salvation workout

Phil. 2:5   “Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus,  6 who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped,    7  but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.  8 Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9  For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name,  10  so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth,  11  and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
12  So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling;  13  for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.”

In our culture today, we are constantly hearing about some new workout that is being touted as the latest surefire way to get in shape.  There is the Pilates workout, the Zumba workout, the Crossfit workout.  For about 6 months earlier this year I was trying to do the Navy Seal workout.  Unfortunately, it didn’t really work out.  Rather than getting stronger I just wore myself out.  But we are increasingly recognizing as a culture that while we may have been given relatively healthy bodies when we were born, but if we want to stay healthy we need to exercise them.  And a similar principle is true in our Christian life as well.  We must be born again into a new life, but God’s intention is for us to grow and mature and become useful.  So today we’re going to be looking at what I have titled the Salvation Workout.

In our ongoing study of Philippians we have been looking at this passage which contains one of the premiere portraits of Christ in the Bible.  Last week we looked specifically as Christ as our Sovereign, as the Son of God, as a Servant, and our Savior.  And today I would like to continue with an emphasis on Christ as our Example.  Christ is presented in vs. 5 as our example for us to pattern our lives after.  Christ is not just our substitute, which indeed He was, but He also is the pattern for us to live our lives even as He lived His. 1Pet. 2:21 confirms this; “For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps.”

And the key to how  we  accomplish that is found in vs. 8 in the word obedient.  It says that Christ humbled Himself by becoming obedient even to the point of death.  And though Christ being obedient may sound strange to us, we need to understand that Christ was obedient to the Father for our sake, for the sake of our salvation, and also for our example.  Hebrews 5:8 confirms this point.  “Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered.”

So even though Christ was equal with God, yet while in the flesh He humbled Himself to be obedient to the predetermined will of the Father.  Hebrews 10:7 "THEN I SAID, 'BEHOLD, I HAVE COME (IN THE SCROLL OF THE BOOK IT IS WRITTEN OF ME) TO DO YOUR WILL, O GOD.'"  Jesus himself said in John 12:49 "For I did not speak on My own initiative, but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me a commandment as to what to say and what to speak.”

This is how Jesus  could say “I and the Father are One.”  Not only were they equal in position, but they were united in purpose, in word and in deed.  But lest  we think this is just some theological treatise that Paul is propounding here, we need to remember the context of the passage, and realize that Paul is using the example of Jesus’ obedience to the Father as an illustration for how we are supposed to live.  Too often in our selfish, human nature, we are more than content to let Christ be our sacrifice, to let Him be our substitute, to let Him pay the price so we can live our lives any way we want.  But what Paul is really saying here is that even as Christ humbled Himself, so we too are to humble ourselves.  Even as Christ offered Himself as a sacrifice, we to must offer our lives as a sacrifice in service to Christ.  Even as Christ was unified with the Father in purpose, word and deed, so we are to be unified to Christ in purpose, word and deed.  “Have the same attitude, the same understanding, the same mindset as Jesus Christ.”  That is what Paul is saying here.

Now Paul goes on to show Christ’s reward for this sacrifice, for this humiliation that He suffered.  And again the same principle of Christ as our example applies to us in this passage as well.  As it was for Him, so it will be for His followers. Romans 8:17 tells us that if we are children of God, then we are “heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.”  But notice the order.  Sacrifice comes first, then exaltation comes afterward.

So then in vs. 9, it says, “For this reason…”  For what reason?  The reason just previously stated, that Christ humbled himself, became a servant, was obedient unto death, for this reason, “God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name,  so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

Because Christ was obedient even unto death, God raised Him from the dead, He ascended into heaven, and He took His seat at the right hand of the Father above all principalities, above all rule and authority. Eph. 1:20 says God “raised Christ from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.  And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church,  which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.”

So God exalted Christ by giving Him it says, a “name that is above every name”.  And what is that name above every name?  It’s not Jesus.  Note it doesn't say that at the name Jesus. But it says that at the name OF Jesus. And what is the name of Jesus? The name of Jesus is Lord.  In the Greek it is kurios, interpreted Lord, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow and every tongue confess Jesus Christ is Lord.  

This is the confession that every creature in the universe will give one day.  And this is the confession that Romans 10:9 says is necessary for salvation today; “that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.”

Unfortunately, in our society today the word Lord has come to mean just another name for God which has little significance for us.  But when Paul wrote to the Romans, as well as to the Philippians which was also a Roman colony,  that they must confess Jesus as Lord, the full significance of these words meant a lot to those Roman citizens because Caesar had been declared to be god.  And men and women were eventually forced to swear an oath of allegiance to Caesar as Lord and Savior of the world.  The early Christians saw this as idolatry and refused to bow the knee to Caesar as Lord and consequently many of them lost their lives.  So when Paul says to the 1st century Gentile that they must confess Jesus as Lord, they knew that this required absolute surrender and submission to Jesus Christ as Lord and King of all, and they knew that it would cost them everything to make that confession.

