Question:
What does it mean to “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling”?
Answer:
Acts 4:12 says, “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” And Jesus Himself said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” John 14:6.
To give us the gift of salvation, Jesus suffered every terrible experience that could come to mankind. We can scarcely imagine the depth of the suffering that He went through to gain for us eternal life. We may read about it and think about it, but we cannot understand the depth of His grief. It is more than we can realize that the sins of the world were laid upon Him, and He felt the extreme horror of being separated from the Father by the terribleness of sin. He then experienced the heartache of knowing that many of those He came to save would be lost. He actually died of a broken heart; it was broken for you and for me. We cannot estimate the cost of salvation.
The gift of salvation is so wonderful that we have little idea of what it really is worth. “All heaven is looking upon you with deep interest. One soul for whom Christ has died is worth more than the whole world.” Our High Calling, 98.
The gift of our salvation came at great cost to heaven, and especially to God the Father. God gave His Son to the human family, and He will belong to the human family forever. It was the greatest gift ever given; it wrung the heart of God Himself.
After you get some idea of what salvation cost God and all heaven, does it occur to you that it might cost you something? From the inspired writings, we read: “ ‘Wherefore, my beloved,’ he [Paul] continued, ‘as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, buperfect, t 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 His good pleasure. Do all things without murmurings and disputings: that ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world; holding forth the word of life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither labored in vain.’ [Philippians 2:12-16.]
“These words were recorded for the help of every striving soul. Paul holds up the standard of perfection and shows how it may be reached. ‘Work out your own salvation,’ he says, ‘for it is God which worketh in you.’
“The work of gaining salvation is one of copartnership, a joint operation. There is to be co-operation between God and the repentant sinner. This is necessary for the formation of right principles in the character. Man is to make earnest efforts to overcome that which hinders him from attaining to perfection. But he is wholly dependent upon God for success. Human effort of itself is not sufficient. Without the aid of divine power it avails nothing. God works and man works. Resistance of temptation must come from man, who must draw his power from God. On the one side there is infinite wisdom, compassion, and power; on the other, weakness, sinfulness, absolute helplessness.” The Acts of the Apostles, 481, 482