Tuesday

Related Verses
Phil. 2:12-13
12 So then, my beloved, even as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only but now much rather in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling;
13 For it is God who operates in you both the willing and the working for His good pleasure.

Acts 2:32-33
32 This Jesus God has raised up, of which we all are witnesses.
33 Therefore having been exalted to the right hand of God and having received the promise of the Holy Spirit from the Father, He has poured out this which you both see and hear.

Acts 5:31
31 This One God has exalted to His right hand as Leader and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins.

1 Cor. 15:24-28
24 Then the end, when He delivers up the kingdom to His God and Father, once He has abolished all rule and all authority and power.
25 For He must reign until God puts all His enemies under His feet.
26 Death, the last enemy, is being abolished.
27 For He has subjected all things under His feet. But when He says that all things are subjected, it is evident that all things are except Him who has subjected all things to Him.
28 And when all things have been subjected to Him, then the Son Himself also will be subjected to Him who has subjected all things to Him, that God may be all in all.

Related Reading
Now we must go on to ask where is this Christ who is our pattern. Is He in heaven, or is He in us? Philippians 2:9 says clearly that God has highly exalted Christ. Thus, there can be no doubt that as our pattern Christ is in heaven. He has been exalted to the highest peak in the universe, where God is. This is related to the objective aspect of the pattern. However, if Christ were only in the third heaven objectively, how could we take Him as our pattern today? How could we, who are on earth, follow One who has been exalted and who is now in heaven? It would be impossible. In order for us to take Christ as our pattern, this pattern must be subjective. (Life-study of Philippians, p. 83) 

—

How is it possible for us to work out our own salvation [Phil. 2:12]? If we could work out our salvation, would that not make salvation a matter of our own works?…Since salvation is not of works but of grace, what does Paul mean by telling us to work out our salvation? 

The key to understanding Paul’s word is to know the meaning of salvation in this verse. Salvation here is not salvation from the lake of fire. Rather, it refers to what Paul has already said about salvation earlier in this Epistle. The words so then in verse 12 indicate that what Paul says in this verse is a consequence of what has gone before. Working out our salvation is the result of taking Christ as our pattern, as seen in the preceding verses. As our pattern, Christ is our salvation. However, this salvation needs to be worked out by us. 

In order for this to be accomplished in our experience, the pattern must be subjective to us as well as objective. If it were only objective, it could not be the salvation worked out by us. The salvation here is not the salvation we receive; it is the salvation we work out. The salvation we receive is the salvation from God’s condemnation and from the lake of fire. There is no need for us to work out that kind of salvation. The salvation here in Philippians is salvation of another kind, or of a different degree…The salvation in 2:12 is actually a living person. This person is the very Christ whom we live, experience, and enjoy. A pattern that is only objective could not be our salvation in this way. The fact that salvation is a living person and that this person is our pattern indicates that the pattern is subjective as well as objective. 

Another reason for saying that the pattern is subjective as well as objective is related to the fact that the book of Philippians is a book on the experience of Christ. Anything that is a matter of spiritual experience must be subjective. Based upon this principle and upon the context of the book of Philippians as a whole, Christ as the pattern is not only objective but also subjective and experiential. 

Furthermore, following his word about working out our salvation, Paul goes on to say, “For it is God who operates in you both the willing and the working for His good pleasure” (2:13). The word for at the beginning of verse 13 indicates that God’s operating in us is related to our working out our own salvation with fear and trembling. God operates in us both the willing and the working for His good pleasure. Surely the working in verse 13 refers to the working out in verse 12. We may confess that we are not able to work out our own salvation. Yes, in ourselves we are not able. But God, the One operating in us, is able. Since He is operating in us both the willing and the working, we can work out our own salvation. Paul’s word about God operating in us is a further indication that the pattern is subjective as well as objective…When we cooperate with God’s operation in us, we take Christ as our pattern. (Life-study of Philippians, pp. 84-86) 

Further Reading: Life-study of Philippians, msg. 10