Philippians 1:6 (NLT)
And I
am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue His work
until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.
Some years ago, a young (19 year old) woman
died in tragic accident. She was the
kind of person that everyone loved and adored.
She had everything going for her—beauty, personality, intelligence,
abilities, everything she did was excellent and everything she tried turned out
successful. Her untimely death—and the
accident was not her fault—was an unbelievable shock to everyone who knew
her. After standing in line at the
funeral home over two hours, I finally was able to speak to the grieving
parents. Of course, what can anyone say
at a tragic time like this? I did know
the father fairly well such that after saying how sad and sorry I was for his
tragic loss, rightly or wrongly, I quoted this verse to him and suggested that
his daughter was so perfect that there was nothing else the Lord needed to work
out in her life. He asked me for the
Scripture reference and later told me that this verse meant a great deal to
him.
I am not suggesting that anyone should
quote a verse like this to someone who has lost a loved one and I don’t think
that I would ever do it again. However,
at that instant when I was talking to this grieving father, I choose to believe
that the Holy Spirit gave me this verse to share with him.
The great meaning of this verse is that God
is working every day of your life to keep improving you to become more and more
like Jesus Christ. Your start occurred
when you decided to become a Christian (when God “began the good work within
you”) and God will continue to work out His will for your life until His work
is complete at the Second Coming of Christ.
This verse gives great comfort and reassurance to all believers that God
is involved in and with your life and its continued salvation. No matter how much you might stumble and fail
as a child of God, He is not going to give up on you and will continue to work
out His good works in you. This effort
of God is continuous or progressive salvation in the life of every believer and
biblically is called “sanctification”.
Sanctification simply indicates the position and the pursuits of every
Christian person from the time you accept Christ as your Savior until the time
that He comes again. Sanctification and
holiness come from the same Greek word “hagioi” that means “to set apart”. All Christians are set apart to do the work
that God would have each of His children do.
What do you believe is the “good work
within you” that God has begun in you and will continue to work out in you for
as long as you live? How much comfort
and reassurance do you feel right now that He who started something in you will
bear the pressure of it and will bring the results exactly as He planned for
His glory?
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