Come to Order, Pt. 7
Study Guide, March 16, 2025
Pastor Clay Olsen
When we think of things like determination and persistence and perseverance in the animal kingdom, we have some great examples…like these: take the magnificent monarch butterfly for one. These small, but mighty creatures travel up to 3,000 miles, as the Monarchs that breed east of the Rocky Mountains fly to Mexico, and those that breed west of the Rocky Mountains fly to California. And they can fly 50–100 miles per day.1 Then we have this remarkable bird, which is a flightless bird, called the Adelie Penguin. And it’s a mammoth migrator, too, traveling…mostly trekking actually, up to 8,000 miles every year, from its breeding grounds to its winter grounds. And, of course, part of that journey includes swimming and eating lots and lots of ‘krill’. And ‘krill’ are little shrimp-like critters which just happen to be the most abundant life form in the seas. But most of the Penguins journey of 8,000 miles is simply walking in that funny little swagger they have.2
However, the most amazing migrator, and the world record holder as a ‘flyer’, is the Arctic Tern. This streamlined bird travels from pole to pole and back every year, from Greenland to the Weddell Sea, flying an estimated 55,000 miles a year! And when you factor in that they can live up to 30 years, that means that over a lifetime an Arctic Tern has flown the equivalent of going to the moon and back more than three times!3 Now, in April their Spring migration takes them near the Eastern Atlantic Coast. So if you’re ever out in the ocean, aways out, and think you see them…just give them standing ovation. They deserve it!
What we are getting at is a particular trait that is particularly important, crucial actually, in living out our discipleship. In fact, in order to understand God’s order for living in relationship with God and for living in faithfulness to God it is essential to pattern your thoughts and your behavior around this order. And that order is – Rejoicing in Christ’s performance…and reveling in your perseverance. It’s – Glorying in Christ’s performance…and delighting in your perseverance. It’s – Finding your peace in Christ’s performance…and finding your fulfillment in your perseverance. It’s – Praising Christ’s performance in His obedience and practicing perseverance in our obedience.
What the Scriptures call for us to understand is the difference between God’s part in our salvation and our part in our sanctification. And it’s when believers get these mixed up, or get them confused, that’s when this disorder in their misunderstanding throws a wrench into their thinking and thus their behavior, as well as a loss of peace in their spirit and a lack of fulfillment in their soul. Oh, to be sure, if you get mixed up on the separation between Christ’s performance and our perseverance it will surely mess with your mind and with your life experience.
So, let’s clarify: Remember, Christ’s performance of obedience was sinless perfection.
1 Peter 1:18-20- “For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And the ransom He paid was not mere gold or silver. It was the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God. God chose Him as your ransom long before the world began, but He has now revealed Him to you in these last days.” NLT
We were redeemed, purchased, ransomed, and made righteous through the perfect and sinless obedience and sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ. That is why we are called to rejoice in the Lord! We are to rejoice in Christ’s righteousness… to rejoice in His sinless obedience that He then credited to us for our salvation, for our right standing before God, for our eternal relationship with God. Jesus performed perfect righteousness, sinless obedience for us, and thereby ‘earned our salvation’ and then gave this salvation to us as His eternal gift to us!
All right, and now, having been justified in Christ’s righteousness, which was merited through Jesus’ sinless obedience, our part now is to both rejoice in Christ’s performance of sinless obedience, and to revel in our practice…revel in our attempts at obedience, imperfect as they are…knowing that there is forgiveness with our God, so that He may be feared and served.
Ps 130:3-4 – “If You, Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But there is forgiveness with You, that You may be feared (served).” NASU And in Ps 147:11 – “The Lord takes pleasure in those who reverently and worshipfully fear Him, in those who hope in His mercy and loving-kindness.” AMP
Essentially, we are to rejoice in the performance of Christ’s sinless obedience to God, for that was Christ’s part in accomplishing our salvation for us. And now, we are to revel in the perseverance of our attempts of obedience and service and righteous works for God, again, imperfect as they are. And this…this perseverance in obedience and service and righteous works…this is our part in the sanctification that the Holy Spirit is working to accomplish in and through our lives as we work with God in it.
So now, out of the certainty of our saved relationship with God, which was secured for us through the perfect performance of the sinless merits of Christ’s obedience and sacrifice, our focus can now be solely on our perseverance in offering our works of service and obedience and worship, knowing that this is all that our God is looking for from us! And this frees us from either self-pride or self-pity in our performance of obedience. Plus, it inspires us to persevere in our attempts to obey and serve and fear and worship our God, knowing that even though our works are still imperfect at best…we also know that there is forgiveness with God so that He can and does accept our imperfect works because He loves His children and is pleased with every effort they make in seeking to serve and please Him.
Now, when it comes to the performance of sinless obedience and perfect righteousness, our Heavenly Father looks to Jesus for that…on your behalf. And then, when it comes to what God is looking for from His children…from you and from me…all our Heavenly Father is looking for from us is – our perseverance for Him! That is liberating for our mind and spirit, and freeing for us in our service and satisfaction in our service. And yet, that is also a mandate from our God on what we are being called to do.
But, again, if you don’t know what God is looking for in you, as well as what God is not looking for from you, then there will be ‘disorder’ in your thinking, as well as disorder in your service and disorder relationship with God and others. What God is not looking for in His children is the performance of perfect obedience; for that could only be found in Jesus. And, thankfully, God has already found that in Jesus, as Jesus lived a substitutionary life in performing perfect and sinless obedience on our behalf. God has already credited Jesus’ performance of perfect righteousness to us, as we could never perform that, either before being saved or even after being saved.
