"Work out your salvation with fear and trembling..."

What does it mean?

Quoting Philippians 2:12-13 (NASB version): 

“¹²So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling;¹³for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.”

The “salvation” in Philippians 2:12 is not merely a matter of one’s relationship with God. There is a corporate dimension to Paul’s exhortation in Philippians 2:12-13, considering that he wrote the Epistle to a Church - namely the Philippian Church. However, since the unity and well-being of the Church (cf. Phil 2:2-4) hinge on the theology of individual Christians, determining how “working out your salvation” applies to individuals is just as important as determining its implications for the corporate Church. Here, I focus on the former concern without begging the question of context or the macrostructure of the Epistle.

The call to work out our personal salvation as an act of willing obedience unto God who is at work in us is a call for us to continuously reciprocate God’s divine activity within us as we rest in Christ. It is an invitation to choose to engage in a synergy consisting of the mingling between God’s investment and ours – which requires nothing short of us cultivating an intimate personal relationship with God. It is also a challenge for us to bring to the fullest manifestation God’s grace in our lives. The manner through which our obedience finds its expression should be one that is consistent and sincere; it must also be a picture of holy vigilance and circumspection (Phil 2:12).  

Considering the great commitment a Christian needs to make in order to respond to the call of Philippians 2:12-13, it is therefore fundamental for “salvation” to be defined.

I am reminded that salvation means at least 3 significant things:

1. Saved from God's Wrath 

Salvation is the privilege that exempts one, who enters by faith and stands in God’s grace, from the wrath God has reserved for His enemies (cf. Rom 5:9; Nahum 1:2). If such wrath is not for us anymore, we are no longer God’s enemies; and if not enemies, then we must have been accepted as His friends, whom He is for and whose side He is on. The reconciliation of peace (cf. Romans 5:1, 10-11), only made possible through the cross of Christ, is the cornerstone of our justification.

From this perspective, working out our salvation would certainly involve rethinking and accepting God’s wrath (provoked by sin and evil) as an aspect of His holy love which circumscribes the grace in which we now stand [1]. Through this quest to hold in balance the dialectic tension between God’s wrath and grace, we may come to better appreciate God’s love, the cost of God’s redemption for us and therefore the fear that is due to Him even while He now calls us “friends”. While the fear of God lies at the heart of obedience, it also magnifies God’s grace and will therefore invigorate our pursuit of Him. The fear of God is an essential ingredient of the abundant life we can have in Christ.

2. Saved for a Lifestyle of Hope 

Salvation is the liberation of a believer who has truly accepted God's love from the power of sin into a lifestyle of experiencing the power of His love - and therefore a lifestyle of hope. In other words, salvation enables us to live out the death of Christ in our daily lives (cf. 1 Cor 2:2; Gal 6:14) – allowing Christ's death to be the motive, basis and initiative for everything we do, say, plan and think on a daily basis. Such is a lifestyle of hope. Because God's holy love toward us was demonstrated and evidenced to us, sinners, through Christ's death for our sins (Rom 5:8) we were convicted of this love. If we have truly accepted His love, we would have made ourselves vulnerable to God come what may - and would have therefore put our faith in Him who loves us. Perseverance in trials requires us to look forward to “the season's end” and therefore hope. However it is only by faith in the God who loves us that we can truly see any potential for goodness in our trials (circumstances, struggles with sin or difficult people) and therefore press-on in love and expectation. Such is a lifestyle of hope - the essence of eternal life in Christ. What or rather who keeps us in this faith? The Holy Spirit, through whom God proves the love we have accepted (Rom 5:5) and transforms us (Phil 2:12-13).

In the light of this perspective, working out our salvation would mean a few things. First, it means ascertaining God’s love and making it our habit to identify how His grace finds its expression in our daily experiences. By doing this, we will always find memories that give good reasons for us to renew our faith in Him. Second, it involves seeking to know our trials and tribulations today as our loving God’s order and gracious means to lead us to unto a lifestyle of hope. We need to recognize that without these challenges, a lifestyle of hope cannot materialize. Our faith in God cannot be tested and validated; we cannot stretch and grow; and hope fluctuates. Third, it involves nurturing our propensity to face the present experiential realities with passion while getting in position for the future. Such is a lifestyle of hope, whereby faith has become a way of life. Last but most importantly, it means constantly abiding in God by fully depending on the Holy Spirit and the Word as the source and fuel from which our life flows. By doing so, we practice a lifestyle of hope through which the gift and power of salvation serve the purpose for which it was freely bestowed upon us.

