Last Sunday I preached on Titus 1:1-4. That passage teaches that Paul existed as an apostle to build the faith of God’s elect because of the hope of eternal life. One of the parts I skipped over in the sermon due to time was the truth that because the hope of our eternal life is secure, our growth and sustenance in faith is secure as well. God not only predestined that we would have eternal life but that we would have the saving, growing, and sustaining faith to get there. God guarantees your faith will be sustained and grow! He himself will sustain and grow it! This should encourage us to grow in faith by hearing and meditating on the Word of Christ in Scripture. Paul wrote and served for the elect to hear and know God’s Word.
Today in my quiet time I was trying to memorize fighter verses 1 Peter 1:3-5. It says this, “Praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to His great mercy, He has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and into an inheritance that is imperishable, uncorrupted, and unfading, kept in heaven for you. You are being protected by God’s power through faith for a salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.”
This living hope is the same “hope of eternal life” Paul spoke of in Titus 1:1-4. Peter says that we “are being protected by God’s power through faith” for this hope. We must sustain and grow faith in Christ by constant hearing God’s Word and receiving the grace that comes in it. This is the means through which hope is attained. But make no mistake, your faith, sustained and growing, is God’s power actively protecting you. God is so good! If you believe in Jesus Christ right now, and are resolved to continue to, it is ultimately because God’s power is right now, in this moment, actively protecting you.
This is a cross post with PJ's blog "God is Better than All".
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