Passage: Philippians 2:12-16

The Big Idea

After showing us Jesus’ humble obedience, Paul calls us to “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you.” This doesn’t mean adding our works to salvation. It means walking in the salvation we’ve been given, with a healthy distrust of our own ability and total dependence on God’s power. Everywhere Scripture uses “fear and trembling,” it describes people who know they can’t do it, and who then see God show up. The New Covenant provides for our obedience: God takes responsibility for both our desires and our actions when we humbly trust Him.

How Do We Obey?

We’ve been learning about humility: how to think with a lowly mind, and how Jesus showed us this life when He became a man. Through His great humility, He obeyed His Father in everything, even to death on a cross (Philippians 2:8).

Our text moves to the next logical step: our obedience.

Obedience matters. We’ve all met someone who claims to be a believer but lives as if God doesn’t exist, and it’s painful to see.

But here’s the big question: How do we obey all that God commands?

The Old Covenant required obedience to the Lord at all times, with the whole heart, outwardly and inwardly. You couldn’t pick and choose. No big deal, right? Just be like God in every way.

How hard would you have to try to be exactly like Jesus?

This passage isn’t saying, “Clean up your act and try a little harder.”

Israel tried their best and failed.
The disciples tried their best and failed.
I’ve tried my best and failed.

But the New Covenant provides for our obedience! When Jesus came, He began a new way: His own life, given freely to us, as the practical way to obey God in everything. It’s called grace: God’s power to live a godly life. A gift from the Father, by the Spirit, through the Son.

Here’s an illustration. When you’re saved, you’re given a brand-new car. But many of us push it around by the bumper for everyone to see. When someone finally shows us the engine, the power source, we start to experience the joy of our salvation.

Work Out Your Salvation (2:12)

Paul says: just as you’ve always obeyed, not only when I was there but even more now that I’m away, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

This connects to verse 8: Jesus humbled Himself and became obedient.

This can be a confusing verse if you don’t understand grace.

“Work out” describes the process of surrendering to God’s New Covenant of grace.
It’s letting God’s power, His Holy Spirit, take over your life.

“Work out” does NOT mean “add your works to your salvation.” Let me say it again: work out does not mean add your works to your salvation!

Your salvation has already been given to you. “Working it out” is embracing it, walking in it, surrendering to it. Jesus has already won the victory and provided everything you need for obedience.

So how do we start this engine of grace and power? By humility and faith.

Paul told us what lowliness of mind is. Then he showed us lowliness of mind in Jesus. Now he tells us to live it, and he describes that humble life as “with fear and trembling.”

In English that sounds like being anxious about whether we can trust God. But let’s see what it really means.

What “Fear and Trembling” Means

The Greek lexicons describe this phrase as the attitude of someone who completely distrusts his own ability to meet every requirement (that’s humility), yet wholeheartedly does his utmost to fulfill his duty (that’s faith).

Let’s look at how Scripture uses it.

Serve with fear and trembling

The psalmist says to serve the LORD with fear and rejoice with trembling (Psalm 2:11).

The only way we can truly obey, serve and worship the Lord is with fear and trembling.
That means a real, deep awareness that we’re not sufficient in ourselves.
We need to be afraid of trying to serve God in our own strength.
We need to understand how completely broken we are on our own.
But this actually makes you happy! It’s so freeing to admit your weakness to God.
Saying “I can’t do this” opens the door to receive everything God wants to give you.
Some days I’m tired and have nothing in me to get up and preach. And it’s a joy to confess that to the Lord, knowing He’ll supply what I can’t by His grace.

Work with fear and trembling

The Ten Commandments taught that it’s not only how we treat God that matters, but how we treat each other.

Paul tells servants to obey their earthly masters with fear and trembling, with sincerity of heart, as to Christ (Ephesians 6:5).

Humility has to be a lifestyle, not just with God but with people.
God’s grace will empower you to serve your boss as if you were serving the Lord.
If you think you can do your job with no help from God, even your accomplishments will carry the stench of the flesh.

There’s power when we surrender to the New Covenant. When we humble ourselves and renounce dependence on the flesh, we’re given spiritual power to obey. It’s easy to look like Jesus when Jesus is living in your heart!

Preach with fear and trembling

Paul says he resolved to know nothing among them except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. He came in weakness, in fear and much trembling. His preaching wasn’t with persuasive human wisdom but with a demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so their faith would rest on God’s power, not human wisdom (1 Corinthians 2:2-5).

Here we see faith and humility together.
“All I depended on was knowing Jesus and what He did for me and gave me.”
What did that look like? Weakness, fear and much trembling.
Refusing to trust yourself at all looks like weakness.
But the real result is a great display of power. Not my weakness. His power!
We grow in faith when we see the Spirit’s power at work in each other’s lives.
But we won’t see it or experience it unless we live with fear and trembling, totally dependent on His grace and not our abilities.
Paul couldn’t trust his own plans. They might fail. But he had complete confidence in the grace system of the New Covenant. It works. It’s guaranteed!
You can live a life that honors God. You can do all things through Christ who strengthens you (Philippians 4:13)!

