God at Work in You, Part 1 (Philippians 2:12) John MacArthur

As you know, we go through books because God  wrote them, and every word of God is pure.   And we are now in Paul’s wonderful letter to  the church at Philippi, and we look at verses   12 and 13 this morning, and next Lord’s day  as well. Before we get into the text itself,   I want to set up its thought and intent and  how it practically speaks to our lives with   a little bit of a background. Recently when  I was in Florida, I had occasion to preach on   the subject of spiritual self-discipline.  It took the text of Peter where he says,   “Gird up the loins of your mind,” pull in  the loose ends of your life, and he really   has a lot to say about the disciplined life. And  there were comparative passages that were equally   stressing the discipline of spiritual living and  the tremendous day-to-day commitment to a zealous,   faithful, devoted, diligent, spiritual walk.  And when I had poured out my heart on this   matter for about an hour, I finished, and  a lady came to me afterwards and wanted to   take exception to what I said, which is not an  uncommon experience of me or any other preacher.

She came to me and she said, “I do not  agree with what you said.” And I said,   “Something specific?” And she said, “No,  everything.” And I said, “Well, I’m not   exactly sure what you mean by that.” And she said,  “Well, I think you have it all wrong when it comes   to spiritual living. You have it all wrong when  it comes to sanctification of a believer. You see,   we don’t do anything. There’s no call for  self-discipline. There’s no call for this effort.   We don’t do anything but yield to God. And when  we yield to God we let Him do it all.” And I said,   “Oh, I see.” She said, “All that is necessary  is to surrender, and then God will do it all.” Now, that poses the question which is really,  I think, germane to our text and that is this   question: what is the believer’s role in  sanctification and what is God’s role?   What is the believer’s role in sanctification  and what is God’s role? To put it another way,   is it me or is it Him? Is it faith or is  it effort? Is it trust or is it obedience?

Now, the same question comes up in other elements  of theology. You can ask the question about   salvation. When you were saved, was it you or  was it God? You say, “Oh, it was all of God.”   Does that mean you just one day said, “God,  do whatever You want to me. I’m ready?” No,   you had to turn from your sin, acknowledge Jesus  Christ as Lord, and place your faith in Him.   And there are many, many calls in the  Bible to the sinner to repent, to believe,   to commit himself to Christ. So, it really was  all of you; it was a total change of direction   for you and for me to turn from sin to God through  Christ. It was a change in our belief. It was a   change in our view of sin. It was really taking  my life and putting it all in the hands of Christ,   and yet it was all of Him. That’s the same,  somewhat difficult to understand tension.

And then, you look at the person of  Christ and you ask the same question:   is He God or is He man? And the answer is yes.  He is 100 percent God, 100 percent man. You say,   “I don’t understand that.” You don’t have  to understand it; it doesn’t mean it isn’t   true. You see, not all truth is understandable  to you. If it was you would be equal to God.   God does have some things which He contains  within the truthfulness of His person that   you can’t understand, and neither can I. And  I’m glad for that, because that means God is   a lot smarter than I am, and that’s the kind of  God I want, not one like me. Take a Bible book,   take Philippians and ask yourself a question:  who wrote Philippians, God or man? Well,   you say is every word is out of the heart of Paul,  every word is out of the vocabulary of Paul, every   word is expressing what Paul wants to say, and yet  every word is from the Holy Spirit. You have the   same situation, it’s all of Paul, and all of his  heart, and all of his passion, and all he wanted   to say, but every word is right from the mind of  the Spirit of God. You deal with the same thing.

So, when you come to this matter of sanctification  or spiritual growth or spiritual progress,   and you ask the question: is it me or is it God?  You’re really at the same nexus of theological   discussion that you are in many other areas.  In fact, John Murray says that in every major   doctrine in the New Testament, there is  an apparent paradox which cannot in and   of itself be resolved in the mind of man. So,  when we come to this matter of sanctification,   is it an either-or, is it either God or  me, do we have to take one or the other? Now, let’s look for a moment  at those sort of poles.   The view that this lady affirmed has traditionally  been called the view of quietism. In other words,   the believer is quiet. The believer is passive.  You could almost call it spiritual passivism.   You just fall into passivity. You let go and let  God. One of their little bywords was, “I can’t;   He can.” The other view is called pietism because  it is a diligent effort toward personal piety. So,   you have quietism on the one hand, where you’re  passive. You have pietism on the other hand,   where you’re active, aggressive, and  you’re working on your spiritual life,   and doing everything within your  power to live out your Christianity.

