Consider Your Response to Receiving the Greatest Gift Anyone Could Ever Get
Paul tells the church of Philippi to work out your salvation (Philippians 2:12). He doesn’t say to work for your salvation.
They’ve already received eternal life as a free gift through God’s goodness (his grace), and there’s nothing they need to do to earn it (Ephesians 2:8-9).
Tell God Thank You
Jesus died in our place and took on our punishment for all the things we’ve done wrong. In doing so, he made us right with Father God. It’s a gift he gives us with no strings attached.
There’s nothing we need to do to earn it. We just need to receive it. It’s a gift of salvation, of eternal life.
What do we do when someone gives us a gift? We show our appreciation. This starts by saying thank you, and we might follow-up with a note or card.
Depending on the gift, we may proudly wear it, use it, or display it for everyone to see. In doing so we honor the giver.
If we follow Jesus as his disciple, he’s given us the ultimate gift that anyone could ever give. It’s a gift of salvation and of eternal life with him and through him.
This deserves the best thank you we could ever offer. This isn’t a once-and-done show of appreciation. Receiving salvation deserves our regular and ongoing acknowledgment of having been given the best gift of all time.
Work Out Your Salvation Every Day
Receiving the greatest gift anyone ever could, warrants that we say thank you every day. We do this with our words, our thoughts, and our actions, making sure they align with God’s instructions in the Bible and his will for our life.
This is how we work out our salvation. This is how we honor the giver.
Working out our salvation isn’t a requirement, but it is a warranted response. It’s a show of gratitude for what Jesus has done for us, and we should want to live a changed life as an ongoing display of appreciation.
And so that we don’t dismiss this as a trivial task, Paul tells us to work out your salvation with fear and trembling.
This trepidation isn’t because God could take back his gift; it’s a reflection of his almighty power, which we should be in awe of and never presume.
Work Out Our Salvation Corporately
Implicit in Paul’s instruction to work out your salvation is to do so not only as a personal response, but also as a corporate response.
As his church, we should work out our salvation together with other followers of Jesus as we gather on Sunday morning and throughout the week.
We do this in tangible terms by our worship of him and through our service to him and for him.
In practical terms we do this by coexisting in harmony with one another, letting our words and our actions serve as a powerful witness to a world who doesn’t yet know Jesus.
Work It Out
We don’t have to work out our salvation, but we should want to.
This is because eternal life is a gift that surpasses all others.
Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.
Read more in his books, blog, and weekly email updates.
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