Latest / Reformed Thinking / He Who Began a Good Work: Divine Perseverance and Christian Assurance (Philippians 1:6)

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He Who Began a Good Work: Divine Perseverance and Christian Assurance (Philippians 1:6) · Reformed Thinking

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  Welcome back to Reformed Thinking.
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  Today on the Deep Dive, we're going to be taking a powerful
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  theological lens and focusing it entirely on one sentence.
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  Just one. Just one, but it's a verse that
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  has given such security and frankly, comfort to believers
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  for, well, to millennia. Now we're going to be zeroing in
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  on Philippians 1.6. It's an excellent choice.
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  This one verse really acts as a kind of a theological core for
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  Christian assurance. You hear it cited a lot, but we
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  don't often slow down and really unpack the, you know, the
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  grammatical and theological consequences.
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  And they are vast. They are.
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  We're going to look at the rigorous logic that Paul
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  presents here. It's a logic that gives rise to
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  one of the central reform doctrines about salvation.
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  So let's start just by hearing the verse in full, OK?
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  And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you
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  will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
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  And when you just read it like that, it sounds like a warm,
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  settled blessing. Doesn't.
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  It it does very comforting. But you have to get the context
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  right away to feel the full weight of what he's saying.
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  Paul is writing this letter to the Philippians from prison.
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  Right. He isn't sitting in a study
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  somewhere lounging in freedom. He is, you know, literally in
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  chains, and his future is completely up in the air.
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  His freedom is gone, his human circumstances are about as
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  precarious as they can get, and yet his heart is overflowing
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  with this specific, settled resolve.
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  This is a promise that was forged in the fire of personal
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  difficulty. It is our investigation today is
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  really centered on this idea of divine continuity, the idea that
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  salvation you know from the very beginning, from conversion all
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  the way to glorification. It's 1 coherent unbroken
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  project. And it's run by God.
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  Run entirely by God. So for you, the listener, the
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  key thing to grasp here is that the guarantee Paul offers is
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  rooted completely in the reliability of God's character
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  and his purpose. It has nothing to do with our
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  fluctuating effort or emotion or stability.
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  OK. Let's start where Paul starts,
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  then, with that opening declaration.
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  I am sure of this. We really need to understand the
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  sheer absolute strength of his conviction when he chooses this
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  specific phrase. He.
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  Uses the Greek term papoitos, and the source material is very
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  clear that this is not casual phrasing.
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  It's a perfect participle from the verb patho, which means to
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  persuade or to be confident. And it's that perfect aspect of
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  the participle that carries the real weight, isn't it?
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  Because if you use a different tense, say the aorist, it would
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  just mean he was convinced at some point in the past.
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  Or the present tense might just describe how he's feeling at
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  that moment, right? A passing feeling.
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  But by using the perfect participle, Paul is signaling
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  something much stronger. He's saying that this persuasion
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  was formed, it reached a firm conclusion in the past, and now,
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  as he writes, it continues to stand.
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  It's immovable. So it describes A settled state
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  of mind, something that's been durably established.
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  Yes. It's not a tentative hope, It is
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  a theological verdict. Can you give us a kind of
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  analogy for that, for that perfect tense?
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  Something that might clarify the difference between just a
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  feeling and this this settled stance.
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  Sure. Think of a complex legal case.
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  If you've been persuaded that's the verb patho to a certain
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  conclusion, that could be a present feeling.
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  You know you're leaning one away.
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  OK, but pipoethos is like, the jury has already reached the
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  verdict. They've signed the document, the
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  judge is banging the gavel, the persuasion is complete, and that
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  verdict now stands in perpetuity.
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  So Paul is saying I have reached this final durable conclusion
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  and I am standing in it right now.
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  That's it. So the strength of his assurance
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  is established. The next question then is on
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  what does he anchor this assurance?
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  What does the source material say he explicitly rejects as a
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  foundation. Well, it seems he rejects
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  anything to do with human factors.
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  Right. His confidence does not rest on
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  the stability of the believers emotions, which you know can
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  change from one moment to the next.
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  No, absolutely not. It doesn't rest on the strength
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  of their will either, which is notoriously.
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  And, and this is critical, it doesn't rest on the health of
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  their circumstances. And for the Philippians, that
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  included facing some very real persecution.
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  So he's looking at Christians who are grappling with spiritual
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  warfare, with their own sin, with internal tensions in the
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  church, and yet he can state this with no reservation at all.
