God's operating in us is with the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ (Phil. 1:19). In Philippians 1:19 Paul said, "For I know that for me this shall turn out to salvation through your petition and the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ." In Philippians 2:12 Paul charged us to work out our own salvation. On the one hand, the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ will turn out to be our salvation, and on the other hand, we have to work out our salvation. Philippians 1 and 2 refer to the same salvation. This salvation is the working out, the issue, of the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, and this salvation is something which we work out in our living.
Martin Luther said that salvation is not by works but by faith. But Paul told us to work out our own salvation. We need to see that the very salvation revealed in the entire New Testament is an all-inclusive salvation. The salvation that Martin Luther referred to is justification. To be justified by God is to be forgiven of our sins so that we can be delivered from God's condemnation out of the lake of fire. This is God's salvation in justification. In Philippians Paul was speaking of a salvation that is continuing in our daily walk to save us from things such as rivalry (1:17), vainglory (2:3), murmurings, and reasonings (2:14).
Murmurings come mostly from the sisters, and reasonings come mostly from the brothers. Have you been saved from murmurings and reasonings? We are saved to some extent but not fully. We need to be continuously saved until we enter into the New Jerusalem. In our marriage life, we need to be saved from murmurings and reasonings. The husbands may reason, and the wives may murmur. Murmurings and reasonings are very small, but they are very troublesome. Both frustrate us from carrying out our salvation to the fullest extent, from experiencing and enjoying Christ to the uttermost.
If we look at salvation from this angle, we realize that we need to be saved continuously. Many years ago when people asked me if I had been saved, I would boldly tell them that I was saved. But today if you ask me the same question, I will ask you what you mean by my being saved. Have I been saved from the lake of fire? Surely I have been saved from that, but there are still a number of things from which I need to be saved. In order to magnify Christ and live Christ, we need to be saved from murmurings and reasonings. To be saved from our murmurings and reasonings, we need the operating God. It is God who operates in us both the willing and the working for His good pleasure through the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.
We need God's operating and the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. The bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ is "the bountiful groceries," and God's operating is "God's cooking." We need the groceries and the cooking of the groceries. Today God is operating within us miraculously yet normally. We should learn to cooperate with Him. Our cooperation is our obedience. This is why Paul says in Philippians 2:12, "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." We should obey by cooperating with God's operating. As God operates, we need to obey.