Grace… is Thy Faithfulness

All right, if you would take
your Bibles once again and turn once again to 1 Corinthians 1. 1 Corinthians 1. Last Lord’s Day, we began our
study in this epistle with a consideration of the formal greeting of this
letter, verses 1 through 3. Following such a greeting, it
was customary, natural, even expected to add a message of
thanks or gratitude for the recipient, or in this case, the recipients,
plural. The only letter of Paul that
does not contain something like this is the letter to the Galatians.
And that is understandable given the level of concern that Paul
had for those churches, plural. But Paul had this habit of routinely
expressing gratitude for what God was doing through particular
believers in these churches to which he’s writing. Don’t get
me wrong. When Paul is thrilled with the
spiritual performance of any one of his churches, his thankfulness
always goes to God and not to the people. But even though Paul
includes an expression of gratitude in this letter to the Corinthians,
like he almost always does, this message of thanksgiving is different
than almost all of the others. Let me show this to you. If you
turn back to Romans chapter one, I want to take a brief tour through
Paul’s epistles, most of them, and I want to see if you can
detect the very subtle difference in the expression of gratitude
that Paul voices in Corinthians. In Romans 1, verse 8, Paul says,
I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, because your
faith is being proclaimed throughout the whole world. So for the Romans,
Paul was thankful for their gospel witness. Turn, if you would,
to Ephesians 1. In Ephesians 1, But Paul has some other matters
to attend to and he doesn’t get to his thanksgiving until all
the way down to verse 15. Verse 15, he says, for this reason
too, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus, which exists
among you and your love for all the saints, do not cease giving
thanks for you. And so for the Ephesians, Paul
was thankful for their faith in Christ and for their love
for each other. Turn, if you would, to Philippians
chapter one. In Philippians chapter one, verse
three, Paul just says, I thank my God in all my remembrance
of you. But if you know this epistle,
he will go on to express his gratitude for their partnership
in his particular ministry of the gospel. And if you would
turn to Colossians chapter one. In Colossians 1, Paul likewise
is expressing his gratitude for this particular church, what
God was doing through them. And we find it in verse 3, we
give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying
always for you since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus
and the love which you have for all the saints because of the
hope laid up for you in heaven. of which you previously heard
in the Word of Truth, the gospel. The Colossians seem to have pulled
it all together as Paul is thankful for them, not only for their
faith, but also for their love and their enduring hope of glory. He thanks the Thessalonians likewise. If you would turn to 1 Thessalonians
1, verse 2, He thanks them for the same exact
things. We thank God always for all of
you, making mention of you in our prayers, constantly bearing
in mind your work of faith, labor of love, and steadfastness of
hope. And he echoes this in his second
epistle to them. but now back, if you would, to
1 Corinthians. And I just want you to listen
and see if you can detect the subtle difference. We’ll read
the passage in its entirety in a moment, but I want you to look
just at verse four. I thank my God always concerning
you for the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus.
Did you capture it? Did you hear the very slight
difference in this note of thanksgiving to the Corinthians? It’s subtle,
and I don’t want to make too much of it, but I also cannot
overlook this subtlety entirely. It really amounts to a difference
in the reason or the content for the gratitude that Paul expresses.
It’s different from what he articulates to each of the other churches.
