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Phil 2:12-15 (NIV) 12 Therefore, 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, 13 for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose. 14 Do everything without complaining or arguing, 15 so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe
This passage presents us with a dilemma: The Bible says we are saved by grace, and yet we are urged to work—to work out our salvation.
Recently we completed a study of the man who had two sons—and how the older son working in the fields completely missed grace. Working for righteousness tends to do that, to miss the grace available. Human effort and good works done in the flesh diminish God's grace.
So we face this dilemma: If we're saved by grace alone, what's the point of works? Why bother trying to be good or to do good? If salvation is God's work, why is personal discipline and effort necessary?
The question boils down to this: How do you balance grace and works? If we're saved by grace—and by grace alone—is there nothing we're to do?
Over the next few weeks I hope we can discover something about spiritual discipline—the work of obedience—that Jesus expects from his followers who have experienced God's grace. Next week we'll look at the verse that says we should "make every effort." Then we'll consider the verse that says, "abound in every good work"; then we'll move on to the "grace working with me."
But today we're looking at Paul's words to the Philippian believers to "work out your salvation."
So here again is a theological conundrum: working out something that is attainable only by grace.
Some say the idea of "grace alone" means we have no say in the matter. They say God "chooses" or "elects" some for his kingdom and doesn't choose others. They say God's choice is without regard to someone's personal decision or free will.
They say we can do nothing because we are, after all, dead in our sins—unfeeling, unaware, without conviction. They say someone who is spiritually dead cannot raise himself, so God has to put life in us.
That's true—as far as it goes.
But what they fail to see is how the spark of life God gives is not the end of the story. Grace must lead to a response. Grace brings us to a place that calls for a decision by us.
In other words, our response to grace is a choice God gives us to make. What we do and how we act indicates what's going on inside our hearts. Our behavior reflects our response to his grace.
Are we like rocks? Rocks have no
will, no emotion, no mind, no life, no nothing. Rocks cannot respond because
they are lifeless, inanimate objects. Rocks cannot choose.
The sun shines on a rock and it gets
warm, but other than that, it has no capacity to respond. It does not turn to
face the sun. It does not move. It does not change.
A plant is different from a rock.
Plants have life. God has given plants the ability to respond to the sun. The
cellular structure of a plant grows and expands so the plant can seek the sun.
Plants spread their leaves so they can absorb the energy of the sun. Plants
respond to the light. You have to turn your house plants so they don't grow lop-sided toward the window. Sunflowers follow the sun as it tracks across the sky. Check out this video of arctic poppies that show how they respond to the sun.
Rocks cannot respond to the sun, but we are not inanimate rocks in the light of God's grace! God gives us life so we can respond to his grace. In one place, believers are pictured as stones being built into a dwelling for God, but they are called living stones (1 Pet 2:5). He wants us to choose to follow him—not just with our heads but with our hearts! God wants our behavior to reveal our decision.
We must respond; we must work out our salvation. Works cannot save us, but works can define us! What we do identifies what we are.
You can tell the difference between a
tadpole and a frog because what they do identifies what they are. One breathes
through gills and never leaves the water. The other breathes through lungs and
hops around on land. Take a tadpole out of the water and it will die because it
has no lungs. A tadpole has to change into a frog.
You can't drop a caterpillar off a
tall building and expect it to fly. But when it changes into a butterfly, it
will fly on its own—because we do what we are...we act in a way consistent with
our nature...our works define who we are.
John the Baptist said, "Produce fruit in keeping with repentance" (Luke 3:8). In other words: If you've really changed, you'll show it by the way you live.
Jesus said, "By their fruit you will recognize them" (Matt 7:16). You won't know them because of what they said, but by what they do—by their fruit.
Another time Jesus asked his followers, "Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,' and do not do what I say?" (Luke 6:46). If they didn't obey him, he knew they weren't legitimate followers.
Our works cannot save us—but they absolutely define us. What we do indicates what drives us. Words alone prove nothing; but our works endorse our words.
James writes: "...faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead" (James 2:17).
Faith alone is dead. It's an empty
promise. I once read the story of a young man living in 19th-century England.
