This morning I’m reading in Philippians 2:12-18 and am reminded again that being saved is not just an event . . . something that occurred in the past . . . but it is a process. We WERE saved from the PENALTY and judgment of sin . . . the blood of Jesus atoning for all our sin, past, present, and future. And one day, we WILL BE saved from the PRESENCE of sin when we are taken out of this world to be with Jesus. But for now, we ARE BEING saved from the POWER of sin as we learn to walk in the Spirit . . . refusing the flesh . . . dying to the old man . . . learning to put on the new man . . . being conformed into the image of the Son of God . . . thinking more like Him . . . doing life, more and more, as Jesus would do life . . . working out this new life we’ve been given in Christ.

Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.   (Philippians 2:12-13 ESV)

Work it out . . . pursue the faith . . . learn to let the Spirit run your life . . . figure out what “good works God has prepared in advance for you to do” (Eph. 2:10).

Paul would consider his labor in vain if those he led to the Lord didn’t actually look and live like children of God, shining as lights, and holding fast the word of life in the midst of a dark world (2:15-16). It wasn’t just about counting conversions, but it was about seeing disciples made . . . real, authentic “new creations in Christ.” And so Paul says to the Philippians and to me, “Work out your own salvation.”

Work it out . . . put effort into it! Oh, how easy it is to float. But if I am to become “in Christ” what God has called me to be, it will be accomplished as I determine to work it out. Not that it’s about my power or my capability. No, the work which begun in the Spirit will be perfected in the Spirit . . . the work which was initiated by grace and made possible by the power of God through the cross of Christ will be completed by grace and the power of God through the cross of Christ. It’s by His grace . . . it’s by His power which resides in me . . . but it won’t happen apart from a sincere desire and a holy determination to submit to Him and work it out.

And Paul says it is my “own salvation.” It doesn’t necessarily look like everyone or anyone else’s. God works in me to will and do His good pleasure. So working it out is also figuring it out . . . what’s my gifting . . .what’s my calling . . . where does God want me to plug in . . . the answers may take a lifetime to fully realize . . . but I am to work it out.

Paul says do so with fear and trembling . . . and I think that’s because one day I’ll be standing before Jesus and giving an account for what I did with the “free gift of salvation” He gave me . . . “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil” (2Cor. 5:10).

How we choose to live for Christ — or not — matters . . . so work it out. And working it out is what makes the Christian life so exciting . . . this is what can jazz us about being His . . . as we see glimpses of Christ actually coming through in us . . . as we actually start hearing the still small voice of the Spirit prompting us . . . as we see the hand of God at work in and around us . . . as we fall deeper and deeper in love with Jesus. Not that we don’t experience our failings and fallings and set backs . . . but, by His all sufficient grace, we keep working it out . . .and He keeps becoming more and more real.

Work it out . . . by the grace of God . . . for the glory of God.