FAITHFUL IS HE

"And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Faithful is He that calleth you, Who also will do it." (1 Thessalonians 5:23, 24).

 

God's salvation is perfect and all-encompassing.  Christ is able to save completely, or as the King James says, "to the uttermost," those who come to God through Him. (Hebrews 7:25).  Saint Paul's prayer and desire for the Christians in Thessalonica - and for you and me as well - was that we be sanctified wholly, and that our whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless until Jesus returns. 

 

Many Christians are living far below their potential, however.  They are besieged by habitual sins that keep them in a state of guilt, anxiety, frustration, and doubt.  They find themselves overcome by the very things that Christ came to save them from.  Lust, addiction, anger, bitterness, greed, pride - all of these things and many more beset them until they are convinced that this is the normal state of the Christian.  But Christ came to deliver us from our sins, and give us power to live changed lives!  We are told that God's divine power has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness.  There is, therefore, nothing lacking in the supply of grace that God has made available to you and me.  The problem lies with our thinking that grace is a blanket that covers our sins and makes everything that we do alright.  Grace is much more than that.  It is the power to overcome sin and temptation as well as the forgiveness for past sins.  It is an unlimited resource that we access by faith in the finished work of Christ.  Furthermore, God has given us many precious promises so that by believing in the validity of those promises we can tap into His very nature and thereby escape the corruption that is engulfing the world (see 2 Peter 1:3, 4).

 

For those who are yet struggling with sin, Paul provides a simple remedy.  He says, "Faithful is He that calleth you, Who also will do it."  Just as God was faithful to call you and you have trusted in and rested in that call, now trust also in the fact that Christ Himself will work in you what you can’t do by yourself, and what He called you for in the first place.  "But as He which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy." (1 Peter 1:15,16 Philips).  The very same faith that you exercised in Christ when you accepted Him as your Savior, is that which you can now employ to give you power over every sin.  You had no problem trusting that He could forgive your sins; now trust that He has delivered you altogether from those sins!  Christ is not just the Author of our salvation; He is also the Finisher!  You are complete in Him!  Oh, how we need to place all our faith in Him so that we can receive all of the salvation that He has purchased for us with His life!

 

“…for it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.” (Philippians 2:13).

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