Now, just a little bit of background. Quietism  is somewhat mystical, somewhat subjective,   and originally was popular primarily among  the Quakers, and then became a part of some   of the Arminian perfectionists who believed you  could actually come to a post-conversion crisis   experience in which you became momentarily  so totally surrendered to God that you would   never sin again. They believed that the work  of sanctification does not involve any effort   on our part except surrender. In fact, they  say that our striving effort is a hindrance   to the process of sanctification and we’ve got to  get self out of there, we’ve got to die to self,   we’ve got to crucify self, we’ve got to put self  on the altar, and we’ve all heard those messages   about putting your life on the altar, crucifying  yourself and so forth. And they say our proper   role is to surrender to God, and let Him give us a  life of victory over sin. We give our life to God,   He moves in, He lives in us, He produces victory.  One of their old quietistic hymns went like this,   “Holiness by faith in Jesus, not  by effort of my own.” I’m passive.

And the implication here is that the Christian  chooses a life of faith and trust and says no to   a life of effort and obedience as such. And they  appeal to a particular phrase out of context,   Galatians 2:20, “Not I but Christ.” By  the way, that verse maintains the tension,   “For I am crucified with Christ,”  Paul says, “nevertheless I live,   yet not I but Christ lives in me.” He  was in the same tension. It’s I live,   yet it’s Christ lives. The quietist just says,  “Not I but Christ,” trying to eliminate that   balance. One of their perhaps most popular  writers is a man named Trumble. Just to give   you a little bit of insight into this view so that  you’ll be able to recognize it when you see it,   Trumble writes this, “The simple fact is that  whenever a life that trusts Christ as Savior is   completely surrendered to Christ as Master,” which  they see as a post-conversion crisis experience,   “Christ is then ready to take complete control  of that life and at once to fill it with Himself.   When we surrender and trust completely, we die  to self and Christ can and does literally replace   ourself with Himself. Thus, it is no longer we  that live but Christ lives in us as His person,  

literally fills our whole being with Himself in  actual personal presence. And He does this not as   a figure of speech but just as literally as that  we fill our clothes with ourselves.” End quote. In other words, he is saying that  you come to this surrender point,   and you literally divest yourself of yourself,  and Christ becomes the new self. And now,   it’s almost like an incarnation kind of  thing. He goes on to say, “In this condition,   a Christian does not even experience temptation,  for it is defeated by Christ before it has time   to draw him into a fight.” And I would have  to question what “him” is left to drawn into   a fight if Christ has become the very life of  the believer. But you understand the point.   You just sort of die and surrender and put your  life on the altar. You flop in a spiritual act   of passiveness. Christ fills you up, lives His  life through you. Everything then depends on Him.

And to go so far as to say a Christian doesn’t  even experience temptation because it’s defeated   by Christ before it has time to draw him into a  fight is then to force the question: well, in the   event that that Christian does sin, whose fault is  it? Right? Whose fault is it? If I surrendered my   life to Christ and in that moment of surrender  He came to live His life through me, and if He   is living His life through me and I sin, whose  fault is it? It can’t be my fault; I surrendered.   But it can’t be God’s fault because God is  not the author of sin. It’s never His fault. And so, what they say is this, “Well,  you took yourself off the altar. You   de-surrendered. You left the place of surrender  by which you placed yourself in God’s hands.”   But that doesn’t answer the question. How could  I be tempted to do that if He’s in control of   everything? If I surrendered my life to Christ  and He’s living His life through me, then how   could I ever sin? How could I ever not surrender  if I surrendered once and He’s now in charge,   then He’s in charge, and He’s going to prevent  that, right? Because He’s not going to sin.

