Work Out Your Own Salvation

Bible Verses 

Phil 2:12  So then, my beloved, even as you have always
obeyed, not as in my presence only but now much rather in my
absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; 
(13)  For it is God who operates in you both the willing and
the working for His good pleasure.

 Words of Ministry 

How is it possible for us to work out our own salvation? If
we could work out our salvation, would that not make
salvation a matter of our own works? Suppose I fall into a
pit and someone rescues me. That is salvation. But if I
succeed in delivering myself, that is not salvation, but my
own working. Since salvation is not of works, but of grace,
what does Paul mean by telling us to work out our salvation?

The key to understanding Paul's word is to know the meaning
of salvation in this verse. Salvation here is not salvation
from the lake of fire. Rather, it refers to what Paul has
already said about salvation earlier in this Epistle. The
words "so then" in verse 12 indicate that what Paul says in
this verse is a consequence of what has gone before. Working
out our salvation is the result of taking Christ as our
pattern, as seen in the preceding verses. As our pattern,
Christ is our salvation. However, this salvation needs to be
worked out by us.

In order for this to be accomplished in our experience, the
pattern must be subjective to us as well as objective. If it
were only objective, it could not be the salvation worked out
by us. The salvation here is not the salvation we receive; it
is the salvation we work out. The salvation we receive is the
salvation from God's condemnation and from the lake of fire.
There is no need for us to work out that kind of salvation.
The salvation here in Philippians is salvation of another
kind, or of a different degree. It is higher than that
mentioned in Acts 16:31, where the jailer is told that if he
believes in the Lord Jesus Christ, he and his household will
be saved. The salvation in 2:12 is actually a living Person.
This Person is the very Christ whom we live, experience, and
enjoy. A pattern which is only objective could not be our
salvation in this way. The fact that salvation is a living
Person and that this Person is our pattern indicates that the
pattern is subjective as well as objective.