One of my favorite scriptures is a promise of divine enabling: "For God is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good plea sure" (Phil. 2:13).* As I was reflecting on this passage recently, it dawned on me that the promise of God's empowering follows immediately an admonition: ' 'Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling" (verse 12).
Is there a contradiction between the two statements—the promise and the demand, the enabling and the summoning? Is there a legalistic stance in the phrase "work out your own salvation"? Or is there an attempt to walk the theological tightrope, trying to balance the divine and the human in the process of salvation?
Perish the thought. If there was one truth that was precious to the apostle, it was the good news of salvation by grace through faith alone. Paul spent his entire ministry proclaiming that salvation could not come by any other way except through grace, and that the sinner's acceptance before God is not something merited, but always something given. The apostle even bequeathed to the Christian community two whole Epistles—Romans and Galatians— devoted entirely to this good news of God's saving grace. And to the Ephesians he wrote: ' 'For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God— not because of works, lest any man should boast" (Eph 2:8, 9).
What, then, did the apostle mean by demanding that Christians must "work out'' their own salvation?
Far from any reference to salvation by works, Paul's appeal is for a life and a lifestyle consistent with the demands of faith. In effect the apostle is saying: "Yes, you are saved by faith. You are saved by the free grace of God. But you are saved to live. Your faith experience must move from believing to living. You must live out your salvation. That involves a lifestyle of obedience, just like that of our Great Model—Christ Jesus—who obeyed even to the point of humiliation and death [see Phil. 2:5-12]. And furthermore, your Christian walk is your personal responsibility; no one else can do it for you."
"Work out your own salvation," therefore, does not mean "Work for your salvation," but "Live a life consistent with the new status of being children of God." As Muller points out: "The believer is called to self-activity, to the active pursuit of the will of God, to the promotion of the spiritual life in himself, to the realization of the virtues of the Christian life, and to a personal application of salvation. He must "work out" what Godin His grace has 'worked.'1
This human responsibility, the apostle suggests, is to be pursued "with fear and trembling." Paul is not referring to any "slavish terror" 2 of a vengeful master, nor is he concerned about any frustration in the fulfillment of God's redemptive purpose. But he is wary of self s innate capacity for overconfidence or complacency in the journey toward the kingdom. Ellen White warns: "God does not bid you fear that He will fail to fulfill His promises, that His patience will weary, or His compassion be found wanting. Fear lest your will shall not be held in subjection to Christ's will, lest your hereditary and cultivated traits of character shall control your life. . . . Fear lest self shall interpose between your soul and the great Master Worker. Fear lest self-will shall mar the high purpose that through you God desires to accomplish. Fear to trust to your own strength, fear to withdraw your hand from the hand of Christ and attempt to walk life's pathway without His abiding presence." 3
In that sense, fear and trembling must accompany the Christian walk, but in no way is there any implication that the journey is to be performed by self alone.
''For God is at work in you.'' The word for "at work" is energeo. God is energizing you. God is empowering you. He who has begun a "good work in you" (Phil.1:6) is now enabling you to finish that work.
This emphasis on God's work in the life of the Christian (1 Cor. 12:6, 11; Gal. 2:8; Eph. 1:11, 19, 20) gives us the assurance that the contours of salvation—the beginning, the continuation, and the culmination—are guaranteed by God's grace to everyone who believes in Him, and walks with Him.
That is the beauty of the gospel. God is paramount in the salvation of man. His grace initiates and His grace completes the redemptive process. "What ever is to be done at His command may be accomplished in His strength. All His biddings are enablings." 4 For God is at work in us.
