Life Not a Romance but a Reality—In the power of God’s grace you may obtain most precious victories. You are not to treat your life as a romance, but as a reality. You are to be a laborer together with God in forming a character that He can approve. “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” Does the charge end there? No, no, thank God! “For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure” Philippians 2:12, 13. (TSB 51.2) MC VC

I now commit you to God and to His grace. But work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.—Letter 14a, 1891. (TSB 67.2) MC VC

But the robes of Christ’s righteousness never cover cherished sins. No one can enter into the marriage supper of the Lamb without the wedding garment on, which is the righteousness of Christ. Without holiness no man shall see God. God is waiting to give divine power to every soul to combine with human effort. “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God that worketh in you, both to will and to do of His good pleasure.” Philippians 2:12~13. (TSB 134.2) MC VC