“Therefore, My Beloved Brethren, Be Ye Stedfast, Unmoveable, Always Abounding In The Work Of The Lord, Forasmuch As Ye Know That Your Labour Is Not In Vain In The Lord” (I Cor. 15:58).

What wonderful words of assurance! Who among us has not felt, at some time or another, that our labor for the Lord is in vain? At such times, what a comfort it is to rest in this unconditional, unqualified, God-given guarantee that our labors for Him are not in vain!

But how could Paul say such a thing, in light of his words to the Galatians, where he said,

Twice in Paul’s epistle to the Hebrews he refers to “dead works.” In Hebrews 6:1 he writes about “repentance from dead works,” while in Hebrews 9:14 he declares that the blood of Christ avails to “purge the conscience from dead works to serve the living God.”