Work Out Your Salvation with Fear and Trembling | Chad Escue | October 6, 2024

·39 min·3 clips

Why does Paul command 'fear and trembling' when God says 'do not fear' 365 times in the Bible?

This episode is a sermon delivered by Chad Escue at Christ Presbyterian Church's Music Row location in Nashville. The text is Philippians 2:12-16, following a previous sermon on the 'Christ hymn' in Philippians 2:5-11. Escue introduces three commands from the passage: work out your salvation with fear and trembling, do everything as God's children, and rejoice. The bulk of the sermon focuses on the first command. Escue clarifies that 'work out' means to work out the implications of salvation, not to work for it. He breaks down 'our work' into three aspects: it is an obedient work intrinsically tied to relationship with God, a collective work done as a church body (illustrated with a Southern 'y'all' translation), and a sensitive work done with 'fear and trembling'. He explains this fear as a hyper-focused seriousness, akin to a surgeon performing open-heart surgery. Escue then discusses 'God's work' in the believer, describing it as active, effective, and comprehensive—changing both the will and the ability to act. The sermon briefly touches on the second command about not grumbling, using Israel's wilderness complaints as an example. Finally, Escue connects the Old Testament stories of God providing manna and water from the rock to the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, presenting them as precursors to communion. The sermon ends with a prayer before communion, framing the bread and wine as reminders of Christ's body and blood given for believers.

As heard by us

A pastoral sermon on salvation worked out in repaired relationships, congregational life, and the table.

Philippians 2:12-15 is treated as a passage about salvation after it has entered the ordinary life of a church. The teaching keeps Paul's call to work out salvation with fear and trembling alongside the comfort that God is already at work in his people.

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Why you'd press play

You may press play when Philippians, relational strain, and the Lord's table need to sit in the same frame.

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