Confident of God's Work
Php 1:6 being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
Once a person is in the faith, God faithfully and persistently commits himself to completing the work that he started in that person. And this is a foundational concept for the doctrine of the Perseverance of the Saints in which it is inevitable that those who have been born of God will be sanctified. For what is the "good work" which was being done in them? It is the work of sanctification. John describes this more technically this way, speaking in a lifestyle sense, “No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God.” 1John 3:9 And of this you can be confident.
But again, this is an effect not born of human effort, though in fact effort is involved. It is an effect born of God - born of the regenerate nature imparted to genuine believers, which inclines and provokes us towards a lifestyle consistent with that of a child of God. Paul is confident of this because this is part of the promise of the gospel. The gospel is not just about justification - the forgiveness of sins. The gospel is also about God changing us inwardly to conform to the image of Christ.
Therefore if you are confident you are in the faith, and thus confident of being saved from God's wrath, you can also be confident that God will make you the kind of person of whom he is pleased. “The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it.” 1Th 5:24
Php 1:6 being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
Once a person is in the faith, God faithfully and persistently commits himself to completing the work that he started in that person. And this is a foundational concept for the doctrine of the Perseverance of the Saints in which it is inevitable that those who have been born of God will be sanctified. For what is the "good work" which was being done in them? It is the work of sanctification. John describes this more technically this way, speaking in a lifestyle sense, “No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God.” 1John 3:9 And of this you can be confident.
But again, this is an effect not born of human effort, though in fact effort is involved. It is an effect born of God - born of the regenerate nature imparted to genuine believers, which inclines and provokes us towards a lifestyle consistent with that of a child of God. Paul is confident of this because this is part of the promise of the gospel. The gospel is not just about justification - the forgiveness of sins. The gospel is also about God changing us inwardly to conform to the image of Christ.
Therefore if you are confident you are in the faith, and thus confident of being saved from God's wrath, you can also be confident that God will make you the kind of person of whom he is pleased. “The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it.” 1Th 5:24
