Grace/Works

“Grace and earning are opposites, but grace and effort are not opposites. 

“When Paul tells us in Philippians 2:12 to ‘…work out your own salvation with fear and trembling…,’ it is not an encouragement to return to legalism.  He follows by saying, ‘…for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.’  You cannot “work out” a salvation that is not already yours.  It is not a matter of trying to earn the love and approval of God, but of experiencing more and more the presence and power of the Kingdom of God that is within you.  It is not a matter of trying to earn your salvation, but of working out a salvation that comes to us through grace, drawing from the ongoing power of grace to release in us the experience of that salvation.

“In other letters Paul emphasizes that the working out of this salvation requires some very intentional choices.  In Romans 6:13b he says, ‘…present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead and your members as instruments of God.’  In Colossians 3:10 he instructs us to ‘…put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him.’  In Ephesians 4:24 he again speaks of putting on the new man:  ‘…put on the new man which is created according to God in true righteousness and holiness.’  This presenting of ourselves, this putting on of the new man are intentional choices to live in agreement with who we are in Christ, intentional choices without which we will not see the ‘working out’ of our salvation. 

–James L. Miller, friend & ministry associate, founder of Malachi Ministries Int’l, teaching & training christian pastors worldwide.