They have had to come up with some ingenious  analogies to sustain this particular doctrine.   One of those who has articulated it perhaps  as well as anybody in the movement is a woman   by the name of Hannah Smith; some of you may  have read her book, “The Christian Secret of   a Happy Life.” Many Christians have read it. In  it, she gives an analogy to help you understand   this surrendered life. She writes, “What can  be said about man’s part in this great work   but that he must continually surrender himself  and continually trust? But when we come to God’s   side of the question, what is there that may not  be said as to the manifold and wonderful ways in   which He accomplishes the word entrusted to Him.  It is here that the growing comes in,” and here’s   her analogy, “the lump of clay could never  grow into a beautiful vessel if it stayed   in a clay pit for thousands of years. But when  it is put into the hands of a skillful potter,   it grows rapidly under his fashioning into the  vessel He intends it to be. And in the same way,   the soul abandoned to the working  of the heavenly potter is made into   a vessel unto honor, sanctified and  meek for the Master’s use.” End quote.

So, she says, there’s the perfect analogy.  You’re clay and the potter does everything;   all you do is set the lump of clay down.  You just climb up and get on the wheel,   sit there and he’ll make you into what he  wants you to be, you have no part. Well,   the question you want to ask her is, “Well, then  what happens when a believer sins? What happens?   Whose fault is it?” To which she responds, “When  a believer sins, that means that the believer took   himself out of the hands of the heavenly potter.”  Now, wait a minute. This is some kind of clay.   It’s jumping up on the wheel and then it’s jumping  back off again. The analogy breaks down at that   particular point. If the Christian at one moment  in the moment of crisis surrendered is a piece of   malleable clay, completely soft and without any  will of its own, and it places itself under the   total care of the Lord, and the Lord is doing all  the shaping, how in the world then can in the next   moment that same piece of clay decide to jump out  of the potter’s hand? That’s some kind of clay. So, you can see that in that view there  are some very difficult issues. If I give   my life to Christ and He’s now living  it all through me and I’m passive,   then the problems are going to  have to be laid at His feet.

Now, that brings us to just a brief consideration  of the other view, the pietism view.   Pietism is usually connected with a movement in  18th century Germany which was a rite reaction   to the dead orthodoxy of the Lutheran church.  It had many admirable features, by the way. The   Pietistic Movement was a strong emphasis on Bible  study, on holy living, on practical Christianity,   spiritual exercises, self-discipline. They  took the very opposite view of the quietist.   Said the Christians have got to be involved  with all his faculties, and all his abilities,   and all his members, and his mind, and his heart,  and his soul in the matter of pursuing godliness.   It takes everything you are all the time to  pursue it. It stressed the need for good works.   It stressed the need for usefulness. It stressed  the fact that if there was a belief that didn’t   lead to works, it was not a saving belief. They  would camp on a verse like 2 Corinthians 7:1,   “Let us cleanse ourselves from  all filthiness of the flesh,   perfecting holiness in the fear of God,”  and say this is our task, this is our duty.

And for the most part I don’t think that the  Pietists were really out of balance. But that   pietistic view can get out of balance because  it can become an over-emphasis on self-effort.   And you know what an over-emphasis on  self-effort does? If you believe that   all your spiritual progress is based on your  ability to dedicate yourself and discipline   yourself and move yourself in the right direction,  then you’re going to experience two things: one,   when you succeed you’ll have pride; two, when  you fail you’ll have despair. You’ll have pride   because you take all the credit. You’ll have  despair because if you’re the only resource,   where you going to go now? So,  you’ve got to deal with that. Now, an over-emphasis on the quietistic  viewpoint: God does it all, I flop,   is problematic. Now, you’ve got a problem  with: what are you doing to do with your sin?   You’re going to blame it on God because He’s in  control. On the other hand, an over-emphasis on   the pietistic view which says “I’ve got to do  it all, so when I do it well I get the glory;   when I fail, I am miserable because  I’ve got nowhere to turn.” There is   a balance. And I believe the balance is found  in this passage. It is found in this passage.

