What Does It Imply to Work Out Our Salvation?

On this episode of What within the Phrase?, Lynn H. Cohick joins Kirk E. Miller to unpack Paul’s exhortation in Philippians 2:12–13.

What does it imply to “work out your salvation with concern and trembling”? Does this indicate salvation is earned? How will we reconcile Paul’s name to motion together with his insistence elsewhere that salvation shouldn’t be by works?

Collectively, Kirk and Lynn discover the passage’s literary and theological context, its implications for a way we take into consideration salvation and sanctification, and the way this textual content shapes the Christian life.

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Episode visitor: Lynn Cohick

Lynn H. Cohick (PhD, College of Pennsylvania) is distinguished professor of New Testomony and director of the Houston Theological Seminary at Houston Christian College.

Her works embrace The Letter to the Ephesians in NICNT (2020); Christian Girls within the Patristic World: Their Affect, Authority, and Legacy within the Second by way of the Fifth Centuries (2017); Philippians (Story of God Commentary, 2013); Girls within the World of the Earliest Christians (2009); and many extra.

Episode synopsis:

Situating Philippians 2 in its context

Earlier than turning to the passage itself, Lynn Cohick highlights the significance of understanding Philippians as a complete.

The letter is written whereas Paul is imprisoned, probably round a decade after his preliminary go to to Philippi recorded in Acts 16. Though it’s a comparatively brief letter, Philippians displays deep affection and mutual partnership between Paul and this church. A significant theme all through the letter is unity—a unity the Philippians share of their love for Paul, however not but totally with one another.

This concern for unity immediately shapes the message of Philippians 2, significantly the exhortation that opens the chapter: to have the “similar thoughts,” placing apart egocentric ambition and modeling the humility of Christ (Phil 2:1–5). These themes culminate within the well-known “Christ hymn” of verses 6–11, which praises Jesus for humbling himself unto dying after which he’s exalted by God.

Notably, Paul’s exhortation in Philippians 2:12–13 flows immediately from this name for humility and unity as a group.

Understanding “salvation” in Paul & the New Testomony

Confusion surrounding Philippians 2:12 usually arises when readers method the textual content with a slim sense of the time period “salvation.” In lots of evangelical contexts, salvation is commonly equated strictly with justification—the second of being declared righteous earlier than God by the use of religion. However within the New Testomony, salvation, though together with justification, expands past it to incorporate different dimensions. The time period ecompasses the previous, current, and future features of God’s redemptive work within the believer’s life.

Kirk E. Miller and Lynn encourage readers to recuperate this full image:

Previous (we have been saved): We’ve got been justified (e.g., Eph 2:8; Rom 5:1).
Current (we’re being saved): We’re being renewed and sanctified (e.g., 1 Cor 1:18).
Future (we might be saved): We’ll someday be glorified, made totally like Christ (e.g., 1 Pet 1:5; Phil 3:20–21).

As some have helpfully summarized, we’re saved from the penalty of sin (justification); we’re presently being saved from the energy of sin (sanctification); and we’ll ultimately be saved from the very presence of sin (glorification).

This fuller image of salvation is important if we’re to make sense of Philippians 2:12–13. Paul shouldn’t be telling believers to work for his or her justification however is exhorting them to dwell out the implications of their salvation in group with obedience.

“Work out” doesn’t imply “work for”

Kirk factors out that Paul, the identical apostle who insists we’re justified other than works (e.g., Rom 3:28; Gal 2:16; Eph 2:8–9), can not imply right here that salvation is earned. Actually, within the very subsequent chapter of Philippians, Paul goes on to say, he does “not hav[e] a righteousness of my very own that comes from the regulation, however that which comes by way of religion in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends upon religion” (Phil 3:9).

Lynn agrees, noting that the Greek time period rendered “work out” (κατεργάζομαι) usually implies carrying one thing to its conclusion or bringing it to fruition. It’s about embodying or enacting the truth of salvation in a single’s life.

This “figuring out our salvation” then refers to sanctification—the Spirit-empowered technique of changing into extra like Christ, which incorporates energetic obedience and participation within the lifetime of the church.

A Logos search of κατεργάζομαι ("work out") in the New Testament.

Seek for all occurrences of κατεργάζομαι within the New Testomony.

A command for the group, not simply the person

This “figuring out” contains each particular person and communal features. Importantly, the verb “work out” is plural, indicating that Paul is addressing the church as a complete. The Christian life, in different phrases, shouldn’t be a solo endeavor however one thing lived and cultivated in group.

