God Finishes What He Starts | Bible Gleanings | June 8-9, 2024

An artist may have half-completed paintings in his studio for lack of time and inspiration. A woodworker may have half-built bookcases and desks in his shop because of a shortage of labor and supplies. A mechanic may have half-finished project cars in his garage due to preoccupation with other pressing matters. A tailor may have half-completed garments in their sewing room due to scarce materials. But there are no half-Christians in the workshop of salvation because God always finishes what He starts. 

The apostle Paul promised, “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” (Phil. 1:6, KJV). And the point is clear: God makes whole Christians out of unholy sinners and He will sustain them wholly by His grace until Christ Jesus returns. God cannot lie and He has sworn in the testimony of Scripture that if He saved you, He will keep you. It is more probable for the oceans to dry, the sun to cease shining, and God to no longer be God, than for you to lose your salvation. There is no “undo” button for conversion. 

You will never fall off of the potter’s wheel as clay being conformed to Christ (Rom. 8:29). You can never evict the Holy Spirit from the home of your heart (Eph. 1:13). You can never erase your name from Lamb’s Book of Life (Rev. 3:5). You cannot loosen God’s saving grip on your soul (1 Pet. 1:5). You cannot renounce your citizenship in heaven (Phil. 3:20).

The Lord Jesus promised as much in the Gospel of John when he said, “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day” (John 6:37-39). He likewise assured in John 10, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand” (John 10:27-28).

And God will keep you saved until the end of history and the beginning of eternity. When Christ returns bodily and triumphantly, you will be a finished product. Paul said it best in Romans 8: “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified” (Romans 8:29-30).

Brandon is the pastor of Bandana Baptist Church in Bandana, Kentucky, where he lives with his wife, Dakota, and their three dogs, Susie, Aries, and Dot. Brandon is also a published author and a religious columnist for the Advance Yeoman newspaper in Ballard County, Kentucky. He is also a devotional contributor for Kentucky Today, a news publication of the Kentucky Baptist Convention.

Leave a comment