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  Yes, because his gaze is fixed entirely outside of the
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  Philippians themselves. The conviction rests solely on
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  the reliability of God's character.
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  The security comes from the one who initiates the action.
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  And we can see this focus on reliability bleeding into the
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  immediate context, can't we, in Philippians 1.5, which sets up
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  the timeline for this whole saving project?
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  We can Verse 5 mentions the Philippians partnership in the
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  Gospel from the first day until now.
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  That phrase establishes the temporal arc.
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  So what is that progression from the first day to until now?
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  What does that tell us about the relationship between God's work
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  in them and their own action? Well, the first day marks the
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  inception. That's the beginning of God's
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  good work in them, their conversion, the start of their
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  life in Christ. And until now.
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  Until now shows that their faith has been active, it's been
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  continuous. And this continuity shows itself
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  in their material support for Paul, in their generosity, and
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  in their willingness to stand firm for the gospel.
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  So wait. Their continued involvement
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  isn't the source of Paul's assurance, but it functions more
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  as the evidence that God's sustaining work is active in
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  them. That's a perfect way to put it.
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  The fact that the Philippians haven't quit, that they continue
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  in faith and generosity despite all the external pressure, that
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  proves that God's work in them isn't something temporary or
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  shallow. It has endurance.
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  It stretches continuously toward that ultimate conclusion.
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  So Paul observes the sustained operation, and then he
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  concludes, based on the character of the divine
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  initiator, that their story is not going to end in failure.
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  OK, let's shift our attention then to the beginning of this
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  saving work as it's described in the verse He who began a good
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  work in you. Now, even though the phrase just
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  uses the general he, the context right before it in verses 3 and
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  4 confirms who he's talking about.
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  He's gone. It's God.
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  Paul has been praying and giving thanks to God.
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  So the subject of this powerful action, the initiator, is God.
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  And that's critical because if the subject were just a human
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  preacher, or even the believers themselves, the promise of
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  completion would just collapse instantly.
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  Right. And the action itself is called
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  the good work, Ergon Agathon. We needed to find the scope of
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  this work really clearly to make sure we don't confuse it with,
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  say, human moral effort. Yes, the good work is it's
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  all-encompassing. It's rooted in God's own
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  goodness, Agathos. It is God's entire saving action
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  in them. So this work includes everything
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  from what the moment of eternal decree all the way to their
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  final glorification. That's scope.
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  Can we break those stages down a bit?
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  Yeah. What are the individual
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  components that Paul is packing into this single phrase?
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  Good work. Well, it certainly includes
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  regeneration, that new birth that makes faith possible in the
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  1st place. OK.
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  It includes the granting of faith itself, which the Bible
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  tells us it's a GIF. It covers justification or legal
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  standing before God. It covers adoption into God's
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  family. And the ongoing internal
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  sanctifying process. Yeah, that process that changes
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  our desires and our actions over time.
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  The work is internally complete in Christ from the moment of
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  faith, but it's outward manifestation, its effects, are
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  unfolded progressively throughout our life.
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  Now let's get a bit technical for a moment, but keep it
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  accessible. The Greek term for began is the
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  participle and Arxomonos. That means something like having
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  begun and this. Is a very significant word
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  choice. It's a relatively rare verb in
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  the New Testament. How is it?
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  It is in classical and secular Greek, and Arxomonos could carry
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  the sense of initiating something solemn, official,
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  something significant. It was used, for instance, when
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  setting your hand to a treaty or initiating A solemn ritual, or
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  maybe beginning a formal civic project.
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  So the choice of this specific word is designed to signal that
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  this isn't a casual start. It's not like deciding to take
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  up a new hobby. Not at all.
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  It stresses A decisive divine initiative.
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  It's an official opening act in history and in the soul of the
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  believer. It is emphatically not human
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  self starting. God took a solemn, decisive,
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  official first step into the lives of the Philippians.
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  That's the idea, and Paul uses this same verb elsewhere in a
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  way that's very instructive about the Spirit's work.
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  Where is that? In Galatians 3.3 he's scolding
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  them, and he says, are you so foolish?
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  Having begun by the Spirit? Are you now being perfected by
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  the flesh? So there's the link.
