Re: Saved?

Today I'd like to talk about another verse that sometimes throws us for a loop:

Philippians 2:12–13, 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, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.

As always we need to take into consideration what was being said prior to this. He was talking to them about their attitudes toward each other and what was going on there. He then pointed out that Jesus had humbled Himself and been obedient which is what we are also to do. It's at that point the word "therefore" comes in. So Paul is basically saying, "Since Jesus humbled Himself and thought of others first and was obedient to God, and as you have also always obeyed, continue to do this to work out your salvation."

Now, what did he mean when he said "work out" your salvation? Let me see if I can give you an everyday kind of example. Ok, this is going to be a pretty pathetic example but it's all I can think of right now Let's say I give you a gym complete with every workout machine there is. It now belongs to you. It's in your name and no one can ever take it away from you. You own it. Now, you can let that gym sit there and collect dust, or you can use it. I gave it to you because I obviously want you to use it. I want you to work out (sorry for the pun lol) your body so that it's all it can be. (told you it was pretty pathetic lol)

Now the Lord gives us our salvation for free. It's a gift to us. It's completely free, BUT He wants us to use it! His purpose for us is to do good works as He grows us up into the likeness of His Son.

Ephesians 2:8–10, For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

2 Corinthians 3:18, And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

This again is the difference between those who have been saved and do nothing with it-they continue to live worldly lives and those who have been saved and live for God being obedient to Him as He wants us to be. We are not all going to wake up someday being just like Jesus; God isn't going to just magically make us all like Him at some point after our salvation. No, that comes from good old fashioned hard work and obedience. Which is what Paul was saying to them. Just as Jesus was obedient, so we need to be obedient and put into practice in our daily life what we are learning from the Lord.

That part I underlined is what the words "work out" means in this verse. So what Paul is saying is to take what they know and use it! Don't just mouth the words, don't keep it as just head knowledge, make it heart knowledge and use it in your life. The verb “work out” carries the meaning of “work to full completion,” and that "completion he's talking about is being just like Jesus. We aren't being told to "work for" our salvation, but rather to put into practice in our daily lives what God has been working in us by His Spirit. In other words, we are to work out the salvation to it's ultimate conclusion of Christlikeness that the Lord has already given us. The bible calls this process "sanctification".

So you can see our salvation should really be viewed in all three tenses:

past, justification; --this is what Christ did when He died and rose again for us. Let me post the actual definition:
The acquittal, or declaration of being righteous, before God as judge. It is a central aspect of Paul’s understanding of what God achieved for believers through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Zondervan Dictionary of Bible Themes.

present, sanctification; This is when through abiding in Christ, in our personal relationship with God, we live righteously allowing the Holy Spirit to constantly renew us, constantly making us righteous and holy.
The process of renewal and consecration by which believers are made holy through the work of the Holy Spirit. Sanctification is the consequence of justification and is dependent upon a person being in a right relationship with God. Zondervan Dictionary of Bible Themes.

and future, glorification. (when our salvation is complete and we are glorified with Christ at the rapture)
This is why the the apostles were constantly teaching about the rapture and telling us to look forward to it, because that is when our salvation will be made complete. It is then that we will receive the new body to go with the new spirit we received when we were first saved. It is then that we will finally be forever rid of our old nature so we will no longer have to fight with sin. So after the rapture there will still be different kinds of Christians. We'll all have our new body etc and all will be saved, but some of us, those who were obedient and studying His Word and put it into practice will be fully matured and be ready to reign with Christ for the next 1000 years. Others will be saved but still be "infants" in Christ because they did nothing with their salvation. They didn't "work it out" in their lives and they weren't obedient. So they won't be reigning with Christ. They will be given something to do that's in line with how much they've learned (which is pretty much nothing). There will indeed be weeping when they realize just how much they messed up when they let the opportunities of their earthly life slip away without working out their salvation. Then there will be those that are at just about every stage between being mature and being infants. They too will be rewarded based on how much they worked out their salvation while they were here.

I talked more about this in this study: What will we feel when we finally stand before Him?