Overview
Philippians 2 does not teach that people earn eternal life. God accomplished salvation through Christ by grace. To work out your own salvation is to live in light of that completed reality, bringing God’s Word into every area of life. This teaching explains the partnership between God’s work within and the believer’s faithful response in thought, conduct, prayer, doctrine, and service.
Transcript
God Accomplished Salvation for Us
Philippians chapter 2, we want to talk a little bit about working out our own salvation. We know that God wrought salvation for us in Christ Jesus. We didn’t work for it, it was by grace.
God’s involvement is the key element to all salvation. We can read in Exodus chapter 14, verse 13, when the children of Israel’s backs are to the Red Sea, and the enemy is approaching, Moses says, fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will show to you today. God can show you that salvation on a daily basis.
When it comes to salvation, God does what we can’t do for ourselves. It says in 2 Chronicles chapter 20 of Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, he and the God’s people were going to be attacked by a great multitude of their enemies. And the people led by Jehoshaphat went to God, and God told them in chapter 20, verse 15, be not afraid nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude, for the battle is not yours but God’s.
He later talks about seeing the salvation, standing still and seeing the salvation. Salvation always must involve God. Now our salvation in Christ involves two aspects.
We have eternal life salvation. We’ve been saved eternally from the wrath to come. But there’s also another part, living in light of that eternal life salvation.
Our eternal life salvation was accomplished by the work of Christ. Living our salvation is accomplished by exchanging worldly practices with godly and biblical ones. Both eternal life salvation and living in light of our eternal life salvation must include God.
In other words, many people, Christians, they stop at salvation. They’re born again, they have eternal life, but you live in light of that salvation. And that’s what this section in Philippians is talking about.
In Philippians chapter 2, verse 11, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Absolutely, we confess Jesus Christ is Lord and the accomplished work is what we confess, that work of Christ. We always start with the work of Christ.
Then Paul writes in verse 12, wherefore my beloved, he’s going to give them some practical direction in light of the accomplished work of Christ. As you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Fear and trembling could be understood as respect and awe.
Work Out What God Has Worked Within
So how do you work out your own salvation? It can’t be talking about eternal life salvation because we are, we have salvation in Christ Jesus by his work. It can’t be that. It has to be something different, and it is.
We work out, or it could be understood as affect or achieve, not eternal life salvation, but here living in light of eternal life salvation. Let me stop right there. Salvation basically is preservation from harm or danger or destruction.
We’re saved from it. We preserve ourselves from it. Since we have eternal life salvation, how are we to preserve from harm that salvation that God’s given to us in Christ Jesus? How do we work this out? How do we achieve it? Well, God gives us a very clear order to follow.
Keep your finger here and look at 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. This is the only place in the Bible you’ll find these three words in a unit. It’s the only place. And it’s the first letter written to the Christian church somewhere around 52 to 53 AD.
And look at what God writes here in verse 23 of chapter 5 of 1 Thessalonians. And the very God of peace, and the very God of peace sanctify you. Sanctify means to set apart.
What’s he setting us apart from? The corruption, the confusion, the error that’s in the world. He’s setting us apart. We’re seated in the heavenlies, but we also set ourselves apart by the God of peace.
And he sanctifies us wholly. And this wholly means whole till the end. Whole till the end.
And I pray God you’re whole. And this word whole means whole in every part. Here it is.
Here’s the order. Spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. God sees the born again believer as a body, soul, and spirit unit.
Prior to the new birth, someone is just body and soul. After the new birth, they’re body, soul, and spirit. Back to Philippians.
Obedience Beyond the Presence of a Leader
We start with the things of the spirit in order to work out our salvation. See, because you’ve been saved by Jesus Christ, the work of Christ, but what do we do in light of that? We just wait for the return of Christ? No. We live that salvation on a day-by-day basis.
And here in Philippians, verse 12, it says, Wherefore my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with respect at all. We’re to work out, achieve that salvation spiritually in our soul category and in the body category. Paul is saying, hey listen, don’t just do this when I’m around.