Now, with that in mind, let me read these  two verses to you. “So then, my beloved,   just 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.” Did you hear that? Work out   your own salvation. You say, “Paul is  definitely a Pietist.” He’s a Pietist,   he says it.” Look at verse 13, “For it is God  who is at work in you, both to will and to work   for His good pleasure.” And you say, “No,  something happened between verse 12 and 13,   he became a quietist. He’s got you doing it in  verse 12, and he’s got God doing it in verse 13.” Now, how we going to understand this? It shouldn’t  shock us, it really shouldn’t. It’s not a new   concept. It’s not a new concept. You say, “Work  out your own salvation,” turn right around and   say, “For it’s God working in you.” It’s not  new, let me show you something. First Kings,   and I wanted to show you this because I think it’s  important for you to see the sweeping character of   this particular issue and particular principle. It  is very, very important to understand this. Look   at 1 Kings chapter 8 verse 54. Here you have  Solomon in his dedicatory prayer and speaking   to the people of Israel. They have dedicated the  place that had been built for the worship of God,  

the temple. And in verse 54 we start to see  Solomon speaking to the people after he has   finished his prayer. It says, “It came about  that when Solomon had finished praying this   entire prayer and supplication to the Lord,  he arose from before the altar of the Lord for   kneeling on his knees with his hands spread  toward heaven, he stood and blessed all the   assembly of Israel with a loud voice saying,” now  I want you to follow this, this is his speech,   “Blessed be the Lord who has given rest to His  people Israel, according to all that He promised,   not one word is failed of all His good promise  which He promised through Moses, His servant.   May the Lord our God be with us as He was with  our fathers, may He not leave us or forsake us.” Now, we’ll look at verse 58. “That He may incline  our hearts to Himself.” You ought to underline   that. “That He may incline our hearts to Himself  in order that we might walk in all His ways and   keep His commandments and His statutes and His  ordinances which He commanded our fathers.” In   other words, if we’re going to be obedient, who is  going to have to make us obedient? God. He says,   “I am pleading with God to incline our hearts  to Himself.” That’s a man who is saying our   ability to obey is built on God moving our hearts  toward Him. In other words, it’s a divine work.

Verse 59, “And may these words of mine with  which I have made supplication before the Lord   be near to the Lord our God day and night and  that He may maintain the cause of His servant   and the cause of His people Israel as each day  requires so that all the peoples of the earth   may know that the Lord is God, there is no one  else.” Now, look at verse 61, “Let your heart   therefore be wholly devoted to the Lord our  God.” Underline that. You say, “What’s that   saying?” That’s the very opposite side. In verse  58 he says, “O God, we depend on You inclining   our hearts to Yourself.” In verse 61 he says to  the people, “You let your heart be wholly devoted   to the Lord our God to walk in His statutes,  to keep His commandments.” The same result. So, if you were standing there that day and  you were listening to Solomon, and somebody   came to you afterwards and said, “Well, tell me  about spiritual living. Tell me about holiness.   How does it happen? Is it something that we  do or something that God does?” You’d say,   “Yes, yes.” We pray, “O God, incline  our hearts to You.” And then, we exhort,   “You better wholly devote your heart toward God.”  Really not a new principle in Philippians, is it?

Let me show it to you again. First chapter of 2  Peter, the first chapter of 2 Peter in verse 3.   He has just talked about God and our Lord Jesus  and he speaks about the Lord’s divine power.   And in verse 3 he says, “His divine power  has granted to us everything pertaining to   life and godliness.” You say, “Oh, Peter  is definitely a quietist.” He says it,   everything related to life and godliness is  God’s gift to us. His divine power does it all.   It was by His divine power that we literally  were saved, that we became partakers, verse 4,   of the divine nature, that we escaped  the corruption that is in the world   by lust. You say it’s all of God. All things  pertaining to life and godliness come from God.

