My Unusual Journal
My Unusual Journal 59, Sunday, January 22, 2012, 6:44 PM
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. (Php 1:6 KJV)
Unshakable Confidence
Does Paul’s assertion above indicate that all members of the Corinthian church would be saved regardless of any misdeeds in which they might thereafter engage? No, it expresses Paul’s supreme confidence in the grace and power of Christ to save them if they continued to follow Christ.
1) First off I have confidence in God’s Word that it will never be a false hope luring us to disaster if we continue in the Word; 2) I personally am sure that I will not fail to reach the blessed Promised Land; and 3) my hope is firm that you too will be in heaven with me, “if [you] hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.” (Heb. 33.6b)
It is not possible for any outside force to condemn you to hell. "Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world." Believers are like house renters who have a lease that cannot be broken by any force of darkness. Only the believer can break the lease, and if he or she should do something that is contrary to the terms of the lease, they are not thrown immediately into the street, suddenly homeless and shelterless. They are warned by the Lessor (lease holder, God) of their violation and allowed to continue their residency under the original terms of the lease.
God is by no means seeking for a reason to evict us from our place in Christ. It is not consistent with sound logic that God, in the person of Jesus Christ, would suffer such pain and horror of soul for our salvation and then quickly leave us to our sinful selves at every crook of our smallest finger. Even when we think He has forsaken us for this or that reason or for this or that sin, God is always, always there for us. Cry out to Him from the blackness of you night. If He does not answer right away, keep bellowing like blind Bartimaeus. “Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on me!” You know He is there. Where could the One who inhabits all space and time – where could He have gone? Bartimaeus couldn’t see the Lord, but the auditory (sound) evidence was swelling all around him and He called the more urgently, “Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on me!”
Now don’t get fussy and complain, “If He loves me as you say He does, why doesn’t He answer me?” I have said it once and again: We are the beggars, HE is the Lord of all Creation. If necessary, let us come, hat in hand, pleading and groveling for Him to turn His face toward us.
But we don’t always see His face – like Bartimaeus. There is a song that has this line in it: "Help me through the darkness thy face to see..." There is another song that says, "The storm is not greater than his grace..." The first song implies that God's face can be hidden at least for a while. The latter flatly asserts that the storms can NOT hide His face. Which statement is correct?
They are both correct; they are metaphors that for the sake of clear understanding compare one thing or situation with another. The fact is we don’t grope through a literal dark night to see the literal face of Jesus and there is no real storm that threatens to defeat the grace of God. (They are in the spirit realm and, for reasons I cannot go into now, I believe they are more than real!) These two statements are vivid descriptions of our daily experiences. The composers of the songs simply chose different ways of expressing one irreversible truth, which is this: Nothing can overcome God’s trusting, obedient child. One way of expressing the thought is to say that no storm can hide His face; another way is to tacitly admit that the face of God may be hidden for a moment, but pray that God will once again reveal that face through the darkness and gloom all around us. And He always does – in His own way and His own time.
The situation is akin to that of the Church, the Bride of Christ, whose individual members often get harassed by contrary elements to the point where they cannot for a time see the face of God and they cry out not only to see His face: they plead for His soon return. The pressure is great and we need relief and we need it quickly.
Hear me speedily, O LORD: my spirit faileth: hide not thy face from me, lest I be like unto them that go down into the pit. (Psa 143:7 KJV)
But in our greatest need and our most perilous situation God gives us a word of hope:
Eph 1:4-5 According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: (5) Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will.
I AM SURELY CHOSEN OF GOD BEFORE EVER THERE WAS A WORLD CREATED. I CANNOT FAIL IF I WILL NOT FAIL.
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