Month: April 2019

247. Content

Philippians 4:11Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.

God promises that we can be content, but it is conditional: you have to learn it. If you learn to be content, then you will be content. Contentment is a promise of God, but it must be learned in order to attain it. Thankfully, the Holy Spirit is willing and able to teach it to us. He uses the Word of God and the circumstances of life as the tools that shape and conform us to His image. God is content, and as we learn to reflect God’s image we also will be content.

Contentment is peace and calm with my current situation, whether relatively rich or poor. Paul says he learned; therefore, he says he really has no want. He lacks nothing. He may actually lack some things that others have, but he is satisfied with his state, whatever it may be. So if he is content and satisfied he can honestly say he has no want. Want is not defined by the amount of possessions and money; it is defined by a contented state of mind; peace rules; it is internal, not external. Contentment depends on the internal state, not the outward circumstances.

Want can mean either lack or desire. If I am in want of something, it may apply either to need or to greed. If I need it God will provide it; if God doesn’t provide it I don’t need it. Greed simply says, “I want more. I want something I don’t have.” Greed and covetousness is a deadly sin that is extremely difficult to get rid of. If we could really learn to be content with whatsoever state we are in we could say, “I do not want; I am content.”

Learning contentment may seem impossible, but God is in the business of the impossible. He has done it already and He can do it again. He is willing to teach if we are willing to learn. But there is the problem: we don’t want to learn. We would rather complain or feel sorry for myself or blame others than we would learn to be content. We will resist the learning, but God will not give up the teaching. God wants us to be content.

246. The God of Peace with us

Philippians 4:9Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you.

This conditional promise concerns the Word of God. If you have learned, received, heard and seen the Word, then the God of peace will be with you. What the Philippians have received from Paul is the Gospel. So for us, the reader: we have heard the Gospel, but then the important word is added: DO! We do not do the Gospel; Jesus does the Gospel; He is the Gospel. We do it by believing and receiving it, and then we repent and change our ways according to the Law, which convicts of sin and brings us to the Gospel. We do not forgive sins, we receive it; we do not work salvation, we believe it; we do not earn eternal life, we live it as a free gift.

Jesus does say, “He who hears these words of mine and doesthem…” So how do we do the words? We don’t; we can’t. We believe Jesus to do it for us. Hearing by itself, letting the Word pass through and out the ears again, does not do it. Doing the words means taking them to heart, applying them to myself, and using the power of the Gospel to begin doing them. Doing the Gospel involves sincere repentance and genuine faith that results in works. That house will stand; that one will be blessed.

For the one who does those things the God of peace shall be with you. This is the promise. Jesus says He will be with us always to the end of the age. But this promise, that the God of peace will be with us, is a particular promise for individual times when we need His presence. When He shows up He brings peace, for He is the God of peace; He comes to be with us in a special way; He blesses.

The one who does those things is blessed; he hears and does both Law and Gospel. We hear the Law not to change our ways and start doing it, but we hear the Law to receive the Gospel, which has to power to change our ways. We receive the Gospel, but we do the Law, but we do it by the power of the Gospel. James says we do not look at the mirror and forget what we look like: no, we look at the law of liberty and become a doer who acts; “he will be blessed in his doing.” (James 1: 22-25). Then the God of peace will be with us. 

245. Peace of God Keeps

Philippians 4:7 And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

The peace of God will keep your hearts and minds. This is actually a conditional promise: if you pray and let your requests be made known unto God, then the peace of God shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. God has promised peace to the heart in other places unconditionally, being justified by faith in Christ. But here the promise is that the peace of God in the heart will keep, or guard, the heart and the mind. Peace becomes an active force that really does something. It keeps the heart safe from enemy attacks, insidious worries, inner strife, and deceitful lies.

We have peace with God already, by faith, but we need the peace of God to be actively engaged in the keeping and guarding process. We need the promise of peace that actually works. Peace is stronger than war and strife, peace is stronger than anxiety and worry, and peace is stronger than unrest and turmoil. The peace of God is the calm in the storm. We need peace and we have it; we also need that peace to be useful in keeping the heart and mind safe so that we may rest and be at ease.

