“Who shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.” (1 Corinthians 1:8–9, AV)
One day we were erecting a large tent in front of our church building. We were going to use the tent for a yard sale, the proceeds of which would go to fund our food pantry. As we put the tent up, we discovered that we did not have enough rope to tie down all the ends. We had the main center posts up and some of the outside ones staked in place. We had some men holding up the posts on the outside that were not staked to the ground with ropes. The problem was that if any of the men let go of their posts, the center posts would fall and the tent collapse.
My job was to run to Home Depot and pick up some rope ASAP. The men were left holding up the outside posts until I returned. When I returned, we quickly anchored each one of the remaining posts with rope and tent-pegs. The point is that they had to sustain the entire tent until my return.
Here in these two verses, we see God’s faithfulness to sustain us in the faith until the end. The word translated “confirm” in the text is bebaioo, which carries with it the idea of being confirmed or established (Strong G950). The point is that by God’s grace, the Lord will sustain believers and confirm them as blameless until the day of the Lord.
When we consider the holiness and righteousness of God, the standard of heavenly perfection, we will soon realize how far from that standard we have fallen. None of us in this life have achieved the righteousness of God. We are still all works in progress. We still stumble and fall at times. However, believers have this blessed assurance. It is that Jesus Christ paid the complete penalty of sin once and for all for every believer. It is by true saving faith alone that every has been counted as righteous.
In these two verses, we see that God guarantees that every true believer will be established as blameless until the end. We are secure in our salvation, not by our own good works, but by God who is faithful. We read these words of assurance in the Bible.
“Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:” (Philippians 1:6, AV)
“To the end he may stablish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints.” (1 Thessalonians 3:13, AV)
“Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it.” (1 Thessalonians 5:24, AV)
“But the Lord is faithful, who shall stablish you, and keep you from evil.” (2 Thessalonians 3:3, AV)
“if we are faithless, he remains faithful— for he cannot deny himself.” (2 Timothy 2:13, ESV)
Let us give thanks for God’s faithfulness. He is faithful to sustain us.
Renewing the Heart 