And for the 1st century Jew it had a special significance as well. Because Paul is quoting  these words from Is. 45: 23  “I have sworn by myself, the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, That unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear.”  And for the Jew, they knew that the One speaking in Isaiah was Yahweh, the most sacred name of God which they refused to even say, so instead it was translated LORD.  So Paul is making a direct quotation here from the OT saying that you must confess Jesus Christ as Yahweh, and every knee will bow to Him.    For the Jew then, to confess Jesus Christ is Lord was to recognize that Jesus Christ was the Messiah, God in the flesh, the promised King of Kings from the line of David, the One in whom all their blessings resided in, and whom they had crucified.

This confession that Jesus is Lord Romans 10:9 tells us results in our righteousness.  This is the way man becomes saved.  By faith in Christ, that is believing all that He was, all that He came to do, that He was God in the flesh, that He was our substitute, that His atonement on the cross was sufficient for our salvation, but also confessing Jesus as Lord.  Confessing Him as King of our lives, ruler of our lives, and surrendering our will, our purpose and our lives to Him, willing to be changed by Him, and willing to be used by Him.

Not just to say I’m sorry for the mess I’ve made of my life.  I’m sorry that I haven’t been all that I could be.  Or to wish that God would change the circumstances of my life.  Or to wish that God would bless my finances.  Or to say I want to go to heaven when I die, because the alternative sounds a little dreadful.  None of those things are confessing Jesus as Lord.    But a total capitulation of all that I hold dear, surrendering everything for the sake of knowing Jesus Christ and being found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own, but having His righteousness. Phil. 3:8 Paul said, “More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things [all he once counted as gain], and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.”

This confession is more than just a mere acknowledgement that Jesus lived, or even exists, for the devils also believe and tremble. But salvation, righteousness realized, depends upon a broken and contrite heart, that is wholly dependent upon grace, and fully cognizant of my own unworthiness and inability to be righteous.  A willingness to bow my knee before Christ in repentance, a willingness to turn over all of my heart to Him.  To come to the end of yourself and a willingness to become all that God would have me to be, and follow the example of Jesus Christ.

I’m afraid that isn’t the kind of salvation that is being espoused in modern Christianity today.  I’m afraid that there is a desire to be ok with God, but keep the world and all that comes with it as well.  We want to be in the ballpark, but not in the game.  We want to be somehow on the sidelines and let others do the playing and we remain spectators.  But real Christianity isn’t like that.  IF we are willing to suffer with Him, then we get the right to reign with Him. 2Tim. 2:11 “It is a trustworthy statement: For if we died with Him, we will also live with Him; If we endure, we will also reign with Him.  “And the things that you must be willing to suffer is the loss of this world and the pleasures and profits of this world for the sake of following Jesus Christ.  And for those who are willing to suffer the loss of those things which are dear to them here, God promises to exalt those people to rule and reign with Christ in the world to come.

The problem for most of us  is that the world seems so appealing, so promising, that we have no appetite for heaven.  Heaven is not enough of a motivation for us to sacrifice everything that we see here for a future we can’t see there.  So Paul gives us an allusion to another motivation.  If the positive motivation of heaven is not enough, then perhaps the negative motivation of a judgment to come will suffice.  He says, “at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.”

Some have wrongfully concluded from this verse that somehow at the end of the ages everyone will have a chance of being saved, of  confessing Jesus is Lord.  But that would render salvation worthless wouldn’t it?  That would discount the priceless sacrifice of Jesus to the value of a yard sale leftover, the stuff that they leave on the side of the road for free.  No, what it means is that on this side of Christ’s coming again salvation is obtained through faith, faith in what isn’t seen.  But one day, every eye will see Him come again not as a baby in Bethlehem, not as an ordinary looking man, but every eye will see Him coming in the clouds with fire and all His angels with Him, and Matthew 24 tells us then that the whole earth will mourn, because it will be too late for confession resulting in righteousness, it will be a confession that results in condemnation and a sentence of eternal damnation for rejecting the Lord of all creation when He gave His life for our reconciliation.

Mat 24:30 "And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the SON OF MAN COMING ON THE CLOUDS OF THE SKY with power and great glory.” But on that day, it will be too late for salvation.  Christ comes on that day not to save, but to judge the world.

