Prayer: Lord complete your purpose established for me. Lord, your gracious love is eternal; do not abandon your personal work in me (Adapted from Psalm 138:8). Amen.
Main Scripture:
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 (Philippians 1:6, NKJV).
Associated Scripture:
That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We write this to make our joy complete (1 John 1:1-4).
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God not by works, so that no one can boast (Ephesians 2:8-9).
Correlative Quotes:
Grace, by definition, excludes the slightest hint that human merit contributes to our righteous standing before the most holy and perfect Creator, and faith, which admits our inability to help ourselves and rests wholly on another for salvation, confirms that our works have no power to atone for our wickedness.[1] – R. C. Sproul
Colossians 2:10 says, "and you are complete in him who is the head of all principality and power." Literally it says you have been made full. You have been made full in him. There is nothing missing. Christ fills you up. There aren't any other things to add to that. You have been made full with the fullness of him who fills all in all.[2] – John MacArthur
Through faith alone God counts the ungodly as righteous because of Christ. "For our sake [God] made [Christ] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God" (2 Corinthians 5:21).[3] – John Piper
Study:
INTRODUCTION
Paul says, in Philippians 1:6 that he is fully confident and has no doubt about his salvation and eternal security. He is convinced that what God has begun, He will finish.
Paul knows that we are complete in Jesus. He is persuaded by his face to face confrontation with Jesus and his instantaneous conversion that what he has experienced through that total act of forgiveness is real. Paul met Jesus on the road to Damascus and experienced salvation (Acts 9:1-7).
The “good work” that Jesus has done in Paul and in all believers, is salvation. Salvation is a onetime occurrence that is complete and eternal. When we accept Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Savior through faith alone (Ephesians 2:8-10), it is eternal (Romans 8:38-39).
Salvation is a word that describes the overall package of events in the believer’s life. First, it has its conception in faith. Faith is a gift from God. Therefore, our faith does not come from us but from God. Salvation comes through justification, the act of making us just or right before God.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! (2 Corinthians 5:17).
Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 5:1).
He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:5).
Regeneration is the spiritual transformation in a person, brought about by the Holy Spirit, that brings the individual from being spiritually dead to become a spiritually alive human being.[4]
God is Holy and we are not. God’s holiness is characterized by moral and ethical completeness, perfection, and absolute separation from evil.
Holiness is the quintessential element of God's nature. It is who God is. He is Holy, therefore, everything he does, says and every decision that God makes is Holy.
God requires holiness of His people. He is Holy and He requires us to be holy. 1 Peter 1:15-16 (NKJV) tells us, “but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, "Be holy, for I am holy." Sanctification means to be made holy.[5]
Glorification is the change that takes place in believers at the general resurrection, and their admission into heaven. It is the future and final work of God upon Christians. At the point of our resurrection, God transforms our mortal physical bodies into the bodies in which we will dwell forever. This is explained in 1 Corinthians 15:42 (NKJV) when Paul writes, “So also is the resurrection of the dead. The body is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption.”
Summary Statement:
God has a perfect plan for your life. That plan begins with our salvation. We are positionally complete in His plan. Our redemption at the point of salvation is a completed act. There is no future worry about our position with God. However, if we are going to experience the joy that accompanies our salvation we must grow in His knowledge and truth. Spiritual growth is essential to continued fellowship.
Lesson within the Lesson:
What things do justification, regeneration, sanctification, and glorification have in common?
How are these four different?
What is the difference between something that is positional and something that is progressive?
How do justification, regeneration, sanctification, and glorification complete the believer?
[1] R. C. Sproul, By Grace Alone, through Faith Alone, from Ligonier Ministries, the teaching fellowship of R.C. Sproul. all rights reserved. website: www.ligonier.org
[2] John MacArthur, Complete in Christ, copyright 2015, Grace to You, www.gty.org/resources/sermons/
[3] John Piper, Justification by Faith, Desiring God, By John Piper. Copyright 2015 Desiring God Foundation. Website: desiringGod.org.
[4] http://www.theopedia.com/regeneration
[5] Baker’s Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology, Sanctification, biblestudytools.com/
dictionary/sanctification/
A Few Clouds, 64°