We Experience a Constant Salvation by taking Christ our Pattern in our Daily Life

In Phil. 2:12 Paul tells us to work out our own salvation; this is not the eternal salvation from God’s condemnation but the daily and constant salvation that is Christ as a living person.

After seeing the wonderful pattern of Christ in Phil. 2, Paul tells us, as beloved ones, to work out our own salvation in fear and in trembling.

What is this working out our own salvation? Salvation is a great subject, commonly taught among Christians; we receive God’s salvation through faith, and we need to work out our own salvation.

It is possible, however, to understand God’s salvation in a shallow and superficial way, that is, being saved from perdition, escaping God’s judgement, and going to heaven and having eternal life.

Here in Philippians, however, Paul mentions salvation in a deeper, higher, and richer way than that. He is talking about a salvation that is related to our living out Christ, our magnifying Christ.

Salvation is mentioned three times in the book of Philippians; first in Phil. 1:19 Paul said that he believes that all things will turn out to his salvation through the petitions of the saints and the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.

He didn’t say that he believed that he will be saved from prison; rather, he said that even there, in prison, salvation is that he would not be put to shame but that Christ would be magnified in his body.

He was not expecting a salvation just in the outward environment for him to be released from prison; rather, salvation to him was that Christ would be magnified even in that confined and restrictive environment.

Then in later in this chapter Paul says that we should conduct ourselves worthy of the gospel, be in one spirit with one soul striving together with the faith of the gospel, and not be frightened by the opposition, which to them it will be a destruction but to us a proof of our salvation (1:28).

When we conduct ourselves worthy of the gospel, striving together with the believers in one spirit with one soul, we are not frightened by any opposition but rather, this is our salvation and also this is a proof of their destruction.

The third mention of salvation is then in 2:12; after Paul presented the matter of Christ being our wonderful pattern in an inward and outward way, he charged us to exercise obedience and work out our own salvation with fear and trembling, without murmurings and reasonings, so that in this crooked and perverted generation we may shine forth as luminaries by holding forth the word of life.

In all these three instances Paul was in prison but he never mentioned being released from prison; even more, he was not in the realm of being saved from sin, the world, the flesh, or the self, but he spoke of experiencing Christ, living Christ, and magnifying Christ.

This speaks of a constant salvation and the need for us to work out our own salvation. We all have received salvation; we were saved from hell, eternal perdition, and God’s eternal judgement, but we still need to be saved even more. Otherwise, we are in peril of living an empty life and we may also be in division. Oh Lord Jesus!

Experiencing a Constant Salvation by Taking Christ as our Inward and Outward Pattern

The salvation Paul speaks in Phil. 2:12 is not eternal salvation from God’s condemnation and from the lake of fire; it is the daily and constant salvation that is Christ as a living person.

Salvation is not a thing, an event, a matter, or merely something that Christ accomplished for us so that we won’t go to the lake of fire; salvation is a person – Christ is our salvation.

We need this Christ constantly, daily, and moment-by-moment as our constant and daily salvation. He lives in us, grows in us, and is being formed in us.

This practical, daily, moment-by-moment salvation results from us taking the very Christ whom we live, experience, and enjoy as our inward as well as outward pattern.

Can we say that this Christ is the One whom we live? Can we testify that we experience and enjoy Christ all the time? What is our focus in our Christian life and church life?

The enemy may have gained some ground in us and among us, distracting us from the focus, which is Christ as the centrality and universality of God’s economy, Christ as the One whom we live, experience, and enjoy.

This Christ, as revealed in Philippians, is both our inward and outward pattern.

We need to see how He condescended Himself, how He humbled and emptied Himself even to the point of death on the cross, and we need to take Him as our inward pattern. This One God has highly exalted and gave Him a name that is above every name.

He is our pattern both inwardly and outwardly.

The main elements of our constant salvation are Christ as the crucified life (Phil. 2:5-8) and Christ in His exaltation (vv. 9-11). Christ is our salvation; our salvation is nothing less than this wonderful all-inclusive Christ with His crucified life and His exaltation.

When this pattern becomes our inward life, this pattern becomes our salvation. Our constant salvation is simply Christ as our pattern replicated in us (see 1 Pet. 2:21).

What we see in Phil. 2:5-11 is the reality which is in Jesus spoken of in Eph. 4; this is the reality of the Body of Christ, and this has to be duplicated in us.

Just as Jesus was when He was on earth, having that kind of a living called, reality, so we need to learn Christ even as the reality is in Jesus, and have Him as our pattern reproduced and replicated in us to be the reality of the Body of Christ.