As you know, that was what's called the Victorian Era. It was a time when young
men were expected to write love poems or flowery letters to their girlfriends. Now
they just send text messages full of confusing acronyms and symbols (emoticons).
So, this young man tried to write a
love letter to his fiancé.
"I would cross the widest ocean for
you," he wrote her, "I would climb the highest mountain, walk through the sands
of a blazing desert. I would do anything for you... PS: "I'll be over tonight, if
it doesn't rain."
It's the same in our love for God. Faith—real faith, the genuine kind of faith—must bring about change in our lives. Faith must lead to action.
But let's return to our text in Philippians. Highlight...
- Work out your salvation
- God who works in you
- To will and to act
Work out your salvation.
Some point out that Paul doesn't say, "work for your salvation." He says, "work out your salvation."
What does that mean, to "work out"? Is it like a training program? Are we supposed to have a "work out" like a super-spiritual exercise program?
Not really. The idea here is more like reaching a conclusion. We say, "work out a solution to the problem" or "work out a plan." Paul wants us to move toward solving the question of what we have become. He wants us to discover the full results of our salvation.
In fact, this word, katergázomai, is translated as "work" only once in the NASB; 21 times it's translated as something else—like: accomplished, bring about, effecting, produce...
Some versions capture this idea of working toward a conclusion in this Philippians passage:
- TEV/NCV: "working to complete" your salvation.
- NLT: "put into action God's saving work in your lives."
- CEV: "work...to discover what it really means to be saved."
This is faith in action—putting what you believe into practice. It's something we choose to do in response to what God has done.
Martin Luther said: "We are saved by faith alone, but the faith that saves is never alone."
God who works in you.
The reason we have the ability and capacity to work out our salvation is because God is working in us: "work out your salvation..." (v 13) "because" God is working in you.
We can respond to God's grace (if we choose to) because he is the one who enables us to respond. Because God has worked in us, Paul urges us to respond by working as well.
Grace is entirely God's work. We are saved by God's grace—plus nothing. There is nothing we can do to save ourselves, but there are many things we can do to shut off the flow of God's grace to us.
That's why we must open ourselves to God's grace. "For by grace you have been saved through faith..." (Eph 2:8). "Through faith" grace comes to us; "through faith" grace saves us.
In other words, if we refuse to believe—if we refuse to respond to God's grace with faith—it's as though we shut off the flow of grace. The infinite resources of God are available for our salvation—but we can block the flow of grace.
Imagine a person dying of thirst next to a faucet! The water is there, but he has to turn the handle. Faith is like turning the handle. Without the supply of water, he can turn the handle all day and still die of thirst. Salvation depends on God's supply of infinite grace, but we must turn the handle.
"For by grace you have been saved through faith..."
God's grace to save us comes to us when we believe—when we accept the truth of his love and mercy. God's grace to save us comes when we open the spigot of faith.
Here is an amazing truth: God doesn't just work in the world; he works in you!
He speaks to your heart. He warms your spirit. He is behind every encouraging thought, every hopeful idea, every inspiration you have. When you're discouraged, when you're hurting, when you're ready to quit, God is there, ready to do a fresh work in your heart. God is not far away, distant. God is with you! God works in you!
To will and to act.
TEV: "to make you willing and able to obey his complete purpose."
NLT: "giving you the desire to obey him and the power to do what pleases him."
Dallas Willard*: "In most churches we're not only saved by grace, we're paralyzed by it. We're afraid to do anything that might be a ‘work.' ...People need to see that action is a receptacle for grace, not a substitute for it." (Leadership, Summer, 2005)
In other words, you need a container to hold the grace God pours out on you! When you go for a walk in the rain with an umbrella, the rain drips away. That’s the way a lot of people handle grace—they just allow it to fall around them. But if you turn the umbrella upside down, you can collect the rain. That's what happens when we respond in obedience to God's grace. We collect and experience more grace when we put it into action. When we work out our salvation. Our response is like an umbrella to gather the rain of God's grace. The receptacle that holds God's grace is action, work, and obedience.
*Professor of philosophy at University of Southern California, author of a number of books on spirituality including The Spirit of the Disciplines: Understanding How God Changes Lives.