Salvation Seminar Week 6.
St. Paul writes, “... [W]ork out your own
salvation with fear and trembling” (Phil 2:12).
Hmmmm. We are to work out our own
salvation? I thought our salvation was all God’s grace through faith in Christ
(Eph 2:8-9). Yes, indeed it is. At the same time God invites and even requires
us to participate in our salvation – a sharing, a partaking, in that grace.
After “... with fear and trembling,” Paul
continues: “for God is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good
pleasure” (Phil 2:13). So God works in us, both by the exercise of the will
(his and ours) and by the actual good works (his and ours). We will, God wills.
We work, God works.
Another way Paul expresses this is that we
are to imitate God by walking in love just as Christ loved us and gave himself
up for us (Eph 5:1-2).
So the value, the salvific value, of good
works is only possible because of our union with Christ. Our works are
ultimately the works of Christ Himself. We do not add to Christ’s work, but our
works are a part of Christ’s work. Our works come through Christ living in us
(Gal 2:20). Done by his Spirit in us.
Naturally the Bible affirms the role of
good works. Scripture says our future judgment is according to what each of us
do in the body – in this life (2 Cor 5:10). Christ will give to each one of us
as our works, our actions in this life, deserve (Rev 2:23; cf., Ro 2:6, 1 Pet1:17). The scene of the last judgment, the judgment of all the nations, painted
for us in Matthew 25:31-46 is so clear on this. Those who inherit the kingdom
of the Father are those who do good works: feed the hungry and thirsty, welcome
strangers, clothe the naked, visiting the sick and imprisoned. Those who do not
do good works, go to eternal punishment. But more, Matthew 25 makes it clear
that the good works are precisely because of our union with Christ. “As you did
it to one of the lest of these my brethren, you did it to me” (Mt 25:40). Jesus
tells the righteous: you gave me food, you gave me drink, you welcomed me, you
clothed me, you visited me, you came to me. Jesus is united to “his brethren.”
(Cf., Ac 9:4; Lk 10:16.) What we do, we do in him, by him, to him, for him. He
is the vine, we are the branches, and good fruit can only be borne by abiding
in Jesus (Jn 15:5).
So that is why St. Paul can write, “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for God is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Phil 2:12-13.)
Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church is located in California City, CA. Visit our website at ollcalcity.org.
Dibby Allan Green has a BA in Religious Studies (Westmont College, 1978) and MA in Theology (Augustine Institute, 2019), is a lay Catholic hermit, and a parishioner of Our Lady of Lourdes Parish.