Do this yourself. How do we do that? Well, in the spiritual category, we would preserve from harm our prayer life. What’s affecting your prayer life? You would preserve from harm your relationship with God.
You would preserve from harm the fruit of the Spirit that you want to cultivate, like Galatians 5 says. How we practically preserve the things of the Spirit is by taking ownership and using that Spirit that God has given to us. It starts there.
That’s how the first Christians started. Then the soul category. The soul would involve our minds, our hearts, our memories, our experiences, personalities.
What makes us individuals? How do we preserve from harm our soul? Well, one simple way to state it is Matthew 15 13, where Jesus Christ says, every plant which my Heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up. What is God planting in your soul? If it’s from God, water it. Water it.
If it’s from the world, pull it out as a weed. Don’t water it. What ends up happening is people water the things of the world.
Let me ask you a question. Is this a plant from God when God says be tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake has forgiven you? Is that a plant from God? Yes. Would you water that? Yes.
What’s another plant from God? How about this one? Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that worketh in us. That’s a plant from God. Water that in the garden of your soul.
Preserving Every Area of Life From Harm
Bitterness, jealousy, anger, unforgiveness, resentment, all those things are from the world. Don’t water those. You preserve your soul by rooting out what your Heavenly Father has not planted.
What about your body, my body? Well, we know our own bodies and how can we preserve them from harm? We know that we’re fearfully and wonderfully made, but very unique as well. We do what helps our bodies function the best. What helps my body function the best may not necessarily be what helps your body function the best, but our bodies are God-given and they are what house our spirit and our soul.
You can preserve your body from harm by not jumping out a window, right? I know that sounds silly, but you can also preserve your body from harm by not eating an entire chocolate cake. You can preserve your body from harm, correct? Sure you can. Those are simple illustrations, but here’s the thing.
Look at the next verse. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure. He inspires His perfect will within you.
He actually can be involved in showing you and working with you how to preserve your prayer life, how to preserve your relationship with Him, how to preserve the things that He’s planted in your soul, how to preserve your body for it to be the best it can be. That’s where that verse comes up. A lot of people quote it, but we are to preserve from harm starting with our eternal life salvation and then because of that we have a relationship with God, our Heavenly Father, and then we work from there.
That’s the order that is a priority within which we preserve from harm what God’s given to us. He saved us. You see, most people start with their body.
You see, people that do all this stuff, nothing wrong with working out. I work out. I think it’s great, but they start from the wrong end.
They concern themselves too much with what they look like or what they don’t look like. That’s right. You start with the spirit and the soul and the body.
They all work together and then God can work within you to inspire within you to this end to help you preserve what He’s given to you in eternal life salvation. We have that is incorruptible, but then living in light of that is what I’m talking about. God can even put the right people in our path to help us in every one of these categories.
It’s amazing, but we have to be receptive. There’s a benefit here. I’m getting to a point.
It says, do all things without murmurings and disputings. That means no complaints and arguing and you know what that is really talking about? Complaining and arguing to God as He works in you to work out your own salvation, your own preservation from harm in your body, soul, and spirit. Then what happens is this, that you may be blameless and harmless to sons of God without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation.
Prayer, the Fruit of the Spirit, and Sound Doctrine
The word nation is generation. See how there it’s a preservation from harm from the worldly effects among whom ye shine as what? Lights. We shine as lights as we work out our own salvation in body, soul, and spirit.
We preserve from harm our prayer life. We preserve from harm the fruit of the spirit. We preserve from harm our relationship with God and so on and so forth.
Then we shine as a light and then when we speak, this is what happens. It comes out as the word of life holding forth the word of life. It becomes the word of life as it has passed through that body, soul, and spirit package of that individual and they have received that salvation wholeness and then when it comes forth, it comes forth as the word of life because it’s been lived.
The word that we speak comes forth of the word of life. It has passed through the living of it in our lives. It’s that living word in our life because we live it.
