Working out your salvation means that you have it, and you are to learn how to exist within it.
The Legalist believes that working out your salvation, means you are trying to complete what Jesus started on the Cross.
I read the message differently.
For me, the Bible identifies that a form of salvation is possible, it exists, and it means we do not need to die, and can live forever.
However it is up to us to seek out and find that thing. It is available freely, to all but we must both believe in it and seek it otherwise we shall not find it. Concerning that thing Jesus says:
John 3:56
"Jesus therefore said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, ye have not life in yourselves."
As with many things in the Bible this is allegorical imo. We do not need to nibble on an actual body nor drink blood like vampires. At the same time it is not sufficient to simply believe in something. If I simply believe in the existence of water yet do not actually get hold of it and drink it, I will surely die.
Jesus's words are for me personally, a stark and clear warning. We MUST eat and we MUST drink something. What that something is, is recounted in the Bible in numerous places, always allegorically and it is the searching and seeking out of that thing that should occupy our focus because without that thing, as Jesus says, "there is no life in us".
The act of seeking requires two distinct actions. First we must set in our
minds that which we desire. We must "pray" for what we desire. Then second we must put our
heart in a particular state. We must engender in our heart the feelings and emotions that would occur IF that desire had been fulfilled. i.e. we must get our hearts (and thus emotions) into a state
as if we already had that thing we desire. This requirement to align the mind and the heart is mentioned all over the Bible. For example:
Jeremiah 29:12-13
"Then you will call upon me and come and
pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your
heart. "
Romans 10:1-21
"Brothers, my
heart's desire and
prayer to God for them is that they may be saved"
Jeremiah 17:10
"I the Lord search the
heart and test the
mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.”
Hebrews 4:12
"For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the
thoughts and intentions of the
heart. "
Psalms 26:2
"Prove me, O Lord, and try me; test my
heart and my
mind."
Psalms 19:14
"Let the
words of my mouth and the meditation of my
heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer."
There are I am sure many more examples to be found.