God works in us as the originator and source of the faith required for salvation, making us alive spiritually through His grace. This faith is not of our own making but is a gift from Him, ensuring that He owes us nothing for our response. As a result of His initiative, we are created anew in Christ Jesus, becoming His workmanship. We are called to cooperate with Him in this process, working together as a team consisting of the Father, the Son, and us. Our cooperation is essential, responding to the grace and gifts He provides by yielding to His guidance. This teamwork continues as He works in us to will and to do of His good pleasure, supplying the desire and direction for our spiritual journey. Thus, we work out our salvation, not to obtain it, but to carry what we already possess to its logical conclusion, living a life worthy of the gospel through the works He has ordained.

We are workers together with God, collaborating in His divine project for our salvation. Just as Noah responded to God's grace by building the ark, we too must actively participate in the process He has set before us. Our works, though necessary, do not earn salvation, for it is God alone who gives the increase in this endeavor. Like Noah, who made excellent use of the means God prescribed and provided, we cooperate with Him, relying on His grace to carry us through from beginning to end. God remembers us, as He remembered Noah, ensuring that we are supported in our efforts. Our righteousness, akin to Noah's ark, is built only through God's gifts of grace. While we labor in this creation, becoming conformed to the spiritual image of Christ Jesus, we can never claim to have achieved it on our own. Grace and works belong together; grace and faith are the cause, while works are the effect, and together they produce salvation into God's Kingdom. If we receive God's grace in vain, failing to work as Noah did, we risk missing the deliverance intended for us.

All Christians are co-workers with God, sharing the responsibility to submit to His will. This cooperative effort involves God working from within, while the Christian submits to manifest what has been received. Paul emphasizes this partnership, initially seeming to apply only to the ministry, but extending it to all believers by urging each to take heed in building upon this foundation. Submitting remains a crucial part of this building process. Paul commands believers to work out their salvation, meaning to carry it out and exhibit what they have received from God. This reflects a joint endeavor where godly faith, hope, love, and character cannot be imposed but must be voluntarily developed within each individual. Skill in living as Jesus Christ lived is the aim, glorifying God through a creation from the inside out. Knowledge, wisdom, and understanding, though teachable, only become part of a person when they cooperate by using and yielding to them through faith, making themselves part of the process.