The difference is that Paul does not express his gratitude for
who the Corinthians were or better for what the Corinthians had
become in Christ. That is what he does with his
other churches. When he opens his letters to these various
churches, these notes of gratitude, he typically acknowledges the
observable work of grace that God had done in their respective
lives and churches. but not to the Corinthians. For
the Corinthians, he simply focuses on what God had done for them,
that he had lavished his grace upon them, nothing about them
or what they had done or become. And while this is a subtle difference,
a different motive for his gratitude, I do not take this necessarily
to be, even here, any kind of repudiation of the Corinthian
church. Not yet. That’s coming. We know. It was sad that some commentators
took this expression of gratitude as almost sarcasm, as if Paul
wasn’t really thankful for them. that even here at the outset,
there is a rebuke. I don’t see that. Here at least,
Paul is genuinely grateful. He simply dwells on the positive. God had held nothing back on
the part of the Corinthians. God had gifted them and graced
them and blessed them. And that is what stirs the Apostle
Paul’s heart to express his gratitude, not for what the Corinthians
were or had done, but for who God is and for all that he had
done. As I said, it’s a subtle difference
from his expressions to the other churches. It’s not that he wasn’t
thankful for the Corinthians, but in order to initiate a positive
focus, he sticks with that which is most positive. that which
God had done, and now if you would, read along with me in
verses four through nine. 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 in
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. Paul, here in this very typical
expression of gratitude, takes a very untypical approach. The
focus is not so much them, the Corinthians, but God, what God
had done. Paul knew well, remember, the
division in which the Corinthian church was embroiled, and he
knew that it would have other negative effects as well, not
the least of which was doubt. doubt about each other, doubt
about themselves, doubt perhaps about even their salvation, doubts
even about God himself. And so Paul’s primary goal here,
it becomes evident in these early verses. At the outset of this
letter, he wants to extol the greatness of God. He wants to
remind the Corinthian church of things that at one time they
had no doubts. He wants to restore and undergird
their confidence in God himself. Paul wants to step back and review
and even evaluate God’s performance with regard to the Corinthian
church. And he wants to provide a broad perspective. of God’s
efforts, a panorama, if you will, over time in order to repair
and reinvigorate their view of Him. We’ve all sat in on reviews
of our performance at work. Some of us have even had occasion
to perform those reviews for other employees. This is essentially
a review. Paul reviews God’s performance,
and it’s a flawless review, I might tell you. I see three points,
three benchmarks here, past, present, and future. And the
first thing that he notes of God as he examines him for this
performance review is that God has been faithful. God has been faithful. Look,
if you would, at verses four through six. 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 and
all speech and all knowledge, even as the testimony of Christ
was confirmed in you. If you glance at that, the first
thing I would have you observe is something that occurs there
in the verbs of verses 4 through 6. Glance down and observe Paul’s
language here because he mentions in verse 4 the grace of God which
was given. He points out in verse 5 that
you were enriched. And in verse six, Paul points
out lastly that Christ was confirmed in them. These were things all
of which God had already done. He had already accomplished in
and among and through the believers in Corinth. God had indeed been
faithful. And if you look at those three
verses, there are three elements to God’s faithfulness. In verse
4, the grace of God was given. In verse 5, in everything you
were enriched. And in verse 6, the testimony
concerning Christ was confirmed. Let’s look at each of those briefly.
Look at verse 4, I thank my God always concerning you for the
grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus. The first thing that Paul wants
to do The first mark of God’s great faithfulness to the Corinthians
was no less than the grace of salvation. That’s where it all
begins. Nothing else matters until that
has occurred. And he says that the grace of
God which was given you in Christ Jesus, the word there translated
as grace, means, as you already know, undeserved favor or kindness. As one pastor described it, it
is the sunshine in which the believer is privileged to dwell. Isn’t that beautiful? When we
remember our miserable standing outside of Christ, our hopelessness,
the eternal condemnation that we deservedly faced, our utter
helplessness to do anything about that standing, And then and then
only do we begin to grasp the magnanimous nature of this gesture
from God. We did not. We do not. We never will deserve it. And
yet in his infinite mercy, instead of wrath, he gives us kindness.
And not merely a kind act. but kindness that transforms
us from sinners to saints and transfers us from this fallen
world to eternal glory. But I want you to note that indeed
the unmerited favor of God, God’s grace, is given only to those
who are in Christ Jesus. That’s grace. It is not a little random act
of kindness that God does to the believer. It is life-changing.
