Reformed Doctrine Daily Devotions

Today’s devotion comes from Exodus 40:17-33.  Here is a link to this Scripture – https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Exodus%2040&version=NASB1995

I quote only the following verses.

“Now in the first month of the second year, on the first day of the month, the tabernacle was erected.  …  He lighted the lamps before the LORD, just as the LORD had commanded Moses.  Then he placed the gold altar in the tent of meeting in front of the veil;  and he burned fragrant incense on it, just as the LORD had commanded Moses.  Then he set up the veil for the doorway of the tabernacle.  He set the altar of burnt offering before the doorway of the tabernacle of the tent of meeting, and offered on it the burnt offering and the meal offering, just as the LORD had commanded Moses.  He placed the laver between the tent of meeting and the altar and put water in it for washing.  From it Moses and Aaron and his sons washed their hands and their feet.  When they entered the tent of meeting, and when they approached the altar, they washed, just as the LORD had commanded Moses.  He erected the court all around the tabernacle and the altar, and hung up the veil for the gateway of the court.  Thus Moses finished the work.”  Exodus 40:17 and 25-33. 

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Today’s Scripture leads us to meditate on finishing our work.  Just because we start a good work, let us not be complacent, thinking that we will necessarily finish it.

“For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it?  Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’”  Luke 14:28-30. 

“But now finish doing it also, so that just as there was the readiness to desire it, so there may be also the completion of it by your ability.”  2 Corinthians 8:12.

“But I do not consider my life of any account as dear to myself, so that I may finish my course and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify solemnly of the gospel of the grace of God.”  Acts 20:24.

“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith;”  2 Timothy 4:7.

In a nutshell, we persevere in faith, trusting God to preserve us, to finish and perfect the good work that He began in us, and give us the victory.  

Consider the following from the Canons of Dordt in the section titled FIFTH HEAD OF DOCTRINE Of the Perseverance of the Saints.  

Article 3.  By reason of these remains of indwelling sin, and the temptations of sin and of the world, those who are converted could not persevere in a state of grace, if left to their own strength.  But God is faithful, who having conferred grace, mercifully confirms, and powerfully preserves them herein, even to the end.

“I will cry to God Most High,
To God who accomplishes all things for me.” Psalm 57:2.

“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.

“but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.”  1 Corinthians 15:57-58.

“For I am the least of the apostles, and not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.  But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain;  but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me.  Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.”  1 Corinthians 15:9-11.