A Word in Season: God’s Work Completed (Philippians 1:6)

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The Apostle Paul was a thankful man. In Philippians chapter 1 he thanked

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God upon every remembrance of the Philippian Christians, always in every prayer of his making requests for them all with joy for their fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now.

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Now what underpinned that joy? What was the foundation of that delight in their fellowship in the gospel?

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In verse 6 of that first chapter he says that he is confident of this very thing, that he who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.

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Paul has confidence, there's absolute rock solid certainty in his soul about these believers in Philippi.

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He knows that where God has begun a good work in them, he will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.

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He has seen in the hearts of these believers and so out into their lives the evidences of God's saving work.

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That good work, that delightful work, a work in which God himself delights as well as those who are serving him like the

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Apostle Paul and others. He's seen the evidence of God's bringing salvation to them, bringing the fruits of Christ and his saving work to them so that they are forgiven for their sins, they are brought into his kingdom, they are having been made clean, clothed in robes of righteous works and are now walking in obedience before him.

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All the indications are of this good work begun. They have put their faith in Christ and the root being there, the fruit is becoming evident.

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But Paul's confidence lies not just in the fact that the work is begun, Paul's confidence lies in the fact that having begun it,

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God himself will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. You see the craftsman here, the one who is at work in the lives of the

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Philippians is no mere man, he is the ever living and ever loving God and having set his love upon them, he has now in time drawn them to himself and having done that, this

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God in his might and mercy will never let them go. He is going to complete that work.

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You see when God begins the work of salvation, he's not making it up as he goes along.

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He has in mind a glorious end point. He wants to conform them to the image of his son.

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His son himself is pleading with the father that his people might be with him where he is that they might see his glory.

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And God is working in his people with that in mind. He is continuing to develop godliness in them.

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He's bringing them every step of the way along their pilgrimage to ensure that at the day of Jesus Christ that work is completed and done.

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It therefore encompasses all of our sanctification, that's the process by which we become more and more like Jesus Christ, putting off sin and putting on righteousness and ultimately our glorification, that last wonderful moment when every vestige of sin, every last stain, every last shred, every last scrap of this sinning life is once and for all swept away and we are made entirely like the

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Lord Jesus Christ, body and soul, ready for the glory which lies ahead in the new heaven and the new earth in which righteousness dwells.

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And God is constantly, carefully, lovingly at work in these days and he is crafting in his people that which he intends to bring to perfection and completion until the day of Jesus Christ.

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And so the things through which we go, whether they seem good to us or bad, they are part of our heavenly father's workmanship.

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They are part of the wisdom, the understanding, the mercy, the compassion of the heavenly craftsman who is completing in us that work which he has begun.

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And there's the encouragement for anybody who comes to Jesus Christ. We may come a wretch, a mess, a sinful, broken, rebelling human being, but if we put our faith in Jesus Christ at God's command, trusting in him, then

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God having begun that good work, he will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ for all those who are in him must come to be with him where he is.