And so no wonder Paul begins with this astounding point. And I would have you note, this
is not always Paul’s starting point in his theological addresses
to his respective churches. But he almost always ends up
declaring and discussing this supreme and foundational point,
that of God’s saving grace. Think with me. Jot these down
as we go through them. Romans 3, 24, justified as a
gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ
Jesus. Romans 4.16, by faith in order
that it may be in accordance with grace. Romans 5.2, we have
obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which
we stand. It is only by grace and only
by grace that any are ever saved. Romans 5.15, the grace of God
and the gift by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ abounded
to the many. 517, those who receive the abundance
of grace of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the
one Jesus Christ. He says the same thing in a rebuke
to the Galatians. I am amazed that you are so quickly
deserting him who called you by the grace of Christ for a
different gospel. He says the same thing to the
Ephesians. to the praise of the glory of His grace, Ephesians
1, 6, and 7, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through
His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the
riches of His grace. He says the same thing to the
Philippians. You are all partakers of grace with me. He says the
same thing to the Colossians. Constantly bearing fruit and
increasing, even it has been doing in you from the first day
you heard of it and understood the grace of God in truth. Paul wanted his churches, eagerly
wanted them to know about the grace of God that led to salvation. And so, yes, grace and thankfulness
for this saving grace is such a great place to begin one’s
lengthy list of thanksgivings for the great and comforting
reality that Christ has redeemed us and we are now peacefully
reconciled to a holy God. It is the very first place that
this loving pastor and church planter begins that God had shown
his ultimate favor toward these people, there is truly no better
place to begin a prayer of thanks, is there? He reminds the Corinthians and
thereby reminds us that the beginning and the end of all of our praises,
all of our expressions of gratitude should be, must be the magnanimous
favor of God in saving us by faith in Jesus Christ. But there’s another element that
Paul acknowledges here. We find it in verse five. While
Paul duly acknowledges God’s greatest gift, the gift of grace,
that issues forth in our salvation, but it doesn’t stop there. God
isn’t finished. And beyond our salvation, the
gifts keep coming for the believer. Look, if you would, at verse
five. where he says that in everything you were enriched in him in all
speech and in all knowledge. In everything, he says, the child
of God, including the Corinthians, were enriched in him. The context of this declaration
is remarkable. Remember Paul has heard all these
rumblings about the Corinthians, and he is preparing to confront
this church on a wide-ranging list of concerns. But he forestalls
that address for now, and he focuses first on God’s part,
what God had done, how generous God had been to these believers. Again, by their faith in Jesus
Christ and only by their faith in Jesus Christ, that is by their
union to Christ in that faith, they are enriched. They are blessed beyond measure. They are graced and gifted. And
those gracious gifts have enduring results. This is the spiritual equivalent
of hitting the lottery. Riches beyond measure. Paul uses
this word again when he writes back to the Corinthians in his
second letter. And he uses it there when he
says, even though he and his helpers were physically poor, through the gospel they were
making many rich, indicating the spiritual riches which they
had received. Perhaps you’ll recall that beautiful
scene, remember in Acts 3? where Peter and John are traveling
and they come to the temple. And there sitting at the gates
of the temple is this poor crippled man who had no other means of
supporting himself than to beg at the gate. And as soon as Peter
and John seized this man’s attention, Peter communicated to him, I
do not possess silver and gold, but what I do have I give to
you. in the name of Jesus Christ, the Nazarene, walk.” They healed
him. And I believe that would thereby
secure additional opportunities for the gospel with this man
and with others because what they provided was worth far more
than gold. And so Paul uses this very loaded
word, enriched. The noun on which this verb is
formed just refers to great wealth, riches. But here it’s obviously
spiritual wealth to which Paul’s referring. And in return, pardon
me, and we return to that superlative stated there in verse five that
leads off this sentence. In everything you have been enriched. God had given these believers
everything, everything they needed. That immediately calls to mind
the opening words of Peter’s second epistle, doesn’t it? Grace
and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and Jesus
our Lord, seeing that his divine power has granted to us everything
pertaining to life and godliness. God gives to the believer everything
they need in order to flourish and to glorify Him, everything
pertaining to life and godliness. So Paul says, generally, that
God had blessed them. But he elaborates on God’s gift
of grace on these two particulars. Look at the verse. He reminds
them that they were enriched in all speech and all knowledge. And he presents these twin blessings
as grace gifts from God. Now, somewhat expectedly, there