Look at Romans 12. Working out your own salvation, one way of looking at it is in the body, soul, and spirit category. There’s other ways you can look at it but the point I’m making is that we want to preserve from harm these three wonderful categories in our life and the world is endeavoring to break that down.
Look at chapter 12 verse 1. I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice wholly acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service. The word bodies here is a figure of speech. It means the entire person so that would include body, soul, and spirit.
That whole person and be not conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good acceptable and perfect will of God. God doesn’t want us to be conformed or fashioned to this age. That’s why you have to preserve from harm the things of the spirit.
You have to preserve from harm the things that are involved in your soul life, your memories, your heart, your mind, your personality, all these things. You have to preserve from harm your body and God will work in you to this end. That’s the wonderful thing about it and to the degree that we are working out that salvation, not eternal life salvation, are living of it now, that word comes forth as the word of life.
And let’s close in 1st Timothy 4. See we’re careful because the world tries to mold us into something that we’re not and we have to preserve ourselves from harm. For instance there may be things that affect you that may not necessarily affect me negatively and you’ve got to figure that out. What is it? And God will work in you gently.
He’s not going to shake you and he will work in you very gently to will and to do of his good pleasure to inspire within you that living of salvation on a day-by-day basis because we do have eternal life. And finally in 1st Timothy chapter 4 verse 16 says, take heed unto thyself. That means pay attention to yourself.
Pay attention to the fruit in your life. Pay attention to how you affect people, how you affect things. Be aware of it.
Not for condemnation purposes but just to be aware of it. And unto the doctrine. The doctrine.
And that’s what’s true and right according to the word. Continue in them, plural. So that means we’re supposed to continue to pay attention to ourselves and the doctrine at the same time.
Living and Modeling Eternal-Life Salvation
For in doing this thou shall both save thyself and them that hear thee. The word save is the root word of salvation. You will bring that salvation wholeness into a practical reality in your own life.
And you know what? Then when people hear you, you will be holding forth the word of life. And you’ll also be teaching them and modeling for them what it means to live in light of salvation. Let me ask you a question.
What would you and I think like, act like, if we knew we had eternal life? I mean it’s guaranteed. What would we be like? That’s what I’m talking about. Our thoughts, our words, our actions would reflect eternal life.
And that is how we work out our own salvation. In every category and sector of our lives, we bring to it the knowledge of our eternal life salvation and we live in light of it. So as we take heed to ourselves and work out our own salvation, we preserve from harm the things in our life that pertain to our spirit, that gift, the things that pertain to our soul and the things that pertain to our body.
And when we do that, we’re going to benefit others because they’re going to hear it taught and they’re going to see it modeled. They’re going to see what it is like to live in light of eternity. What someone is like that is not afraid.
So work out your own salvation.
Key Takeaways
- Eternal-life salvation is God’s gift by grace and cannot be earned by human works.
- Working out salvation means living consistently with what God has already accomplished in Christ.
- God works within believers, while believers choose to obey and apply His Word.
- Every area of life can be preserved from harm through wise, faithful, Word-centered decisions.
- Living out salvation benefits others because they hear the truth taught and see it modeled.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does working out your own salvation mean earning eternal life?
No. Eternal life is God’s gift by grace; working it out means living in light of the salvation He has already accomplished.
What is God’s role in working out salvation?
God works within believers both to will and to do, supplying the spiritual ability and direction for a faithful walk.
How can believers work out salvation in daily life?
They apply God’s Word to their thoughts, choices, relationships, prayer life, doctrine, and service, preserving those areas from harm.
Scripture References
- Philippians 2:5–16
- Exodus 14:13–14
- 2 Chronicles 20:12–22
- 1 Thessalonians 5:12–24
- Galatians 5:13–26
- Romans 12:1–8
- 1 Timothy 4:12–16
Verification note: This page was prepared from a machine-generated transcript. Transcript wording, names, and Scripture quotations should be checked against the original audio and the intended Bible translation before publication.
