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How Do We Work Out Our Salvation?

When we become believers, God saves us from our sins and makes us new creatures (II Cor. 5: 17). We then begin to process what that means to us. This devotion looks at working out our salvation as job duty #2.

Nuggets

  • We need to build our relationship with God by working out our salvation.
  • We have to determine what we believe so that we can answer questions when asked what we believe.
  • God loves us with an unfailing love.
  • God is as He has always been and as He will always be.
  • Not only is God’s power unchangeable, but it is also unlimited.
  • God is so loving, which shows in His forgiveness.
  • God is a Sovereign God.

To read devotions in the What It Means to Be a Believer series, click the appropriate button below.

The Disciple's Job Description
Flowers with title How Do We Work Out Our Salvation?

For most of us, we went through a process from being a non-believer to becoming a believer. We got to the point where we could admit our sins, believe on Jesus as Redeemer, and confess God as Sovereign Lord. We became new creations (II Cor. 5: 17).

So, we are done, right? We got the grace needed to have our sins forgiven, so that is it. Isn’t that how it works?

No. We are told to “… work out [our] own salvation” (Phil. 2: 12 ESV) as the second duty of our job description.

Oh, man. Why do churchy terms have to be so confusing? Let’s take a look and see what it means.

Work Out Our Salvation

“Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling" (Phil. 2: 12 ESV)

There are several things we can do to work out our salvation. First Timothy 6: 14 says we are charged “to that [we] obey this command without wavering. Then no one can find fault with [us] from now until our Lord Jesus Christ comes again” (NLT).  We have to read God’s Word to see how He wants us to live our lives.

We need to build our relationship with God. We don’t know everything when we first give our lives to God. We’ve got our salvation, but He doesn’t tell us everything about Himself in the Bible. Instead, He reveals Himself to us as we grow closer to Him.

The process we go through to get to know God better is what working out our salvation is. It is the process that makes us live of lives of holiness.

“Working out our salvation” kind of makes it sound like we do it all ourselves. The total opposite is true. Only God can show us how to change and change us. God is in charge of the transformation process.

If you have not admitted that your relationship is not right with God,

have not asked Jesus to be your Lord and Savior,

and have not confessed your sins,

please read through the Plan of Salvation and prayerfully consider what God is asking you to do.

Plan of Salvation

What Do We Really Believe?

Once we give our lives to God, there are some truths on which we can depend. But we have to work it out to strongly believe them. We need to put them in our own words, so that when asked why we believe them, we have an answer. Let’s take a look at some.

God Loves Us with an Unfailing Love

God loves us and will always love us. “Turn, LORD, and deliver me; save me because of your unfailing love” (Ps. 6: 4 NIV).

Because of that, we can trust that we can always rely on God. “Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock” (Isa. 26: 4 ESV).

What a great and powerful God we serve! He is worthy of our praise. “Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days” (Ps. 90: 14 NIV). “Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for mankind” (Ps. 107: 8 NIV).

God’s Character Is Unchangeable

There is a saying that nothing is guaranteed except death and taxes. Added to that list should be that God’s character never changes.

God is as He has always been and as He will always be. But you are the same, and your years will never end” (Ps. 102: 27 CSB).

We should be glad of that. “I am the LORD, and I do not change. That is why you descendants of Jacob are not already destroyed” (Mal. 3: 6 NLT). God will always be there to protect us.

God Is Powerful

Not only is God’s power unchangeable, but it is also unlimited. Second Samuel 22: 33 says, “For who is God except the Lord? Who but our God is a solid rock? God is my strong fortress, and he makes my way perfect” (NLT).

Think of the power God has. He was able to create the universe by speaking it into being. He continues to maintain it. “It is he who made the earth by his power, who established the world by his wisdom, and by his understanding stretched out the heavens. When he utters his voice, there is a tumult of waters in the heavens, and he makes the mist rise from the ends of the earth. He makes lightning for the rain, and he brings forth the wind from his storehouses” (Jer. 10: 12-13 ESV).

Niagara Falls

God has shared that power with us. “For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love and self–discipline.” (II Tim. 1: 7 NLT). He is working on us through that great power. “Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think” (Eph. 3: 20 NLT).

God has provided for us what we need because He has the power to do so. “By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one how called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence” (II Pet. 1: 3 NLT).

That gives us hope. “I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit” (Rom. 15: 13 NLT).

God Forgives

God is so loving, which shows in His forgiveness. Micah 7: 18-19 says, “There is no other god like you, O Lord; you forgive the sins of your people who have survived. You do not stay angry forever, but you take pleasure in showing us your constant love. You will be merciful to us once again. You will trample our sins underfoot and send them to the bottom of the sea!” (GNT).

Think about it. The Creator of the universe — the Being that made us — the Being that we disobeyed and keep disobeying (Dan. 9: 9). He loves us and forgives us.

