What I was expected to do to be right with God had been accomplished and finished on my behalf by Jesus Christ. What I owed God for all my past, present and future sins had been paid in full on the cross. Jesus lived a spotless life on my behalf. He did it all on my behalf.

So Jesus said, “it is finished!”

So what is left for me? Absolutely nothing! That is why I’m sold out for Him whom I owe my life.

There is nothing left for me to finish! When it comes to my salivation, only Jesus takes all the awards for making me a citizen of heaven, not me. May His name forever be praised!

But some people believe that there is something they had to do to finish their salivation because of the following passage of the Bible:

“Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.”
(Philippians 2:12-13, NIV)

Key words or phrases from the above passage are: “work out” and “works in”

Paul is not saying here that our salvation is half finished or some is left for us to do. No! That is not what he is saying.

He is saying – in my own words, to live a Christian life, you need to have a desire to live like Christ and you need to live out that life. But guess what? You can’t. You can’t have that righteous desire and you can’t live what you can’t even desire.

The good news is that you are not expected to because you lost all your faculties that enable you to live like Christ in the Eden Garden. So God actively “works in you to will and act.”

So your job is to bring out or “work out” what God is relentlessly working in you (sanctification). He is not talking about finishing my salivation but giving evidence to the watching world of my salvation.

Saving faith, or a faith that saves, always comes with work, with evidence.

Faith that is alive is known by the work it resulted in for dead faith has no work.

So for example if a man says he believes in Jesus Christ and that he is saved but lives in sin, for example, lives with his girlfriend, his faith is dead; means he is not saved. Faith that is not paired with work is dead faith for faith and work are two faces of a coin.

That is what James is arguing about in James 2:14-26.

So, salivation is not something God leaves to mortal men to finish. Who trusts the mere man to do anything worthy? Not God! So God finished the work on the cross. The mortal man receives the finished work of Jesus Christ and lives out the life that God works in him.

Yes, rejoice! It is finished!

Soli Deo Gloria! ///