God at Work in You

Philippians 2:12-13

There are few phrases in Scripture that make Reformed Christians instinctively tighten up quite like this one: “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.”

We hear it, and immediately questions begin to surface. Is Paul pulling us back under the law? Is he undoing everything he has just said about grace? Is salvation now somehow left unfinished, dependent on my effort to complete it?

And if we’re honest, that language can stir two very different fears. For some, it sounds crushing, “Have I done enough? Am I doing it right? What if I fail?” For others, it sounds unnecessary, “If God saves by grace alone, why talk about fear, trembling, or obedience at all?”

But Paul is neither burdening tender consciences nor softening obedience. He is doing something far better.

He is speaking to those he calls “my beloved.” Not to the unconverted. Not to those outside of Christ. But to the church, those already united to Christ, already justified by grace, already recipients of God’s saving work. Paul is not calling them to enter salvation, but to live according to it.

He does not say, “work for your salvation.” He says, “work it out.” Bring to expression in your life what God has already worked into you by grace. God has brought you to life in Christ, now live as those who belong to Him.

That call is not new. It echoes Deut 32, with Moses standing before Israel, saying in effect, “The LORD has brought you here, now live as His redeemed people.” Redemption always precedes obedience. Grace always comes before calling.

And yet Paul adds this sobering phrase: “with fear and trembling.”

This is not the dread that drove Adam into hiding, not the fear of rejectionChrist has borne that fear for us.

This is the reverent awe that comes from knowing that the holy God is not distant, not passive, but actively at work among His people.

This is not casual Christianity. It is careful, dependent, Christ-clinging obedience.

So this morning, as we come to Philippians 2:12–13, Paul teaches us this simple, steady truth: A church that works is a people who obey, because God is at work within them.

Our obedience is real. It is expected. It is serious. But it is never independent. It is always grounded in Christ’s obedience for us and empowered by God’s work within us. That is both our comfort and our calling.

A Church That Works Is a People Who Obey Following Christ’s Obedience(v.12).

Philippians 2:6–11 grounds the Call to Obedience. Paul’s logic is not: Christ obeyed, therefore try harder. It is: Christ obeyed unto death for you, therefore live as those who belong to Him.

Christ’s Obedience Secures Our Salvation

Before Paul ever says “work out your salvation,” he has already proclaimed: “He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death…” (2:8)

That matters enormously: Christ’s obedience accomplishes salvation. We do not obey in order to be saved; we obey because Christ has already obeyed in our place.

Christ’s Obedience Defines Obedience

Christ’s obedience is: humble, self-giving, costly, unseen, trusting the Father completely.

Christ’s obedience did not look successful. It was costly, inconvenient, uncelebrated, and, for a time, it appeared fruitless. Yet it was the obedience by which God saved the world. That is the pattern Paul places before the church.

So when Paul calls the church to obedience: he is not calling for efficiency, or success, or recognition.

He is calling them to a Christ-shaped obedience, especially in humility and unity. (vs 14-18)

Doing all things without grubbing or questioning

Being blameless and innocent, shining as lights in a crooked age

Holding fast to the word of life

Being glad and rejoicing in all things

Christ’s Obedience Calls Us to Obedience

Here’s an important theological distinction to keep clear:

Christ’s obedience saves us. God’s work in us enables our obedience. Christ is the example we follow, but God is the power by which we follow.

To obey as Christ obeyed means living a Christ-shaped life in every sphere:

in our homes, workplaces, and church;

in acts unseen and uncelebrated;

in prayer, in forgiveness, in speaking truth in love.

Obedience is not a checklist, it is a lifestyle shaped by humility, service, trust, and faithfulness. Every step of obedience is following where Christ has walked before us.

Because God Is at Work Within Them (v.13)

God works at the level of desire (to will).

Apart from the regeneration of God’s grace, our will is dead to the things of God, it is not free, but bound by sin to death. All men since Adam have been born with a spirit that is bound to sin.

But when God regenerates, He implants a new principle of life, so that obedience flows not from hypocrisy, but from a renewed heart that now loves what God loves.

The Holy Spirit illuminates, invigorates, and calls our will. Men come to God only because God enables them to.

“O For A Thousand Tongues to Sing…” 
He breaks the power of cancelled sin, 
he sets the prisoners free

God works at the level of action (to work).

Our works of righteousness and obedience are God at work in us. We are working out what God has worked in.

The Christian life is the working out of a life God has already worked in.

Every true impulse toward righteousness, every act of obedience, every step forward, however small, is evidence that God Himself is at work within His people.

Even our imperfect obedience is evidence of God’s faithful work.

God works for His good pleasure, not ours.

When Paul says that God works in us “for His good pleasure,” he is reminding us that God is not chiefly concerned with our comfort, our preferences, or our sense of satisfaction.

God’s great purpose is His own glory, His holy, wise, and perfect will accomplished according to His eternal counsel.

The righteousness that God works in us is the righteousness of Christ, and it is worked in us for God’s glory, not our applause, and not even our immediate happiness.

But here is the mercy of it: the God whose glory is His chief end is also the God in whose presence there is fullness of joy.

When we seek His glory above all else, we do not lose our joy, we find it. At His right hand are pleasures forevermore.

The Christian does not obey in order to secure happiness, but in obedience to a glorious God, he discovers the only happiness that can truly last.

The work of the church does not begin with our effort, nor does it continue by our strength. It begins and continues with the gracious, powerful presence of God Himself. That truth gives us both comfort and motivation, to obey, to persevere, and to trust Him who is already at work in us.

Great comfort: it is not up to me, God will grant success, I am simply called to faithfulness.

Great motivation: He is working in me even now to make me more like Christ.