But look at verse 5. “Now, for this very reason  you should apply all diligence, in your faith,   supply moral excellence; and in your moral  excellence, knowledge; and in your knowledge,   self-control; and in your self-control,  perseverance; and in your perseverance,   godliness; and in your godliness, brotherly  kindness; and in your brotherly kindness,   love.” In other words, he says you better be  diligent to produce all those things. You say,   “Now, wait a minute. He’s a quietist in  verse 3; he’s a Pietist in verse 5 and   following.” Same issue. He says it’s all of  God on the one hand, and it takes everything   you’ve got on the other hand. Same thing  Solomon said, same thing that Paul says. Now, with that in mind, let’s go back to  Philippians 2 and look at the text and   just introduce the first concept.  And the question we’re posing is:   what is the believer’s role in sanctification and  what is God’s role? Two points in this outline:   the Christian working out, God working  in. The Christian working out, verse 12;   God working in, verse 13. Let’s talk about the  Christian working out and at least introduce the   concept without all of its wonderful detail.  And may I say to you that in this verse there   is so much depth and so much richness and  so much potential for meaningful discussion   that you could preach months on this one verse  just because of its ramifications. But I want  

to just take the main thought of verse 12 and  at least give you a sense of what it means. Verse 12, “So then, my beloved, just as you  have always obeyed not as in my presence   only but now much more in my absence,”  here’s the key verb and the key thought,   “work out your own salvation with fear and  trembling.” That’s the main thrust of verse 12.   Work out your salvation. That’s the principle.  Paul says to these Philippian believers:   you’ve got to work out your salvation. You say,  “Now, what does this mean?” Lots of people have   been very disturbed by that statement. Some  people think that mean work for your salvation.   Some people think it means work at your salvation.  Some people might think it means work up your   salvation. But salvation is not by works, is  it? You can’t work at it. You can’t work for   it. You can’t work it up. “For by grace are you  saved through faith, that not of yourselves,   it is the gift of God not of,” what? “Works, lest  any man should boast,” Ephesians 2:8 and 9. Romans   3:21 to 24, very clear, “The deeds of the  law don’t justify anybody but righteousness   comes by grace.” No, you don’t work for your  salvation. There is no salvation by works. So,   he’s not saying, “Work for, work at, work  up your salvation.” He’s saying, “Work out.”

What does he mean? Well, this verb is  important to note. It’s a present-tense   imperative verb which means it is a  command that has a continual emphasis,   keep on continually making the effort  to work out your salvation. Now,   what does it specifically mean? Let me see if I  can help you. The verb, as far as I understand it,   always means to bring something to fulfillment,  to fullness or completion; to bring something   to fulfillment, to fullness or completion. And  what he is saying is this: the salvation that   is in you needs to be brought out all the way  to its fulfillment, to its fullness. It really   is a command for sustained effort and diligence in  working out what has already been planted within. That’s a rich thought. And there is a secular  source on this verb that kind of gives a good   insight. The ancient scholar Strabo was a Roman,  somewhere 60 years or so before Christ. He wrote   in Greek, and he had an account in one of this  writings that I discovered this last week,   which is about some mines that the Romans had in  Spain. And he refers to the Romans as working out  

the mines, and he uses the very same verb. And  what he had in mind there was that the Romans,   and I think this is made clear in his writing,  if I remember correctly, that the Romans owned   this land. It was theirs, and they were extracting  out from within it all of its richness and all of   its value in the mining of the silver. And that  seems to be a good expression of what this word   means. I am to mine out of my life what God  has richly deposited there in the matter of   salvation. I am to mine it out. I am to produce  such precious nuggets of personal character from   what God has planted in me in my salvation.  I think that’s the first sense in which we   are to understand this verse and this command.  So, we could say the first aspect of it, then,   is to work out in daily conduct what God has  put in. I am to mine out what is already mine.   Day-to-day holy living. That’s the idea. I am to  be committed to the process of my salvation coming   to the outside, in the sense that it’s manifest in  my conduct, my behavior. It’s a marvelous truth.

Now, there is a sense here in which  we are making a great effort. I mean,   the command assumes an effort. When he  says “work out your salvation,” he is   saying you’ve got to do it. You’ve got to  work it out. There’s commitment. This is   not a quietistic view. This is a very strong  statement about personal effort. And Scripture   is replete with such injunctions. I’m thinking  of Romans 6:19 where Paul says, “Just as you   presented your members as slaves to impurity and  lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness,   so now continually present your members as slaves  to righteousness resulting in sanctification.”   In other words, you have the responsibility to  present all your human faculties to patterns of   righteousness in the process of sanctification.  It’s not just a flopping, passive response; it’s   a very active aggressive pursuit of obedience,  even under the conditions of being, as it were,   a slave. And then, the verse we mentioned earlier,  “Let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of   the flesh, perfecting holiness in the fear of  God,” 2 Corinthians 7:1. You have many other   passages. Ephesians chapter 4, “Walk worthy  of the calling to which you’re called,” and   he details how to do that. Colossians chapter 3,  you have a new life, set aside all these things,   wrath and anger and so forth; don’t lie to one  another, don’t slander. All of those injunctions   imply that we have a responsibility. If it  was just the yielded life, then why is he  

