2022-08-30 “he which hath begun a good work in you”

Philippians 1:3  “I thank my God upon every remembrance of you,  4  Always in every prayer of mine for you all making request with joy,  5  For your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now;  6  Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:

This “good work” “is the work of God” (John 6:29) in which He had worked Faith’s Belief (Hebrews 12:2) within “the saints in Christ Jesus which” were “at Philippi” (Philippians 1:1).  Paul declared his confidence that “God” would “perform” or sustain His “good work in” them “until the day of Jesus Christ”; that is, until the day in which our Lord “Jesus Christ” appears in the heavens to take His Children to forever be with Him (I Thessalonians 4:13-18).  It is indeed God’s work that yields belief in His Children; Paul phrased it this way, “For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.” (Philippians 2:13).  And, our Lord explained it this way, “This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.” (John 6:29).  It is not possible to make a rational mind believe such things without “the work of God” placing within a person’s mind the “substance” and “evidence” (Hebrews 11:1) that these things are indeed true.  So radical is this change within the hearts and minds of those in which the Lord performs this mystic “work” that it is described as being “born again” (John 3:3), a “regeneration” (Titus 3:5), and being “quickened” (Ephesians 2:1).  It is described in these terms to make it clear that, as we could not give ourselves natural birth, neither can we give ourselves Spiritual Birth; and as we did not make ourselves in the beginning, neither can we regenerate or make ourselves anew; and as a deceased person cannot make themselves alive again, neither can we make ourselves Spiritually Alive.  To lovingly know and believe in God requires the exclusive “work of God” in the hearts and minds of His Children; no man can do this “work”!  When God performs this marvelous “work”, it is absolutely sure and durable for He “will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ”; a “born again” Child of God will NEVER become ‘un-born again’ – Paul was “confident of” that!  Our Lord said it this way, “this is the Father’s will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day” (John 6:39)!  It may seem that everything around us is failing, but this is that warm and comforting fire in our hearts and minds that never goes out!