God forgives us disproportionately. Psalm 103: 10-12 says, “He does not punish us as we deserve or repay us according to our sins and wrongs. As high as the sky is above the earth, so great is his love for those who honor him. As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our sins from us” (GNT).

He won’t just up and forgive us, though. We have to admit we sin. First John 1: 9 says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (NIV). We have to want to be forgiven and ask.

God's Promises

We have talked about God’s promises in a previous devotion. I have added more categories and verses to the list.

To read a related devotion, click on the appropriate button below.

Why Is God Slow to Fulfill His Promises?
Has God Provided Everything We Need?
  • Answers prayer (Ps. 37: 4; Mk. 11: 24; Jn. 14: 13)
  • Deliverance (Ps. 34: 17; Ps. 50: 15; Ps. 107: 13-16)
  • Direction (Prov. 3: 5-6)
  • Eternal life (Jn. 3: 16; Jn. 3: 36; Rom. 6: 23; Rev. 3: 5)
  • Faithful (Jer. 29: 12; Rom. 4: 21)
  • Fight for us (Ex. 14: 14)
  • Forgives us (Ps. 86: 5; Ps. 103: 2-5; I Jn. 1: 9)
  • Gives wisdom (Jas. 1: 5)
  • Healing (II Chron. 7: 14; Jas. 5: 14-15)
  • Helps us (Isa. 43: 13)
  • Knowledge and wisdom (Jas. 1: 5)
  • Love (Ps. 86: 5; Ps. 145: 9)
  • Never leaves (Deut. 31: 8; Josh. 1: 9; Ps. 23: 4; Rom. 8: 37-39)
  • Peace (Isa. 54: 10; Phil. 4: 6-7)
  • Presence (Deut. 31: 8; Mt. 28: 20)
  • Prosperity (Mal. 3: 10; II Cor. 9: 8)
  • Protection (Isa. 43: 2)
  • Provision (Mt. 6: 31-33; Phil. 4: 19)
  • Salvation (Ps. 27: 1; I Jn. 1: 9)
  • Strength (Isa. 49: 29-31; Eph. 3: 16-19)
  • Transformation (1 Jn. 3: 2; II Pet. 1: 3-4)

God’s Sovereignty

God is a Sovereign God. He is the Creator and sustainer of the universe (Ps. 89: 11). Because of that, He controls the environment (Ex. 8: 22; Ex. 9: 29; Rev. 11: 13). Because of that, everything belongs to Him (Ps. 24: 1).

There is no other god above Him (Ps. 95: 3-5). “The LORD will reign forever and ever!” (Ex. 15: 18 NLT). Deuteronomy 32: 39 says, “See now that I alone am He: there is no God but Me. I bring Death and I give life; I wound and I heal. No one can rescue anyone from.” (HCSB). He has declared the one day, every person will bow before Him (Isa. 45: 33).

I don’t remember running across this verse before. Job 36: 5 says, “God is mighty, but he does not despise anyone! He is mighty in both power and understanding” (NLT). To me, that describes God perfectly.

God is not only the majestic, Supreme Being (I Chron. 29: 11-12), but He is also Father. This deity that should probably be unapproachable wants a relationship with us.

Making the Connections

I know. That was a lot of verses. I am just going to add two more.

Second Thessalonians 1: 11 says, “To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power” (ESV). Second Peter 1: 10 says, “Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to make your calling and election sure, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall” (ESV).

God calls us. He elects us. He chooses us.

To read Why Does God Call Us?, click the button below.

Why Does God Call Us?

It isn’t something that God does on the spur of the moment. It isn’t done halfheartedly.

God loves us and wants us to love Him – and grow to love Him even more. That is what we have to work out.

How Do We Apply This?

To work out our salvation, we need to hear His Word, read it, study it, meditate on it, and memorize it. All through that, we need to be in prayer, asking God to provide the meaning.

Searching for and Seeking God

Hearing His Word (Rom. 10: 17).
Reading His Word (Rev. 1: 3).
Praying to Him (Heb. 4: 16).
Studying His Word (Ac. 17: 11).
Meditating on His Word (Ps. 1: 1-2).
Memorizing His Word (Ps. 119: 11).

No, it won’t be easy. Satan will be doing everything in his power to have us stop reading, stop praying. If we read, the last think he wants is for us to meditate on it.

We need to endure. We need to make it a habit. We need to grow our relationship with God.

Father. You love us so much. We want to have a vital, vibrant relationship with You. Help us to withstand the temptations that Satan throws at us to damage our relationship with You. Amen.

What do you think? Go back through the different subheadings of what we believe. Put in your own words what you believe. Do you have some examples from your life that would help a non-believer see what you are talking about?

Leave me a comment below (about this or anything else) or head over to my Facebook group for some interactive discussion.

If you don’t understand something and would like further clarification, please contact me.

Contact Elaine

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