The condition is in the previous verse (v. 6): “Be careful for nothing (don’t be full of worry about anything); but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.” Then the promise comes: “Peace will guard.” We will always have worries and anxieties; that’s a part of life in this world. The advice given here is to turn the worry into a prayer and a request. God knows about it already, but if we pray about it then we know God knows. The result of that request is that the peace of God will guard your heart and mind. You have left the matter with God and thus there is nothing left for you to do. This is how the peace of God keeps your heart. And we note that this is the peace ofGod. He is at peace; He is not worried about the problem because He knows what He is going to do about it. If God is at peace, then I can be at peace.

The peace of God is beyond our understanding. We don’t know what God will do and we don’t know why God is not anxious: we don’t understand. Since we don’t see we must believe; that is why He gives us this promise. If you prayed about the matter, let it go and be at peace; it’s God’s problem now.

244. A Glorious Body

Philippians 3:21 Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.

God makes a promise for our lowly body: it will be changed. This is the promise of the resurrection of the body. The change our bodies will undergo is really very remarkable. When the soul leaves the body the body corrupts, decays and disintegrates whether buried or cremated. Then the body, apparently the dust and ashes that are left of it, will be changed into a glorious body. The new body grows out of the old oneas a tree grows out of a seed. It has the same DNA but it looks very much different. 

It seems that each glorious body will be recognizable but so much transformed that it will appear so different. We cannot imagine a body that never dies, never gets sick, never gets weak, never is injured, and never gets old. We also cannot imagine a body that is wonderfully beautiful and perfect, reflecting the light of glory.

The changed body will be like Jesus’ glorious body. We get some small glimpse into the “spiritual body” when we look at the resurrected Jesus. His body appeared and disappeared and yet it was physical so that He could eat food, and the eating seems to be for enjoyment and not for nourishment. The same almighty power that subdues everything is the power that changes each body. We can imagine and we can dream what the change will be like, but it will certainly exceed our imagination.

This is the promise: your body will change from vile to glorious, from ugly to beautiful, from temporal to eternal, from weak to strong, The perishable body will be raised imperishable; the mortal shall put on immortality, and we will be ichanged. 

Not only will the body change, but also the environment will change accordingly to accommodate such a glorious body. There will be a new heaven and new earth and all creation yearns for the redemption of the humans so that then the environment will also be “resurrected,” or recreated. And so do we long for the “change.”

243. God Works in You

Philippians 2:13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

God promises that He will work in us. We are not left on our own to figure out what to do that is good and right. We don’t have to wonder what is pleasing to God. We don’t have to try to use our own willpower and ability to do good works. The truth is the human will is naturally bound and does not want to do His good pleasure. The truth is that ability to actually do His good pleasure is not present in us. Sin gets in the way and Self rules what we choose to do.

I am not able to work: the good I would I do not; the evil I do not want I do. Therefore, God must work in me. If He does not work, it doesn’t get done. For this reason God gives me a promise. He will work. He will do what I can’t.

One of the mysteries of the Christian life that we cannot learn by observation or experience is distinguishing what God is doing and what am I doing. We cannot understand “Jesus in me.” Since we cannot understand God’s working in our life we need the promises of God’s Word to show us what is going on. A simple but hard truth that we can understand but don’t want to believe is this: if I do a good work it is God who did it, and if I do a bad work it is I who did it. The praise goes only to God, but the blame goes only to me. I do not get the credit for any genuine good thing I have done: God did it; God works. And God never gets the blame for any sin and evil that takes place. This sounds unfair, but it is really most refreshing and comforting. It leaves me with one duty: I thank and praise, I serve and obey, Him. I repent and believe. 

When my attention and consciousness is focused on Christ I can let Him work. He will always do what is good and right. He promises that He will work in me.

242. To Die is Gain

Philippians 1:21 For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

Paul is talking here about physical life and physical death, not spiritual or eternal life and death. While we are alive Christ is everything: He is our Life, our Hope, our Peace, our Joy, etc. And when we die it is gain; for then the Christ life continues forever and the sin body is gone forever.We have the Life now, which is Christ, but we also have alongside it the body of sin and death. Later we will have only the Life, which will never be compromised by Sin and Death ever again forever. The Life (Christ) doesn’t really change. It just loses Sin and Death and lives unfettered forever: this is gain. 