Humility brings confidence

Paul tells the Corinthians that Titus’s affection for them grew as he remembered their obedience and how they received him with fear and trembling. So Paul rejoices that he has complete confidence in them (2 Corinthians 7:14-16).

Paul is confident these believers will follow the Lord because they showed fear and trembling.
He’d bet on them, because he has evidence they aren’t trusting themselves, but God and the power He gives by grace.

The Empty Tomb

There’s one more place this “trembling” word appears (Mark 16).

When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome brought spices to anoint Jesus’ body. On the way they asked each other, “Who will roll the stone away for us?” (Mark 16:1-3).

They knew they weren’t sufficient.

But when they arrived, the huge stone was already rolled away. A young man in a white robe was sitting inside. He told them not to be alarmed: Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified, has risen! Go tell His disciples, and Peter, that He’s going ahead of them to Galilee. And the women fled from the tomb, trembling and astonished, and said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid (Mark 16:4-8).

Mary was afraid at the empty tomb.
Maybe it reminded her of how empty she was. Her abilities were at zero.
She couldn’t speak. Couldn’t serve. Couldn’t do what she knew she should.
But here’s the good news: she trembled!

What does God do when His child trembles?

He shows up! And He will for you too!

Mark tells us Jesus rose early on the first day of the week and appeared first to Mary Magdalene, from whom He had cast out seven demons (Mark 16:9).

His appearance gave her what she needed to obey!
When Jesus shows up and we see Him, we’re filled with His power and grace to do God’s will.
No matter what we used to be. Seven demons or seven hundred.
God won’t leave a trembling child alone. He will appear. He will give His grace. And you’ll be empowered to serve Him.

She went and told those who had been with Him, as they mourned and wept (Mark 16:10).

Now she can speak. Now she’s serving the Lord. Doing God’s will has become second nature. It’s her heart’s desire. Fear doesn’t rule her anymore; love does.

Then Jesus appeared to two others walking in the country, and later to the eleven at the table, and rebuked their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they hadn’t believed those who saw Him risen (Mark 16:11-14).

The disciples needed to learn the lesson too.
The power you need isn’t found in you. It’s found in a real relationship with Jesus.
The only thing that keeps you from Him is unbelief and hardness of heart: stubbornly insisting you don’t need Him that much, that you can live your life, even do God’s will, without connecting with Jesus.

But they learned. They renounced self and trusted Jesus. And what followed was power: He sent them into all the world to preach the gospel, and they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word with signs (Mark 16:15-20).

God Works in You (2:13)

Now look back at our text: work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to do, for His good pleasure.

God’s power now works in you!
To will: what you want to do.
To do: what you actually do.
For His good pleasure.

God takes responsibility for your desires and your actions! If you’ll humbly trust Him alone, He offers to take over and direct your life completely.

So many people can’t figure out why they keep sinning, why they keep falling at the same spot.

The root is almost always this: somewhere we’ve believed we can do it apart from God, apart from His grace. He isn’t to blame for our weakness. And He is completely reliable to work in us new desires and actions that honor Him when we humbly trust Him.

Andrew Murray put it this way: “The cause of the weakness of your Christian life is that you want to work it out partly, and to let God help you. And that cannot be. You must come to be utterly helpless, to let God work, and God will work gloriously.” He urged believers to stop asking God for “a little help while we do our best,” and instead to say, “I can do nothing. God must and will do all.”

Shining as Lights (2:14-16)

Speaking of impossible, look at what Paul says next: do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may be blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life, so Paul can rejoice on the day of Christ that he didn’t run or labor in vain.

This is what God’s people are about:

Supernatural power to resist selfishness and sin.
Do everything without complaining or arguing. Why do we complain? Because we don’t fully trust God.
Many persecuted believers around the world spend their energy praying rather than complaining, and God is moving powerfully among them.
I’m convinced we need to stop complaining about how corrupt our leaders are, and start praying in our prayer closets for the power of the Holy Spirit to love our neighbors and boldly share the gospel with them.
Become blameless and pure, children of God without fault.
A huge ministry to the world.
Shine as lights in the world.
Abiding in Christ.
Hold fast the word of life.
Everything we do matters.
Paul wants to rejoice on the day of Christ that his labor wasn’t in vain.

Grace Takeaway

This is how to think about fear and trembling: don’t trust yourself. Embrace the honest truth that you can’t do it, and then wait and watch for Jesus to show up. He always comes to a trembling child. Abide in His Word, step out boldly to honor Him, and never leave behind that humble dependence. We don’t have because we don’t ask, and we don’t ask because of pride (James 4:2, 6). Let’s stand in fear and trembling at the great grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and let Him work in us both to will and to do.

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How to Think About Fear and Trembling