This aligns with Paul’s repeated emphasis all through Philippians on unity, humility, and mutual care. Lynn emphasizes that salvation in Philippians shouldn’t be merely a personal non secular expertise however a collective actuality. The instantly previous context, for example, contains the decision to be “of the identical thoughts” and to mannequin Christ’s humility (Phil 2:1–11), exhibiting that Paul’s broader concern right here is with how the church group lives collectively.

The Philippians, like many fashionable congregations, have been coping with interpersonal tensions—evidenced later within the letter by Paul’s plea to Euodia and Syntyche to agree within the Lord (Phil 4:2). “Understanding salvation,” then, contains embodying the self-giving love of Christ in {our relationships} with each other.

The church is named to be a form of company “colony” of heaven (see Phil 3:20), modeling the character of Christ to the world. Lynn shares that after, as a baby, her grandmother corrected her by saying, “Harrisons don’t do this”—a reminder that her conduct mirrored the household identify. Equally, Paul reminds the Philippians that their conduct displays their heavenly citizenship and their participation within the physique of Christ.

Working as God works: concurrence

Crucially, verse 13 clarifies that the one purpose believers can “work out” their salvation is that God is already at work inside them. Discover the repetition of “work” as proven within the ESV translation: “[W]ork out your individual salvation with concern and trembling, for it’s God who works in you, each to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Phil 2:12–13, emphasis added). This matches up with Phil 1:6, which likewise states that God will make sure you deliver to completion the nice work (similar root) he has begun in believers.

As Kirk explains, this theological idea is also known as “concurrence,” which means God works in and thru the human will to result in his functions. Paul makes the same level in 1 Corinthians 15:10: “I labored more durable than any of them, although it was not I, however the grace of God that’s with me” (ESV).

A grace that transforms: union with Christ

As Ephesians 2:8–10 exhibits, though we aren’t saved by good works (2:8–9), we’re saved for them (2:10). Our good works, due to this fact, aren’t the grounds or foundation of our justification earlier than God. However they’re the proof and expression of the salvation we’ve got already acquired.

As such, as Kirk explains, grace shouldn’t be against good works, however advantage. Grace is against incomes (e.g., Rom 11:6), not effort.

At root right here is the doctrine of union with Christ. Those that are united to Christ obtain all of him. They not solely obtain him as their justification (Rom 5), but additionally their sanctification (Rom 6). They share in him completely—his righteousness and sanctification, his dying and his resurrection life.

In different phrases, the identical grace that forgives us additionally goes on to rework us. The grace of God in Christ that pardons likewise empowers. Obedience shouldn’t be against grace; it’s the fruit of grace.

Philippians 2:12–13, thus, doesn’t contradict this gospel of grace. This “figuring out” of our salvation, i.e., our sanctification, shouldn’t be one thing we do other than Christ however one thing we obtain, expertise, and do on account of our union with Christ.

“With concern & trembling”?

The phrase “with concern and trembling” can strike readers as intimidating. Lynn affords a reframing. Whereas the phrase does convey reverence and seriousness, it isn’t meant to recommend that God is scowling or ready to punish. As an alternative, to “concern” God displays the awe and humility that befit those that stand earlier than a holy and gracious God.

It’s, Lynn says, akin to standing earlier than the grandeur of the Rocky Mountains—an consciousness of 1’s smallness and fragility within the presence of one thing immense and highly effective. The concept contains each reverence and a sober acknowledgment of our creatureliness and dependence. It isn’t about being terrorized however about being rightly oriented earlier than God.

Whereas fashionable readers might affiliate such obedience with drudgery or legalism, Lynn notes that Paul presents obedience as one thing deeply life-giving. Simply as Jesus was obedient to the purpose of dying—after which glorified (Phil 2:6–11)—so too believers are invited to stroll in obedience as a path to pleasure and maturity. Like Jesus, the trail of obedience for Christians is one in all humble service that results in glorification.

Encouragement for academics & preachers

Lynn and Kirk’s dialog supply a number of takeaways for these getting ready to show or preach this passage:

Use this textual content as a chance to broaden folks’s imaginative and prescient of what “salvation” means.
Emphasize that good works aren’t meritorious however participatory—we show by our works what God is already working in us.
Spotlight the communal dimensions of this salvation. Christian development occurs greatest within the context of the native church.
Encourage obedience not as a burden, however as a pathway to deeper pleasure and maturity. Stress the goodness of the God we serve and concern.

Logos values considerate and fascinating discussions on necessary biblical matters. Nevertheless, the views and interpretations introduced on this episode are these of the people talking and don’t essentially replicate the official place of Logos. We acknowledge that Christians might maintain totally different views on this passage, and we welcome numerous engagement and respectful dialogue.