RESOURCES — SHORT ARTICLES

 

SHORT ARTICLES BY TOM ELSEROAD
	2020-05-29	Working Out Your Own Salvation (Ph.2:12)
		Php 2:12 Therefore, my beloved, as you 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 Salvation as a package is God's gift to us. You cannot work it out until God has worked it in. Salvation from God comes to us in three tenses. 1. PAST: You HAVE BEEN saved (Rm.8:24; Ep.2:5,8; Ti.3:5) 2. PRESENT: You ARE BEING saved (1Co.1:18; Ph.2:12) 3. FUTURE: You WILL BE saved (Rm.5:9; 1Co.3:15; 5:5) What Christ has already done for us is bring redemption. Scriptures speaks of this as already done. This is past. We often think of what God has promised for us where we will be resurrected and glorified. This is future. The question we are discussing here is the present aspect of our salvation during this life. Paul says to, “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling”. This in no way refers to salvation by means of works (Rm.3:21-24; Ep.2:8-9). This is the believer's responsibility for active obedience called sanctification (Ph.3:13-14; Rm.6:19). If we observe Paul's writings we see the first section talks about our position in Christ. He tells us of all that God has done for us in Christ (E.g., Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians) Knowing this is a great encouragement for us. Then Paul will say to put off these things like lying, anger, wrath, malice, filthy communication, all the things that are sinful. We are to reckon ourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God (Rm.6:11). So on a daily basis we are be delivered from the power of sin. This is “working out” of what God has already worked into our lives. This is a process all believers participate in, and we will until the day that we die. There is never a point in this life when we can say, “I have arrived”. We must “work out” (present tense) continually. Salvation is not over with the day you are born again. It is the beginning of our salvation, not the end. It is secured for us. It is reserved for us in heaven. But this is the beginning of our process to work out the wonderful truth of what God has done in us. Your salvation from the day you were born again till the end of your life is a process by which God has forgiven you, but also delivers you from the process of sin. So we must be delivered from the daily acts of sin, as well as from the guilt of sin. Again, that is the working out part. It is like planting a garden. You plant the garden. Now you cannot just wait 3 months to get a harvest. In the meantime, having planted that garden, you will weed it. You will water it. You have to remove any bugs that attaches itself to the plants. So we work out that which God has worked into us. This is a process. It seems to be a long process called a lifetime. It is not working FOR your salvation. It is working OUT the salvation God has put in you. Pastor Tom Elseroad

 

An Evangelical Free Church of America

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