Work Out Your Own Salvation

Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. PHILIPPIANS 2:12–13

Lloyd-Jones preached through the Epistle to the Philippians in the years after the war, and the sermons were later gathered in two volumes, The Life of Joy and The Life of Peace. One of those sermons, on working out our salvation, can be read on Ochorus. It gives his teaching on the Christian life in its most compact form, and it answers a question every believer must face sooner or later: if salvation is all of grace, what part do I play?

Doctrine first, then therefore

He began, as he often did, by drawing attention to a single word: wherefore. Paul’s appeal for Christian conduct does not come out of the blue. It follows from what he has just said about Christ, who humbled Himself and became obedient to death and was highly exalted. The pattern, Lloyd-Jones observed, runs through every New Testament epistle. Doctrine comes first. Then comes a therefore or a wherefore. Then the appeal for conduct.

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. ROMANS 12:1

This, for him, was the fundamental difference between Christianity and every merely ethical system. The world tells a man how to live and then leaves him to it. The New Testament first tells him what God has done for him, and then says, in effect: if you believe that, can you not see that this must follow? The appeal is to reason, to equity, to fair play. It is not law but the perfect law of liberty.

He drew from this a searching test. How do we react when the gospel calls us to live in a particular way? If we enjoy hearing about grace but bristle when it calls for self-denial, something is wrong not only with our conduct but with our grasp of the doctrine. For the two cannot be separated.

What working out does not mean

He was careful first to say what Paul does not mean. He does not mean work for your salvation, as though a man could earn his standing before God. Philippians itself, in its third chapter, is one of the clearest statements in Scripture that righteousness is not by works but through the faith of Christ. The believer already has salvation. He is not working towards it; he is working it out.

And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith. PHILIPPIANS 3:9

Working out means carrying through to completion something already given. The salvation that God has planted must come to expression in the whole of life. The believer is to apply it, develop it, bring it to bear on every area of his conduct.

With fear and trembling

How is this to be done? Paul says: with fear and trembling. Lloyd-Jones insisted this does not mean with craven terror or anxious uncertainty. It means with reverence, with seriousness, with a sense of the greatness of the matter and of our own weakness. It is the opposite of casualness. The Christian who treats holiness lightly has not understood the cost at which he was saved.

And if ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man’s work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear. 1 PETER 1:17

He was sharply critical of any teaching that made sanctification passive — that told believers simply to let go and let God, to wait for a crisis experience that would lift them above the struggle. That is not what Paul says. Paul says work. The New Testament is full of exhortations to effort: mortify, put off, put on, flee, follow, fight. The Christian is not a spectator of his own sanctification.

For it is God

But Paul immediately adds the great ground of encouragement: for it is God which worketh in you. The believer works because God works. His effort is not independent of grace but the fruit of it. God works in him both to will and to do: He gives the desire and the power alike.

Lloyd-Jones found in this the answer both to despair and to pride. The Christian need not despair, because he is not alone; the Almighty is at work in him. And he cannot be proud, because even his willing is God’s gift.

Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. PHILIPPIANS 1:6

If we will not

The sermon on Ochorus ends on a sober note, and it is worth hearing. God will bring His people to perfection. If they respond to His promptings and give themselves to the work, well. If they do not, He loves them too much to leave them as they are, and He may use other means — chastening, disappointment, illness, loss. Lloyd-Jones was careful to say that not all suffering is chastening. But he believed that some is, and that the Christian who neglects his sanctification should not be surprised if God takes it in hand Himself.

For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. HEBREWS 12:6

Where care is needed

The warning about chastening must be handled gently. It is not a key for interpreting every hardship in another person’s life, and it should never be used to wound someone who is already suffering. Lloyd-Jones himself qualified it carefully. It is a word for our own consciences, not for our neighbour’s. The heart of this chapter is not the warning but the promise: God is at work in you, and He will finish what He began.

FOR REFLECTION AND ACTION

1. Read any New Testament epistle and find the point where doctrine turns to therefore. Notice how the appeal grows out of what came before.

2. Ask how you react when Scripture calls you to self-denial. Does it reveal anything about your grasp of grace?

3. Identify one area of your life where you have been passive about holiness, waiting for change rather than working it out. Take one concrete step this week.

4. When you are tempted to pride in your spiritual progress, remember who gave you both the will and the power.

5. Consider whether any present difficulty might be God’s loving discipline. Ask Him humbly, and do not press the question on others.

A PRAYER

Father, You have saved me by grace, and You have called me to work out that salvation in every part of my life.

Forgive me for loving the doctrine and resisting its demands. Let every therefore in Your Word find me willing.

Work in me both to will and to do of Your good pleasure. Give me the desire, and give me the strength.

And if I will not follow Your promptings, love me enough to chasten me, until I am made like Your Son. Amen.