Read Philippians 2:12-16.

Introduction⤒🔗

One day, a man came to the studio of the 19th century British painter, Gabriel Rosetti. The man brought with him a portfolio containing samples of his drawings. He asked the master painter for a candid evaluation of their quality.

Rosetti looked them over with his trained eye and recognized that they had no true artistic merit. In as kind a way as possible, Rossetti gave his visitor his expert evaluation of the drawings.

Then the man produced another set of sketches, and asked the great artist what he thought of them. Upon examining the second set of drawings, Rosetti recognized a remarkable talent; he predicted that without doubt, that young painter could develop into a remarkably productive artist who would produce works of great value.

With a look of regret, the middle-aged man who now stood in the great painter’s studio confessed, “Mr. Rossetti, I was that student.” The man went on to explain that he had neglected his God-given talent, he had failed to develop it, and now he had lost it.

“In my youth,” confessed the man, “I was exhorted to develop my God-given talent. But I did not listen. Now I find that as the years have passed, I have slipped backward. You are right, sir, my latest drawings are of no value.”¹

In Philippians 2:12-16, we as Christians are exhorted to develop our God-given salvation. Rather than being passive and negligent about our salvation, we are called to be diligently involved in the outworking of that divine salvation.

Because it is the commandment and the expectation of God our Savior, we must be diligent to work out our God-given salvation.

Work Out Your God-Given Salvation, with Fear and Trembling←⤒🔗

It must be emphasized that we are not being called upon to produce our own salvation, but rather to work out and develop our God-given salvation. Scripture makes abundantly clear that salvation is by God’s grace, received by faith; it is not earned by means of good works done by man:

It is by grace that you have been saved through faith, and this is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, ⁹it is not of works, therefore, no one can boast. Eph. 2:8-9

...he saved us, not by works we ourselves performed in righteousness, but by his mercy, through the washing of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit. Titus 3:5

[God] saved us and called us to a holy life, not because of anything we have done, but because of his own purpose of grace. This grace was given to us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time.2 Tim. 1:9

Neither are we being called upon to supplement our salvation, as though the work of Christ was inadequate; rather, we are being exhorted to work out (or develop and cultivate) our God-given salvation. Again, Scripture makes abundantly clear that the work of the Lord Jesus Christ is fully sufficient for our salvation:

...when he had made purification for sins, [he] sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high Heb. 1:3b

Christ’s act of sitting down at His Father’s right hand is the testimony that His work is completed and accepted by the Father

...[Christ Jesus] is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, because he always lives to make intercession for them. Heb. 7:25

His divine power has given us everything pertaining to life and godliness... ⁴so that by these things you may share in the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world caused by evil desire. 2 Pet. 1:3-4

We are called to work out (or develop) our God-given salvation “with fear and trembling.” Our lives are to be governed by a holy fear of God, because we will give an account to Him who is the righteous Judge: “we make it our goal to please him... ¹⁰for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ” (2 Cor. 5:9-10). Furthermore, our lives are to be governed by a holy fear of God, because He takes pity on those who fear Him: “Just as a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him” (Psl. 103:13). Another reason we are to have a holy fear of God is because such an attitude of reverential fear was a characteristic of Christ’s own earthly life; speaking of Jesus, the writer to the Hebrews says, “During the days of his earthly life, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could deliver him out of death, and he was heard because of his godly fear” (Heb. 5:7).

Our lives are to be governed by a holy fear of God, as opposed to an unholy contempt for God. We must not assume that He does not see; speaking of the wicked, the Psalmist writes, “There is no fear of God before his eyes, ²for he flatters himself in his own eyes that his iniquity will not be found out and be hated” (Psl. 36:1-2). The writer to the Hebrews informs us, “Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give an account” (Heb. 4:13).

We must not assume that the LORD does not care. After listing the sins of the wicked, the LORD declares, “These things you have done and I kept silent; you thought I was altogether like yourself. But I will rebuke you and accuse you to your face” (Psl. 50:21). The wicked mistakenly take God’s present suspension of judgment as an indication that He does not punish sin and is as unconcerned with sin as they themselves.