3. Saved to Make Sense of Our Existence 

With regards to this aspect, salvation is firstly, the beginning of our odyssey to know God. The litmus test of a life lived to the fullest is whether we know our Creator thoroughly (cf. Jer 9:23-24) because we were made to know God [2]. In fact, eternal life – to which we have been redeemed – is knowing God (Jn 17:3). God’s greatest desire for us and delight is that we know Him (Jer 9:23-24). Since knowing God is the goal of our existence, the process of getting to know God should become the greatest pre-occupation of one who has been saved – now that our reconciliation to God has removed all barriers to our intimacy with Him. Salvation therefore sets us back on the right track (that of God’s original intention), upon which the goal of our existence can be reached and upon which our existence will increasingly make sense as we progress in the journey.

The process of knowing God is secondly, a transformational process. While we maintain a close relationship with God – knowing Him and being known to Him – His attributes rub off on us; His Word renews our minds; His Spirit convicts, empowers, guides, discloses and bears witness. We also identify with Christ in our sufferings. Consequently, we would be able to align and conform our entire being to Him. We become increasingly set apart from the world and set apart for a new life, i.e. sanctified. Since our sanctification is for the good pleasure (Phil 2:13) and glory (cf. Phil 2:11) of God, we glorify God when we mature spiritually. God the Creator is glorified when the divine image in man, patterned after the archetype of Himself, is restored through man united with Christ. We were made to be sanctified (cf. Eph 1:4, 3:19; Heb 12:10). Salvation is the impetus that sets in motion the temporal development through which we make sense of our existence on earth.

Finally, God’s blueprint for human beings among other living creations intends that we are fully dependent on God not only for our physiological viability (cf. Job 12:10, 33:4, 34:14-15; Ps 3:5) but also for His continual creation in us, redemption and providence, in order that our naked existence would be meaningful (cf. Jn 15:5; 2 Cor 9:8). Furthermore, just as children bear resemblance to their parents, we have the likeness of God (cf. Gen 1:27-28, 5:1-3, 9:6). It would be therefore quite appropriate to construe that the responsibility that God had intended to assume over us in our creation was not merely that of a Maker but that of a Father. He made us because He wants to lavish His love on us by giving us the highest privilege – to be His adopted sons and daughters (cf. 1 John 3:1; Gal 4:1-7; Eph 1:3-6; Col 1:15). To be God’s children is the highest calling of our existence, the fundamental of all other purposes. God’s glory rests not only on our lives bearing the fruits of His Fatherhood, but also our regeneration with God’s divine life into begotten sons and daughters of His own nature, of whom Christ is the first-born and Body – a new creation (cf. Jn 1:12-13, 3:3, 2 Cor 5:17; Gal 6:15; Col 1:15). Salvation is somewhat God’s adoption procedure; but beyond adoption, salvation is that which initiates believers into the fellowship of the Triune God as they are organically incorporated into Christ as God’s children, partakers of His nature through the work of the Spirit.

From the perspective of making sense of our existence, working out our salvation would mean a few things. First, it would involve doing all we can to walk intimately with God so that we may truly know Him. Second, we would need to throw off all that hinders God’s work in sanctifying us. Finally, it means relating to God as our Heavenly Father – Creator, Source, Defender, Provider, Counselor, Comforter and Lover.

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Endnotes:

[1] Statements by Barth, Cranfield and Watson support this view. For further reading, see Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1936), 394; C. E. B. Cranfield, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans, vol. 1 (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1975), 109; and D. C. K. Watson, My God Is Real (London: Falcon, 1970), 39.

[2] Karl Barth and J.I. Packer emphasize on this idea. See J. I. Packer, Knowing God (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1973), 31-32; and Karl Barth, Dogmatics in Outline, translated by G. T. Thompson (London: SCM Press, 1949), 26-27.

Bibliography:

Packer, J.I. Knowing God. Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1973.

Barth, K. Church Dogmatics. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1936.

Barth,K.  Dogmatics in Outline. London: SCM Press, 1949. 

Cranfield, C.E.B. A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans, vol. 1. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1975.