still live in the old age. The new has come (2 Cor. 5:17) while the old remains. The indicative involves the affirmation of what God has done to inaugurate the new age; the imperative involves the exhortation to live out this new life in the setting of the old world. The new is not wholly spontaneous and irresistible. It exists in a dialectical tension with the old. Therefore the simple indicative is not enough; there must always be the imperative—humanity’s response to God’s deed.

(Pause)

John Calvin states, “salvation is taken to mean the entire course of our calling, and that this term includes all things by which God accomplishes that perfection.”

Our salvation is entirely a work of God. It’s multifaceted. God provides the way and the means to our salvation. The work of Jesus Christ broke the stronghold of sin and guilt. It sets us free to respond to God’s deed. We can only work out our salvation with fear and trembling because of the work that Christ did. Why? Because God works in you.

(Pause)

Every time Paul uses this tension of the indicative and the imperative Ezekiel 11:19-20 is fulfilled, “And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, 20 that they may walk in my statutes and keep my rules and obey them. And they shall be my people, and I will be their God.”

This is the gospel. This is the beauty and the complexity of the Pauline argument. This is the message that Paul masterfully conveys. Salvation is an act of God, and you are to act because of what Christ did.

[1]Dennis E. Johnson, Philippians, ed. Richard D. Phillips, Philip Graham Ryken, and Daniel M. Doriani, 1st ed., Reformed Expository Commentary (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2013), 155.

2. Witness

Philippians 2:14-15

i. Explanation:

Background – So, in light of what we now understand about working out our salvation, Paul gives us another imperative. We can say that that these verses have three parts: the imperative, a purpose, and the result. I would like to quickly go through these. Let’s go to the Scriptures, we’ll go through verse 14, then we’ll do 15 and 16 together:

Verse 14: “ Do all things without grumbling or disputing,”

This is an interesting statement. It almost seems silly. “Do all things without grumbling or disputing.” It seems as though everyone, everywhere does all things with grumbling or disputing. Have we all been to the DMV?

(Pause)

I mean, it’s understandable. Many people are miserable in their jobs. Nobody invisions for themselves a soul crushing job. But Paul is giving the church at Philippi an exhortation, “Do all things without grumbling or disputing.” (Repeat verse) If we look at this a bit deeper, we can understand this verse a little more.

To understand Paul’s words, we have to understand his usage of the Old Testament. Not only in verse 14, but in 15 and 16. I will get to that in a minute. But Paul cites Numbers 11:1, which mentions the complaining of Israel, it states:

“And the people complained in the hearing of the Lord about their misfortunes, and when the Lord heard it, his anger was kindled, and the fire of the Lord burned among them and consumed some outlying parts of the camp.”

Also, Numbers 14:27:

“How long shall this wicked congregation grumble against me? I have heard the grumblings of the people of Israel, which they grumble against me.”

Lastly, Numbers 14:

“your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness, and of all your number, listed in the census from twenty years old and upward, who have grumbled against me,”

Paul has used this technique before in 1 Corinthians 10: 9-11, Paul states:

“We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer. 11 Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction.”

Paul was referring to the idolatry of Israel and the judgment that they faced.

Paul draws this parallel in this imperative statement to Israel and their disobedience. Don’t make the mistakes of Israel, Paul warns. Paul even goes further in the next two passages.

Verse 15 and 16:

“that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, 16 holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain.”

Paul continues to draw from Old Testament Scriptures as he gives the purpose for the imperative. In this verse Paul refers to the Philippians as the blameless and innocent, children of God. “Do the following…” and you will be the blameless and innocent, children of God. This is the purpose of this section.

Now, there is an interesting thing that Paul does. Paul continues in his citation of the Old Testament, Paul states, again, if you “do the following…” you will be blameless and innocent, children of God in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation…” If we look at Deut. 32:5, it states:

“They have dealt corruptly with him; they are no longer his children because they are blemished; they are a crooked and twisted generation.”

