THE ONES WHO KEEPS US
“He will also keep you firm to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, who has called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.” 1 Corinthians 1:8-9 NIV
From start to finish, the work of salvation is God’s.
We humans get in and over our heads by trying to accomplish in the flesh what began in the Spirit. Religiousness creeps in when we shift our gaze from the sheer mercy that took us out of unbelief and without our doing, to performing what only grace — enables in our own doing.
Grace-enabled works flow from intimacy; human will driven works on the other hand, strive for approval. When grace is your source, obedience becomes a response of love. When self-effort takes the lead however, even good works become heavy, and inwardly exhausting.
The gospel reminds us that we did not reason our way into Christ, nor discipline ourselves into hunger for Him. It was God who called and drew us to Himself. It was Him who awakened our dead hearts to desire what we once resisted. And this same faithful God who initiated this fellowship does not step aside and ask us to sustain it by resolve.
Child of God, grace does not merely pardon our beginning, it preserves our continuing. It keeps us from falling when we are most unaware of our own weakness. May rest be your portion as you remember that the same grace that saved us is the grace that carries us home.
Prayer: My Father, I thank you that our salvation is final. I thank you for calling us into fellowship with your Son, awakening our hearts to desire Him, and for sustaining us when our own resolve would fail. Guard us from striving in the flesh and draw us back, again and again, to grace as our source. Teach us to trust the hand that keeps us firm to the end. We rest in your faithfulness, knowing you will finish what you have begun. In Jesus’ name, amen.
CI.
RELATED RESOURCES
• John 6:44
• 2 Timothy 1:9
• Romans 11:6
