For God didn't appoint us to wrath, but to the obtaining of salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,
Obtaining of salvation ... "The natural meaning of this is `the acquiring of salvation,' making it (salvation) to some extent to be a matter of human activity,"[18] which of course it is!  When the apostles exhorted people to "work out" their own salvation, and to "save yourselves" from a perverse generation, such were not idle words but present urgencies.  Nor did any of them pause to explain with every mention of what people were to do, that of course man cannot be his own saviour.  Our own generation has stressed the latter fact (and it is a fact) to the extent of failure to make it clear to every man that if he desires to be saved there are definitely some things he must do, the same being neither optional, unessential or unnecessary. Such a truth is inherent in what is said in this ninth verse.