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  There's the link. It shows that the good work is
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  initiated by the Holy Spirit. And in Philippians 1.6, the
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  whole weight of the argument falls on the fact that God
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  Himself, through the Spirit, took that decisive initiating
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  step in the believer's life. So the theological conclusion
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  seems pretty unavoidable. Then, because God took this
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  solemn, decisive initiative, the security rests entirely on the
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  certainty that God himself will not abandon the project He
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  started. That is the core take away.
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  The nature of the beginning dictates the certainty of the
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  conclusion. If God starts a good work
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  defined by its goodness and rooted in his own character,
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  well, it's guaranteed not to fail halfway.
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  Which is why Paul's pipuethos, his settled stance, is so
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  logical. It's not just a feeling, it's
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  based on a settled historical fact God has begun.
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  So having established the security of the start, we can
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  now move to the equally secure promise of the finish will bring
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  it to completion. The verb here is epithelisay.
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  Right epithelisay. This is the critical future
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  action. It means to complete or to bring
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  through to its intended end, or to fully finish.
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  And it seems to have an intensified sense built into it.
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  That little epic prefix is doing some extra work there.
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  It is the prefix EPI intensifies the simple verb to lay, which
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  just means to finish. So it's emphasizing that God
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  won't just continue the work or bring it to, say, 90%
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  completion. He'll bring it to its full,
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  perfect conclusion. The project will hit 100%
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  completion. It will achieve its
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  predetermined design. And the guarantee is built right
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  into the grammar itself, the use of the future tense.
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  Yes, absolutely. The future tense signals an
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  objective certainty about the outcome.
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  God will execute this action. It's a promise, not just a
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  hopeful conjecture. This brings us to the very heart
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  of the verse, doesn't it? This idea of divine continuity.
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  This is where the syntax really solidifies the theology.
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  It does because the grammar ties the inception and the
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  consummation together. The subject of both of these
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  primary actions is one in the same God.
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  It's the same. Heap the same subject who is
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  having begun an Arcsomanos is the one who will bring it to
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  completion. Epitilase.
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  So this is not a relay race where God hands the baton over
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  to the human runner for the second lap.
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  It's God running the entire course himself and carrying the
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  believer with him. That analogy captures it
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  perfectly. The syntax dictates that
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  salvation is 1 seamless, continuous divine action.
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  There is no theological space in this text for the idea that
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  grace starts the race and then human will or effort has to
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  provide the sustaining energy for the rest of it.
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  But wait a second, a careful listener might push back there.
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  They might point to verse 5 where Paul mentions the
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  Philippians partnership in the gospel.
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  If God does all the work, why does Paul acknowledge their
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  continuous action? Doesn't that reintroduce a human
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  element into the equation? That is a critical, probing
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  question, and the answer is that the human element, their
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  partnership, their faith, their perseverance is the necessary
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  fruit and the effect of God's continuous work.
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  It's not the cause or the basis of it.
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  So the Philippians persevere because God is preserving them.
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  That's it. If their perseverance were the
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  independent basis for their completion, then Paul's
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  assurance would have to rest on their action, not on God's
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  character. But Paul grounds his papoiso
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  solely in the nature of the initiator.
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  God preserves them by moving them to freely and willingly
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  continue in that partnership. So their continuity is the
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  visible manifestation of God's invisible continuity.
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  You've got it. The text provides a direct
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  argument against separating the start and the finish, and the
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  implication is, well, it's huge. God does not abandon his
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  projects. If he starts a sovereign good
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  work, He is bound by his own faithfulness to bring it to
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  fruition. And finally, this whole idea of
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  continuity has to be anchored Christologically.
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  Oh, it is entirely Christ centered.
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  The certainty is anchored in the unassailable sufficiency of
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  Christ's merit and His finished work.
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  Christ is the foundation of the good work.
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  He's the foundation. Justification, reconciliation,
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  the spirits and dwelling all come through him, but He is also
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  the objective goal of the work, which is final, sinless likeness
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  to Him at the day of Jesus Christ.
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  He is the Alpha and the Omega of salvation.
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  So that guarantee of completion is given a specific timeline at
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  the day of Jesus Christ. This phrase directs our gaze
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  forward to the the eschatological horizon.
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  It's a highly specific marker. The Day of Jesus Christ is
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  Paul's clear identifier for the climax of history.
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  It echoes the Old Testament's Day of the Lord language, but
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  it's focused specifically on the Messianic return.