was and is and continues to be great diversity of opinion as
to what Paul refers to specifically by speech and knowledge. These two, in their most basic
understanding, could be taken as referring to doctrine that
is taught and knowledge that is maintained. In its simplest
understanding, that would work. Some, however, go so far as to
narrow these gifts down to speaking in tongues and prophecy. In this church, both gifts were
indeed yet commonplace, and we know that they were greatly abused. So much so that Paul will invest
a good portion of this letter addressing it. But to narrow
these two elements down to tongues and prophecy here seems dramatically
premature. Remember, Paul’s whole purpose
here is not to begin to chide the Corinthians for their abuses
of his gifts, but to simply extol the greatness of God in his magnanimity. And so rather than throwing himself
headlong into the theological battle over signed gifts, he
simply points out the generosity of God in giving these twin blessings. And so I see it better here to
take these much more generally as the expression of the gospel
and the reception of the gospel as one stated it. The bottom
line is that the Corinthians were amply supplied. They were
fully equipped. They were lacking nothing. That’s
Paul’s main point. Some perhaps were gifted in speech
as teachers or prophets, and we immediately think of Apollos,
God’s recent provision to this very church. As one historian
put it, not only were the Corinthians rich in the knowledge of the
truths of the gospel, but they were also gifted with the power
of enunciating them effectively. Others were gifted in knowledge,
every manner and scope of spiritual insight. Some knew the gospel
cold and able to communicate it. Some were skilled in apologetics. Still others had mastered theology. Together they were the great
proof of this statement that God had enriched them in all
speech and all knowledge. God had richly blessed them with
divine truth, the truth of the gospel, as well as the ability
to understand and communicate it. And I told you there was
a third element to God’s faithfulness, God’s already having been faithful. Paul tells them that this divine
enriching was attended with a divine confirmation. Look at verse six.
even as the testimony concerning Christ was confirmed in you.”
And he says that the testimony concerning Christ was confirmed,
that word confirmed is a beautiful word to the believer. It means
a divine attestation, a confirmation and establishing in Christ. But the idea behind this word
is stronger even still. It means to be made firm, absolutely
secured. Nothing was left to the Corinthians
open to interpretation or doubt. The gospel, the good news of
salvation by faith in Christ, was firmly established in their
hearts and minds. God had brought them to a deep
and abiding understanding and conviction regarding their savior,
Jesus Christ. The point that Paul is making
here is that God had fulfilled his promises in the good news,
not just generally in sending, providing Christ. But to each
individual in providing his Holy Spirit. Those Corinthians, upon
hearing the gospel and being stirred to faith, were assured
of its validity by the down payment of God’s own spirit. Just as Paul encouraged the Roman
Christians, the spirit himself testifies with our spirit that
we are children of God. But Paul wants to show that not
only has God been faithful to the Corinthians in the past,
He is faithful to them in the present. And the kindnesses that
God had extended to them are bearing fruit in the present. And so as we continue to look
at God’s performance review, we see that God has been faithful,
but now Paul wants to show us that God is even now faithful. In verses 7 and 8, glance at
them if you would, 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. From the reality that God had
shown himself faithful already. As we saw in those three verbs. In verses four through six, the
grace of God was given, you were enriched. Verse six, Christ was
confirmed, but I want you to watch what happens. Paul moves
from God’s faithfulness in the past to the enduring results
of that faithfulness in the present. Look, please, as Paul moves effortlessly
from verse six to verse seven. He says, the testimony concerning
Christ was confirmed in you so that you are not lacking in any
gift. You were confirmed and you are
now not lacking. God has been faithful and that
faithfulness endures. He is faithful to the Corinthians
and he is faithful still to us. His faithfulness endures. We’ve
already acknowledged that God has given them everything pertaining
to life and salvation. All of their spiritual needs
have been met more than satisfied. But here he expands on God’s
generosity by acknowledging that they do not now lack any spiritual
gift. It is one of the remarkable truths
about Christianity, is it not, that even though God does not
need us, He chooses to use us. And in fact, He equips us for
that very purpose, not only by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit,
but also by the bestowal of varied and sovereignly distributed ministry
gifts. It’s an amazing blessing. not
only that God should use us, but that he particularly selects
and provides the very means of that involvement. We call these
spiritual gifts. And you likely already know that
there’s much diversity of opinion and much debate and even rancor
on the subject of exactly what gifts are referred to even here. Paul uses this word translated
as spiritual gifts often 16 times in his letters, not all of which
could even be as construed as referring to spiritual gifts.
