"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;"
Philippians 2:12
I think this is a verse that must bring a lot of confusion to people. How come we have to do any work? Didn't Jesus pay the price? Aren't we off the hook?
Well, not exactly. Because God is love, He created us with free will. This means we are capable of making decisions ourself - God does not force the will nor does He control it. Although salvation is a gift, completely unmerited and that we can never work our way to obtain it - there is a work involved in being saved.
When asked "what must I do to be saved?", Paul and Silas answered "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved" Acts 16:29-31 . Did you know that the act of believing is a work that we do? In order to be saved, it is imperative that we believe in Jesus. This doesn't just mean that we must believe He exists. Demons believe and tremble (James 2:19) yet won't be saved.
When the Bible tells us to believe in Jesus it means we must believe that He died to pay the price for our sins and made it possible for man to obey the law by imparting us His Spirit. We have the duty to believe in His power to save us from sin not just in sin. We need to believe that overcoming sin is possible thanks to His sacrifice. The Bible also says that Jesus is the Word. This means that we have to believe what God's word says and apply it to our lives. Our work is to daily call out to God for help to live a godly life. Our work is not to force ourselves to live godly because we have no power in ourselves to do this. We cannot save ourselves. And this is where God's work comes to play. Right after that verse, Paul says "for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure" (Phil. 2:13). We must do the work of calling out to God for help, believing He will answer and God does the work of changing our hearts to desire to do His will. God will literally help us with anything we ask. He'll even give us power to believe if we struggle to believe! Really, the only work we must do is to cry out to God daily. And although it's a simple work, it's a difficult work because we have an enemy that doesn't want us to call out to God. He is constantly tempting us to sin, discouraging us with lies about God and doing all He can to lead us astray and distract us from calling out to God. We need to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. Fear and tremble that the enemy would corrupt you. We are like soldiers in battle having to constantly look around us and make sure we won't be ensnared by the enemy. The Christian journey is no walk in the park but what makes it so hopeful is knowing we have help from Our Creator. He knows exactly what we go through, He's been on earth in a human body and knows what it's like to be tempted yet He did not sin and this is what gives us hope that we can live a life like Him. He did not sin because He was always connected to God for power and strength and this is exactly what we need. Plus, if we do sin, we have an advocate (1 John 2:1) in heaven ready to forgive if we repent and ready to give us power to sin no more (John 8:11).
Yes the Christian journey is one of struggle and sobriety but it is also one of peace, joy and meaning. Let us strive daily to get closer and closer to Jesus and let Him be pilot in our lives that we may be saved. Believe!