In the verses before us, Paul continues to expound on his theme of living a life worthy of the gospel. We must see these verses in connection to 1:27- living gospel worthy, and the Christ hymn that leads us into this command. Just as Jesus obeyed, they too are to continue to obey. This obedience includes the command of working out their own salvation with fear and trembling.
Let’s look at these two verses and do a little exegesis and some smash-mouth application (yes, this passage is very convicting).
Paul commands us to work out what God works in. In continuing his theme on obedience, he wants them to obey so much more now in his absence. What he wants them to d is workout your own salvation with fear and trembling. Each of these words is well known in the NT, but their combination here is very unique. The word here “workout” means to “bring about, produce, or create” and is a present tense verb which signifies that this is something that is to be on going. More importantly, it is also a command. But what does this mean? Paul is not saying that effort and work are what obtains salvation. What he is saying is that he wants his readers to make a continuous, sustained, and strenuous effort to make their salvation fruitful. As the graces of Christ are produced in their lives by the power of the Spirit, they will be doing this on a daily basis, God has saved them, and they need to see this salvation worked out in their lives consistently. We could sum it up as follows: To work out one’s salvation is to show forth the graces of Christ in their lives and to make their eternal salvation fruitful in the here and now.
The next phrase with fear and trembling indicates the manner in which the Philippians are to work out their salvation. The word “fear” could mean such things such as “fright, alarm or dismay in the face of danger” or “reverence or respect in front of others or God.” The word “trembling” means “to quiver from fear” and was often used together with the word fear to give the picture of a person standing with quivering fear or trembling awe before someone or something. These two words appear together in the LXX and usually denote the fear that comes over people when they encounter the awesome presence and works of God. So fear and trembling are the appropriate response to God’s mighty acts. Because this same holy God both dwells and works in them, they are to obey the command to work out their own salvation with the utmost seriousness.
If this last verse gave us the command, this next verse shows us the basis of ability to obey the command. Their ability to work out their own salvation comes, not from themselves, but from God. God is working in them, both to will and to do according to His good pleasure. God’s activity in their lives is both ongoing and powerful. We could translate this first phrase “For the one who works mightily in you is God,” The Philippians must presently work out their own salvation because God is presently working in them in a powerful way. The word for “work” almost always refers to God’s work, and it gives the idea of an effective work; a supernatural work; a mighty activity of God. This God who mightily raised his Son from the dead, is now using that same might to work within them. It is a might that effectively works, so that they will both will and do according to the good pleasure of God. The word ‘will” in this context is denoting a resolve or purposeful determination. It is an inward, persistent resolution, and not only is God working this resolution in them, He is also giving them the power to see that their inward resolve is carried into action All of this is done in accordance with His good pleasure. Thus, this effective working has as its final goal the good pleasure of God. This is God’s free, good pleasure, which is grounded in God alone and influenced by nothing else.
Le’s drive these truths home for a moment. Theologically, these truths show the relationship between God’s sovereignty and His people’s responsibility in sanctification. We are to obey with fear and trembling (our responsibility), yet God, in His sovereignty, is working His will in us.
It also means that we can do all that God commands for us to do, and all that our conscience prods us to do. Is it possible for us to get into a place spiritually, where we actually become the will of God? A place where we are a manifestation of a life that exemplifies the will of God? Can we actually work out in our lives what God wills? Yes we can! I am not advocating the Christian perfectionism advocated by Wesley and others. Rather, this is a place of being – a place of being both consumed and aware of the will of God; an abiding; getting into God’s stride, so to speak. Because God is supernaturally at work in us, we have the power to do all of His good pleasure. Oswald Chambers states: “Before a man is rightly related to God, his conscience may be a source of torture and distress to him, but when he is born again it becomes a source of joy and delight because he realizes that not only are his will and his conscience in agreement with God, but that God’s will is his will, and the life is as natural as breathing, it is a life of proving, or making out what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God.” (As He Walked) Are you pervaded by God’s will? Is His will your will? We need to get into the place spiritually where we realize that not only is God the source of our will, but that He is in us to do what He wills. When we stop opposing God and get into a place of being absorbed by the divine consciousness, we begin to see that our natural choices, along with the engineering of our circumstances, are God’s will. We see that God has ordained these circumstances so that we can do His will in the midst of them. We are not to lie down and die, or grumble and complain. We are to do His will, for He is in us to do it!
For the disciple, the best thing is the will of God. When we complain about God’s will being too hard, we are accusing Him of sin. We are telling Him that He is wrong, that He doesn’t know what is best, and that He is unfair for bringing this into our lives or asking us to what He wants. The only time doing the will of God becomes a pain and a burden is when it comes to encroach upon our own stubbornness, selfishness, or pride. Then, as Chambers says, “it becomes as cruel as a ploughshare and as devastating as an earthquake.” The harder thing is not obedience, but avoiding His will and being in opposition to him.
The will of God, no matter what the circumstance, can become a source of intense joy for the believer. This is easy to say, but is it true? Yes, because when we do God’s will, we have all of the grace of Christ behind us when we do, and when we know this, we can take great joy in obedience, no matter how costly. God has a way of throwing us in the middle of things, and when we resist it and fight against it, it will continue to be hard, because God will be merciless with whatever thing is against your relationship with Him. Yet once He has his way, we do his will. When we do His will, we become his will, and the life of the Son of God manifest Himself through us in the middle of life. This is the joy of obedience, that God has His way through us. The joy is not in the circumstance or the heartache or the pain or the persecution, but the joy comes when we get into the place that we know God’s will is being expressed through us in the middle of the muck. Yet we have to work it out on a daily basis. Godliness must be practiced every day. If we are going to rise to the occasion in the big things, we have to be experts in the little. If we are going to be heroes when the crisis comes, we have to already be in the daily habit of working out our salvation in the mundane things. If we cannot do God’s will in the small things, we are fooling ourselves if we think that we will rise to the occasion when the crisis comes. It is better to learn obedience in the mundane than in the crisis. The reason the crisis can be so difficult is that there were many places in our life that were not right with God before we walked into the crisis. Yet it is in the crisis that obedience and submission can be perfected. In the crisis, God is after our brokenness. If we are never broken, we will always carry a disposition of arrogance. We are no good to God or other people until we have been crushed. It is not until we are crushed like grapes that we can become poured out wine and be of spectacular use in the hands of the Potter.