We don’t actually gain anything new, because we already have Christ, who is our Life; but we lose something that prevents our fully enjoying that Life. It is the enjoyment and experiencing of that Life that is gained. It will feel like a tremendous gain, and we cannot imagine the glorious experience of unbound life, chained as we are to sin and death. 

Life is great now. What will life be like without enemies? It will be gain. We cannot see how much better it will be because we don’t really know how bad life is now for we do not want to admit how bad we are. 

Paul says he doesn’t know which to choose, but he, like us, chooses to live with Christ now for as long as God grants it. Selfishly, we would just as soon go to be with the Lord, but unselfishly, we want to live in a loving relationship with others. “To remain in the flesh in more necessary on your account (v. 24).”

If you ask yourself, “Why am I still alive?” The answer is: “Others.” God definitely has me here for a reason. When the mission is complete, then I will gain.

241. Filled with Fruit

Philippians 1:11 Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God.

Because we have the promise of being filled with the fruit of righteousness Paul prays that the Philippians may abound in love and approve what is excellent. The power to love and approve comes from this promise: we are filled with fruit. The fruit of the tree comes from the vine, which is Christ. When we “abide in the Vine” we will produce fruit. This is the fruit of the Spirit, here called the fruit of righteousness. The fruit looks like love, joy, peace, etc.

Faith in Christ is the key: faith is being filled, abiding in Christ, and receiving the Gospel of Jesus Christ. “Fruit” should be translated singular, not plural. The fruit of righteousness is one whole thing; it is what the whole life looks like. This fruit of righteousness is “by Jesus Christ,” for it is He who does it all and gets the credit. His love abounds more and more and He approves what is excellent; and He does it all to the glory of God. We do not get the credit, but we do enjoy the benefits.

Paul prays for us, and we also pray for ourselves and others, that the Christ who lives in us by faith, and the Holy Spirit of God who fills us, will actually be evident in the life we live. The world (other people, including our own selves) cannot see Christ, but they can see the evidence of His indwelling: they will glorify God, and not us. When people see our good life they will say, or at least ought to think: “God is good; God is here.” They should not say: “He is a good man.” Of course, it doesn’t work that way, but in the ideal world of the Kingdom that is the way it is. Our prayer is that this inner fruit will be outwardly evident. This is how we are taught to pray: “Hallowed be Thy name, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done” in us,in me individually, in my family, in my church, and in all fellow believers. Luther teaches that each of these petitions ends with “among us.”

This prayer for Name, Kingdom and Will among us is daily repentance and faith in the Gospel. Doing good works and living out the inner faith will be done among us when we get out of the way, die to self, and trust the Savior. This involves prayer, according to Jesus command and promise (“when you pray, say…”). Evidencing inward faith resulting in good works does not involve outward show, trying to do better, working harder, fleshly effort or self-willpower. It does involve contrition and faith, receiving forgiveness, trusting Jesus, and then getting up from your knees and going about living.

240. Partakers of Grace

Philippians 1:7 Ye are all the partakers of my grace.

Paul reminds the Philippian believers that he has them in his heart because they are partakers with him of grace. He states as a fact: we all are partakers of grace. The same kind of grace, the same abundant grace and the same amazing grace that I have received you have also received. And we each have all of God’s grace; we do not just get a piece or a share of God’s grace. God’s grace is so expansive that it covers and fills each one of us with more than we can believe or hold on to. The Grace of God through Jesus Christ is so broad and deep that it covers all the sins of all the people of all history in time and space. That’s billions of people; and there is still more left over for the billions of people yet to be born. We all partake of it.

The same amazing grace that bestows untold blessings upon all the people that have ever lived on the earth is given to me to partake of as well. The same grace that is in me is in you. The same grace that is in you is in me. When we fellowship with believers when we gather together in Jesus’ name, when we partake of the same heavenly banquet, when he listen to the same Gospel we are sharing the grace of God. 

We know how true it is during those times when we fellowship with fellow believers whom we like. It is also true when we get acquainted with believers we don’t like so much. Remember, they have the same grace that you do.

