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 

To work out our own salvation is to carry it out, to bring it 

to the ultimate conclusion. We have received God's salva tion, 

which has as its climax to be exalted by God in glory as the 

Lord Jesus was. We need to carry out this salvation, to bring 

it to its ultimate conclusion, by our constant and absolute 

obedience with fear and trembling. We have received this 

salvation by faith. Now we must carry it out by obedience. To 

receive salvation by faith is once for all; to carry it out 

is lifelong.

In verse 13 Paul goes on to say, "For it is God Who operates 

in you both the willing and the working for His good 

pleasure." The word "for" at the beginning of this verse 

gives the reason we need to obey always. It is because God 

operates in us. In God's economy [plan] we have the Lord 

Jesus as our pattern, as the standard of our salvation, and 

we also have God operating in us both the willing and the 

working to carry out our salvation, to bring it to its 

ultimate conclusion. It is not that we by ourselves carry it 

out, but that God operates in us to do it. The only thing we 

need to do is to obey the inner operating of God. 

Paul's word about obedience in verse 12 answers to what he 

has previously said about Christ becoming obedient (v. 8). 

The Bible underscores the importance of obedience. For 

example, in 1 Samuel 15:22 we are told that to obey is better 

than sacrifice. We who have received Christ as the pattern of 

our salvation must learn to always obey with fear and 

trembling. Within we should have fear as the motive, and 

without we should have trembling as our attitude, an 

indication that we have no confidence in ourselves.