telling us to do that? If he knows to do it,  he’ll do it if we’re surrendered. You see,   all of the injunctions of Scripture presuppose  the responsibility on the part of the believer. We are called to holy living on a daily basis,   to work out what is in us, to bring the  nuggets of the precious silver that is   in us by salvation to the outside that God  may be honored, that God may be glorified. In 1 Corinthians 9, I can’t even talk about  the subject without drawing your attention to   1 Corinthians 9:24, where Paul says this, see if  this sounds passive, “Do you not know that those   who run in a race all run, but only one receives  the prize? Run in such a way that you may win.”   That’s effort, folks; that’s maximum effort. “And  everyone who competes in the games, engages in   athletics, exercises self-control in all things.  They then do it to receive a perishable wreath,   but we an imperishable. Therefore, I run in such a  way as not without aim, I box in such a way as not   beating the air.” I don’t shadowbox and I don’t  run in circles. I make maximum effort to win.

Then, verse 27, “And I pummel, or I  punch my body and make it my slave.” Now,   that’s a lot of effort: running,  boxing, punching his own body,   giving it a knockout punch so that it conforms  to the divine pattern. Tremendous effort. This   is a race. Paul says in his second epistle to  Timothy, “I have fought the good,” what? “Fight.”   I have finished the course. It’s a battle,  it’s a race, it’s a boxing match. He says,   “Along the way we wrestle.” He talks about  the weapons of our warfare not being carnal   but spiritual, the tenth chapter of 1 Corinthians.  He’s involved in a great effort, a great struggle. While we’re in Philippians, you might want to look  and see a little bit of insight into the apostle’s   struggle, verse 12, “Not that I have already  obtained it or have already become perfect,   but I press on in order that I may lay hold of  that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ   Jesus.” We’ll come back to that. He’s pressing,  he’s moving, he’s running, he’s fighting. Verse   13, “I do not regard myself as having laid hold of  it yet, but one thing I do, forgetting what lies   behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I  press on to the goal for the prize of the upward   call of God in Christ Jesus.” I’m pressing,  I’m moving, I’m disciplined, I’m under control,  

and making maximum effort. If I have to, I beat my  body into subjection, I protect my mind, I get my   members to conform to the divine standard.  Tremendous commitment, tremendous effort. In 1 Timothy chapter 4, do you remember verse  15? “Take pains with these things,” Paul says   to young Timothy, “be absorbed in them so your  progress may be evident to all.” Take pains in   the spiritual elements of life. Chapter 6  verse 12, “Fight the good fight of faith,   lay hold of the eternal life to which  you were called.” Strong language. Now, listen carefully. Those last two  passages that I read you transition us   into the second dimension of working out your  salvation. The first dimension is to live on   the outside what God has done on the inside, to  pursue godliness, piety, holiness, obedience in   your life on the outside. But the second thing  is this, this verb, as I said, always means to   bring something to completion. And I believe that  inherent in working out your salvation, and maybe   this is the more dominant thought: it is that you  pursue the full and final expression of salvation,   even your glorification at the time when you meet  Christ. That what he is really saying is not only   work out your salvation but work on your salvation  in the sense that you are working on toward that  