Paul says, “those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth.”  Those who are in heaven refers to the angels of heaven, 10,000 times 10,000, or untold millions of angels. Revelation 12 refers to angels as stars of heaven, and I think that the number of the angels in heaven may approximate the number of the stars.  The estimated number of the stars is between 10 sextillion and 1 septillion stars. That’s a one with 21 zeros after it.   They comprise and are organized into about 80 billion galaxies.  So it’s possible that God created angels of that number as well as they are often referenced in the scripture as stars.  All this innumerable multitude of heavenly creatures worshipping Christ as Lord.  And one day, the Bible says, those of us who reign with Christ will judge angels.

And in the earth obviously refers to living humans in the earth at the time of Christ’s return.  And under the earth refers to the dead, those that are dead in Christ and those that are dead in their sins, that exist in the subterranean abode which the Bible calls Hades, which Christ referred to in His story of Lazarus and the rich man who both died and the rich man was in torment, while Lazarus was being comforted in Abraham’s bosum.  

So, there is a negative motivation for surrendering to Christ now, and that is that there is coming a day of judgment, when Christ will judge the living and the dead, when He will separate the sheep from the goats as spoken of throughout the Bible.

And then finally, Paul gives an exhortation for us to continue in Christ’s example.  Vs. 12  “So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling;  for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.” There is that principle of obedience again, not only for Christ, but for us.

So then, Paul says, since God has shown us the example of Christ that we are to follow, work out your salvation with fear and trembling.  Now, Paul isn’t contradicting all the gospel that he has previously given regarding salvation as a work of grace.   For instance, Paul says in Gal. 2:16  “nevertheless knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified.”

So if Paul isn’t talking about working for your salvation, then what does he mean?  I think a good illustration of what he is talking about is when David was brought before King Saul because he had volunteered to go out and fight Goliath.  And Saul gave David his own armor to wear.  And David said, “I cannot wear this, because I have not proven it.”  And what he meant by that was he had not proven it in battle.  He had not worn it in battle.  The armor had not been tested in the trials of war.

And this is what Paul is getting at here.  He is saying your salvation which was won for you is not to put on a shelf. It’s not for sitting on the sidelines.  But exercise your faith.  Live out your faith.  Take your Christianity into the field of battle and use it and wear it and prove it to be worthy.  It’s a command to exercise your salvation.  You were saved too live out the righteousness that God granted to us by doing deeds of righteousness within the sphere of the world that we exist in.

So we could say the first aspect of it then is to work out or exercise in daily conduct what God has put in.  Day-to-day holy living, that's the idea. I am to be committed to the process of my salvation coming to fruition in the sense that it's manifest in my conduct, my behavior.  We are to pattern our lives in the same pattern that Jesus laid for us, to be obedient to God’s word, to be a servant to the church, to live like a child of God, to be concerned with the salvation of men and women.  This is working out our salvation.  In Jam 2:22, speaking of Abraham it says, “You see that faith was working with his works, and as a result of the works, faith was perfected, completed.

And then vs. 13 gives us the other half of the equation for sanctification: “for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.”  Just as Jesus didn’t do anything that wasn’t the Father’s will, didn’t say anything that the Father did not tell Him to say, so it is also to be with us.  Now that we’ve been made righteous by faith in Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit lives within us.  We become temples of God.  And God lives in this temple to do His will, to work for His purposes, His good pleasure, and not to be diverted to do our pleasure.  This is the purpose of God, to sanctify us, to use us to live for Christ, for His glory. 1Cor. 6:19 “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.”

The purpose of the Holy Spirit is not to give us goose bumps, or to enable us to talk in some unknown language, or to make us laugh and fall down drunk as if that was evidence that God lived in us or overwhelm us into service.  But God in the presence of the Holy Spirit lives in us so that we might live as Christ lived.  Our obedience is evidence that God lives in us. The Holy Spirit dwells in us so that we might do the works of righteousness that which God has prepared us for.  So that God might use this once sinful, selfish body for His glory.

So what is Paul’s message here for us this morning?  One is that salvation and righteousness, in other words acceptance by God, is only possible when we come to a place where we are willing to confess Jesus is Lord.  Jesus as our Savior, our Substitute and our Sovereign.  And God promises to grant us the full measure of Christ’s righteousness to those who have faith in Jesus Christ and confess Him as their Lord.  But then secondly, the next essential part of our salvation is our sanctification, wherein we follow His example and in obedience to His will, follow Christ in humility, in obedience, in servitude and sacrifice and even if necessary suffering for His sake, working out this great salvation that we have received with fear and trembling, full of reverence and awe for the great responsibility and stewardship that God has entrusted us with.   And finally, the message is that if we suffer with Him, we will also reign with Him.  That as God exalted Jesus Christ and gave Him a name above every name, He has also reserved an inheritance for us, that one day we will be fellow heirs with Christ and sit on thrones with Him in glory and share in all that the Father has planned for those that love Him.