God Finishes What He Starts

Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. – Philippians 1:6

Yesterday, we started talking about God’s work of sanctification, and we discussed how the first thing God does is do a sanctifying work in us. Today, we’re going to look at two more ways God is working to sanctify us.

The second way is that God continues His work of sanctification with you. When God begins His work of salvation in us, He expects us to do the work of sanctification with Him. Go back to when you were saved, and you gave your life to Christ. At that moment, God begins His work in you. He gives you a full-time job working out what He has worked in you. After all, the Christian life is the outward human expression of an inward divine presence. It is a 24/7 job that you never retire from until you draw your last breath.

Every day people ought to see us working out what God has worked in us. We are to do everything with fear and trembling. We should have a healthy fear of offending God or breaking God’s heart. We ought to have such a desire and such a passion to live out what God has worked in us and tremble at the thought of doing anything that would break God’s heart or bring God disappointment.

Finally, the third way is that God will complete His work of sanctification for you. At this point, you might be a little bit discouraged, because if you are like me, you fall short of what God wants for you. You fail. You blow it. You are not always what you ought to be. You don’t always desire to do what is right and you don’t always do what is right.

But don’t be discouraged. While you are still on this earth, you will never be completely what you are going to be in heaven, but you can be obediently what God wants you to be on earth. How do I know that? Go back to Philippians 1, “Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus,” (Philippians 1:6).

Who began the work of sanctification in you? God did. What God starts, God finishes. You can’t finish what God starts. Only God can finish what God starts. The word for “carried on to completion” is a word that literally means “to fully complete.” God never leaves a job half finished, three-quarters finished, or ninety-nine percent finished. What God starts God finishes. And He is going to complete His work of sanctification in your life.

Dear Lord, thank you for these reminders about sanctification. I pray you would help me to be disciplined in working out my sanctification with you, and that you would help me to persevere and trust you to finish what you start, even when I fall short. In Jesus’ name, amen.