moment when you will see Christ and receive the  end of your faith, even the fullness of salvation. See, salvation comes in three dimensions:  past, present and future. Those of us who   are Christians have been saved. There was a  moment in time in which we were translated   out of darkness into light. We left the kingdom  of darkness into the kingdom of God’s dear Son.   We went from death to life. We went from  sin to righteousness. We went from being   the children of the devil to being the children  of God. We were saved, our souls were saved,   we were made new creations. There is also a  sense in which we are being saved right now.   We are in the process of being saved. What does  that mean? That he is continually cleansing us   from all sin. It isn’t just a past act with no  future implications; it’s an on-going thing. So, we were saved and we are being  saved, that’s the keeping power,   and we will be saved. We are waiting for the  full salvation, even the redemption of our   bodies. That’s why Paul in Romans 13:11 says,  “Now is your salvation nearer than when you   believed.” What salvation? The final aspect of  your salvation, it comes in three dimensions.   What then is he saying? I believe he is saying:  work your salvation out and work it out on until   the time of the fullness of your salvation when  you see the Lord Himself. And I really believe   that that is what is in the heart of Paul  when he says in 1 Timothy 6:12, I just read,  

“Fight the good fight of faith, take hold of  the eternal life to which you were called.”   In other words, you’re called unto that final  feature of salvation; lay hold of it, pursue it. You say, “Well, now wait a minute. Are we  supposed to pursue that? I thought we were   eternally secure.” That’s right. The Bible  teaches eternal security, but it also teaches   the responsibility of the perseverance of the  saints. Have you heard that? And you’re back   to that same apparent paradox. Who wrote the  Philippians? God and Paul. When you were saved   was it God or was it you? It was all God and it  was all of you committing yourself. And Jesus is   all God and all man. And the Christian life is  all of me and all of Him. And my guarantee of   eternal life is all of God’s power in securing me  and all of perseverance energized by the Spirit of   God within me that moves toward that day. You have  the same two things going along side by side. So,   Paul says to Timothy, “Look, you need to take hold  of the eternal life to which you were called.” Back in verse 16 of the fourth  chapter, I read you verse 15,   “Pay close attention to yourself and your  teaching, persevere in these things for as   you do this will insure salvation both for  yourself and for those who hear you.” Yes,   I believe that the Christian is secure. I believe  we can see eternal security in Romans 8. But I  

don’t believe eternal security exists apart from  the perseverance of the saints. True believers   work out their salvation on the outside with  continuity until the time when they’re glorified. Just to give you a little more feeling for  that wonderful concept of perseverance,   in Matthew chapter 24 the Lord says, “The one  who endures to the end shall be saved.” In Acts   chapter 13 and verse 43, we read another of the  same kinds of thoughts. It says in verse 43, “Now   when the meeting of the synagogue had broken up,  many of the Jews and the God fearing proselytes   followed Paul and Barnabas who speaking to them  were urging them,” listen to this, “to continue   in the grace of God.” In chapter 14 of Acts verse  22, it says that Paul was strengthening the souls   of the disciples, encouraging them to continue  in the faith. You say, “Well, now wait a minute,   if they’re genuinely saved won’t they continue  in the faith?” God will keep them from their side   but they must persevere; from His side, rather,  but they must persevere from theirs. From God’s   view He holds them; from man’s view there must  be perseverance. In Romans chapter 2 and verse 7   it says, “To those who by perseverance in doing  good seek for glory and honor and immortality,   God gives eternal life.” In other words, God  gives eternal life to those who persevere. So, you   believe, the salvation goes in; then you work that  salvation out, persevering all the way to the end.

In Colossians 1, I’ve read this so many times  to you in past studies, it says in verse 23   that you are saved if indeed you continue in  the faith, firmly established and steadfast,   and not moved away from the hope of the gospel.  And the writer of Hebrews so frequently discusses   this issue. Chapter 3 verse 14, “We have become  partakers of Christ if we hold fast the beginning   of our assurance, firm until the end.” And  perhaps most significantly chapter 10 verse 38,   “But my righteous one shall live by faith, and  if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in   him but we are not of those who shrink back  to destruction but of those who have faith to   the persevering of the soul.” Now, when Paul says  work out your salvation, he is saying get on the   outside what is on the inside. And not only that  in the moment, but with continuity, continually   doing that, you will literally work your salvation  to its ultimate completion and fulfillment.

