"God will Perfect the Good Work He Began in You"
Philippians 1:3-11
12/13/06
Ever get frustrated with yourself for not finishing
things youve started? You make a New Years resolution, you begin
a new diet, a new project, or a new exercise program. You start
off all gung-ho, sticking with it faithfully for a few weeks, maybe a
couple of months, but slowly your enthusiasm begins to dwindle, you
spend less and less time on those projects, and eventually you give up
on them all together. Cars remain half fixed, rooms remain half
remodeled, club memberships are dropped, and puzzles remain
uncompleted. What we begin we dont always finish.
But thanks be to God, He always completes what He
begins, as the Apostle Paul here writes, I am confident of this very
thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect [or complete]
it until the day of Christ Jesus. God does not leave anything
half done. The good work He began in you He will complete.
What is Paul talking about? What is this good
work that God began in us and will complete? Luther helps us out
with his explanation of the third petition in the Lords Prayer:
Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. He explains that
Gods will is done when He halts and hinders every counsel and will of
the devil, the world and our flesh which would not let us hallow Gods
name nor let His kingdom come, but strengthens and preserves us
steadfast in His Word and faithful to the end. In other words,
the salvation God has given us in Jesus He will work to keep us in by
means of His Word until our Lord comes for us.
This is Gods good work in His Church - our salvation
and preservation in the faith, and it is His work from beginning to
end. And this work that He began in us He will finish, as Paul
assures the Thessalonians, Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify
you entirely, and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved
complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass.
But now you might ask, Wasnt this good work of God
finished on the cross? Didnt Jesus say there, It is
finished? Yes, your salvation was achieved on the cross.
The sacrifice for your sins has been paid in full with the blood of
Christ. There is nothing that can be added to His finished work
for you. But God will never be finished giving you the benefits
of Christs work on the cross until the day when the Lord comes for you
and brings you to glory.
He began this good work by giving you new birth in
Baptism. There He claimed you as His own and gave Himself to you
along with His Name. There you were made His child. There,
as Luther says, God delivered to you the forgiveness of sins, delivered
you from death and the devil and gave you eternal salvation.
There God sprinkled you with the blood of Christ and clothed you with
His righteousness.
His good work continues now as Baptism has its way
with you in your daily life. Through Baptism the Holy Spirit
works daily to drown the old Adam in you, which does not want Gods Name
to be hallowed nor let His kingdom to come, while at the same time He
works to raise the new man you have been recreated to be in Jesus, who
will walk before God in righteousness and purity forever. Not
only is your justification by Gods grace alone, but so also is your
sanctification. Not only does God declare you righteous for
Christs sake, but He also makes you holy. All of this is Gods
work in you, which He will carry on until Baptisms work will finally be
complete at your resurrection.
In the meantime, He still continues the good work He
began in you by feeding you often with the body and blood of
Jesus. Babies need to be fed. So do children and
adults. God not only provides our physical food but also our
spiritual food. The life He gave you in Baptism He nourishes with
the body and blood of Christ given to you to eat and to drink in the
Lords Supper. There, too, He continues to deliver to you the
benefits which Jesus won for you on the cross with the giving of His
body and the shedding of His blood for the forgiveness of your
sins. Some might question why the Lord gives us so much
forgiveness. Didnt He give us enough at our Baptism? Why
does He give us more here? Because thats what Jesus does.
He gives you the complete and total forgiveness of all your sins plus
more forgiveness.
And the good work goes on. Not only is God
doing His good work through Baptism and the Lords Supper, but Hes doing
it through the proclamation of the Gospel and Holy Absolution.
How much Gospel and Absolution to you need to hear? How many sins
have you got? Dont worry... Where sin abounds, there Gods
grace abounds all the more. And the pastor has been placed there
by the Lord to deliver these gifts to you. When you hear me, your
pastor, absolve you of your sins in the Name of the Father, and of the
Son, and of the Holy Spirit, you may be sure that your sins are
forgiven before God in heaven. And the Lord will continue His
work of absolving you of your sins until the day when you wont need any
more absolution - at your resurrection on the last day, when the Lord
raises you from the dead and parts you from your sinful nature once and
for all.
From beginning to end, your salvation is all Gods
work in you, not your own. Hes doing the verbs. Hes the One
who sent His Son to be your Savior by giving His life for you on the
cross. Hes the One who brought you to faith in His Son through
the proclamation of the Gospel. Hes the One who baptized
you. Hes the One who feeds you. Hes the One who preserves
and keeps you blameless in the one true faith by means of His
Word. And He will keep doing all these things until the day He
comes for you. You dont have to worry that God is going to give
up on you, the way you give up on so many of your works. Gods
salvation is never fractional. He never starts to save you
without carrying it through to the end. He never begins the
salvation with the intention that youve got to finish it. God is
faithful, and His bride, the Church, which He cleansed and sanctified
with the sprinkling of Baptism, He will present to Himself in all her
glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but holy and
blameless in Jesus.
The day of the Christ Jesus will not be a terrifying
thing for the Church. It will be the day when our Lord is
revealed in His glory and we with Him. While that day will be a
day of wrath for those who reject Jesus, it will be a day of salvation
for those with whom Gods good work has had its way. No wonder the
Apostle Paul gave thanks to God for the Philippians, because he saw
that Gods good work had had its way in their lives, that His will was
being done among them, and that He would preserve and keep them
steadfast in the Word and faithful to the end.
And the Lord will do the same for you. I, too,
with Paul, am thankful to God for you all and am confident that He who
began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ
Jesus. The Father who created you, the Lord Jesus who redeemed
you with His blood to be His own, and the Holy Spirit who sanctifies
you will guard and keep you in the one true faith by His Word, by your
Baptism, and by His Holy Supper until the day He comes for you and all
His saints. Amen.