Neither may we assume that the LORD will condone sin. Hebrews 10:26-27 warns, “If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, ²⁷but only a fearful expectation of judgment.” We must never abuse God’s forgiveness, thinking that we may continue to practice sin and still enjoy His forgiveness. He extends to us forgiveness, but at the same time calls upon us to surrender our sins to Him:

Seek the LORD while he may be found; call to him while he is near. ⁷Let the wicked man forsake his way, and let the unrighteous man [forsake] his thoughts. Let him return to the LORD, and he will have mercy on him. [Let him return] to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. Isa. 55:6­-7

Whoever covers his transgressions [i.e. seeks to hide them or deny them] shall not prosper; but whoever confesses and forsakes them shall obtain mercy. Prov. 28:13

With a holy and reverential fear, we are to apply ourselves to the task of working out our God-given salvation. The Apostle Paul exhorts the Corinthian church: “let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God” (2 Cor. 7:1).

Work Out Your God-Given Salvation, because God is Working in You←⤒🔗

The opposite of negligence in the task of working out our salvation is self-reliance. Self-reliance is a very common, but wrong, approach to living out the Christian life. The Apostle Paul found it necessary to rebuke the Galatian Christians when they were tempted to resort to self-reliance in seeking to live out the Christian life: “Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now seeking to achieve your goal by human effort?” (Gal. 3:3) Paul rebukes the Galatians for seeking to live out and develop their Christian life “by human effort;” in other words, in reliance upon their own futile efforts. He reminds them that their entrance into the Christian life was “by the Spirit;” it was the Holy Spirit who caused them to trust in Christ for their salvation. The implication is that the Christian life is lived out and cultivated in the same way that it is begun: by reliance upon the power and operation of the Holy Spirit. As the LORD declares through the prophet Zechariah, “Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the LORD of hosts” (Zech. 4:6).

Self-reliance is a very frustrating and futile way of seeking to live out and develop the Christian life. Consider Paul’s own personal testimony:

I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature; for I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. ¹⁹What I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do, this I keep on doing... ²²In my inner being I delight in the law of God; ²³but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a captive of the law of sin at work within my members. Rom. 7:18-19,22-23

The expression, “the members of my body,” is a figurative expression for the sinful nature that still clings to us and operates in us, contrary to the new heart we have received when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior.

In Romans 7:18-19, 22-23, the Apostle Paul presents his own testimony as to the impossibility of living out the Christian life by our own strength and self-reliance. Paul’s testimony may be illustrated as follows: Prior to conversion, our heart was a sin-producing factory; but now, as a Christian, we are under new management and committed to producing the new product of righteousness. But the old employees are sabotaging the production and seeking to prevent its distribution. We need help in getting the new product of righteousness manufactured and distributed. That help is available to us in the person of the Holy Spirit.

We must approach the task of working out our God-given salvation in reliance upon God and His Holy Spirit. “This is the word of the LORD: Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, declares the LORD of hosts” (Zech. 4:6). The LORD sets this forth as the only successful method of building and living the spiritual life to which we have been called as Christians. As the Apostle Paul informs us, “if you live according to the sinful nature, you must die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live” (Rom. 8:13). The Lord Jesus declares, “I am the vine, you are the branches. The one who abides in me and I in him, he is the one who bears much fruit; for apart from me you can do nothing” (Jn. 15:5).

We must approach the task of working out our salvation with the confidence that God is completely committed to the accomplishment of His great cause in our lives. God is at work in you “both to create the desire and to produce the work.” It is the Holy Spirit who creates in us the desire to please God. As one who has been converted unto God by the operation of the Holy Spirit, the Apostle Paul testifies, “in my inner being I delight in the law of God” (Rom. 7:22); i.e. in his renewed heart he has a love and delight in the law of God. But in describing the natural man who is still in his sins, and apart from the saving work of God in his heart, Paul writes, “the sinful mind is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so” (Rom. 8:7); i.e. the heart and mind of the natural man is hostile to God and set against God; it is against his sinful nature to submit to God’s holy law. But in the new, regenerated heart of the Christian, the Holy Spirit creates the desire to obey the Lord. Furthermore, it is the Holy Spirit who produces the acts of obedience: “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, ²³meekness, self-control” (Gal. 5:22-23).

God is at work in you for the accomplishment of His good purpose: “those whom God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, so that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. ³⁰And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified” (Rom. 8:29-30). The use of the past tense of the verbs used by the Apostle Paul in this passage indicates the certainty that God will, indeed, bring to a completion the work He has ordained to be accomplished in the lives of those He has called into the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ.

The certainty that God Himself is at work in us must become the motivation for our own commitment to the task of working out our God-given salvation; it must never be construed as a reason for complacency and negligence.

