“…he who started a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 1:6, CSB)
All week, we have traced Paul’s confidence. God began the good work in you. God is carrying it forward by His Spirit. Now Paul lifts our eyes to the finish line: “the day of Christ Jesus.” That phrase matters. Scripture often speaks of “the day of the Lord,” a day of judgment on evil (1 Thessalonians 5:2). Paul also speaks of “the day of Christ” (Philippians 1:10; 2:16). For the Christian, it is the day of completion and joy: the day when Christ is revealed and His people are made whole.
This is not wishful thinking. It is a settled promise. Peter says your inheritance is “imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you,” and that you are “being guarded by God’s power through faith for a salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time” (1 Peter 1:4-5). Jude calls us to praise the One “who is able to protect you from stumbling and to make you stand in the presence of his glory, without blemish and with great joy” (Jude 24). God’s aim is not bare survival. His aim is your full and joyful welcome into glory.
What will that day be like? Paul says we will be presented “pure and blameless” (Philippians 1:10). He also says we will “rejoice” in that day because our faith and labor in Christ were not in vain (Philippians 2:16). The change will be complete. “Our citizenship is in heaven,” Paul writes, “and we eagerly wait for a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ. He will transform the body of our humble condition into the likeness of his glorious body” (Philippians 3:20-21). The resurrection is not an idea; it is a promise. The mortal will put on immortality. Death will be swallowed up in victory (1 Corinthians 15:51-57).
This promise answers our fears. I know many Christians who worry, “Will I make it?” Paul answers, “He will carry it on to completion.” Romans 5:10 adds weight to that assurance: if God reconciled us through the death of His Son when we were enemies, how much more will He save us now by Christ’s risen life. Christ lives and intercedes for you even now; therefore He is “able to save completely those who come to God through him” (Hebrews 7:25). Your hope is not anchored to your best week. It is anchored to Christ’s unbroken life and faithful intercession.
This future hope shapes present living. When you know the end, you can endure the middle. Paul says, “When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory” (Colossians 3:4). John says, “We know that when he appears, we will be like him because we will see him as he is. And everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself just as he is pure” (1 John 3:2–3). Hope does not make us passive. Hope makes us holy. We fight sin because glory is coming. We stay faithful because Christ is near.
The “day of Christ” also reorders our grief and our pain. Our present sufferings are real, but they are not final. Paul says they are “not worth comparing with the glory that is going to be revealed to us” (Romans 8:18). Creation groans. We groan. But we groan in hope because we have “the firstfruits of the Spirit” and the promise of the redemption of our bodies (Romans 8:23). God wastes nothing, not a tear, not a trial. He uses them to prepare an eternal weight of glory (2 Corinthians 4:17).
And what about our work for Christ now? The day of Christ clarifies our aim. Paul wanted to “boast” in the Philippians on that day, that his labor among them was not empty (Philippians 2:16). That is a good goal for us. We endure in ministry, in unity, in love, so that on that day there will be joy, not regret. Paul could say, near the end, “There is reserved for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me on that day,” and not to him only, “but to all those who have loved his appearing” (2 Timothy 4:8). Loving His appearing now leads to joy in His appearing then.
So do not picture yourself barely limping into heaven. Picture the faithful Savior carrying you to the finish. He began the good work. He is working in you today. He will finish it “until the day of Christ Jesus.” On that day, faith will become sight, weakness will give way to strength, and every promise God has made to you in Christ will stand fulfilled.
Take This With You
The day of Christ is certain. Live today in its light. When you are tempted, remember who you are becoming. When you are weary, remember what is coming. When you fail, return to the Savior who lives to intercede for you. He started the good work, He is carrying it on, and He will complete it in glory.
