BIBLE MEDITATION: THE BIG DILEMMA

BIBLE MEDITATION: THE BIG DILEMMA

There's a Bible Scripture that says in one sentence that we have to work out our own salvation, because Jah works out everything in us. Now what does that mean? A meditation.

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

This text shows a dilemma, that many Christians are struggling with. Who works what, and why? Do we have to work out our own salvation, or is it Jah Who does all these things?

Word-studies give a more clear picture of the particular sentence. "To work out" (katergazomai) means as much as "do something thoroughly" and "salvation" (soteria) can be translated as "salvation", but also as "well being" or "health", as we can find for example in Acts 27:43.

When we look closely to the sentence, it actually says something like: "Because Jah works out the willing and the working in you, you must know who you are in Christ and be yourself Therein". Some people think, that we have to work out our own salvation, but it says that we have to be active with that which Jah does within us.

It's all about our response to the fact that Jah did everything. Our reaction to the fact, that Jesus wants to his fulfilled work to be expressed in us. Our reaction to the fact, that by being born again we have become a new creation.

The text also shows, that one thing does not rule out the other. The fact, that Jah wants His fulfilled work to be expressed in us, does not say that we therefore do not have to do anything. It even says: "with fear and trembling". This points out to a serious attitude.

But in the same time, we should not think that we are able to work out our own salvation, as it is being translated in the KJV. Paul is very clear about that in the second part of the sentence, which is not often quoted by ones who think we have to do it ourselves. Or you could say, that the Bible contradicts itself in the original texts.

The "well-being" or "salvation" that is talked about here, is about our situation in the here and now. It's about communion, unity, how to deal with feuds, these kind of things. The context of the whole book makes that quite clear.

Therefore, we have to be working with the things Yesus Kristos works out in us through His Holy Spirit. Even "with fear and trembling", that is "intense". We can find our will, that wants to do good, in the new spirit that we received when we were born again. Not within the sin in our flesh, with which we should not identify ourselves.

An active attitude, wherein with fitting worship and fear for the Most High, a reaction is being given to the fact that Jah works out everything within us.

(march 2007)