But there are many people all around us who are not sharing in the grace we have joyfully received. But God still loves unbelievers and wants to share His grace with them; they just haven’t realized it yet. Nevertheless, we can love them and share life with them as potential partakers of grace. Just like we love the unborn, we also love those who are not yet born again. God loves them and grants the same grace; they just haven’t received it yet, remaining in unbelief. If we can see all other people as potential or actual recipients of grace (the same grace we have), we might treat them differently. If we see persons as partakers of grace we treat them one way; if we see them as sinners we treat them another way. For this reason we need this promise: we are all partakers of grace. We just pray that some who don’t yet have it will receive it. Go ahead and give grace; you won’t run out.

239. Good Work Completed

Philippians 1:6 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.

God will finish what He started: that’s a sure promise. God did not initiate anything and then quit on it, never finishing the project. Anything! Even that which Sin and Evil stopped, God is restoring it and He will finish the job. God performs! Count on it; be confident of it.

And be confident of this very thing: He began a good work in you, and He will perform it, that is, compete the job; the good work in you will be finished One Day. He will never quit working on you until the Day that Jesus returns. Every day that we are alive on the earth is a day that God is doing something to grow us on to perfection.And He will not stop until the job is finished. The Lord will present to Himself a finished and polished product.

That character that He started to build in us upon conversion will be developed until it is fully righteous. The behavior that He began working on will be perfected until it is holy. The life thatHe birthed will grow abundantly unto fullness. The personalityHe renewed in us will be polished until it becomes exactly what God designed it to be. 

Each redeemed believer is a project for the Lord. It is not a project for us to perform, to try hard to improve our lives. It is God’s work; He began it and He will work on it until it is finished. And God’s work is a good work. We may find some fascination is watching God at work, but we don’t really understand why He is doing what He is doing. Instead of thanking Him for everything and believing His promises that He is doing something good, we would rather complainabout life in the wilderness, about the cruelty of the world, about the sins of other people, and finally about God.  “Why? Why doesn’t He make it better?”

We, as sinners, continue to put obstacles in the way of God’s work. We quit; we stop, we faint, we get weary, we give up. But thank God we have this promise. He says, “I fix up what you messed up, I clean up what you dirtied, I write straight on your crooked lines; and no matter how much you mess it up I am just going to keep on working and fixing it up (unless you order me to stop). You may want to quit, but I never will. So just be patient, I’m not finished with you yet.”

We may say, “Just do it.” God says, “Fear not, I am doing it.”

238. Grace

Ephesians 6:24 Gracebe with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. Amen.

This promise could be: 1) unconditional, and it is, conditioned on the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, 2) conditional, in that ifyou love Jesus then grace is with you, or 3) just a wish, as, “I wish all of you who love Jesus would show grace.” We take it as unconditional since grace by definition is not conditioned by anything, or then it would not be grace. It could be taken as a wish, but that is not the nature of a benediction. For a benediction bestows the very blessing it speaks of.

Grace already is with those who love Jesus; these are the believers in Christ, because to believe in Jesus is to know Him and to know Him is to love Him. The wish does not produce, or pray to produce, more grace; it is simply to let the grace you have received be activated, shared, and shining forthwithin the group of fellow Christians. True faith in Christ loves the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. Faith has received all the grace of God there is; He does give grace piecemeal. The problem is that it is hidden away, tucked underneath a covering of sin and pride and self. Repent and believe the Gospel, and do not be afraid to openly share grace with one another.

Grace is an unconditional promise that is given free of charge to faith, which receives the grace. Faith is also a gift, worked in us by the Holy Spirit through the Gospel; it is not worked up by usin the flesh, because there is no good dwelling in us that is able to believe the grace of God. Grace is so unbelievable that it must be a miracle worked by the Spirit. Grace by definition is free, free to us but very expensive to the God-man, who gave His life at great cost. Grace is not just a theological construct or a theoretical idea; it is a living force that actively effects forgiveness of sins, life and eternal salvation.

“Grace be with you” does not mean grace is vacant, that you are empty; it may simply mean that the grace in you is dormant, while you are going about your daily life and work in the flesh without using the grace you have. God will activate it. “Grace be with all of you,” means that it can be smoothing out the relationships between one another; grace can be evident is our fellowship.