“Being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ”
“Being confident”
“I am persuaded of this. I am certain of this.” Paul was certain that the God who launched a good work in the Philippians would continue it. When God begins the work of salvation in us, he will finish it. God never starts anything that he cannot finish. When God begins a work in us, he will see it through to completion.
God will either work in us or he will work on us, but he will finish the job. He will finish it whether we want it finished or not! Once we have come to know Christ we cannot say, “Stop the process–I want out.” Paul says, “I am certain of this; this is not debatable; I am sure; I am confident.”
It was this confidence that gave Paul joy. “Confidence” means to come to a conclusion based on a reasonable ground. God has taken care of billions of people over thousands of years and has not let one person down. Paul’s confidence was in the capacity of God, not in men. The Greek tense indicates that this was a settled confidence in Paul’s mind. Paul’s faith in God’s ability to finish what he starts did not waver.
“that He who has begun a good work in you”
God began it; God will finish it. At the point of salvation God did a complete job. In no way was it inadequate or incomplete. God did the most that he could for us in our salvation. Here is the principle of this passage: if God did the most for us at salvation when we were his enemies, what can he do now that we are his children? Answer: much more than the most. This is a paradox but note what he says in the next phrase.
“will complete it until…”
The word means “to bring to a completed end.” God finishes what he starts. He puts his finishing touches on it.
Many people are bedeviled by the idea that God may lose control of their situation. But God will not give up on us. He will let us go about as far as a dog on a leash. When we run from the Lord and come to the end of our leash we come to a terrible jerk. “The Lord will perfect that which concerns me” (Psalm 138:8). “For if while we were reconciled with God through the death of His Son, much more,having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life” (Romans
5:10).
Principle:The unfinished work of Christ intercedes for us in time.
Application:Do we have confidence in Christ’s present work for us? Can we trust him to intercede for whatever we are currently facing?
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