We need to experience a constant salvation by taking Christ as our inward and outward pattern; this is nothing else but Jesus living again on earth in a corporate way, through all His members.

He lives the God-man life in all the believers in Christ who are being perfected by Him to live out the reality of the Body.

We need to work out this pattern by working out our salvation.

This doesn’t mean that we need to work for our salvation, for no human work is adequate or can be qualified to save us – only Jesus is worthy to accomplish the work of redemption and render us salvation, and we receive this salvation by faith.

We are saved by faith, but then we need to work out, carry out our own salvation; there’s something required from our side to do – this is our little-by-little, day-by-day salvation.

Lord Jesus, we want to experience You and enjoy You as our inward and outward pattern so that we may work out our own salvation. Thank You Lord for saving us from eternal perdition; hallelujah, we have been saved by believing into the Lord Jesus! May we now experience a constant salvation by taking Christ as our inward and outward pattern. May Christ as our pattern become our inward life so that He may become our salvation. Amen, Lord, may the God-man Savior be reprinted and become our subjective salvation day-by-day and moment-by-moment!

Cooperating with the Inward Operating God to experience a Constant Salvation our Daily Living

In Phil. 1:19 Paul mentioned experiencing a constant salvation through the petition of the saints and the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. This salvation was a constant salvation in which a particular believer is saved from a specific encounter in a particular situation.

Paul was in prison, and he needed a particular salvation, an experience of Christ in a particular way, that would save him right in the situation where he was.

He wanted not to be put to shame, not to be found in murmuring and complaining but to be found in Christ, so that Christ would be magnified in him.

The constant salvation in Phil. 2:12 refers to one in which any believer is saved from ordinary things in common situations in his daily living. We need this constant salvation; we need to work out our salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who operates in us both the willing and the working.

We don’t need to wait until we are in prison or have an accident to enjoy salvation; in all the common, mundane, daily things in our living, we can be saved.

We may not go through traumatic things or tragedies, but in our daily life we may murmur, we may complain, we may reason, and our attitude and tone toward our family members may not be the right ones…

In these daily things, in talking with people, in choosing not to speak with some people, in speaking in a certain way with certain ones, and in our relationships with others we need to experience a constant salvation.

We may be conscious of our need for salvation in the big events, in serious situations, but we may not be aware of how much we need a constant salvation in our daily and ordinary things.

This is why we need to see Christ as our pattern, and realise that this pattern has been wrought into us; now God operates in us to save us, and we need to cooperate with Him.

Objectively, Christ is the pattern; subjectively, He came into us to operate in us, and He is the operating God.

When He was on the cross, He was Christ; when He is in us, He is the operating God who works out this pattern. We need to experience the operating God as our practical salvation by cooperating with His operating in us.

God’s operation becomes our salvation as we cooperate with Him to work out our salvation. This salvation becomes the reproduction of the pattern, for Christ is lived out in us as we cooperate with His operating. Christ is lived out in us as God operates in us and we co-operate with Him.

Lord, thank You for not only being our pattern outwardly but also coming inside of us to be the inward operating God who works out this pattern in us. Hallelujah, God operates in us both the willing and the working according to His good pleasure, and we can cooperate with Him to have Christ as the pattern lived out in us. Amen, Lord, we want to enjoy this constant salvation to be saved in specific things and also in the general and common things in our daily life. May we cooperate with the inward operating God, enjoying His salvation day-by-day and moment-by-moment!

This article can also be read in the Romanian language / Citiți acest articol în limba română vizitând următorul link, Experimentăm o mântuire constantă luându-L pe Cristos ca modelul nostru în viața noastră de zi cu zi.

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by bro. James Lee for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Philippians, msgs. 43, 48-49 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Experience of Christ (2019 Memorial Day Conference), week 3, Experiencing Christ as Our Constant Salvation.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # He saves us to the uttermost / By His life-giving power; / Transfusing Himself into us, / He saves us hour by hour. / He saved the lost by coming in, / He’s saving now from more than sin: / He’s saving us to glory! (Hymns #1130)
  # As the Spirit, He indwells us; / As our God allotted portion, / Working out His full salvation, / Making us the same as He is. (Song on, God has called us for His purpose)
  # Lord, I do love You, operate in me, / Be my salvation, save me constantly / To hold forth Your word, life to others afford; / Shining You, so radiantly, dear Lord. (Song on, Lord, I do thank You for another day)