This is one point the Psalmist is clearly making when he says: “If You, Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?” And that’s why the Apostle John calls for us saved children of God to practice the regular confession of our sins…not for our salvation, but for our sanctification, and for our close fellowship with God and for our usefulness to God. 1 John 1:8-9- “If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” NASU
And it’s as Charles Spurgeon reminded us all: “We are often like a glass of water which has been standing still for hours and looks very clear and bright. But there is a sediment, and a little stir soon discovers it and clouds the crystal. The sediment is our old nature.” He also put it this way: “The saints are sinners still. Our best tears need to be wept over, the strongest faith is mixed with unbelief, our most flaming love is cold compared with what Jesus deserves, and our intensest zeal still lacks the full fervor which the bleeding wounds and pierced heart of the crucified might claim at our hands. Our best things need a sin offering, or they would condemn us.” 4 Oh yes, thank you Lord for your cleansing forgiveness!
So again, as we pointed out before, neither flatter yourself, nor fool yourself, nor fall into futility about yourself…just rest in the perfect order of knowing that the Performance of perfect obedience for our salvation righteousness was Christ’s part. Only Christ could accomplish that anyway. And He did so on our behalf! Praise God! So now, Perseverance in practicing obedience and righteousness, out of our salvation, is our part. Again, perseverance is both what God calls us to live out in our lives, and perseverance is precisely what God is looking for in our lives. We are accountable to God for our perseverance in worshipping and serving Him. We are to commit ourselves to and to focus upon and to pursue perseverance day after day in our discipleship.
So, let’s put it as a Question: Did you know that this is what God is calling you to pursue? We know we are to pursue – holiness and godliness and faithfulness. But God calls us to also ‘pursue perseverance’? How does that work? Notice 1 Tim 6:11- “But flee from these things, you man of God, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance and gentleness.” NASU Now, the Apostle is not dealing with God’s perseverance of protecting and guarding and guiding our position as a saved son or daughter of His. No, this exhortation is about our perseverance of ‘pressing on’ in our continual efforts to do godly works and achieve godly goals…despite difficulties, failure, or opposition, either from others or even ourselves. And where does this ‘pursuit’ part come into play? ‘Pursuit’ means, ‘to follow tenaciously after something or striving with determination toward something’. Basically, it means that you and I commit to ordering our mind and our life around ‘persevering’ in our worship and obedience to God, because of Christ’s accomplishment of His performance of perfect obedience in our place and on our behalf. And although our performance of obedience and service and good works still fall short of all they could be, or all they should be, or all we wish or hoped they would be, still, our happiness can be found in the fact that God takes pleasure in all of our attempts of obedience, imperfect as they are…for there is forgiveness with God in order that He may be feared, and loved, and served…and is, thus, pleased with us!
Again, get a firm grasp on God’s revealed order: When God the Father wants to see the performance of perfect righteousness, He looks to Jesus and finds it…and finds us covered and clothed in this righteousness of Christ. When God the Father wants to see the perseverance of practicing righteousness, in character and conduct, He looks to us, His children…He looks to you and to me. And by the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit we can persevere, we can press on, we can labor and strive to be as useful as we can in the hands of God, and as helpful as we can in doing the works that God given us to do.
So just let go of dwelling on your performance of your works of service and your deeds of faith…for it will either leave you puffed up in self-pride or pulled down in self-pity. Now, certainly, this is not about ‘not’ improving in your works and skills…for we are certainly called to grow in the use of our God-given talents and skills as servants for God, and to do so in our workmanship in all the different areas of our lives. What this is all about is to never think you have ever arrived in any or all of it…as Paul put it in: Phil 3:12-14- “Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” NASU
Paul is not talking about any performance for his salvation, but about his perseverance…persevering in his goal of becoming more and more useful to God and more and more of a blessing to others…and also being encourage by the great rewards promised to those who ‘persevere’ for God…who ‘press on for Christ’s sake.’ And since Paul focused not on his ‘performance’ as a Christian, but on his ‘perseverance’ in living out the Christian life…then so should we.
Therefore, focus on your perseverance of pressing on in giving your utmost for God’s highest in your works of service and your deeds of faith. Forget about trying to impress anybody, and just focus on blessing somebody, especially your Savior, who lived a perfect life in your place and died a perfect sacrificial death in your place. Rejoice in Christ’s performance, and revel in your perseverance for Christ’s sake! Pursue ‘perseverance’…and also realize that nothing can stop the blessings that develop out of a saint who sets his or her mind and heart on pressing on in the worship and the service of the Savior, even in spite of anything that comes our way. Note the Apostle Paul’s words on that: Rom 5:3-5- “And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” NASB
God will even force the troubles of this life that have been forced upon us to deepen our perseverance. And the deeper that perseverance becomes embedded in us, the more it develops the fruit of every good thing that can come from us…like more and more of the character and image of Christ that we talked about in our last study. It will produce a powerful hope that grows into greater and greater determination rather than into disappointment. And it will enable us to enjoy a deeper, and wider, and higher experience the love of God, that God has poured into our hearts, but is only tapped by a faith that is focused on persevering, for the sake of our Savior and the glory of our God.
Remember, a performance-based faith is a worldly kind of faith, that will distort your thinking, distract your efforts, and diminish your works. But a perseverance-based faith will delight your mind, direct your efforts, and will determine the outcome of your works…which will then be pronounced: “Well done, thou good and faithful servant!”
- Birdlife.org
- Nps.gov
3. Birdlife.org
4. Charles H. Spurgeon, Spurgeon at His Best, p.131