Working out your own Salvation

I took my parents truck down to the car wash to get washed recently. They do a real good job, inside and out. It smells real nice, looks real nice, and it takes a whole lot less effort for just a little cash. So anyway, I was in the waiting area drinking coffee and checking out the newspaper they had laying on the table there, when a mid-40's lady maked the comment, "That Obama is wicked!" She had obviously been looking at the back of the newspaper I was reading and saw the front page article regarding the federalization of all health care. And she didn't even dignify him with the customary "President" title! Wow! She just blasted him with the term "wicked!" Atta' girl! :)

But what got me was not the way she addressed Obama (I won't even dignify him...), but the word she used to define him..."wicked." That, to me at least, carries a biblical connotation. So I simply asked, "Ma'am, are you born again?" To that she replied, "Son, I'm saved, sanctified, filled with the Holy Ghost!" I guess that's a yes, huh? But if you know anything about dealing with other religions, you know that the phrase she gave me is easily identifiable with the Pentecostals who believe in sign gifts in our age for all believers. They say it is a requirement of Salvation to speak in tongues, which is evidence of the "filling" of the Holy Ghost. Well, if you know your Bible, the "fruits of the spirit" as listed in Galations 5:22-23 are the way to "walk in the spirit" according to Romans 8 and be fillled with the Holy Ghost. The filling that happened in Acts 2 was the same filling that I got the day I was saved, except I didn't have to perform the same "gifts" the believers did in a pivotal dispensation to show a sign to the Jews. (1 Corinthians 1:22) And it certainly didn't have to be done in order to be saved like they say. That's adding works to Salvation which is heresy. It doesn't mean that those who believe that doctrine aren't saved, it just means they are trying to prove something that isn't necessary instead of just believing what God said by faith.

I got all of that from the term, "saved, sanctified, and filled with the Holy Ghost." I knew who she was, what she believed, and I knew that she was trying to feel me out, so to speak. So I said, "God filled me with the Holy Ghost too. That's what happened when I got saved!"

Ok, so by this point, we had both staked out the battleground! She was a Pentecostal, works added to Salvation, miracle worker, and I was a hard-nosed, fundamental, by grace through faith alone, Independent Baptist. War was on the way, and I could feel it! These Pentecostals that I meet aren't too meek, if you know what I mean.

She said, "Well, I'm just trying to 'work out my own salvation.'" I responded, "Good for you! I know that 'he which hath begun a good work in me will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ." She snapped, "Well you still got to work out your own salvation!!!" Aha! She's used to sinking people with one verse of scripture!

But that one verse had me puzzled. I didn't know exactly what to say, and in a Nehemiah moment I begged God to give me something to tell this woman. A bible believing, King James banging, church kid was stumped out of the blue, and I didn't even know why.

But out of nowhere came this:

"W-w-well, y-you work out your own salvation....(seconds that felt like eternity)...the same way you work out your muscles."

God, where is this going?

"Really?" she says. "How is that?"

"Well, you don't work out the muscle for it to exist, or even to prove the muscle exists. You work out the muscle because that's what it's there to do--work! Salvation doesn't need to be worked out to exist in the first place. It just needs to be worked out because that's what God gave you Salvation for--to work it out!"

THANK YOU, LORD! (deep sigh)

And before I realized what had happened, they had informed the woman that her car was done, and she could go. She saw that as a convenient exit and made her way off. But she got the truth, and she didn't get it from me! That came from the 3rd heaven on that woman's behalf to help her understand her Bible.

And while the Pentecostal was being shown that she didn't need to do a miracle to be saved, the Baptist was getting one on his behalf.