In 2:5-8 Paul presents Christ as our pattern. This pattern is not only objective, but also subjective. However, when I was young, I was taught only about the objective aspect of Christ as our pattern. I was told that in His life on earth Christ set up a pattern and that we should follow in His footsteps. Having established the pattern for us, Christ is now in heaven praying that we shall follow Him faithfully. I believe that many of us have heard such a teaching regarding Christ as the pattern.
Now we must go on to ask where is this Christ who is our pattern. Is He in heaven, or is He in us? Verse 9 indicates clearly that God has highly exalted Christ. Thus, there can be no doubt that as our pattern Christ is in heaven. He has been exalted to the highest peak in the universe, where God is. This is related to the objective aspect of the pattern. However, if Christ were only in the third heaven objectively, how could we take Him as our pattern today? How could we, who are on earth, follow One who has been exalted and who is now in heaven? It would be impossible. In order for us to take Christ as our pattern, this pattern must be subjective.
Verse 12 indicates that the pattern is subjective: “So then, my beloved, even as you have always obeyed, not only as in my presence, but now much rather in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” How is it possible for us to work out our own salvation? If we could work out our salvation, would that not make salvation a matter of our own works? Suppose I fall into a pit and someone rescues me. That is salvation. But if I succeed in delivering myself, that is not salvation, but my own working. Since salvation is not of works, but of grace, what does Paul mean by telling us to work out our salvation? If we had been the first to utter such a word, we would be charged with heresy.
The key to understanding Paul’s word is to know the meaning of salvation in this verse. Salvation here is not salvation from the lake of fire. Rather, it refers to what Paul has already said about salvation earlier in this Epistle. The words so then in verse 12 indicate that what Paul says in this verse is a consequence of what has gone before. Working out our salvation is the result of taking Christ as our pattern, as seen in the preceding verses. As our pattern, Christ is our salvation. However, this salvation needs to be worked out by us.
In order for this to be accomplished in our experience, the pattern must be subjective to us as well as objective. If it were only objective, it could not be the salvation worked out by us. The salvation here is not the salvation we receive; it is the salvation we work out. The salvation we receive is the salvation from God’s condemnation and from the lake of fire. There is no need for us to work out that kind of salvation. The salvation here in Philippians is salvation of another kind, or of a different degree. It is higher than that mentioned in Acts 16:31, where the jailer is told that if he believes in the Lord Jesus Christ, he and his household will be saved. The salvation in 2:12 is actually a living Person. This Person is the very Christ whom we live, experience, and enjoy. A pattern which is only objective could not be our salvation in this way. The fact that salvation is a living Person and that this Person is our pattern indicates that the pattern is subjective as well as objective.
Another reason for saying that the pattern is subjective as well as objective is related to the fact that the book of Philippians is a book on the experience of Christ. Anything that is a matter of spiritual experience must be subjective. Based upon this principle and upon the context of the book of Philippians as a whole, Christ as the pattern is not only objective, but also subjective and experiential.
Furthermore, following his word about working out our salvation, Paul goes on to say, “For it is God who operates in you both the willing and the working for His good pleasure” (2:13). The word for at the beginning of verse 13 indicates that God’s operating in us is related to our working out our own salvation with fear and trembling. God operates in us both the willing and the working for His good pleasure. Surely the working in verse 13 refers to the working out in verse 12. We may confess that we are not able to work out our own salvation. Yes, in ourselves we are not able. But God, the One operating in us, is able. Since He is operating in us both the willing and the working, we can work out our own salvation. Paul’s word about God operating in us is a further indication that the pattern is subjective as well as objective. Doctrinally, the pattern is objective; experientially, it is very subjective.
In Philippians 2 Paul does not charge us to take the objective Christ as our pattern and then imitate Him. This is the practice recommended in the book The Imitation of Christ. Trying to imitate Christ in this way is like a monkey trying to imitate a human being. We should not take verses 5 through 8 out of context. When we consider these verses in context, we see that the pattern is our salvation and that this salvation is God Himself operating in us to save us in a practical way. Although in ourselves we cannot work out our salvation, the One who is able is now operating in us to will inwardly and to work outwardly. Our responsibility is to cooperate with Him. When we cooperate with God’s operation in us, we take Christ as our pattern.