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  What events define this day? Are we looking at a single
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  climactic event, or is it more like a series of interconnected
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  final events? It really refers to the
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  climactic second advent of Christ, and that incorporates
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  corporates, the resurrection of the dead, the final judgement,
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  and for believers, the ultimate consummation of their
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  redemption. This state, this moment in
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  history, is the specified time for God's saving action in the
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  believer to reach its absolute zenith.
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  OK, So what is the nature of this completion?
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  What's the finished product of the good work that God began?
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  The goal is nothing less than the believers full glorification
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  and perfect conformity to Christ.
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  The good work resolves all the temporary, flawed and sinful
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  aspects of a believer's life in existence.
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  So the work began with a spiritual alteration,
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  regeneration, and it concludes with a total alteration which
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  includes the physical body. Right.
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  And This is why Paul addresses the physical aspects elsewhere
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  in the same letter. In Philippians chapter 3 he
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  writes that Christ will alter our lowly body to be like His
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  glorious body. So the completion means
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  believers will be perfectly conformed to Him both in spirit
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  and in their erected body. This perfect likeness isn't just
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  a spiritual upgrade, it involves our entire being.
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  Body and soul. Body and soul brought into full
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  correspondence with Christo's glorified humanity.
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  When Paul speaks of completion, he means standing, resurrected,
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  purified and perfected, without stain or blemish before their
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  Lord. This is the moment when the
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  internal, often hidden, work of sanctification is fully revealed
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  on the outside. And this completion is often
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  described as the unveiling of God's eternal purpose.
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  Yes, it is the realization of the deepest purpose God had from
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  eternity. If we connect this to the
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  broader biblical storyline, God purpose to conform his people to
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  the image of his Son, to make them like him.
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  The day of Jesus Christ is the historical moment that eternal
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  purpose is made visible and unassailable.
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  The final sinless likeness to Christ is the predetermined
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  endpoint of the good work that began with an arxomatos.
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  That's the end of the project. So we can transition now from
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  the detailed exegesis of the verse to the sweeping doctrine
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  it supports. The promise of Philippians 1.6
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  provides the logical necessity for a core tenet of Reformed
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  theology. It provides the inescapable
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  logic for the doctrine known as the perseverance of the Saints.
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  This is the point where assurance moves from, you know,
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  a pastoral sentiment to a settled logical theological
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  certainty. And we?
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  Have to be really precise in our definition here, because the
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  term perseverance of the Saints can mislead people.
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  It can make them think. It depends on the sheer human
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  grit of the believer. That is the critical
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  misunderstanding. The doctrine is much better
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  understood as the preservation of the Saints by God, which then
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  results in the perseverance of the believer.
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  OK, because God begins the work and promises to certainly
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  complete it. As we see in 1.6, salvation
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  cannot rise or fall on the instability of human will or our
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  fleeting emotions. The sources affirm that this
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  certainty has been systematized in the Reformed tradition.
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  How does the Westminster Confession capture this truth?
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  The Westminster Confession of Faith in Chapter 7 gives the
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  formal summary. It asserts that those whom God
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  has effectually called and justified I'm quoting here can
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  neither totally nor finally fall away from the state of grace,
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  but shall certainly persevere therein to the end and be
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  eternally saved. The key phrase there seems to be
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  neither totally nor finally that guards against the idea that
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  temporary struggles or even serious sins mean God's work is
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  undone. Right, but it still requires
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  ultimate continuation. It's not a claim about sinless
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  perfection in this life. It's about ultimate security.
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  Perseverance is a necessary consequence of God's determined
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  saving purpose. It plays out because God's
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  original intention is effectual. So if God's purpose could be
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  defeated by a human choice at the final moment, then His
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  sovereignty and salvation would be incomplete.
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  And that would directly contradict the unified action we
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  see in Philippians 1.6. So this doctrine is secured by
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  the triune work of preservation, which guarantees the divine
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  continuity we analyzed earlier. Let's detail the mechanisms God
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  uses to secure the believers final state.
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  Well, we have to start with Christ's ongoing mediatorial
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  work. Christ is the living, active
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  mediator who personally guarantees the believers
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  perseverance. How does his present work
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  guarantee our future safety? The source material draws on the
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  idea from Hebrews 7.25 that Christ always lives to make
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  intercession for those who draw near to God.
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  So Christ's prayer for his people is based on the authority
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  of his finished work on the cross, and his prayer is always
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  effective. If Christ is actively praying
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  for our final safety, then that safety is secured.