Sometimes the word is used to refer to a gift in the more general
sense, like the gift of salvation. You likely already know that
Paul will go on to invest almost an entire chapter, chapter 12,
to discuss ministry gifts, spiritual gifts. He also does the same
thing in Romans chapter 12 and Ephesians chapter 4. But here
he refers to these tools with which God had graced individual
believers. And Paul says that in addition
to being enriched in everything, Here, he similarly declares that
these believers were not lacking in any gift. There wasn’t anything
which their local congregation was deficient, say in teaching,
or in preaching, or in evangelism, or in prayer, or in service.
The Corinthians were well furnished spiritually so much as any other
church. God had fully supplied not only
individual believers, but the church as well. They were not
lacking in anything. And whether you recognize it
or not, this is a familiar word to us. This word lacking. It’s the same word that was used
of the prodigal son. When he began to be impoverished. He lacked the basic means of
existence. In fact, it’s the same word used
in the wedding in John chapter 2, when the wine ran out. They lacked wine. It’s the same
word that’s used in Romans 3.23. All have sinned and fall short
of the glory of God. They lack the righteousness of
God. But the same could not be said
of the Corinthian church. They had it all. They had no
cause to feel left out or inferior to any other church. They lacked
nothing. Well. Except as Paul so beautifully
concludes here, nothing except the full revelation of the Lord
Jesus Christ. For that alone, the Corinthians
eagerly and yet patiently waited This was to be the eager anticipation
of every believer. As Paul makes clear. Think of
it. In Paul’s epistles, Paul declared
to the Roman Christians, Romans 8, 19, the anxious longing of
the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of
God. To the Christians in Colossae,
you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When
Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you will be revealed with
him in glory. Even to those feeble-minded Galatian believers, Galatians
5.5, we through the spirit by faith are waiting for the hope
of righteousness. To the Philippian church, the
joyful church, our citizenship is in heaven from which we eagerly
await a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Which book we just studied, Hebrews,
the Jerusalem church, Christ will appear a second time to
those who eagerly await for him, await him. And so for the Corinthian
church. They looked up and they longed
for Christ. That was the only thing they
lacked. They longed for this one thing because that meant
the full and final confirmation, that day of the Lord where God
would glorify them, completing their sanctification, making
them blameless, beyond reproach, unindictable, holy. This reminder would be greatly
stabilizing to a people that was bewildered by their own disunity. We as citizens of heaven desire
to go home, do we not? We desire the heavenly dress
of righteousness. We’re eager to shed the sin and
the sinful tendencies of this foreign land in which we currently
dwell. We long to be sanctified. We
long to be glorified, made, as he says here, blameless. Yet
we wait. As the Corinthians waited in
faith, ever pressing on, always looking to Jesus, the author
and finisher of their faith. And so that eager anticipation
also contains a strong measure of patience, godly patience. And though we wait and keep waiting
another thousand years, we will be just as eager, just as hopeful,
exhibiting the same earnest expectation as when we first learned of Christ’s
promised return. And so, really and truly, God
had been faithful, and so he must reasonably be acknowledged
as currently faithful, and that leads us to an absolute confidence
that he will be faithful. In examining God’s performance
review, God has been faithful, God is now faithful, and thirdly,
God will ever be faithful. We see it in verse nine. God
is faithful through whom you were called into fellowship with
