Light Brings Salt
Volume 2, Issue 14 April 4, 2004
Dedicated to the
Systematic Exposition of the Word of God
The
Faithfulness of God's Work for the Believer
Phil. 1:6 says For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work
in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.
Paul expresses a
very strong confidence in them and their future. A confidence that is not rooted in what they
are doing for him, or
their faithful support for him which had
been crucial for many years in his ministry. His confidence was in the One who
will never let them down, who is always faithful - God!
The word for confident peitho (
What Paul is
expressing is a settled conviction, an absolute confidence in the future. Question is, How do
you come to that same confidence in life? Or, Can you have that same settled
conviction in your life? And if the
answer is yes, as I believe it is, Do you have that
settled confidence in your eternal future??
Answer is that you
sure can. By placing your faith and
confidence in the same "object" as Paul does, first is Jesus Christ
and His work on the cross for your salvation and then in His thinking and
viewpoint found in the Word of God providing the direction for life.
Paul's conviction
is based on the reality that it is God
who began the good work at salvation, who provides through out life and the one
who guarantees our future. Paul has confidence, a settled conviction toward them and
their future because his confidence is in God.
This is seen in 2 Tim.
To the degree that
one's confidence is in man you introduce uncertainty into the equation. Notice
that Paul doesn't trace the beginning back to his ministry, his evangelizing of
them in 50 AD or their response to it, but to God alone.
The good work (ergon agaqon) is God providing everything
needed for man from salvation to eternity. He began this work in you, just as
he did with those in
He will perfect it, this work, until the
day of Jesus Christ. Perfect ( evpitele,w ) means to complete, to finish,
or to accomplish a goal. This word
fits well with the perfect of (
The time of
completion is said to be the day of
Christ Jesus. This refers to the Rapture of the Church, the
return of Christ for His bride, the Church, which would include their receiving
their resurrection bodies. There is a
difference of emphasis and a distinction between "day of the Lord"
and the "day of Christ", or the Lord Jesus.
The first relates
to the judgment of unbelieving Jews and Gentiles and the blessing of Millennial
saints. While the 2nd one here in our context puts the emphasis on the reward
and blessing for the Church. Mixing the two results in great
confusion.
Bottom Line is that
nothing in this life will prevent the successful accomplishment of God's work
in you in bringing you to glory, emphasis is on our positional
security.
OBSERVATIONS
1. The important
Biblical truth taught here is the Eternal Security of the believer - positional
security.
2. This same
doctrine is taught in: Jn 10:27-28; Rom
3. Experiential security
of the Believer, the one who knows and applies His word and therefore exploits
grace in his life is depicted by several metaphors:
In Psa. 1:3 - as a tree planted by the waters, who does not
wither and prospers.
In Psa.
125:1 - the faithful are like Mt Zion, they cannot be moved, abides forever.
In Matt.
4. Your positional
security was established the very moment you believed in Jesus Christ.
The moment you recognized that you
were a sinner and needed a Savior and believed in Christ. As an unbeliever you may have been a good
person, loved by all, most popular at school, voted most likely to succeed, may
have everything going for you financially. But being without Christ, as a
sinner, you stood condemned before God.
Your state is given in Eph 2:1, dead separated from God. What you were or are from the human
standpoint does not impress God, will not satisfy His +R/J, Holiness/Integrity.
(Titus 3:5; 2
Tim 1:9)
At some point you learned that
Jesus Christ is the Son of God, that He went to the cross for
you, the One who had no sin, Who was
without spot or blemish and there on the cross paid the debt you owed, the penalty
for your sins, that he suffered and died for you. And you were convicted of
these things by the pre-salvation ministry of the Holy Spirit.
You responded to what He did for
you, by faith, all the merit being in the object of
faith Jesus Christ, and you were: regenerated,
born spiritually into a new family, became a child of God, placed into union with Jesus Christ through
the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit came to indwell you and sealed
you for that day (Eph 1:13), positionally then your a new creation "IN
CHRIST". (2 Cor
What did you or I do to deserve
what He did for us? NOTHING - we could do nothing in
and of ourselves. His death on the cross paid the penalty God's holiness
demands and when you believed IN HIM, that He is the Son of God, deity, that He died for you, bore the
penalty for your sin and that He rose
from the dead bodily you became a child of God.
In time, in our life, our
responsibility as Believers is to learn what God desires of us and then to obey
it. Obedience flows out of a developing
relationship and knowledge of His word. Never will you loose by doing the will
of God - NEVER!
5. The GOOD WORK Paul speaks of began at
salvation and it's time of completion is the day of Christ Jesus, the rapture.
All bel's
will receive a resurrection body like Christ's (1 Jn 3:2).
Ones faithfulness to Christ and His Word will receive their recognition and
reward at the Judgment Seat of Christ.
6. What about the
time in between?
God in grace provides for you,
will give you all the DOA's (divine operating
assets). He has provided all you need to
learn His word and realize it's power in your life and
to fulfill His will for your life. If your positive to Him, consistently overruling your sin
nature, God is faithful and will provide for your needs experientially.
Need to set your priorities Mt 6:33
His faithfulness is seen 1 Ths
7. God's work for these believer's at
All of the Believers that Paul is
writing to, their bodies are dust, and their soul/spirit is in heaven, face to
face awaiting their resurrection bodies and their eternal reward, all a part of their
eternal inheritance.
8. No believer can
ever say, God failed him experientially, in time, to
provide the BD needed to successfully complete, to accomplish His work in and
thru their life, to finish the race, the course set before you. (Heb 12:1)
So that we can say just as Paul
did in 2 Tim. 4:7
His faithfulness toward the
unbeliever is also seen in that not one who is positive at the point of God
consciousness no matter where they are will fail to get a gospel hearing.
Whether or not experientially that
you attain to the goal, objective God has for you is wholly dependent on your accepting and acting
on your responsibility before God - to obey Him.
No one has an excuse no matter how
good it may sound to them that exempts them from success in time. When you get
to the JSC you can't plead if only this or if only that, then I would have ...... Far too many believers today think and act as if
they can set their own agenda for life and God must bless them in whatever it
is!! The bottom line is that your
expectations and thoughts must coincide with those of God. (Isa 55:8)
Think on these
things and be rewarded!