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  His intercession is the essential living thread that
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  ties our present struggle to our certain glorification.
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  And then the Holy Spirit acts as the immediate agent of
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  preservation, working within the believer's life.
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  Yes, the Holy Spirit is the agent by which God carries
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  forward the good work. He unites the believer to
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  Christ. He regenerates the heart.
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  And critically, the Spirit applies the sanctifying work,
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  ensuring that God's purpose to make us like Christ is
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  sustained. So the Saints persevere because
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  the Holy Spirit continues to strive against the flesh convict
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  of sin. And to prompt genuine acts of
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  faith and obedience, God preserves them by making them
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  willing to persevere. And the method of preservation
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  also includes the trials and difficulties of life, doesn't
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  it? These struggles often feel like
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  threats to our continuance, but in this view they are
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  instruments of preservation. Absolutely.
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  God exercises superintendence over all of the believers
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  circumstances. Paul himself, writing from
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  prison, is a prime example of this.
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  The trials are not random obstacles that might sever the
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  link. They are divinely ordained
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  instruments intended to refine faith, increase dependence on
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  God, and move the believer toward holiness.
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  So God uses the means of grace, scripture, prayer, the
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  sacraments, and even painful providences to guarantee the
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  final state of His people. All of it is part of the process
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  of completion. Understanding this ironclad
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  security presented in Philippians 1.6 brings us to a
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  clear contrast with theological systems that introduce human
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  instability as the decisive factor for final salvation.
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  We should characterize these contrasts before showing how 1.6
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  provides the rebuttal. OK, the first major contract is
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  with classical Armenian theology, which stresses the
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  necessity of maintained human cooperation.
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  And what is the core conviction in that system regarding the
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  security of a truly regenerated believer?
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  The teaching is that a truly born again believer can exercise
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  their free will to totally and finally fall away from the state
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  of grace and be lost. So the ultimate decisive factor
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  for final salvation rests on the believers maintained free will.
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  Yes, and their continuous cooperation with Grace.
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  So if that's the case, how do they handle a verse like
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  Philippians 1.6 which seems to exclude human decision from the
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  final outcome? Well, they often interpret the
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  we'll bring it to completion part as a statement of God's
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  capability or his desire, but they see it as still
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  conditional, conditional upon the believer fulfilling certain
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  requirements. Which they might pull from other
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  conditional commands in scripture, like if you continue
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  in the faith. Right.
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  So this interpretation requires that God's initiation, his in
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  opsominos is powerful, but his completion, his epithelisay is
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  conditional, is dependent on the human partner not quitting.
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  The result is a fundamental severance of the saving action.
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  God starts, but man has to maintain and finish.
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  You've got it. Paul says he who began will
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  complete. The Armenian scheme introduces a
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  necessary human veto over God's stated plan for completion.
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  But the text places the subject of both the beginning and the
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  completion firmly in God's hands.
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  The verse argues that the reliability of God's nature
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  guarantees the final product regardless of the believers
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  daily momentary fluctuations in self generated woolpower.
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  The second theological system that's contrasted is Roman
• 21:13
  Catholic theology, which handles grace and assurance very
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  differently. How does that position the
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  believer when it comes to final certainty?
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  Roman Catholic theology positions the believer in a much
• 21:23
  more precarious, uncertain state.
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  Grace is conceived as something that's infused, say, a baptism,
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  and it can be lost through mortal sin.
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  And then it requires regainment and increase through the complex
• 21:34
  Sacramento system. Right through penance and
• 21:36
  meritorious works. So instead of a continuous
• 21:38
  divine preservation, the believer status is stop, start.
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  It is entirely start start. A single mortal sin wipes away
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  justifying grace, making the person an enemy of God and
• 21:49
  eternally lost until they can access the sacrament of
• 21:52
  reconciliation. This framework inherently erodes
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  any kind of robust settled assurance, any poythos about
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  one's final state. Because the possibility of dying
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  in a state of mortal sin always looms.
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  It always looms, and Philippians 1.6 speaks a direct counter word
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  to this. It presents God's work as a
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  determined covenantal commitment, a solemn initiation
• 22:15
  that cannot be defeated by temporary human failure because
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  God has already secured the final completion.
• 22:21
  It's not a fragile project constantly teetering on the
• 22:23
  brink of collapse. No, it's a secured divine act.