In this passage, Moses is referring to disobedient Israel when he calls them a crooked and twisted generation. Paul on the other hand is giving an imperative statement to the church of Philippi to be blameless and innocent in the midst of corruption.

Furthermore, Paul calls the church of Philippi to be beacons of light, “among whom you shine as lights in the world.”

Once again, this is the purpose of following Paul’s imperative statements, all of them! We are to do this to testify to this corrupt world. We are to shine as lights in this world.

ii. Application:

If you will allow me to give you a quick story. When I was a rookie cop in the South Bronx, I remember me and this other cop, let’s call him Joe. Me and Joe go to a call of a theft of service. It was a cold night, it was like 10 degrees and we were on foot patrol. So, we go to this steak house and the owner comes out and says, this guy ate a huge steak meal and he refuses to pay. Already I was grumbling because I wanted to go home and it was close to the end of the night. Now, usually in this case, a passerby would just pay the bill and everyone goes home, especially me and my partner. But, the owner was frustrated because this has been happening a lot more and he was adamant about pressing charges. I began to grumble internally and Joe, said, no worries we’ll bring him in and let the judge sort it out. The guy who didn’t pay the bill did not care whether we arrested him or not, he had his steak dinner. I knew I would have to stay late along with Joe to complete all the paperwork. I just wanted to be home. Joe was very relaxed and even fed the prisoner again. I was taken aback by how the prisoner responded. He said to Joe, he I bet your one of those Christians, right? He certainly didn’t say that about me, even though I was.

The point of Paul’s exhortations is that we have been transformed by the power of the cross, we have been set free from the power of sin and guilt. The cross manifests itself in our lives, we begin to produce good works.

3. Persevere with Praise

Philippians 2:16-18

‌I’m going to be landing the plane now with these last two passages. Paul dedicates his life to the gospel. We refer to Paul as the apostle to the Gentiles. In fact, Paul is martyred for his faith. Up until death, Paul was encouraging his audience to rejoice in the service to the Lord.

Verse 17 and 18 state: “Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all. Likewise, you also should be glad and rejoice with me.”

In many of Paul’s letters he uses himself as an example for Christian living. For instance,

1 Corinthians 11:1: “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.”

Paul not only dedicates his life to the gospel, but he suffers for the gospel. Paul has every reason to grumble as Israel did. Again, I can’t stress enough how much Paul suffered. He was imprisoned a number of times, and Philippians is a prison epistle, meaning he wrote the letter we are currently in, while in prison.

Paul was able to do this because of his conversion. Christ liberated him from the power of sin. Paul worked because Christ first worked in him.

My hope is that you fully understand the enabling work that Christ does in our lives. We are to work out our salvation because it is the manifestation of the work of the cross. I’m going to end with a quote from John Murray:

Redemption: Accomplished and Applied (Second Edition) The Means of Sanctification

God’s working in us is not suspended because we work, nor our working suspended because God works. Neither is the relation strictly one of co-operation as if God did his part and we did ours so that the conjunction or co-ordination of both produced the required result. God works in us and we also work. But the relation is that because God works we work. All working out of salvation on our part is the effect of God’s working in us, not the willing to the exclusion of the doing and not the doing to the exclusion of the willing, but both the willing and the doing. And this working of God is directed to the end of enabling us to will and to do that which is well pleasing to him. We have here not only the explanation p 158 of all acceptable activity on our part but we have also the incentive to our willing and working. What the apostle is urging is the necessity of working out our own salvation, and the encouragement he supplies is the assurance that it is God himself who works in us.

Let us pray:

Lord we want to thank you for the enabling work that Christ did on the cross. We ask your Holy Spirit to apply the words of this epistle to our lives. Lord remind us, when the opportunity arises, to work without grumbling or disputing. That we rejoice in all things because we know that it is God who works in us, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. Amen.