Today’s devotion comes from 2 Corinthians 13:11-14.
“Finally, brethren, rejoice, be made complete, be comforted, be like-minded, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you. Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the saints greet you.
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all.” 2 Corinthians 13:11-14.
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How could Paul change his tone so much and so quickly?
We remember what Paul said in the immediately preceding verse. “For this reason I am writing these things while absent, so that when present I need not use severity, in accordance with the authority which the Lord gave me for building up and not for tearing down.” 2 Corinthians 13:10.
Paul had faith in the work of God in the Corinthians.
For all of the elect and only the elect, those who did receive the grace of God and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, they would rejoice, they would be made complete, they would be comforted, they would be like-minded, and they would live in peace.
Paul concluded the letters to the Corinthians with this final encouraging point which is in sharp contrast with the final point heard in many sermons that draw the focus back to man and what man should do.
Other doctrine does not trust the work of God because they believe that man has free-will to resist the grace of God.
But, Reformed Doctrine believes the Scriptures and the sovereignty of God. They trust the work of God because they believe in the “Irresistible Grace” of God, the “I” of “TULIP” the Reformed Doctrine of Salvation as more fully taught in the Canons of Dordt.
Article 11. But when God accomplishes his good pleasure in the elect, or works in them true conversion, he not only causes the gospel to be externally preached to them, and powerfully illumines their minds by his Holy Spirit, that they may rightly understand and discern the things of the Spirit of God; but by the efficacy of the same regenerating Spirit, pervades the inmost recesses of the man; he opens the closed, and softens the hardened heart, and circumcises that which was uncircumcised, infuses new qualities into the will, which though heretofore dead, he quickens; from being evil, disobedient and refractory, he renders it good, obedient, and pliable; actuates and strengthens it, that like a good tree, it may bring forth the fruits of good actions. Canons of Dordt in the section titled THIRD AND FOURTH HEADS OF DOCTRINE Of the Corruption of Man, His Conversion to God, and the Manner Thereof.
“for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.” Philippians 2:13.
“For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.” Philippians 1:6.
“I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus, that in everything you were enriched in Him, in all speech and all knowledge, even as the testimony concerning Christ was confirmed in you, so that you are not lacking in any gift, awaiting eagerly the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will also confirm you to the end, blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, through whom you were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.” 1 Corinthians 1:4-9.
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.” Ephesians 1:3-6.
Reformed Doctrine Daily Devotions 