By Max Ridgway
Grace and Faith Fellowship 

Work out your own salvation

 

August 10, 2018



Salvation is a word used by the Apostle Paul to describe our relationship with God. The word salvation is a word that implies rescue. By choosing to use this word, Paul is therefore describing a one-sided relationship. God is the rescuer and we are those who are rescued. Furthermore, Paul makes it crystal-clear that this one-sided relationship with God called salvation is the result of God’s own independent action. We bring nothing to it except our faith. “By grace you are saved, through faith,” Paul writes. “And that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast.”

Since this is the case, what does Paul mean when he writes in Philippians 2:12, “work out your own salvation?” We can be sure that he does not mean that we work to earn, achieve or acquire our salvation because he has elsewhere written that salvation is “not of works.” Furthermore, in the very next verse Paul adds, “for it is God who is working in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure,” re-emphasizing the fact that we are in a one-sided relationship with God in which he is the one acting and we are the objects of his action.

In many modern translations, the expression “work out” is replaced by “cultivate.” This makes the meaning more clear and positive. Paul is merely advising his readers to cultivate what God has placed within them. Also notice that Paul says to cultivate “your own” salvation. This implies that salvation, our relationship with God, is not a one-size-fits-all sort of thing. It is not a rigid system to which we are expected to conform. On the contrary, it is “your own.” It is tailor-made for you as an individual. When Paul says to work out, or cultivate your salvation, he is advising you to cultivate all the good gifts God has placed within you as a unique individual.

Reading the account of creation in Genesis, it is interesting to note that God was able to do the whole thing all by himself. He did not need any help, and it was all good. And after he finished his creation, he made a garden, and finally made man and placed him in the garden. His instructions to Adam were clear and simple. The King James translation renders it this way: “dress and keep it.” To “dress” means to cultivate. The first creation was the external, physical world. The new creation is internal and spiritual. In both cases God did the work all by himself. Paul writes that we (Christians) are his workmanship. In both cases, the instruction is the same: cultivate what God has given you – bring to the surface all the good things he has planted within.

 

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