Working out salvation, but I thought it was a free gift.  Working out is tedium and reminds us of treadmills, jumping jacks and stuffy weight rooms with iron clad bodies and spandex bedecked “youth seekers” admiring themselves in mirrored projections. 

Salvation implies captivity and rescue by someone caring enough for us to transgress enemy lines in pursuit of our release.  In the Biblical sense it conveys the immediate/continuing deliverance and protection from the power, risk, harm and penalty of sin.  Working-not only means the process of doing physical work it also depicts the internal mental process of sorting things out or malleable substances being plied in a potter’s hands.  Out-in its general sense means a place not in normal position as in outside, out of order or out of alignment, but it may also depict the exhaustion of a state of matter as in pumping out the sewage or bilge in the basement or extracting dross from silver in the crucible of the smith.

All three imply dual states of matter both of having been begun and in the process of being completed.  This seeks to confuse the thoughts of the immature.  Have I not been saved, redeemed, been made whole, made right with God, sanctified, purified, been made Holy and righteous in Him that paid the price for my salvation?  The confusing answer to this question is Yes.  This is the misunderstood nature of the Lord, that things may have been done in an instant but also continue being done throughout the believers lifetime.

You mean that my salvation was not instantaneous, finalized and completed?  Salvation was performed in two instants; the instant Christ died on the cross and the instant that you accepted Him as your Savior.  But sanctification implies being “set apart” and “made Holy” or “purified” for the sake of God’s righteousness through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Jesus not only died on the cross but He also paid the price and “process” of going to hell in our stead and then was resurrected and rose to Heaven to be seated at the right hand of the Father.  He continues to work out His plan for all people, protecting, teaching, training, rebuking and yes, purifying believers, preparing us for our true lives set in eternity with Him.  So as the Lord continues “Working out our salvation” we must be like Him and seek with all our hearts the completion of His will for our lives.  Praise King Jesus.