Philippians - Verse-by-Verse Biblical Exegesis

communicated in the passage at hand.
REVELANT OPINIONS
Doctrine always leads to practical Christianity. (J.M. Boice) Past action becomes a model and a
motivating force for present and future conduct (G.F. Hawthorne). Bible doctrine builds upon Bible
doctrine to create an edification complex in the soul. These believers are advancing without face-toface
teaching; Paul is anticipating the tape recorder. (R.B. Thieme, Jr.) One’s own rational faculties,
his ability to reflect, observe, and draw conclusions, must enter the process, albeit under the
sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit. This thought finds a parallel in Paul’s formula for
sanctification. (T. Nettles) The Christian’s standing in Jesus Christ is finished. He is positionally
secure because he had nothing to do with his standing. His standing in Christ is wholly of God.
Nevertheless, the Christian’s condition of life is unfinished. His state is imperfect. Therefore, he
must work out his own salvation, which God has worked in him. (W.E. Best) The Bible does not
teach salvation by faith alone. The Bible teaches justification by faith alone. Justification then is
necessarily followed by a process of sanctification, and this consists of works which we do. It
consists of external actions initiated by internal volitions. We must therefore work out our own
salvation. (G. Clark)
Salvation by the sovereign grace of God is the central theme of Holy Writ. Salvation by grace is
salvation by God. Even when the regenerate co-operate with God in the process of their salvation, as
they most certainly must, they do so only through the grace of God that keeps operating within them.
To this cardinal doctrine of the Word of God Arminian universalism does great violence, for it
teaches that God did no more than make salvation possible through the death of His Son, and that it
is for the sinner to make his salvation actual by the acceptance of Christ in faith of his own free
volition. Thus the realization of salvation is made to depend on the will of man, not the will of God.
Man becomes his own saviour. Salvation is no longer “of God that shows mercy” but “of him that
wills.” If God did no more than make salvation possible by the death of His Son and left it to man to
realize his salvation by believing on Christ of his own volition, then God by the death of His Son
made salvation an unrealizable possibility. And that is only another way of saying that in that case
Christ not only might have died in vain, but actually must have. (R.B. Kuiper)
A salvation which can be achieved by labor is hardly the "justification by faith alone" kind of
salvation offered elsewhere. No useful purpose is served by continuing to teach that "Christ does it
all" and that our growth in grace is His work alone. The confusion and unreality which these
teachings have produced are now legendary. (J. Dillow) It does not mean to work FOR one’s
salvation, and for two reasons: first, Paul was writing to those who were already saved, and second,
salvation is not a work of man for God, but a work of God for man, a work that was accomplished at
the Cross. Neither does it mean to work out an inworked salvation. The idea of working out an
inworked salvation is merely a play upon the English words “work out,” and has no support from the
Greek. The Philippians are exhorted to carry their salvation to its ultimate conclusion, namely
Christlikeness. The salvation spoken of here is not justification, but sanctification, victory over sin
and the living of a life pleasing to the Lord Jesus. They are to see to it that they make progress in the
Christian lives. (K. Wuest)