Your works do not earn salvation. Works are the result of salvation. Good deeds flow from a heart that’s been transformed. And it’s our mission as transformed Christ-followers to live a life that reflects our salvation.
Philippians 2:12 says “…work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and awe.”
3 KEY messages of this verse.
Work Hard
Don’t just let your salvation stay with you, but work hard to live it out. Work hard to share the joy of your salvation: Don’t keep it in, live it out. Living a transformed life is going to be hard work because we live in a world where sin is normal and in our human nature. So when we live a life of righteousness and purity, we’re going against the grain of everyone around us and our own sinful flesh. This is what the Bible means by “die to your flesh”. It’s hard! But nothing is impossible with God.
Show the RESULTS of Salvation
You aren’t working to earn salvation… Works do not earn salvation. You are saved by grace through faith alone, not works. You are working hard to make sure your life reflects your salvation. That the outside matches the inside. If God has transformed you and made you new, then you need to live a life that reflects that! The results of our salvation are the fruits of the Spirit. Galatians 5:22-23 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control…”
Obedience and Reverence
You aren’t working to prove that you’re saved, either. Again, works do not earn or prove salvation. You’re working hard to show God’s grace and goodness(our salvation) out of obedience and reverence to Him. You don’t do good things because it’s what will get you people’s approval, and you aren’t working to prove that you deserve to get to heaven. You work hard to show the results of your salvation out of reverence and awe of God. It’s because He first loved us that we now go and show others the same love, the same patience, the same mercy, and so on.
Summary
Philippians 2:12 reminds us that when we have been saved and transformed by the grace and mercy of God, our lives are supposed to reflect such an inward transformation. We need to make sure we are living like we’ve been set free because we have been set free from the ways of the world. So work hard to show the results of your salvation, out of obedience and reverence to God.
Works do not earn or prove salvation, but too often we find our identity in what we are doing in life; what we are creating. So focused on the questions: How are we making a life for ourselves and for our name? Check out my blog “Performance Doesn’t Determine Identity” to hear my personal testimony of God transforming my identity.
Want more scriptures to prove that salvation is not earned by just “being a good person”, and that, instead, works are the result of salvation? Check out this article with 32 verses on salvation, not by works.
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