Work Out Your God-Given Salvation, by “Doing All Things Without Grumbling"←⤒🔗

When he writes, “Do all things without murmuring and grumbling,” the Apostle Paul is not speaking of the struggle that takes place in the Christian’s life as he wrestles with accepting and doing the will of God. Our Lord Jesus Himself in His human nature wrestled with the matter of accepting the will of His heavenly Father: “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but your will be done... ⁴⁴And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground” (Luke 22:42,44). This was the manner in which our Lord Jesus prayed to His heavenly Father in the Garden of Gethsemane as He faced the cross of Calvary.

What Paul is referring to, when he exhorts us to do all things “without murmuring and grumbling,” is that deep-seated resistance and rebellion against God, which must not be carried over into our Christian life. When he uses the phrase, “murmuring and grumbling,” Paul has in mind the Old Testament people of Israel, especially the character they displayed in the wilderness:

But you were unwilling to go up [into the Land of Canaan]; you rebelled against the commandment of the LORD your God. ²⁷You murmured in your tents and said, the LORD hates us; that is why he brought us out of Egypt to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites to destroy us. Deut. 1:26-27

⁷Remember this and never forget how you provoked the LORD your God to anger in the wilderness. From the day you left Egypt until you arrived here, you have been rebellious against the LORD... ²³And when the LORD sent you out from Kadesh Barnea, he said, Go up and take possession of the land I have given you. But you rebelled against the commandment of the LORD your God. You did not trust him or obey him. ²⁴You have been rebellious against the LORD ever since I have known you.Deut. 9:7, 23-24

It is one thing to cry out, “Oh, Lord, help me to obey!” It is quite another to quietly seethe, “Oh, Lord, I will not obey!”

We are to do all things “without murmuring and grumbling,” so that we may become “children of God without blemish.” That is to say, we are to be changed into the character of Christ who exhibited unreserved, unblemished, obedience to His heavenly Father: “he humbled himself by becoming obedient unto death, even death on the cross” (Phil. 2:8). We are called to become like Christ, as opposed to being like the Old Testament people of Israel, who, because of their habitual “murmuring and grumbling,” are identified in these terms: “they are not his children, it is their blemish; they are a perverse and crooked generation” (Deut. 32:5). Their rebellious spirit is defined as “their blemish,” in other words, that spirit of rebellion was a condemning mark against them.

Rather than being “a perverse and crooked generation,” like Old Testament Israel in their rebelliousness, we are called to exhibit an obedience to the LORD’s commandments that causes us to “shine like stars” as we live “in the midst of a perverse and crooked generation.” As we do so, we are to “hold forth the word of life.” As we live out a godly life before the world, we are to proclaim the source of that life, as it is defined in the Word of God. Lest men praise us for our good moral life, we must declare the source of that life: the regenerating and renewing work of the Holy Spirit. As we live out the life of the kingdom, as citizens of the heavenly kingdom, we must show men the means by which they, too, may enter into the kingdom, as revealed in the Word of God: faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Conclusion←⤒🔗

Let us learn a lesson from that would-be artist who possessed a God-given talent but, because he failed to develop it, he lost it. We have received a God-given salvation; and, in reliance upon God, it is our solemn duty and calling to develop that salvation, to work it out in our lives.

Salvation is all of grace, and we are required to employ that grace to develop and cultivate that salvation. Responding to the exhortation to cultivate that salvation is the indication that we possess that salvation and partake of it; the failure to cultivate that God-given salvation is the testimony that a man does not truly possess it.

Discussion Questions←⤒🔗

1. What are the Philippians, and we as Christians, commanded to do? See Phil. 2:12b. Does this mean we are required to produce our own righteousness, so that we may be justified before God? Note Phil. 3:8-9. Paul’s exhortation does not pertain to justification, but to sanctification. What active part are we to take in the process of sanctification, whereby we are conformed into the likeness of Christ our Savior? Note Cor. 3:18; Gal. 5:25,

Therefore, my beloved ones, just as you have always obeyed, so now, not only in my presence, but much more in my absence, continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling... Phil. 2:12

⁸I regard all things as loss on account of the all-surpassing value of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, because of whom I have suffered the loss of all things. Indeed, I regard all such things as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ, ⁹and be found in him, not having my own righteousness, which is derived from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness that is from God, [received] by faith... Phil. 3:8-9

...we all...beholding...the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory...by the Spirit of the Lord. 2 Cor. 3:18

If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk in line with the Spirit. Gal. 5:25

