The life that God has given us is the life of His Son. All whom He has called He has also justified, and all whom He has justified He counts as already glorified. God never begins anything that He does not bring to completion. The world may start that which it cannot finish, but God says: “He which hath begun a good work in you, will keep on perfecting it until the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6, author’s translation). Here are all three of the great doctrines of God’s work within us. He which hath begun a good work in you – that is justification – will keep on perfecting it – that is sanctification – until the day of Jesus Christ – that is glorification. There is no change in God, and there will be no change in His work in us.
Christ taught the people “as one who had authority, and not as their scribes” (Matthew 7:29). Follow Him, filled with His Spirit, and speak with like assurance. Luke begins to write “of those things which are most surely believed among us” (Luke 1:1 KJV). John writes with a certainty that is one of the marks of his authorship. We turn his Gospel and read: “But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” (John 20:31). God is not primarily interested in the intellectual opinions of men, but He does want them to believe with that belief which produces life. He wants them to believe as one who believes the simple statements God has made concerning the death of His Son.
There was a group of people in the Galatian Church that believed and taught falsehood. To them, the Holy Spirit wrote, “O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? (…) Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having b
God the Father, the righteous One and the Holy One, demands of us that which we do not possess. The right hand of His holiness is extended toward us, and He demands that we give Him holiness equal to His own. His very nature requires him to ask perfection of all who would enter His presence, there to live and abide in fellowship with Him forever.
