Philippians - Verse-by-Verse Biblical Exegesis

will as polytheists. Those who believe in free will are enemies of free grace. Enemies of free grace
are enemies of the Bible and of Jesus Christ. The whole process of salvation from God’s decree to its
consummation in eternal glory is according to the will of God: in its purpose (Rom. 8:28), in its
preparation (Eph. 1:3-12), in regeneration (John 1:13, 3:8), in preservation (Phil 1:6; I Peter 1:3-5),
in sanctification (I Thess. 4:3-7), in resurrection (I Cor. 15), and in eternal glory in the last chapters
of Revelation. (W.E. Best) Whoa! This quote ought to stir up the mental juices! (LWB)
A young atheistic student who had heard of C.S. Lewis began corresponding with him. As this
student unburdened himself of his doubts and questionings to the famous scholar, Lewis responded
very simply: “I think you are already in the meshes of the net. The Holy Spirit is after you; I doubt if
you will get away.” Not long afterward, the atheistic student, pursued by God for so long, finally
surrendered. He had found, as C.S. Lewis himself had found, that salvation is of God. He ran, but
God successfully pursued him. Did you seek God? Of course you didn’t. You resisted Him, and He
had to beat down your resistance until you yielded to Him like a vanquished enemy. If in the
struggle there was ever a moment you seemed to seek Him, it was only because He was there
beforehand moving you to do it. So it is. Salvation is always of God. We love because He enables us
to do so ... Perhaps you are saying that you will run your own life, pick your own goals, choose your
own purposes. Well, then, God may have to break you until you learn that He is determined to
accomplish His purposes in you. Perhaps, instead, you will be willing to learn to rely on Him,
growing up in grace as He molds you into the image of Christ. If this is so, then for you Philippians
1:6 will become a blessed truth rather than a bitter lesson. (J. Boice)
For most of us our successes are few and far between. We may have a measure of peace about our
failures but it is not likely we shall derive any comfort from them; and it is almost certain that as
soon as the Lord takes occasion to allow certain consequences in order that He may perfect in us that
which He has begun, we shall be tempted to view them as punishment and others will be quick to
confirm our worst fears. Frankly, I find it almost impossible not to make this false estimate of what
is happening. Yet in my mind I know that the dangers to our spiritual welfare from success are far
greater than the dangers from failure. If God is concerned with the making of saints rather than the
production of executives, then obviously He must ordain or allow far more failures than successes.
Logically a highly “successful” Christian life may very well be a failure from God’s point of view.
We know this. We recognize it in others. We see it again and again. And yet we desire success. This
is another way of saying we have more desire for the wrong kind of success, the kind of success
which in God’s view is failure, than we do for the kind of failure which in God’s view is truly
success. (A. Custance)
The Scriptural teaching of the perseverance of the saints has been used to bolster the indigenous
method. It is argued that, since it is certain that God, who began a good work in recent converts, will
perform it until the day of Jesus Christ, the missionary who was instrumental in bringing them to the
faith can safely depart at any time. Now the doctrine of the eternal security of believers is certainly a
most precious one. Yet the aforenamed argumentation must be judged to be too simple. It leaves
largely out of account the truth that salvation is not merely a momentary experience but a lifelong
process. And it fails to do justice to the plain fact that, in causing His children to persevere in the