1What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? 2May it never be! We who died to sin, how could we live in it any longer? 3Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4We were buried therefore with him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life.
5For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we will also be part of his resurrection; 6knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be in bondage to sin. 7For he who has died has been freed from sin. 8But if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him, 9knowing that Christ, being raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over him! 10For the death that he died, he died to sin one time; but the life that he lives, he lives to God. 11Thus consider yourselves also to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
12Therefore don’t let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. 13Also, do not present your members to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. 14For sin will not have dominion over you, for you are not under law, but under grace.
15What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be! 16Don’t you know that when you present yourselves as servants and obey someone, you are the servants of whomever you obey, whether of sin to death, or of obedience to righteousness? 17But thanks be to God that, whereas you were bondservants of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were delivered. 18Being made free from sin, you became bondservants of righteousness.
19I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh; for as you presented your members as servants to uncleanness and to wickedness upon wickedness, even so now present your members as servants to righteousness for sanctification. 20For when you were servants of sin, you were free from righteousness. 21What fruit then did you have at that time in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. 22But now, being made free from sin and having become servants of God, you have your fruit of sanctification and the result of eternal life. 23For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Working Out Your Salvation
Blacksmith Working at the Anvil
In recent years, I have met believers who maintain that as new creations in Christ, we have no real duty to strive to “do better” to live a life of holiness. They claim this for several reasons. First, they claim that since the Bible says we’ve been made holy (sanctified), then we essentially are sinless. They don’t use those words, but that is the essence of what they are saying. This is a very dangerous teaching because it insinuates that grace results in no need to exert any effort to live in a manner worthy of our calling (Ephesians 4:1). If we don’t need to do something to live in a manner worthy of our calling, why does Paul tell us to do so?
These sweet Christians are mired in the misunderstanding that words can be used in different ways. When I say I love salmon and I love my wife, I am saying two very different things. The word sanctification is used in various ways in scripture. When scripture tells us that we are sanctified in Christ, it is speaking to the fact that we have been justified (1 Corinthians 6:11), meaning our sins have been paid for on the cross and we have been “set apart.” Jesus took the penalty of our sin on Himself. Secondly, they maintain that it is too stressful to have to “strive for” holiness, and that it somehow runs counter to the whole business of sanctification and grace. This “striving” is indeed work, but it is fundamentally the work of surrender. Paul tells the saints in Rome, “present your bodies as a living sacrifice.” This means giving up your own agenda and asking God to replace it with His agenda.
This second type of sanctification is what Paul is talking about when he says to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. It is the exhortation to engage in sanctified (holy) living actively. This exhortation is repeated in 1 John 2:27, John 14:15, James 1:22, Romans 6:22, and many others. I think “working out your salvation with fear and trembling” is succinctly stated in Colossians 1:10. Paul urges, “So as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him; bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.” Walking in a manner is not something you are, but something you do. And, you and I can only do this successfully in and through the power of the Holy Spirit.
The beautiful part is that as you choose to walk worthy of your calling, God will enable you and empower you to do so. Paul adds that as you work out this salvation with fear and trembling, it will be God who is working in and through you to do that which pleases Him. Don’t get hung up on this. Don’t overthink it. This is not an admonition to work for your salvation. It is an admonition to consciously move out of the way and let God have His way with you. He desires to work in you as He wills for His good pleasure.