Who's Doing the Work Here?
I did a double take today looking at Philippians 2:12-13 -
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.
So, I am to work out my salvation because God is working in me? Who’s really doing the work here?
These verses stand out to me because of my attitude towards work. I believe in hard work. It’s what I expect of myself. So, hearing that I ought to work out my salvation sets off a rather dutiful response of me rolling up my sleeves and getting to work. The problem is that I often cannot live up to my own standard of work, which in turn makes me grow despondent, and then I don’t feel like doing anything at all, which makes me feel even worse about myself because then I feel I have to work extra hard just to make up for my failure.
I realize that others may read this passage and have a very opposite approach, focusing instead on “for it is God who works in you” meaning that we don’t have any responsibility to work out our salvation. This is quite the other extreme, and in order to come to a right understanding of what Scripture says, we need to fully embrace the paradox of what it is saying:
Christ completed God’s work of salvation at the cross, meaning that we do not need to work for our salvation. The Apostle Paul reminds the Philippians (2:6-11) that Jesus has done the work of emptying himself and becoming obedient to die for the sins of man. Jesus is Lord. We need not replicate this work.
The work is not done yet while we are still here on earth. In the next chapter (3:20–21), The Apostle Paul says “But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.” God will bring this work of salvation to completion when Christ returns (1:6). Until then, we’re still not home yet. We need to proclaim His kingdom and live out our salvation to a broken world (2:15).
God works in us so that we may work out His purposes. The working out that we do implies doing that from which something results. Now, I have seen the results of me working things out on my own merit, and let’s just say it’s not pretty. But when it is God who works in us both in my will (my desire) in my actions so that I may be fruitful for His kingdom, I need not have this condemnation of trying to obtain to a result that is of my own doing. Mind blowing.
Shortly after the directive to work out our salvation because God is at work in us, the Apostle Paul tells the Philippians to be glad and rejoice with him (2:17-18). So in our labor, it is not the picture of some kind of brow beating, legalistic call to work. It’s a joyful one because we know, unlike the work that we often do in other areas of life, that our labor is not in vain (2:16).
That’s amazingly good news for the worker bee in me.