Go back to chapter 3 of Philippians and we’ll look  one final time at Paul’s writing there. This will   be helpful to you. Philippians chapter 3. Look  at this. In verse 7 he says that I counted all   things as lost for the sake of Christ. “I count  all things,” verse 8, “to be lost in view of   the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my  Lord.” He’s saved; no question. Christ 7 Jesus,   my Lord. He knows. He’s saved. No question about  it. But look at verse 10. And he says this,   “I want to know Him better. I want to know the  power of His resurrection and the fellowship   of His suffering, being conformed to His death.  I want to be more like Him. I want to know the   fullness of His person, the fullness of  His power, the fullness of His presence.   I even want to share in His passion.” And  then, he says a strange thing in verse 11,   “In order that I may attain to the resurrection  from the dead.” Don’t you already have that?   Didn’t you get that when you were saved? Yes,  but I must persevere to the end in faith. And   he says it in verse 12, “Because I have not  already obtained it. I haven’t gotten to the  

resurrection. I haven’t already become perfect,  but I press on in order that I may,” here it is,   “lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold  of by Christ Jesus.” What a convoluted statement   to the human mind. You’re trying to lay hold of  something for which God laid hold of you. Boy,   that’s strange. What you’re saying is: “I’m  trying to attain what God gave me.” Very strange. But it points up again that this matter  of salvation, in all of its elements,   is all of God and all of me. You  say, “I don’t understand that.” No,   I don’t understand it either. I don’t have to  understand it. It’s just true. All I need to   understand is that it takes all I am. And when  anything good happens, it’s all His credit. So, he says, “Brethren,” verse 13, “I  do not regard myself as having laid   hold of it yet.” The fullness of salvation I  haven’t yet experienced, but I’ll tell you,   I forget the things that are behind  and I reach forward to what lies ahead,   and I press on toward the goal for the prize  of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. I   am persevering with everything in my being for  the day when I’m called up to be with Christ.

And we all have to have that attitude, he says in  verse 15. “As many of us as are perfect,” here he   uses the word “perfect” in the sense of saved,  as many of us as are right with the Lord through   Christ, we have to have this attitude, we have to  persevere. We have to keep moving toward that day.   So, what has Paul been saying in our text when  he says work out your salvation? He means work   onto the outside what God has put on the  inside and continue faithfully to live the   Christian life all the way to the end until  the upward call. That’s his command. Now,   that’s effort. That’s effort.  That’s the Christian working out. But that’s only half the story, folks. In fact,  it’s a third of the story because there’s a lot   more left in verse 12. I don’t want you to go  away and say, “MacArthur said it’s all us.” No,   don’t say that. That’s why I say you have to  be here next week, because you need to get   the whole picture. This is so profound. Wait  till you get to verse 13, so thrilling. But   we commit what God has given us this morning to  the work of the Spirit in our hearts. Let’s pray.

Father, thank You this morning for these wonderful  moments that we’ve spent in Your precious truth.   Lord, protect us from the imbalance that commonly  occurs in so many places, in so many people’s   minds. Help us to take the injunction of this  morning to work out our salvation, to make the   maximum effort to work out our own salvation,  to work on the outside what is on the inside,   knowing that we have been called to press, to run,  to fight, to wrestle, to box, to even harness all   of our members, all the factors of our humanness  in order that we might diligently and zealously   pursue godliness. And yet, Lord, help us to know  that just as our salvation depended on our faith   and our repentance, it was still all the work  of God. And just as the Scripture bears the   imprint of the human author, it is all the Word  of God. And just as Jesus was, in every sense,   fully man yet He was fully God. And just as we are  secure in the power of heaven, we have an anchor  

in heaven that steadfastly anchors us, and there  never will be condemnation against us. Still, we   must persevere, but through all our persevering we  are merely laying hold of that for which we have   been laid hold of by God. And Lord, we’ll never  understand this, perhaps even after we see You   face-to-face, but we believe it and so we commit  ourselves afresh this day to, with great zeal,   discipline our lives to be lived in a way that  will honor Your name. We will not flop passively.   We will aggressively and actively pursue godliness  to be like Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen. You've been listening to John MacArthur,  Bible teacher with Grace to You. For free   access to all of John's lessons and a listing  of study Bibles and books available for sale,   visit Grace to You's website at gty.org.  John MacArthur and Grace to You reserve   all copyright protection under applicable  law. Our copyright policy is available at   gty.org and it includes instructions for and  limitations on duplicating this digital file.