his son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Paul rounds out his encouragement
about God’s faithfulness with this overarching statement. Not
only has God been faithful, results which carry over and endure to
the present so that God is now faithful, but this final statement
on His very nature, His character, God is faithful, which immediately
implies that God will be faithful. Just as God in His nature is
trustworthy in the things that He says, He cannot lie. He is trustworthy in His promises,
true to His nature. He cannot be unfaithful. God always does what He says
He will do. He never goes back on, He never
backs out of a promise. Deuteronomy chapter 7 verse 9
declares of God, know therefore that the Lord your God, He is
God, the faithful God who keeps His covenant with His lovingkindness
to a thousandth generation. This is no flippant or capricious
man that we should wonder or doubt about his intention to
fulfill his word to us. Truly, he never fails to fulfill
his word. God is faithful. And that mysterious
writer to the Hebrews put it this way, let us hold fast the
confession of our hope without wavering. for He who promised
is faithful.” God is absolutely reliable to fulfill His promises,
to carry out His judgment. What Paul is telling them, telling
the Corinthians and telling us, is that the same God through
whom we were called into fellowship with His Son will grant us the
grace to persevere to the end. Paul tells the Thessalonians,
faithful is he who called you, he will bring it to pass. Paul’s confidence is not in his
pastoral capabilities, neither is it in the giftedness or the
faithfulness of the Corinthian believers. His confidence, his
only ground of confidence is in God himself. And he is confident
that God will see it through because it is God himself that
initiated this work. It is he who called them into
fellowship, into loving communion with himself. So just as Paul said to the Philippians,
he who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day
of Christ Jesus. And so this doubtful, struggling
church, looking about, seeing the fabric of their fellowship
torn apart by their own efforts, had to be encouraged by these
things. A.W. Pink and his attributes of God, seized not only upon God’s faithfulness, but upon our fickle, troubled,
doubting heart. Listen. He said, there are seasons in
the lives of all when it is not easy. No, not even for Christians
to believe that God is faithful. Our faith is sorely tried. Our
eyes be dimmed with tears. And we can no longer trace the
outworkings of his love. Our ears are distracted with
the noises of this world, harassed by the atheistic whisperings
of Satan. And we can no longer hear the
sweet accents of his still small voice. Cherished plans have been
thwarted. Friends on whom we relied have
failed us. A professed brother or sister
in Christ has betrayed us. We are staggered. We sought to
be faithful to God, and now a dark cloud hides him from us. We find it difficult, yea, impossible
for a carnal reason to harmonize his frowning providence with
his gracious promises. Ah, faltering soul, severely
tried fellow pilgrim, Seek grace to heed Isaiah 50 verse 10. Who among you that feareth the
Lord, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh
in darkness and hath no light, let him trust in the name of
the Lord and stay upon his God. Would you humble yourself before
him? our merciful King, we do thank you for these refreshing
and encouraging words written initially to the Corinthians, a troubled and torn church that
would have gouged each other’s eyes at the opportunity, and
whom you patiently use your faithful servant to remind them that God
had begun a work in them That God would see it through. That
God has been faithful. He is faithful now. He will always
be faithful. Lord God, help us to throw ourselves
on you for your grace. Help us to trust in you and walk
with you. So as to be used by you for your
glory. We thank you and praise you in
the name of our Savior. Our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.