It was God that provided for us the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, and it is God who has drawn us unto Himself and who has promised us all needed grace to walk in the paths of righteousness; and more, even to follow in the footprints of Jesus in the way of self-sacrifice. While, therefore, with fear and trembling—with great carefulness—we endeavor to work out our salvation, it is our privilege always to realize the promised grace to help in every time of need, and to be confident that our best efforts toward righteousness are acceptable to God when presented through the merit of the righteousness of Christ, imputed to us by faith.
To work out our own salvation means to fulfill the terms of our consecration, i.e., to remain dead to self-will and world-will, while sacrificially using up our human all unto death for God's cause, and to remain alive to God's will in meditation, watchfulness, prayer, witnessing, character development and endurance according to God's Word. The issues, persons and results involved require that we do this with that fear and trembling which characterize reverence for God; for in the work of our salvation—our deliverance from Satan, the world and the flesh—God works in us by His Spirit and Word, whereby He, as we co-operate with Him, makes us to will and do in overcoming evil and in developing good. Therefore, it behooves us to co-operate with Him with that fear and trembling that mark reverence for God in all things.
John 3:27; 6:27-29; Heb. 4:1, 11; 2 Cor. 7:1; 1 Pet. 1:5-8; 2 Pet. 1:10; Heb. 6:11, 12; 2 Cor. 3:5; Eph. 2:8, 9; Prov. 10:16; 16:1; Jer. 32:39; Heb. 13:20, 21; Isa. 26:12.
