The Ultimate Workout

Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in your both to will and to do of his good pleasure. —Philippians 2:12, 13

There is a two-fold work going on in salvation—God working salvation in the believer, and the believer works out what God is works in. The work of God within put us to work for God. God wills and works, but He moves us to will and work. As Paul wrote of Timothy, “he worketh the work of the Lord, as I also do.” (1 Cor. 16:10). Timothy worked “the work OF THE LORD.”

You see this joint work of God displayed the life of Christ. Jesus said, “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work” (John 5:17). Again, “I must work the works of him that sent me…” (John 9:4). Every believer is a co-laborer with God (1 Cor. 3:9). God’s working and our working is a work in tandem.

While salvation is “not by works” (Eph. 2:8-9), when a person is truly saved he will go to work for the One who saved him—“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works…” (Eph. 2:10). A non-working Christian is an abnormally. This is why James wrote, “Faith without works is dead” (James 2:20).

Is the work of God being manifest in you working for Him? Are you working the work of the Lord? This is the ultimate “work-out.”