2. Why are we to work out our salvation “with fear and trembling”? See Phil. 2:13. Is Paul speaking of a cowering trepidation of uncertainty before a tyrannical master; is not such a misunderstanding of the phrase refuted by the opening greeting of this epistle? Note Phil. 1:2. Or is Paul here referring to the solemn response to the awareness of the majestic presence of God (cf. Isa. 8:13-14a), as He carries out His good purpose in our lives? Consider Jacob’s response to the gracious presence of the LORD (cf. Gen. 28:15-17). Is Paul also indicating that we must take seriously our part in the process of sanctification? Note Heb. 12:14,

...continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, ¹³for it is God who is working in you... Phil. 2:12-13a

...grace and peace to you from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Phil. 1:2

The LORD of hosts, him you must sanctify; he is the one you are to fear, he is the one you are to dread, ¹⁴and he will be a sanctuary [for you]. Isa. 8:13-14a

When the patriarch Jacob was on his way to Padan Aram, in obedience to his father Jacob, the LORD appeared to him:

I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you. ¹⁶When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, 'Surely the LORD is in this place, and I was not aware of it.' ¹⁷He was afraid and said, 'How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.' Gen. 28:15-17

Pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification, without which no one will see the Lord... Heb. 12:14

"The sanctification” is the process whereby the Christian, in reliance on the Holy Spirit, is increasingly conformed to the likeness of Christ our Savior.

3. Although the process of sanctification may be painstakingly slow, and progress may be imperceptible to us, what assurance do we as Christians have? See Phil. 2:13; note, also, Phil. 1:6,

...it is God who is working in you both to create the desire and to produce the work for the sake of his good purpose. Phil. 2:13

Of this I am sure, that he who began a good work in you will carry it out to completion until the day of Jesus Christ. Phil. 1:6

4. How are we to react to and interact with God’s working in our lives? See Phil. 2:14. How does Moses describe O.T. Israel as they were on their journey to the Promised Land of Canaan? See Deut. 1:26-27; 9:23b-24. What does the Apostle Paul tell us happened to that generation of Israel? See 1 Cor. 10:5. If we are to comply with God’s sanctifying work in our lives, and not be like the Israelites with whom the LORD was not pleased, to whom must we turn for assistance? See Zech. 4:6,

Do all things without murmuring and arguing... Phil. 2:14

Paul is alluding to the attitude of resistance and defiance against the LORD as He directs our lives in the way that He would have us to go, (the way of sanctification); it is the very attitude that characterized O.T. Israel as they journeyed towards the Promised Land of Canaan.

But you were unwilling to go up [into the Land of Canaan]; you rebelled against the commandment of the LORD your God. ²⁷You murmured in your tents and said, the LORD hates us; that is why he brought us out of Egypt to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites to destroy us. Deut. 1:26-27

And when the LORD sent you out from Kadesh Barnea, he said, Go up and take possession of the land I have given you. But you rebelled against the commandment of the LORD your God. You did not trust him or obey him. ²⁴You have been rebellious against the LORD ever since I have known you. Deut. 9: 23-24

God was not pleased with most of them; [this is evident] because their bodies were scattered in the wilderness. 1 Cor. 10:5

This is the word of the LORD... 'Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the LORD of hosts.'Zech. 4:6

5. How does the Apostle Paul describe what should be the Christian’s relationship with the world? See Phil. 2:15-16a. Must we physically separate ourselves from the world; as much as possible, only interacting with fellow Christians? Would it even be possible to do so? Note 1 Cor. 5:9-11a. On the other hand, must we non-judgmentally accept the pagan lifestyle, or by our conduct and witness identify it for what it truly is (cf. vs. 15b)? As we live among the society, what must we offer them as we have opportunity? See vs. 16a. What does the Apostle Peter exhort us to always be ready to do? See 1 Pet. 3:15-16,

...become blameless and pure, children of God without blemish, in the midst of a perverse and depraved generation, among whom you shine like stars in the universe, ¹⁶holding forth the word of life...Phil. 2:15-16a

I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with fornicators. ¹⁰[I was] not referring to the people of this world who are fornicators, or who are greedy, or swindlers, or idolaters. If that were the case, you would have to leave the world. ¹¹But what I meant when I wrote to you is that you must not associate with anyone who claims to be a [Christian] brother, but is a fornicator... 1 Cor. 5:9-11a

...being always prepared with an answer for everyone who asks you for an explanation concerning the hope that is in you. ¹⁶But [do so] with humility and respect, maintaining a good conscience, so that [by the very thing] for which you are slandered, those who insult your good conduct in Christ may be put to shame.1 Pet. 3:15-16