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  This certainty leads us directly to the great practical result of
• 22:29
  all this Christian assurance. How does this stabilize the
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  believer when they look at their own imperfect spiritual
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  condition? It stabilizes the believer by
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  anchoring their assurance outside of themselves, outside
• 22:41
  their changing moods, outside their inconsistent performance,
• 22:44
  and into God's unchanging purpose.
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  Assurance does not rest on the subjective intensity of your
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  faith one day or the consistency of your emotions.
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  It rests on the objective fact that God has pledged by His very
• 22:57
  character to complete the work He began.
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  For the trembling believer, the person who feels more of their
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  own sin than they do progress, this must be so settling.
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  It is the ultimate studying word.
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  It assures them that God will not abandon His project halfway
• 23:12
  through. And this security allows the
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  believer to confront their sin honestly, to confess their
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  weakness without despairing, and to endure trials secure in
• 23:21
  Christ's script, knowing that God is actively working even in
• 23:24
  their failures to shape them for glorification.
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  But we have to address the popular distortion of this
• 23:29
  doctrine that shallow once saved, always saved slogan.
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  The divorce is a profession of faith from any genuine spiritual
• 23:35
  alteration. Oh, that distortion is
• 23:37
  dangerous. It's dangerous because it
• 23:39
  mystifines the good work. Oh so.
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  The good work that God began includes progressive
• 23:44
  sanctification. The work is morally and
• 23:46
  spiritually good. It's rooted in God's own
• 23:49
  goodness, and it unfolds in a bounding love and knowledge and
• 23:53
  purity and the fruit of righteousness, all things Paul
• 23:56
  addresses later in the same chapter.
• 23:58
  So God preserves the believer by making them holy, not in spite
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  of their lack of holiness. That's the point.
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  Those whom God preserves, He also progressively sanctifies.
• 24:07
  Perseverance is defined as a spirit empowered continuation in
• 24:11
  faith and holiness. It is not a license for
• 24:14
  spiritual laziness or for rebellion.
• 24:16
  If the good work truly began, the believer will pursue
• 24:19
  obedience. The security of the completion
• 24:22
  acts as an incentive for holiness, not an excuse to avoid
• 24:25
  it. It frees us to obey, knowing our
• 24:28
  effort contributes to the means but not to the final end.
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  Finally, let's think about the pastoral application here for
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  leaders and congregations involved in the daily life of
• 24:38
  the church. What does this promise free
• 24:40
  leaders to do? It frees leaders from a frantic
• 24:42
  reliance on human ingenuity, or on programs, or on manipulative
• 24:46
  pragmatism that's just designed to keep people in the system.
• 24:49
  I see that. When leaders are burdened by
• 24:51
  slow progress in their people or internal strife in the church or
• 24:55
  outward pressure, Philippians 1.6 acts as a vital corrective.
• 24:59
  They can labor steadily in the ordinary means of grace,
• 25:02
  preaching prayer, pastoral discipline, trusting that the
• 25:06
  future of the church rests entirely on the faithfulness of
• 25:08
  God who builds His church. So the continuity of the work is
• 25:11
  God's responsibility, not the leaders human capability.
• 25:14
  He is. So to summarize this single
• 25:16
  verse, Philippians 1.6 establishes that the one
• 25:19
  coherent divine project of salvation is secured by the fact
• 25:22
  that the strength of the believers grip on Christ is
• 25:26
  secondary compared to the strength of Christ's grip on the
• 25:28
  believer. Yes, the work from NR.
• 25:30
  Somonos to epitalase is God's from start to finish.
• 25:34
  And as we conclude this deep dive, take a moment to consider
• 25:37
  the context again. Paul wrote this promise while he
• 25:40
  was imprisoned, knowing his own human future was precarious and
• 25:43
  uncertain. Give that reality.
• 25:46
  What aspect of your present struggle, whether it's slow
• 25:48
  growth or a personal failing or external pressure, can you now
• 25:52
  reinterpret not as a sign of failure, but as part of God's
• 25:56
  determined plan to bring you all the way to a final, sinless
• 25:59
  likeness to Christ? The presence of the struggle is
• 26:01
  often the very arena in which God is most actively at work,
• 26:04
  faithfully carrying forward that good work He initiated.
• 26:08
  Thank you for taking this deep dive into the assurance secured
• 26:10
  in Philippians 1.6.