“Good morning, Mr. I understand you say that when a man believes the Gospel he is saved. Is this so?” “Yes, it is quite true; but I only repeat what Scripture so plainly says at Eph. 2:5-8, ‘By grace are ye saved.’ I believe that a sinner is saved, and effectually saved, when he believes the Gospel.” “And how is it, then, Mr—, that I am told to work out my own salvation with fear and trembling, I am quite sure that is Scripture, too; so that it does not appear to be so sure, after all.” “Yes, my friend, it is Scripture, sure enough; but, perhaps, you are not aware that there are two ways in which salvation is spoken of in the Scriptures—the salvation of the sinner, and the salvation of the saint.” “Oh, is it so, I never heard that before; tell me how it is, and give me Scripture for your view, because otherwise it may be only your view after all.” “Certainly, it would: but I will do so as far as I am able. The passage you have quoted as to working out your own salvation, is in Phil. 2:12, and refers to the salvation of the saint, from the circumstances, that is the difficulties, trials, temptations, and sufferings of the wilderness journey, after his redemption; he is not told to work out his own righteousness, or his own forgiveness, or his own redemption. Paul is exhorting those who were redeemed, and who possessed righteousness and forgiveness to work out their own salvation, or deliverance from all the difficulties of their pathway, with fear and trembling, not for the result, but because God Himself was working in them to will and to do of His good pleasure. (Chapter 2:12,13) Paul was now a prisoner in Rome (Chapter 1:13,14; Chapter 2:12), and unable to help them against the enemy as he had while with them, and they were suffering much reproach and affliction.” (Chapter 2:27-29.)
“Dear me, why, of course, a believer wants to be helped in all these things, and I am sure he needs to be preserved from the enemy, too; but is this the sort of salvation which is here?” “It is; and in many other places of Scripture, too, such as in Rom. 13:11, where Paul writes, Now is your salvation nearer than when you believed.” “Oh, I see, they were believers whose salvation was nearer, and as you say, a believer is one who is saved.” “Of course he is saved or redeemed; ‘By grace ye are saved,’ and the Apostle in this passage tells them that the night is far spent, and that the day is at hand; and exhorts them to cast away the works of darkness, and put upon them the armor of light, because their salvation, that is their final deliverance, was now nearer than when they had believed.”
“Yes, I begin to see that the salvation of the sinner is what he receives in believing, and that of the believer what he needs through the wilderness journey from every difficulty and, finally, out of the wilderness altogether.” “Quite so, just as God redeemed Israel out of Egypt, and afterward delivered them out of the wilderness—and so of the sinner. It is by grace he is saved (Eph. 2:5); and yet he wears ‘for an helmet the hope of salvation’ (1 Thess. 5:8), that is, his final deliverance from wilderness circumstances, and entrance into glory.”
“I am glad I met you. I am sure that word, work out your own salvation,’ has puzzled many as well as it has myself. How many wiles the enemy practices, to be sure, from which we need deliverance, and this is one of them; using portions of Scripture for persons in one state, which are only intended for people in quite another. Good day.”